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Yummy.

The fruit does not overpower the green tea (sencha? gyokuro?), which IMO is no easy feat of mixology. Also I was going to guess dates and maybe blueberry as an ingredient; I drank it before I read the review and LP’s disclosure of what’s in the tea, but looks like I was wrong about that on both counts. Anyway, it’s yummy.

Well this tea is delicious. Dang! I’m not going to go into all the flavors, I think other reviewers have covered that. Cocoa, malt, vanilla, custard, sweet, etc. Yes, yes, yes. I brewed an entire ball in my cast iron pot, water just under boiling, first steep of 2.5 minutes. The ball hasn’t entirely opened yet, so I’m looking forward to more steeps. What I really want to mention is that I decided to experiment a little, and I added some half and half and stevia to the tea. Like I said, it’s already sweet, but I have a wicked sweet tooth so it’s rare that anything is ever “too sweet” for me. Anyway, the additions took this tea up to 11 on the yummy meter for me. I would definitely purchase this again!

Side note: It would appear that as I write this, LP is out of this tea. I have a message for Andrew: http://i3.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/000/574/moar-cat.jpg

Oh wow, the aroma of this tea is lovely, both before and after steeping. I don’t even know how to describe it. I swear I’m tasting soy sauce though, which sounds insane, but then again I probably have a weird palate anyway. I can’t decide if this is a good dessert tea, or a good appetizer tea. I did just eat dinner, so I’m having it for dessert. But I can imagine it being awesome with pot stickers. For the first steep I’m definitely getting more of the toasted rice and sweetness more so than the cocoa or tea. Second and third steeps are increasingly less sweet, toasted rice is still there and I’m assuming I’m tasting more of the hojicha? I’m not sure as I’ve never had it before. This is a lovely warm and comforting tea. I’m hoping the caffeine content isn’t too high (I’ll find out later!) because it would be a wonderful before bed tea, especially in the winter.

Today I am drinking some lovely tea labeled “mystery raw” that came in from the White2Tea sale. Before I even decided to drink this tea, I knew once again I was in for another tea lesson in attachment and suffering; If I end up loving this tea, no matter how much I love it I can never have anymore of it EVER after this small bit is gone. Now, if I were a more experienced pu drinker, I might be able to accurately guess what this is. I kind of think I might be in the ballpark. And because I have decided, a la Mary Catherine Gallagher, to express my feelings not with words (or a monologue or song), but rather through Memegenerator.net, here is what I’ve got so far:

http://i.imgur.com/rXTfndk.jpg

So I think it’s an older sheng? You know why I’m saying that? Because it’s darker than 2015 shengs I’ve seen. Which may just go to prove just what my current level of understanding is when it comes to pu’er:

http://i.imgur.com/vkAG2Cp.jpg

So, the flavor is sweet but also vaguely smokey, not bitter until the middle steeps, then it calms down again and there’s some camphor. It’s about 400 degrees in here but I think I can see my breath. My mouth is dryyyyyy. And yet, I’m also sweating. I think my whole head and my tongue is swollen. In a good way, like, a funky non-anaphalixis kind of way. But really, I can’t help but continue to ask…

http://i.imgur.com/Jk8INEA.jpg

I love a rainy Sunday, especially on a holiday weekend and even more so when the house is quiet. I wanted to choose something special for the occasion, before my solitude is shattered by the return of my 14-yr old stepdaughter. I’ll be honest, I’m much more suited to Cool Aunt, a role which I have relished for 25+ years for eleven wonderful children that are not mine. Stepmom is still a role I’m getting used to. Stepmom is a different kettle of fish entirely.

So here I am with about an hour to enjoy. I nearly went to tea I knew I would like, but instead I forced myself to drink one of the hundreds of untried teas I have amassed over the past several months due to multiple swaps and unfettered spending. This tea was generously provided by Liquid Proust in a recent swap. I had wanted to try Oriental Beauty for awhile; I mean, with a name like that, who wouldn’t? The aroma is lovely. Seriously, I would like an Oriental Beauty air freshener to spray all over my house. And it’s gorgeous to look at. Flavors: very floral upfront, slightly fruity, honey but not sweet, woodsy, a tad nutty, with a cooling aftertaste. There is something about this tea that is reminiscent of White2Tea’s Clover Patch. I think I might brew them side by side and see if there’s anything to that, or if I’m just mistaken and/or nuts.

I read not too long ago that drinking too much Yerba Mate can give you mouth cancer because of the roasting process that uses smoke to dry the leaves. I like Yerba every now and again, so I’m choosing to ignore that. But, if that sort of exposure to the roasting process does indeed cause cancer, it makes me wonder about this tea. This tea is like drinking a campfire. I’m not that much of a hypochondriac, but I fear if I made a habit out of this tea, I’d be riddled with cancer in short order. All kidding aside (ok, I’m not kidding that much really), I am having a hard time finding anything other than smoke and char in this tea. I do love a heavy roast TGY, but I’m not sure about this one. I will adjust my brewing parameters and revisit it though. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time user error was the cause of me not getting the best out of a tea.

Here I am drinking this tea again, only this time I think I really am drinking CNNP Yunnan Chitsu Pingcha. I think. The other time I reviewed this tea, it was a shou; this time, it’s a white pu’er, or so I’m told. And based on some of the other reviews, I think I wasn’t drinking what I thought I was drinking. OR maybe I’m not now. Anyway, this is what you get when the only local tea shop in your area specializes in flavored teas served by folks dressed as pirates (read: coastal tourist trap) and their employees wouldn’t know pu from poo if a dog (or a 2dog) bite ‘em in the ass. Anyway, unlike the other block of doorstop I purchased the last time, this one isn’t bad, but it’s not something I’d go out of my way to purchase again. The flavor is very mild and floral. The leaves are like chopped spinach, not a trace of a whole leaf anywhere. But that might have been the pirate’s fault; he used his hook and no small amount of brute force to pry a piece of the cake off for me. No, not making that up, and not a pu’er pick in sight. Blimey!

I was busy losing my mind last night, so I couldn’t really write a review until today.

There’s scene in Field of Dreams where Timothy Busfield’s character, after trying in vain for most of the movie to get Ray to sell the farm, turns to his sister, eyes finally open, and says “when did these ballplayers get here?” And that pretty much sums up my summer of pu, tasting shengs, one after the other, too bitter too smoky too grassy too harsh too strong not for me, not for me. But I kept coming back. You’d think that at some point, more than a dozen teas in and well enough money spent, I’d stop. But I could not.

And then eventually there was a spark of something – some tea that wasn’t so bitter, not so displeasing to my palate. And so I tried more. I went back and tried teas I didn’t like, and tasted what wasn’t there before. Now, there’s nothing at all strange about a person’s palate changing. When I was younger I hated sprouts and broccoli rabe, now I love them both. While it’s odd how quickly it happened with respect to tea, the really strange thing I’m talking about here is the sense of familiarity that just never stopped nagging at me, never allowed me to walk away. Now, don’t ask me why that is. An Italian girl growing up in New Jersey for whom tea was something to be suffered through black with honey and cream and sugar, and only when sick – why now this thing with pu’er? It’s like when I met my wife, she was everything I never knew I always wanted. She grew up on another continent, in another culture, but when we met we were both home.

Which, strangely enough, brings me to Poundcake. Why, when I tasted Poundcake last night, did I freak out, run all over my house, ranting like a loon, drinking and drinking more, well into the evening, and not sleeping much despite having to work today? Pardon my salty language, but what the actual fuck is going on here? Maybe that doesn’t matter. Maybe I’ve entered some strange and wonderful tea portal. Maybe I just need to chill out and drink more tea. You know, go the distance.

Now that my metaphysical rambling is done, I need to go send an email to Shoeless 2Dawg Jackson about getting more of this tea.

So I was going to take a stab at reviewing this tonight, in a measured and thoughtful way, but that sort of went out the window when for whatever reason, Steepster kind of shit the bed (at least for me) and I got all these wacky 404/dashboard? what dashboard?/these-are-not-the-droids-you’re -looking-for error messages. I know, I could have gotten a pen and paper and written down my thoughts, but that would have involved getting up and I was more interested in alternately staring at/smelling/drinking the tea. Which was, as others have said, completely weird. I could taste the roast, and sense the flowers yelling “help us help us” from the fire, and also there was buttered toast. What a long strange trip it’s been. Recommended? I don’t know. I don’t feel qualified to answer that question, even for myself. I should probably go to bed.

This tea has some serious knock-you-in-the-face cinnamon flavor. It’s quite sweet as well; the ingredients include “natural sweet cinnamon” and “natural sweet cloves.” Now, neither cinnamon nor cloves are particularly “naturally” sweet in my opinion, so I don’t really know what that means. My guess is that some kind of sweetener must be added. Anyway, it’s a lovely tea for a cold day. As I review this it’s late August and the temp outside is close to the 90’s, but my office is pretty much a meat locker so this is hitting the spot.