Christina / BooksandTea Send Message

I had a small sample of this at the Toronto Tea Festival yesterday, and it really did taste and smell like fruit loops! There must be some vanilla or pastry seasoning here in the blend in order to accomplish that.

It was tasty, but lord I have way too much tea already! I resisted buying this.

The dry leaf is long and twisted, dark forest green, and somewhat feathery. It looks lovely. But more than that, it smells amazing — rich, buttery, and floral. The floral creaminess and grainy undertones intensify when the leaf gets warmed up in the gaiwan, and the whole thing reminds me of uncooked jasmine rice, or butter on toast.

The first steep was 40 seconds long, and the resulting brew was clear and light golden, with an intensely floral and buttery smell reminiscent of magnolias or gardenias. Wow! The aftertaste was sweet and grassy, and played along the sides of my tongue. The second steep was a bit darker.

It’s also stronger in flavour and more distinctly floral than the first steep; it reminded me of perfume. The third steep was similar to the second, but it had a more mineral, sweet aftertaste.

Overall, the tea stayed pretty consistent from steep to steep — I did about 8 steeps, and while the last few were more mineral, the colour didn’t change much.

I also have to note that the tea leaf was very high quality, because there were very few instances of broken leaf or tea dust clogging my strainer as I poured the liquid out into my cup. The wet leaf for the spent tea was a deep spinach green.

Full review at: http://booksandtea.ca/2016/01/sanne-tea-samples-oriental-beauty-and-bao-zhong-oolong/

The dry leaf is dark, curly, and multicoloured, with yellow and white flashes throughout; it smelled of plums and honey. However, after I steeped it, the sweet smell deepened into something closer to tobacco.

The first steep was for 60 seconds, and resulted in a cup of light amber liquid with sweet, papery, and woody overtones. On my tongue, it was sweet and woody, and there was also a flavour slipping along the bottom that made me think of birch bark — dry, cool, wispy, papery. The mouthfeel was thick and it coated my tongue, providing a metallic aftertaste and a syrupy sweetness similar to Thompson raisins.

The second steep was much darker than the first, with a deeper amber colour like beer. The flavour also intensified, with notes of raisins, honey and birch bark coming to the fore. I noticed that the quality of the leaf was very high; I found very few broken leaves, leaf fragments, or dust in my strainer or cup.

The third steep was even darker and stronger-tasting than that, although the honey flavour receded. Instead of sweetness, I tasted metal. The fourth steep was fairly similar to the third steep. However, as I continued to steep (I did 7-8 in total), I noticed that the mouthfeel became thinner, dryer, and woodier.

Full review at: http://booksandtea.ca/2016/01/sanne-tea-samples-oriental-beauty-and-bao-zhong-oolong/

Sipdown from a swap from Lala.

Maybe I’m not brewing it right, but I’m getting really fruity notes rather than the malty ones I was expecting. Either way, I’m not feeling this, but am glad to have another tea out of the way.

Backlog and sipdown

I finally finished this off the other day – I looked at what was in the tin and decided to overleaf my teapot to get rid of the remainder. It’s long past its prime. I’m sad, but I’m sure that there are equivalent blends out there. Besides, this was one of the oldest teas in my cupboard.

Sipdown.

This is nice, but it’s not a to-die-for flavour for me. Until next December, Santa…

Sipdown!

I took my entire sample — about 6 grams — and brewed it in a small teapot with 85°C water for 1 minute. I could have done it in a gaiwan, but eh, I was lazy.

The brewed tea was dark brown and had a cool undertone to it. It smelled sweet, malty, and slightly sour. Overall, the whole thing reminded me of wet hay.

Down the hatch, I got a similar taste of wet hay, sweet potato, and something sour I couldn’t quite put my finger on. As the tea cooled, a bitter undertone developed underneath. It wasn’t sharp, but I still didn’t like it, because it wasn’t a pleasant bitterness, but one that felt kind of old and reminiscent of plastic.

The second steep, also for 1 minute, was very similar. Unfortunately, I just wasn’t feeling it and had trouble finishing the second steep.

Full review at: http://booksandtea.ca/2016/01/what-cha-nepal-second-flush-golden-tips-black-tea-plus-toronto-tea-festival/

So, I was about to start writing this, then glanced down to see what Ubacat’s review was going to be like, since she sent me this in a swap.

She didn’t like it. In fact, she positively hated it. That makes me feel a bit better, because when I had this tea this morning, I was unimpressed by it, even though I had 2 steeps. (ETA: Ubacat wrote her review just 7 hours ago! Imagine us having the same tea for the first time on the same day! Uba, we have such synchronicity!)

This is smoky, but it’s a very straightforward, bleh sort of smoke. Not nuanced or subtle. I detected notes of camphor in the brew, too, but otherwise it was a really dry and woody flavour.

Perhaps I’m spoiled because the first Lapsang Souchong tea I ever tried was Teavivre’s blend, and that’s still my favourite. Tell me, folks: did I ruin myself for all other LS teas by trying the Teavivre one first?

Sil expressed some interest in this, so I’m saving the rest to give her at the Toronto Tea Festival next week.

Momentous occasion alert: this is my 900th Steepster note. AND I joined Steepster 2 years ago TODAY!

Aaaah!

This is the perfect tea to celebrate, since it’s one of my favourites. I slightly overleafed it and now it smells just like dark chocolate/cocoa powder. Mmmmm!

Backlog from this morning:

This definitely lives up to the name. With a little bit of agave nectar, this is sweet, rich, and chocolaty. I was originally hesitant to try this because of the puerh in the blend (I remember having a very unpleasant experience with David’s Chocolate Orange puerh), but this is really nice. I’ll enjoy finishing the rest of this.