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drank Random Steepings by Various Artists
987 tasting notes

Backlog from a few days ago.

I took part in the Toronto Tea Festival’s recent promotion to try a bunch of tea samples for free. The tasters were told to rate each tea so that the festival could determine a “best” tea and give the winner an award.

I ended up getting 6 samples to try. There was a lot of variety, but ultimately I found the whole thing to be really disorganized.

So I wrote about it: http://booksandtea.ca/2015/12/toronto-tea-festival-tasting-set/

Guys, if you’re trying to get a random assortment of people to choose a “best” tea, don’t go about it ass-backwards like the Toronto Tea Festival did.
5 comments
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Sil
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also… i hate the word “best.” This really was one of the most bass-akwards executions of a tea tasting that i’ve seen yet.

Marzipan
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I just wanted to post something ack-backnerds.

Sil
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haha

TeaExplorer
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Loved your blog post. It seemed fair and offered constructive criticism.

Christina / BooksandTea
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I’m glad that you thought it was constructive, TeaExplorer! I was worried about coming off too harsh.

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Comments

Sil
Delete

also… i hate the word “best.” This really was one of the most bass-akwards executions of a tea tasting that i’ve seen yet.

Marzipan
Delete

I just wanted to post something ack-backnerds.

Sil
Delete

haha

TeaExplorer
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Loved your blog post. It seemed fair and offered constructive criticism.

Christina / BooksandTea
Delete

I’m glad that you thought it was constructive, TeaExplorer! I was worried about coming off too harsh.

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Bio

Updated March 2016:

I’m a writer and editor who’s fallen in love with loose-leaf tea. I’ve also set up a site for tea reviews at http://www.booksandtea.ca – an excellent excuse to keep on buying and trying new blends. There will always be more to discover!

In the meantime, since joining Steepster in January 2014, I’ve gotten a pretty good handle on my likes and dislikes

Likes: Raw/Sheng pu’erh, sobacha, fruit flavours, masala chais, jasmine, mint, citrus, ginger, Ceylons, Chinese blacks, rooibos.

Dislikes (or at least generally disinclined towards): Hibiscus, rosehip, chamomile, licorice, lavender, really vegetal green teas, shu/ripe pu’erh.

Things I generally decide on a case-by-case basis: Oolong, white teas.

Still need to do my research on: matcha

I rarely score teas anymore, but if I do, here’s the system I follow:

100-85: A winner!
84-70: Pretty good. This is a nice, everyday kind of tea.
69-60: Decent, but not up to snuff.
59-50: Not great. Better treated as an experiment.
49-0: I didn’t like this, and I’m going to avoid it in the future. Blech.

Location

Toronto, ON, Canada

Website

http://www.booksandtea.ca

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