149 Tasting Notes
Oh my, this is soooooo good…
After taking the neighbor’s dog for a walk, and still having numb hands awhile later (I don’t like negative temperatures…I just don’t….), this tea is absolutely perfect.
The leaf is beyond gorgeous, illustrated by my inability to refrain from snapping a photo of a teaspoonfull in the sunlight before steeping.
Sweet notes are released the second the kettle water hits the leaf, and that’s so marvelous and comforting on a cold morning.
Malt and cocoa and ever so slight floral (way in the back…not at all forceful…)… Just utterly fantastic.
I love when I pick the perfect tea out of my cupboard for my mood. :)
Finding myself out of decaf teas, I went online searching for rooibos, and decided to place an order with Tea Guys (the flavours all sounding amazing…).
I ordered a sample of this to try, and I’m really liking it.
The scent when I opened the bag was fantastic… bourbon-y, maple goodness.
I added a splash of milk to this, since I tend to like spicier rooibos with milk, and thought it would bring out the ‘egg nogg’ feeling… It did.
This tea is downright decadent treated that way, and I’ve got it steeping for a second round right now (I usually get 2 steeps out of my rooibos, even though the second is oftentimes far less flavourful than the first… ).
Drinking this exactly as I always have (because why mess with something so good!?)
10 sec steep/rinse
30 sec 1st steep: Mineral and dark baked quick bread, with walnut and caramel.
As I’m sipping, my youngest is skipping through an Adventure Time dvd, trying to locate a specific episode, so this tasting is being accompanied by the AT theme song…over and over. Is it just me, or do the new episodes of that show just not stack up to the old ones? I’m much more of a “Regular Show” appreciator now…. Haven’t had a cup of this in awhile, and I really did miss it. So good!
45 sec 2nd steep: Oh, do I love the colour of the second cup (as always). The scent is completely brown sugared quick bread, all crusty and caramelized on top. The taste is nutty, with a mineral end note. I love how it leaves my mouth feeling so bright, with the aroma being so deep… a contrast I really appreciate.
60 sec 3rd steep: tingly tongue and gorgeous cup colour. So light and refreshing, this cup is on the end note, but with that dark chocolate lead in that just knocks my socks off. Cocoa powder and almonds… mmmmmmm……
Mmmmmm – I love this too. You of course should drink it however it makes you happy. I love it western brewed – 2 tsp – 450 ml yixing pot – 8-10 minutes. Either way, it’s a special tea…. :))
now, I am going to have to try it western brewed. I don’t have a yixing pot, though. (yixing is SO gorgeous!!)
The pot I use for special dark is still fairy new so it still has a little of the clay/mineral taste to it – that taste just goes so well with this tea. If you love it short steeped you should drink it that way – I just meant that it’s really versatile and you can drink it lots of different ways. :)) http://instagram.com/p/w5O59buE-v/?modal=true
That pot. THAT POT!! So beautiful!
That setup is really divine… the cup is so pretty!
No, I totally got that that was what you were saying, and I so appreciate you saying it, because that’s what I love most about tea (especially when you get one like this…); there are so many ways to make a single cup of tea, and exploring them all is the most fun part of tea drinking.
Thanks for sharing that photo! :D
Drinking this while my pans of vegetables are roasting away in the oven… the smell of the sweet potato and mushroom, along with the purple carrots and potatoes, is going well with this cup. With Butiki closing so soon, I felt like a Butiki tea was in order, so here I am, treating myself to this before dinner.
I really love the brightness of this tea… the nutty quality… The tobacco is present, along with the slightest hints of floral, but I really get a honeyed apricot coming through.
This is so very delicious….
The mouth feel is exactly what I was looking for right now (you know you’re drinking something, as it rolls around your tongue… heavy, but not in an overpowering way).
And I love how it’s the type of finish that just makes you want to keep sipping…
Flavors: Apricot, Floral, Malt, Tobacco, Walnut
Preparation
Oh, I was not inventive at all…I just ate them, as is! lol
But, you know how this tea can get sort of bitter as it cools? Well, it went SO WELL with the veg!! Some of the edges had gone a little dark, especially on the sweet potato, and the bitterness of the tea was totally offset by this… The tea was completely sweet, void of all bitterness, even when almost cold in my cup.
Yum, love roasted veggies! I did some turnips and onions when I roasted a chicken, and they were amaaaaaazing. :D
Turnips! I need to do some turnips…haven’t done any yet this season. I just had really simple chicken breast with butter and shallots, so your roast chicken sounds wayyyy better.
Really not feeling well today, but this tea is doing a wonderful job at making me feel a bit better…
I had been saving my last bit of this from MissB, knowing a day would come where I really wanted it…that day has arrived, and it’s just perfect!
Deep and earthy, sweet, and so full of that warm plum pudding thing that puerh does for me….
Really love this one…
After finishing the dishes, I wanted to just sit with a cup of tea, and being unsure of what to choose, I reached into my drawer and pulled out the last bit of this from ifjuly. My choice was perfect, as this tea definitely gives you the chance to just sit and enjoy it.
I looked at the dark sky to the north (the sky always looks the best in winter towards the lake…), and took in the chocolate notes of this quite special Assam.
Earthy and sweet…so smooth and not at all bitter.
Halfway through the cup, the bite was building in the aftertaste, but it’s really more of a nip than a bite, as this tea is never overwhelming.
Truly delicious Assam, with the second steep still being smooth and wonderful.
So glad I picked this out for today. : )
Looking for a tea to take me into dinner time (I’ve got Marcella Hazan’s Chicken with Two Lemons roasting away in my oven…), I grabbed this sample sachet from Harney.
The dry bag had the ‘green tea blend’ scent that I find pretty common (to me, since my nose is of the plebeian sort….), but while steeping, oh man! In the first two minutes or so of this bag floating in the water, I was in absolute heaven… It was baked coconut and vanilla, as if it had just come out of the oven…. The scent was amazing!
Near the end of steep time, the ginger and lemongrass were coming more to the forefront, while the coconut lingered in the back.
While the taste of the tea is nice (really nice), after that transporting coconut scent (I felt like I was sticking my nose in a bakery case and I didn’t want to pull my head out…), I can’t help but wish the end result was closer to that…..but then it wouldn’t be the tea described by the blender at all, so there’s that, I guess.
As I continue to sip the tea, I become absolutely fine with the fact that it tastes exactly as described on the bag, because the flavours all work really well together, layered nicely and in an unexpected way. I really like how the ginger and lemongrass are met by your tongue, but the vanilla and coconut are brought in by your nose as you sip… it’s like 3D, but in taste form. :)
Flavors: Coconut, Ginger, Lemongrass, Vanilla
This really is one of my favourite ‘go-to’ teas… I just absolutely love it.
I never add anything to it, and always go for a second steep.
Today, I had my first steep with a maple ham grilled cheese sandwich, with mozzarella and muenster….
I’m going in for my second steep now. :)
This was in my mug constantly throughout December…
I found that I liked it best with a tiny bit of sugar and a splash of milk, although it’s great without.
To me, it tastes like the absolute best version of Bigelow’s ‘constant comment’ that one could ever possibly have… Growing up, that was my favourite tea, so finding something similar, but ever so much better, was really fun.
Flavors: Citrus, Clove, Spices
Preparation
It’s been forever since I’ve logged, but I’m going to try to get on here more often to record what I’m drinking….
Anyway, drank this last night (was a sample sachet included with a previous harney order), finding it was the last available decaf option in my stash. I’ve had it for awhile, but I’m not huge on chamomile….
Then I remembered, as I sipped this, that I do actually like chamomile, I just always think I don’t… and, only previously having the bagged, grocery store variety, this was really great. I shared my first mug with my husband, so I was super happy to be able to get a great cup on a second steep (10 minutes).
I’m definitely going to get some of this next time I place a Harney order….