From White Antlers, thank you :)
Simple tea with aged, wet storage taste. There are no rough edges here nor is there any soil murkiness, however, one probably needs to appreciate damp notes to enjoy this tea. Most notable is its silky, almost oily, texture; also its comfortable, expansive mouthfeel. It’s not often I experience a mouth-filling tea.
The profile is somewhat alkaline and very rounded with mostly a basement-cavern-petrichor note followed by dry root cellar, once-wet wood, very mellow TCM, some fleeting fruitiness and a clean, mineral finish with non-existent aftertaste. Of the four steeps, the last two revealed the leaf’s hidden smokiness and pine wood.
I added a few tea seed shells from Liquid Proust to the pot without having tried the tea on its own first, so I do wonder how they contributed to last night’s perceptions.
Going to the SF Tea Fest for the first time in 4 years next weekend. Most excited to chat with UC Davis Global Tea Initiative, which 4 years ago I had hoped to join should I have attended UC Davis for a grad program but life swiftly led me in another direction. No regrets. Old Ways Tea will be there, too, and I wonder if Tillerman Tea will make an appearance.
Flavors: Alkaline, Earth, Mineral, Petrichor, Pine, Roots, Round, Silky, Smoke, Tannin, Tree Fruit, Wet Rocks, Wet wood, Woody
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That sounds exciting!
It sounds somehow okay to me; though I am very excited to hear you are going to SF Tea Fest. Enjoy it! I want to go to one, but always it was in wrong dates for me. Hopefully next year!
I’m going alone, so there’s not a whole lot of excitement surfacing yet. At this point, I’m more excited about making a long day of my trip to the city and not having to drive. Train > ferry > festival > dinner (Thai? Viet? Ethiopian? Korean?) > say hi to some shopkeepers in my old neighborhood > bus back home over the Golden Gate. Wish you both could join me!
I haven’t been since that time in 2018. I got the e-mail about it this year and the thought fluttered through me briefly, but our raises out here aren’t doing much against actual inflation rates and I just couldn’t afford plane tickets and other vacation costs right now. Maybe another time!
Completely understandable. This will be my first day trip anywhere since early June. I hope future circumstances will allow you to return to the Bay area for another tea festival. It’d be neat to see you and Todd again :)
derk: I even checked flights, however can’t because busy times at work and no more “leave of absence” days. Try to remind me next year :D
Anyone got White Antlers email? I used to have it but lost it in a computer crash. I wonder how she is doing.
That sounds exciting!
It sounds somehow okay to me; though I am very excited to hear you are going to SF Tea Fest. Enjoy it! I want to go to one, but always it was in wrong dates for me. Hopefully next year!
I’m going alone, so there’s not a whole lot of excitement surfacing yet. At this point, I’m more excited about making a long day of my trip to the city and not having to drive. Train > ferry > festival > dinner (Thai? Viet? Ethiopian? Korean?) > say hi to some shopkeepers in my old neighborhood > bus back home over the Golden Gate. Wish you both could join me!
I haven’t been since that time in 2018. I got the e-mail about it this year and the thought fluttered through me briefly, but our raises out here aren’t doing much against actual inflation rates and I just couldn’t afford plane tickets and other vacation costs right now. Maybe another time!
Completely understandable. This will be my first day trip anywhere since early June. I hope future circumstances will allow you to return to the Bay area for another tea festival. It’d be neat to see you and Todd again :)
derk: I even checked flights, however can’t because busy times at work and no more “leave of absence” days. Try to remind me next year :D
Anyone got White Antlers email? I used to have it but lost it in a computer crash. I wonder how she is doing.