1186 Tasting Notes
And finally a review of my current cup of tea lol. This has been keeping me company as I have been watching curling earlier, then put on some classical music, vacuumed the house, did all my laundry from my trip, and cleaned up the kitchen/bedroom. Oh, and played with the cat lol. This is still such a beautiful cup, it’s light and sweet and although it is summery, I also can picture drinking this while light snow is falling in the night. Which it very well might be doing outside here haha. Delicious, and I am nearing the end of this one too, would have liked this to be made available for furher purchase, maybe it will be in the future! Oh, and just checked – I haven’t actually reviewed this one before LOL. So here’s a quick rundown of this tea, which I have enjoyed many times already -
Smells delicious, light jasmine and florals. I usually steep for around 2 mins, and the aroma is heavenly, if you enjoy jasmine haha. The flavor is creamy and sweet, its like Verdant’s lovely Yunnan White Jasmine, but enhanced with even more florals. There is also a strong linen note in the mouthfeel and flavor. This is just delicious and reminds me of light sprinklings of rain or snow, dew covered lawns early in the morning, flower gardens, springtime, and delicate morning frost. Light and beautiful.
I had a lovely sipdown of this tea this morning, made in my little teapot and poured into one of my favorite mugs. It was malty and grainy, so delicious as per usual, I did overleaf a bit as it was near the end of the sample, so it was quite strong with a 1.5 minute steep. But still so good. And gave me much needed energy to shovel the sidewalk from the gross icy freezing rain/snow we had last night. Need to add this one to the wishlist for the future! See previous notes on this tea, and thanks again to Angel at Teavivre for the free samples of this tea!
Backlog – I had a lovely cup of this yesterday morning before doing a lot of Christmas shopping haha, both online and in stores. It was a busy day. I am finally getting back to earth after my 9 day vacation, albeit much more relaxed than before I left. Which was exactly why I went :P happy that Christmas is coming and had a productive, satisfying weekend getting ready for it. This tea hit the spot. See previous notes on this one – I’m very close to sipping it down too!
Backlog – I sipped this down last night as a latte with 1% milk. It was really good, and didn’t upset my stomach! This was a tasty tea to try, but with the ridiculous amounts of tea I currently have and the better chai blends, I doubt that I will restock this. Still, it made for a warming fall/winter blend! See previous notes on this tea :)
Yes, it’s a bit late for a sheng session, but I was craving it and decided to sip this one down too, since I have soo many pu’erhs on the way to me from BF! :D haha well this is an excellent tea as usual, one of my first shengs, and it still does not fail to disappoint. Delicious honey smell, nice mildly green/honeyed flavor, and some nice cha qi at this fine hour. Listening to Christmas music with the cat and using my new cup for parts of the session (it doesn’t hold much so there is a supplemental cup haha)
Here’s a link to my new cup. I am madly in love with it.
http://instagram.com/p/wK9JDhusNz/
Anyways, cheers to this tea! Until we meet again :) see previous notes on this one!
I’m back from vacation!! It’s been so long Steepster haha..I did read a few notes and checked out the Black Friday hubbub a few times but didn’t feel like posting any notes while there. Let’s just say…I bought a LOT of tea haha. There are quite a few unique little shops out on the Island, and I didn’t even get to them all!
This shop was a purely random chance find lol, we had gone out to a birds-of-prey sanctuary and were trying to get back to the main highway, so the GPS sent us down this random road. Lo and behold…there is a tea shop there! In the middle of the Cowichan Valley! And what a place!!! The owner immediately provided us a taste of tea when we went in the rustic little shop, a delicious russian caravan with lavender! So good! It was brewed in a beautiful clay pot that the lady that also works there had made, she does pottery and helps with the tea. They are also growing their own tea right there and said it will be ready for selling in small quantities next year! Woot!
So this amazing little tea shop has tons of teas! I smelled so many and the guy really knows his stuff, it was great. I ended up getting this one and 2 others for myself, and the bf got 3 for himself too. I actually was torn between this tea, the EG lavender and their house blend called Persia – a blend of darjeeling, ceylon, EG and lavender. They all smelled delicious, but this one won out – it has such a bright lemony citrus scent, no soap just pure citrus goodness! They apparently use real Bergamot oil, no synthetic or artificial stuff.
As for the flavor, this is a great EG! The citrusy bergamot is so bright, it almost tastes like a lemon black tea rather than an EG! It’s a unique one, that is for sure, and it is quite drinkable in my opinion. I had it quite a few mornings on our trip, and am having it at work this morning in a poor attempt to wake up and focus haha. Post vacation blahs…yeah, I’m not all here yet. Hopefully I get back into focus as I have a meeting this afternoon lol.
Anyways, overall this is a pretty good EG tea. I am so happy I found this little shop and can’t wait to try the others I got from there too! Check them out online too :)
Flavors: Citrus, Lemon
I met the owner at a farmers market in Nanaimo a few years ago! Too cool :) Glad he’s doing well. Thats pretty exciting he will be ready to sell small batches next year. When I met him, he said it would be about 2 years until production. What a small world.
Haha that is a small world! Yes it will be very limited probably only in store too I imagine but still neat that there is some tea growing in Canada! He was very enthusiastic and helpful with tea selections, next time I’m out there I will definitely head back to pick up some more varieties :)
Growing their own tea?! That is so cool. I want to do that.
Also, I just want to remark that I thought Verdant’s Earl Grey also tasted rather towards lemony – I wonder if real, good bergamot has that lemony essence? I can’t say I’ve tasted lemon in most other EGs I’ve had, but who knows what they used to flavour the tea.
I think they might be the only company in Canada so far that is actually growing their own Camellia Sinensis, but I could be wrong. It’s pretty cool anyways :D
I still have to try Verdant’s EG! Was going to order it on BF but I really have too much tea, especially EGs now, that I can’t justify it yet. I haven’t tasted lemon in many other Earl Greys either, my favorite by A&D is much different too, it’s more of a malty, robust type of EG, not lemon and citrus. It’s interesting how there can be so much variation among them, especially my two favorites now! It could definitely be a trait of the bergamot they used though. Or maybe the base tea brings out different flavors from the bergamot? Regardless, tis good! :D
I only picked up the 7g size, since I clearly also don’t need more tea. I haven’t tried too many straight EGs, mostly EG creams, but the lemon note really stood out this time. Interesting that something so seemingly basic can be so varied.
Soooo good in my travel mug this morning. I was very chilly this morning as it’s a damp cold out here and it’s supposed to freezing rain later today, so I wanted something rich and cozy. This is hitting the spot :) vanilla and spice. Yum.
One more day until I leave for my vacation! Can’t wait to pick up some teas in Victoria when I’m there :) and more importantly, for 9 days of relaxation! Much needed.
Good morning Steepster! This lovely tea is in my travel mug this morning, which is a good thing because the guy sick at work is borrowing my steeper and having a cup of my Cold 911 lol. Hopefully it helps and he gets better so I don’t get sick! :D lol, I’m at least hoping it provides some relief. Hooray for giving tea to others in the office! Oh and this cup is nice and lightly floral, quite delicious, it definitely tastes better in my newly cleaned travel mug :D see previous notes on this tea!
The temperature warmed up about 10 degrees C here today, so I am taking a break from shu and spicy teas to enjoy an evening gongfu session with this tea. It also should help fend off a cold :) this is fresh and nutty tonight, i like it. I haven’t had this tea in ages and while it might be losing some flavor, it still tastes pretty good. All the more reason to drink it up! Here’s to a relaxing Monday night! See previous notes on this tea :)
