1186 Tasting Notes
It’s one of those weeks at work where I am so busy that my desk is buried under a mountain of paper so massive, people are actually noticing it. And my lunch has been getting later and shorter every day lol. Nonetheless, I will persevere and hopefully get everything done. Haven’t had much tea these past 2 days, but this is in my travel mug this morning, hoping to make something else this afternoon, this one is getting pretty old after sitting all morning lol. See previous notes.
I don’t feel like writing separate reviews for the three teas I’ve had already today, so I’ll just summarize here: I’m basically drinking all the spring teas I have lol. A temp near 10 degrees melting away all of yesterday’s snow demands spring teas. Today I’ve had:
Jasmine bouquet – Verdant – an excellent tea, possibly my favorite white tea blend yet
Jingshan Earl Green – Verdant – refreshing and bright to match the sunshine
Sundried jingshan green – keeping with the jingshan theme, I’m having a gaiwan session with this fresh green tea right now
Its sunny and I feel motivated. I had a wonderful visit with a great friend yesterday and this morning, I don’t see her nearly enough since she moved cities, and it was wonderful to catch up. Then I vacuumed up the living room and most of the main floor and am now waiting for mom to come by before we head out to my parents place for easter. I should get packing soon lol. Anyways, wonderful tea on this lovely long weekend!
The latest BOMC box arrived yesterday! All the blends look delicious and exciting as usual, although I was a bit wary of the mate blend, definitely not a before bed blend! After smelling all the teas, I decided this one was the one I needed to try first. It smells deliciously of dark chocolate! It looks like there are whole cocoa pieces in the blend, or cacao, whichever it is, along with goji berries and the famed Zhu Rong base. I steeped this for about 2 minutes with 200 degree water. The resulting dark liquor smells of raisins and chocolate. Interesting!
As for the flavor, mmm this is reminding me of a lovely red wine with chocolate. The main flavors are a dry grape-like flavor, raisin like but not as sweet, it reminds me a bit of how Master Han’s Yunnan black tastes, a hint of olive oil in there too! There is also that lovely dark chocolate flavor, a rich flavor that melds with the mild astringency and raisin like notes wonderfully. There’s a sweetness in the middle of the sip that could be attributed to the vanilla as well, although it is faint and not a huge component, just smooths things over.
Overall, this is quite good. It’s rich but light, fresh and filling. All the flavors blend together quite well into a dark chocolate, grape tasting tea. It mainly reminds me of Master Han’s Yunnan Black, but with chocolate added. Very tasty, a perfect tea for a day like today – blanket of fresh, wet snow overnight and temperatures just over zero melting it away. Spring snow day tea!
Flavors: Chocolate, Grapes
An excellent before bed cup of coziness on this dreary snowy night, albeit a caffeinated cup lol. I’m much too burnt out from work this week for it to bother me though. This is a fine spiced cup of yum, definitely can taste that laoshan black in there
A very good tea that I’d like to finish off before spring hehe, and also good as a hot toddy, although no rum in my cup tonight. Reminds me of Christmas time! See previous notes on this tea :)
Gahhh with the weather turning sour and cold yesterday, I have been craving sugary, rich foods and sugary, sweet teas. So I made this in my travel mug this morning for work, a spicy, vanilla sweet black tea full of caffeine and sweet. It’s doing ok, but my co-worker is going to get an energy for her sugar desire today as well, so I requested some candy for the afternoon haha. Darn this weather making us all enter hibernation mode again! See previous notes on this tea :)
So typical Alberta weather, today it was nicely raining and warm at noon..on the drive home, snow. Cold, icky, snow, and some has actually accumulated even. Sigh. Well, out come my cozy teas again! This one and Jin Jun Mei by Yezi were having a fight for my attention tonight lol, I wanted a honeyed, malty black tea..this one won tonight haha. I steeped it a bit longer this time and with more leaf I think, so it’s more malt and grain than honey, but it’s still delicious and cozy. A welcome comfort on this dreary evening that I actually have free for once :D see previous notes on this tea!
Oh, and as it cools, more honey notes..yes, loving this right now!
Flavors: Honey, Malt
Good morning steepster, blah I am back after a wretched day of either food poisoning or the stomach flu yesterday..had to miss work and my class, still not 100% today but I am improving as the day goes on. Yesterday all I had was tea mostly and a bit of food later in the day, but mostly ginger teas, including this one. I am also having this one right now at work to fend off any lingering stomach ick. I hope whatever it is passes by the end of the day. Thank goodness for ginger teas though, especially this one and Ginger Sage Spa blend, they work wonders on stomach ailments. I’m also almost at the bottom of my second 100g of this tea haha, will have to stock up yet again. See previous notes on this tea.
Oops, I haven’t reviewed this yet, and I’ve drank a fair few cups of this one..tonight, I made it with unsweetened vanilla almond milk.
Aside – Now that I found out I can have the original Silk almond milk, I am branching off to the flavors and unsweetened, still a bit worrying for me to have it, but I will get over it soon considering I drank a carton of the other one, and they both have almonds. Settle down paranoid brain. LOL. Anyways, tea review.
Tea Review
So this tea is pretty good on it’s own, or in a latte with almond milk, I had it with the regular almond milk and it really was epic. Tonight, it’s not quite as sweet as no sugar in it, but the flavors mesh nicely with the nuttiness and make for a smooth, spicy little chai. And the vanilla at the end..mmmmm. This is one of the rare decaf chais I have found, and it’s actually not bad at all! The main flavors are probably cardamom and black pepper as it’s pretty spicy, but rich enough to hold its own without caffeine. It might help that the recommended steeping time is 5-6 minutes lol and I did the full 6 today. Quite tasty.
Overall, a tasty decaf black tea option for before bed. I also like the name, and it makes a good latte and is also decent straight up. I will have to write a note when I have it straight next. Hmm, and I bet it’s pretty good with honey too haha. Happy to have ordered it in my Epicure order!
