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My daughter just started her first day of 4th grade today in a new school. The really cool thing about that is the school is a block from our house so we were able to walk her there and she will be able to walk home. Pretty neat and exciting.

To celebrate this event, I decided I needed a complex and possibly special tea. I chose this one. I was really torn on whether to gong fu or western brew this. I went with gong fu.

8g is more than I would normally use but there was a large pecan in there so I figured I should put a little more in to balance it out. The first steep went 30 seconds. I decided not to do a rinse because I didn’t want to wash out any of the flavors. The first steep is a light hazelnut brown. The liquid is slightly thin but creamy with hints of vanilla and… is that… raisins? Almost reminds me of a very light/faint custard. There is also hints of nut as well. Really good preview of what will hopefully come out more in the next few steeps.

Before the second steep (30 seconds) I put my nose in the leaves and the brewed liquid and took a sniff. The leaves smelled like a perfect blend of puerh and an earthy black tea. The liquid was a bit more puerh but with some vanilla notes. The flavor of the liquid on this steep is much more puerh with earthiness and a hint of vanilla.

3rd steep, 45 seconds The leaves are… woodsy. Wet wood is what comes to mind. Maybe like a vanilla oak. I’m not 100% sure but that is what popped in my mind. The liquid is a bit thinner so perhaps I should have upped that time but the good news is that it is smooth and more vanilla and nut has returned.

4th steep, 1 minute. Talk about your rookie mistakes. I didn’t see until after I poured the water from my electric kettle that it had shut off and the water was reading out at about 190 degrees. Weeellll… let’s see what happened, shall we? Interestingly, the black tea flavor seems to stand out a bit more alongside the vanilla and nut.

I’ll stop the review here because I need to attend to other things however, I can say that this is a fun and flavorful tea.

I actually am going to use it as one of my tea pairings for this months book club. We are reading Furiously Happy. It is a woman’s take on her different mental conditions by using humor. It has both very real and heartfelt entries and also very humorous entries. I think the Dark Kitchen Sink will go well with some of the darker sides of mental illness addressed in the book.

Flavors: Custard, Earth, Nuts, Raisins, Vanilla, Wet Wood

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 30 sec 8 g 3 OZ / 100 ML
Super Starling!

Have you gotten to the end yet? Crying. Crying for days. I love her. The first book’s a little better, but I enjoyed both.

mtchyg

Not at the end yet. Almost half way through. I am mostly enjoying it so far.

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Super Starling!

Have you gotten to the end yet? Crying. Crying for days. I love her. The first book’s a little better, but I enjoyed both.

mtchyg

Not at the end yet. Almost half way through. I am mostly enjoying it so far.

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Bio

Michigander, Husband, father of three, lover of tea, books, nature, gardening, and passion. Stay at home dad currently. Previously a preschool teacher.

I have now completed some tea swaps and I am so totally up for swapping! What a cool way to connect with fellow tea lovers and try some new teas. My tea cupboard on here is woefully out of date though.

Black tea has been my go to tea for some time. Oolongs are good too but mainly roasty oolongs. I’m finding that there are some green and white teas (mostly Moonlight Whites) that impress me lately which they never used to do. I am getting into and developing a taste for Pu-erh. I have tried raw and my Ulcerative Colitis just can’t handle the roughness of it. So I stick to ripe Puerh. I am recently drinking more herbal tea or Rooibos especially STRONG ginger blends. I’m not too picky.

Some of my favorite places from which to purchase tea are Whispering Pines Tea Co, Verdant, A Quarter to Tea, Beautiful Taiwan Tea Co, Bitterleaf Tea, and Yunnan Sourcing.

Rating system:
90-100: Some of the best I’ve ever had. I’d be a fool not to keep it stocked as often as possible
80-89: A damn good tea. Not to be missed
70-79: A good tea but lacks the wow factor. More than likely a simple tea that could be an every day option
60-69: Eh. This is okay. Not swill by any means but fairly underwhelming.
50-59: Not really doing it for me. I’ll finish it but please don’t bring me any more.
Below 50: Life is too short to waste on things such as this

Location

Lansing, Michigan

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