New Tasting Notes

3.5g, 70 mL gaiwan

Good texture and active taste first few steeps, stopped at steep 5 or 6 after the leaf taste started to show. This tea remains quite green (unfocused, dispersed, and chaotic) in its feeling and is uncomfortable to drink even at a reduced gram amount, and this is my conclusion after several sessions of varying ratios. Had to take a couple snack breaks at work to avoid getting dizzy, was sweating/burning up throughout the day despite usually running cold, and then had to take tums before dinner to stop the burning/almost reflux feeling. Safe to say I will not be tempted by this again for a good while.

I heard good things from others who also purchased cakes from TJL, so I’m not sure what’s wrong with mine. This cake is one of the reasons why I will no longer try to save a few bucks instead of purchasing from tried and true vetted storage, and why I’m now wary of storage/source changes even when purchasing a tea from the same vendor. I assume from what I read online that this will probably course correct will some time, since puerh is pretty hardy. Will have to wait a few years and check back.

Sipdown of an herbal tisane for ashmanra’s sipdown challenge. This was a sample with my order back in May. It’s still not up on the website, but is currently still available on the rewards page, labeled “sneak peek.”

I’ve been enjoying this as an oat milk latte. Creamy, cinnamony, vanilla, sweet. Pretty good pastry vibes, especially for an Adagio blend. This flavor profile is right up my alley. It would probably be good with a dash of maple syrup too, but I didn’t think of that earlier!

Sipdown. I didn’t take good notes while drinking this, but it isn’t my favorite 52teas blend. Rum is the dominant flavor here, and I do enjoy the taste of rum, but somehow it didn’t seem quite right. Maybe a stronger base, or the addition of some vanilla, chocolate, and/or cinnamon flavor, would have given the blend a bit more balance. Not terrible by any means, there are just other 52teas blends I enjoy more.

Sipdown of a fruity tea for ashmanra’s sipdown challenge. This came from a TTB a while back, so thank you to whoever put it in there! I didn’t take a proper note as I was drinking it, but I remember this being interesting-in-a-good-way. The goji berry and chrysanthemum were definitely prominent flavors, making it both sweet and earthy. Not in the “this tastes like dirt” way that pu’erh sometimes does; more like “combination of savory and floral.” Very curious to try Paru’s other blends.

Sipdown. I’m trying to get caught up on tasting notes tonight – I’ve literally got a little stack of empty pouches that I wanted to note before tossing.

This one came from a past Tea Thoughts countdown box., though I’m not sure which one at this point. It’s been very hot lately, so I used the whole pouch for a cold brew. In retrospect, probably not the optimal brewing method for this particular tea. Straight from the fridge, it tastes rather thin. After warming up at room temperature for a bit, the flavor opens up and it’s a malty, jammy situation. But that feels weird to me as an iced tea, and now I’ve used up all of it on the cold brew and can’t test-drive it hot. Lesson learned – don’t use up all the leaf for a steeping method that might backfire!

… it did help with the heat, though

I accidentally made a duplicate entry of this as “Strawberry Cupcake” and now I can’t delete it. Does anyone still have admin access to delete duplicates and, if so, could you please delete it?

This is a sipdown of my oldest green tea for ashmanra’s sipdown challenge (or at least a very old green, I probably have some bits of Butiki still hoarded). This blend is 8 years old! I’m just glad that it didn’t spoil or mold. It’s not as good as it was years ago, but still a pretty enjoyable cuppa! Broadly speaking, the flavoring held up better than the base. The base has gotten a bit of an edge that I don’t remember being there before. The creamy vanilla and sweet strawberry are still good though! It’s “crunchy freeze-dried strawberry” more than it is candylike or fresh and juicy. I added a bit of honey, which smoothed out the edge on the base, made a tasty cuppa, and gave this blend a proper sendoff. Since I was drinking slowly, the tea cooled before I reached the bottom of the mug. I topped it off with seltzer and got a good tea soda out of it!

Da Hong Pao Superfine | Big Red Robe. Tealyra.
Lotsa names for this tea, but a rose by any name… or a turd by any name… smells the same. I brewed as directed, Western. I brewed gongfu. I went for multiple steepings. Yes, I could taste the “mineral” essence, and I definitely got the astringency. I did not get the promised sweetness. I did not get the floral notes in the finish. I did not get fruitiness as it cooled. I did not get the promised “mouthwatering” flavors. I really wanted to, and I’ve returned to this tea repeatedly across seven years, always wanting… hoping… praying… that it would finally pay off. It is said to improve with age. But in the end, I just feel duped. Minerality is another name for rocks (and one name for the tea is rock oolong); the effort of charcoal-roasting the leaves is another way of saying you tried to smoke-off the defects; aging the tea also ages the drinker, whose sense of taste eventually declines; multiple steeps extract out astringency, and the mouth feels faux-sweetness at the relief of not being puckered up by another cup of this swill. Ultimately I became tired of trying to find goodness in a mouthful of wet rocks tasting of carbonized wood. THE KINGS NEW CLOTHES ARE REVEALED! It is as if they took the discarded, spent leaf from an RTD black tea factory and baked it dry, then repackaging it for sale with a hundred promises and a fast getaway car on standby. This tea is a waste of time, money, and spring water. Do not buy this tea, which I rate as 15. Do not waste your money, time, cupboard-space, or friendships with this farm byproduct. I am not just disappointed, I’m angry.

RTD = Ready To Drink

After touring Arundel Castle, we found this tea shop while walking around the town. They say they make their own teas, so I bought almost all their herbal blends. This one is unfortunately not a winner. The fruitiness is just kind of chemically. Combined with the rooibos, it’s just fake and unpleasant. Cold with almond milk is the most palatable way to drink it.

a fairly okay brew, but what I need right now to get work done

dragonwell. Adagio.
Lot no. 90718. FB 09/2029

Brewed as directed, Western style, in a stainless steel infusion basket. This is a really good dragon well tea! I bought this bag at Adagio’s store in Naperville, IL. The aroma was vegetal and nutty, and flavors included chestnut, light grassiness, edamame, pleasantly astringent, and as the cup cooled, flashes of sweet fruit, possibly grape. Everything I expect from a lung jing! A re-steep was similar, but less potent and non-astringent but still enjoyable, probably because both steeps were 2.5 min. In the future I would simply combine both liquors and enjoy a large mugful, or shorten the first and lengthen the second, to balance it out. Recommended, and rate as 84.

I’ve been trying a number of different ginseng teas from Tealyra lately, and bought this Imperial Ren Shen Genseng Oolong because of its unique composition: rolled oolong, with a coating — almost a shell — of ginseng and Chinese vanilla. I steeped this as directed, western style in a stainless steel infusion basket, and re-steeped twice for a total of three clear light-amber infusions that each had some fines settled at the bottom of the cup. I don’t know how Chinese vanilla differs from other vanillas, but I don’t think I tasted it. Nor did I really get a strong ginseng flavor—just a bit of warm gensing in the aftertaste at the back of my tongue and roof of my mouth, following vigorous slurping and swirling. Only the mildest of toasted oolong flavors was to be enjoyed. The oolong aroma was better than the flavor. The first infusion had almost no flavor at all, and after steeping, the oolong leaves were still encased in the shell. In fact, the oolong leaf never fully escaped the shells, and that may have been an issue. So I smashed the spent material with a spoon and gave a fourth steep, which resulted in a very dark olive green liquor, muddy with fines, almost like a brown, gritty matcha. This 4th, final, steep had only mild woody oolong flavor and aroma when vigorously slurped, but did finally offer some ginseng at the end of the finish. I have attached a photo of the spent, smashed pulp, which did show some intact leaf amidst the debris. The net result of this experience was four disappointing cups of tea with few notes of oolong or ginseng and no vanilla, that represent a wasted quart of my spring water. I would not recommend, and will rate this 24. (And yes, this was freshly purchased, with a BestBy date still 15 months in the future.)

I made myself a cup of the carrot cake blend I made a few days ago. It was a medley of a whole bunch of different things. It turned out pretty well, with a mild, sweet flavor definitely reminiscent of carrot cake, with a bit of spice and a hint of a creamy frosting. I think I want to increase the ginger and clove in the base blend next time and drop the brown sugar flavor in favor of a few more drops of sweet cream for more of a creamy frosting taste. The kids liked it pretty well so I think this batch will probably go fast.

In other news, our AC has broken down for the second time this year. The tech who fixed it before said this might be a problem in the future, but we were hoping it would hold out until next year. Ah well, that’s life sometimes. Yesterday was miserably hot, so we got a few things done in the morning, then spent the entire afternoon at the library. The weather finally cooled of around dinnertime with a thunderstorm. Today is a little muggy and there’s a steady drizzle this morning, but it is much cooler which I appreciate. Tomorrow will be hot again, but the repairman will also be coming by to fix the AC, so that should help!

Honestly, this is from an order made a year and a half ago, but its been sitting since I’ve been using cold brew to sip down a bunch of other teas.

I’m not sure if its the age or if this was just not the tea in the package. It reminds me of pu’erh. Leather and mud and grossness, Definitely does not taste like orders I’ve had in the past.

Asked a few coworkers for their opinions and everyone agrees, so its not just me.

I’ve had to throw it out.