17215 Tasting Notes
Cold Brew!
Very alcoholic tasting as a cold brew and without a lot of inherent sweetness either. Not a complaint, but just something that feels worth noting because a lot of rum flavoured teas do tend to either be more spiced or more sweet and this is kind of neither. It reminded me of the cheap rum I used to drink as an underage highschool student which was sort of nostalgic in a weird way. Fine overall, but I definitely prefer this one hot.
Iced Tea!
Steeped this one up yesterday and it was exactly the sweet, bright and refreshing burst of sunny lemonade that I didn’t know I needed to make it through an afternoon that felt like it was dragging forever. And refreshing as always, too. Still a Tealyra fave, for sure!
It’s rose. It’s cardamom. It’s green tea. It’s also kinda flat tasting and boring. It’s not that I think it necessarily tastes bad, but to me this is maybe the weakest offering of Silk Tea Co’s blends. I know I can find similar blends elsewhere and I just feel like there’s not a lot of life to the cup. I know that’s largely because of the decaffeination process but understanding the why still doesn’t improve the end experience.
I had a very, very stressful afternoon today and for some reason I got it into my head that the thing that was going to help me unwind and decompress a little bit was honey. Literal honey, yes, but also honey flavoured tea. I think this is easily my favourite honey flavoured blend so I made a mug and almost instantly after taking my first sips I felt layers and layers of tension just melt away.
My mom used to make hand dipped beeswax candles that were honey scented, and I used to love watching her dip them in the giant pot of melted wax over and over until the layers built up. This tastes so much like our kitchen smelled when she would do that, and as I got more relaxed drinking this I felt a bit like I was a hand-dipped wax candle – but in reverse? Like layers of stress being melted off the wick and back into the pot. I don’t know if that makes sense or not. I guess the TLDR here is that I really needed this tea today.
Not too long ago, I tried the Jingmai Raw Pu’erh Cha Gao (aka “tea resin”) from YS, and today I’m giving the ripe pu’erh version a try! Though the raw was good, I immediately liked this one much more. The liquor is very, very smooth with a surprisingly sweet flavour. It’s very honey-like but dark, dense, and golden with a sort of graham cracker adjacent undertone and some expected earthiness. Not like a buckwheat honey, but sort of in that direction. I’ve had a handful of different types of Cha Gao outside of these Yunnan Sourcing offerings, but to be honest, this is probably the best that I’ve tried based on first impression alone.
Plus, the convenience factor is huge here. I know that, as a community, we often turn our nose up at pretty much any form of instant tea. Personally, I think that’s a fault within the community for several reasons, but that’s a discussion for another post. Regardless, if you’re looking for travel friendly tea options then you can’t get a whole lot better than this one. Just make sure to keep it in a labeled bag because it does, admittedly, look a little sketchy to the unfamiliar…
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFQoEMjS9XS/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY292wlKitk&ab_channel=TommyNewport
Grandpa Style!
I’m still on a little bit of a sticky rice kick, so I’m brewing up one of these cute little coins from a recent order. This ripe pu’erh is infused with nuomixiang (aka sticky rice herb), which gives it such a cozy and comforting flavour of glutinous rice. While I imagine this will be amazing as a gongfu session, I’m drinking this grandpa-style and it absolutely slaps. Starchy, smooth, and almost a little bit creamy with undertones of coconut, vanilla, and even pandan alongside a very full-bodied and robust foundation of earthy pu’erh. The balance is really good, and I appreciate the way the sticky rice flavour plays off the undertones of sweet brown dates, petrichor, and molasses in the shou pu’erh. Delish!
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFS6WvQpt7W/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDoKZ9WeyR0&ab_channel=MICKEYDARLING
Gongfu!
I love pretty much every smoked tea that I can get my hands on, from the most brash and aggressive tasting teas to ones with the more fleeting and subtle whisps, so when I saw that Bitterleaf was offering Lapsang Souchong from Tongmuguan (aka THE place to get traditionally smoked lapsang from), I was unquestionably on board. It is very, very good.
As far as the level of pine smoke goes, I would say this is more of a medium intensity erring ever so slightly on the softer side. It’s smooth and sultry, without a hint of bitterness or astringency to it. The black tea itself is also very fragrant with a really sweet floral aroma of sakura blossoms and sweet red stonefruits; very cherry-like. Medium to full-bodied, and so very layered. Soft blankets of smoke, rose, and sakura in the top notes, with a gentle mid sip of ripe and tangy red cherry cherry and strawberry, all with a delicate woody finish and lingering aftertaste of darkly sweet black licorice. I expected something good, but I wasn’t totally prepared for something THIS good.
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFVqTLLSTVm/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57cJ5LDaAHk&ab_channel=CalinRed
Gongfu!
A morning session in my favourite l’il roasted green tea dedicated yixing pot! This is a very medium-bodied and round feeling tea, with a roast that contributes a subtle smoke note on top of tasting wonderfully rich and nutty. The undertones almost read as just a bit fruity and “red” tasting to me in a similar way that I might get from a more amber maple syrup, and the top and body notes really make me think of pecan pie with just a bit of an almost brassy mineral edge. Though I don’t tend to reach for this one quite as much as some of my other hojichas, I always enjoy it when I brew it up and I reaaalllyyyy appreciate the complexity packed into each steep.
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFYww4UBDvH/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-lbtDftuIo&ab_channel=Ziggy2000-Topic
Sipdown (2747)!
Finished this sample off as part of a “Teas I Drink In a Day” post yesterday. I was hoping the lemongrass and jasmine would come through a little more, but I couldn’t taste the jasmine at all and the lemongrass only barely added a little hint of citrusy grassiness. Mostly this was incredibly mild tasting with an earthier floral note that was just sort of meh.
The “wow factor” of the blend is easily the brilliant blue colour of the butterfly pea flower. It would probably make for a decent starting point for more fancy recipe creation. Things like cocktails or lattes you want to add a blue hue to. But I wouldn’t really reach for this again as a standalone drink for the blue colour alone. Flavour is more important to me personally, and this is just missing that.
Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFOY8GQSgUp/?img_index=1
(It does take a good photo, though! This was my favourite picture of the day.)
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m_XZTaNzxk&ab_channel=MDSHCoffeeHouse
This was very predictable tasting but not in a bad way. Decent quality white tea with a sweet and jammy blueberry note to it. No frills or anything, and that’s exactly what I wanted when I reached for it. I’d just been craving blueberry but didn’t feel like something nearly as full bodied as a black tea, so it was a great and convenient option!
Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFOY8GQSgUp/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BYrQVS7uKI&ab_channel=FickleFriends
