Urgh, this tea was a mess today – and I’m pretty sure there’s no one or nothing to blame but myself. I hate when that happens – why can’t it be somebody else’s fault?
Anyway, I guess I should explain – right? I made this for work today – and because it’s a black tea I steeped two cups with fresh leaf each time. The only black tea I have that resteeps well (that I can think of off the top of my head atm) is Blueberry Jam. So, for the first cup I used the recommended 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf and 98 degree celsius water – just like David’s recommends. I wanted to use the high end of the steep time so that it was strong – but I also REALLY didn’t want it to be bitter, either.
Anyway, I ended up texting someone while I was waiting – and the text conversation was so good that I lost track of time because I was distracted and I let my tea steep for probably close to 10 min. I took a sip and it was REALLY bitter. Ick. Normally I’d have just tossed the cup but I remembered Stacy saying that when she has a bitter cup she just dilutes it with water until it tastes right.
So, that brings me to the second cup. I decided if I made this one really weak then it would probably save my tea and it’d balance out. However, I got distracted by the same text conversation AGAIN and left the cup steeping for probably 7 or 8 minutes… Another really bitter cup. So, I poured half the cup out filled the rest with water and dumped it all into the thermos with the first cup. I took a few smalls sips and it didn’t seem to bad so I left it like that until I tried it at work.
SO BITTER. It didn’t help at all – and instead there were some really wonky smoke tastes and awful astringency with barely any of the smooth, coconut and butterscotch flavours poking through. I choked my way through the whole thermos though – as punishment for ruining two cups of a tea which could have been awesome.
Stupid nearly perfect boys with their nearly perfect text conversations…
