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Cold Brew Sipdown (335)!

Finished this one off yesterday, in a somewhat unconventional way?

I had originally intended to just have it alongside my supper, which was a very sweet and buttery dish of pumpkin stuffed pasta, with some Gouda just sprinkled over. I thought it would be a nice compliment, because it would be somewhat confectionery which would compliment the buttery elements – but would have some contrasting flavour from the banana.

However, the banana flavour in the tea was COMPLETELY absent and all I really had was just a very, very full bodied black tea with lots and lots of cinnamon notes, some nuttier undertones and then the bread-y qualities of the CTC Assam base. Also, an incredibly thick mouthfeel. It was a little too confectionery, and I felt like it wasn’t working with the dish because the flavours were too closely aligned, so I abandoned my original plan and set the tea aside to drink later.

When I came back to it after eating, I decided to do something a little more different. Inspired by one of the threads on the DB about “Tea Floats”, I added a couple baby scoops of vanilla ice cream and hoped for the best. This worked much better and made for a significantly more enjoyable sipdown.

I mean, there’s really no getting past the fact that this is supposed to be a banana tea and it doesn’t taste like banana at all but the sweetness and creamyness of the vanilla ice cream at least paired well with the intense cinnamon notes, and it softened some of the intensity of the very full bodied, and strong black tea flavour.

Definitely wont miss this one; it was just such a let down.

Tea Cooking!!!

So, quite a while back I incorporated this tea into a really fun pasta dish – I made sweet chili Thai noodles, with diced red bell pepper but instead of using a normal stock to cook the pasta in I used a broth I’d made out of this tea. I mean, basically I just boiled two of the mini bricks in some water on the stove top, and then strained the leaf out when I was satisfied with the infusion.

It was a somewhat subtle difference in taste from the normal recipe, since this is pretty strongly flavoured in the first place – however there definitely WAS a difference! It was a little earthier, and I want to say sweeter too? Not like sugary sweet, but I find this is a pretty sweet Shou and it has a lot of date/fig/molasses kinds of notes to it, and I think that definitely came through in the flavour in a soft way. It just kind of gave more overall body to the dish, you know?

Also, visually it was just a touch darker as well – the liquor from a shou tends to have that quality, after all.

Some pictures: https://www.facebook.com/resteep/posts/10211250090421999?pnref=story

Sipdown (336)!

I made this one in my tea press because I knew it would hold the temperature well enough I could slowly sip on it all throughout the day Monday, while the boyfriend was over. My mind was strongly on other things though, and despite drinking this one I didn’t actually pay much attention to it.

I mean, I remember that it was pretty medium bodied and just unimposing in general – a nice, mild flavour. Somewhat fruity undertones, but nothing really distinct or memorable. A little roasty, I don’t think nearly as much as last time even with me not paying full attention.

I don’t know – I think overall this was a decent tea, average quality. Probably would make for a good daily drinker, just going off how unimposing it was this time around and my experience last time. For me though? Just another tea sipped down, and not the worlds most memorable one.

That feeling when you wake up from sleeping, only to find yourself deeply craving a specific tea at 1AM – unable to get back to sleep until you satisfy that primal want.

That was me, like two nights ago.

This one was so sweet and sugary, with super strong and accurate grenadine/pomegranate notes. I also thought that there were some undertones of other fruits as well, such as juicy/ripe red apples, candied maraschino cherries, and overripe strawberries. Are you sensing a pattern? Basically, it was very SWEET red fruit notes. Maybe the slightest bit of tartness in the top of the sip but overall just REALLY sugary.

Hey, at least it’s caffeine free, though! I was back out like a light right after finishing the comforting warm mug…

Western style, in the tea press.

This was really enjoyable, but easily could have been confused for just another hot white tea with more body to it. The distinct flavours of the black tea in the cake just didn’t really come through!? It was very stonefruit heavy though, with lots of notes of apricot and some peachier undertones. Very raw; not a lot of sweetness despite being quite fruity. Also that autumnal leaf kind of quality, and some hay notes. Thicker mouthfeel, and really smooth.

Reminded me strongly of early autumn sunsets, warm evenings and light breezes.

Iced matcha, in the matcha maker – about 50/50 with cashew milk.

It was delicious! Very, very sweet with really distinct honey notes and floral undertones. The cashew milk turned out to be a brilliant decision though because it ended up coming out tasting kind of like Honey Nut Cheerios, but without the grainy/starchy element. Really tasting though, and since it was basically my breakfast that morning also quite fitting.

Last of my custom teas!

I tried to save the one that I thought would be best for last; the dry leaf for this one smells practically orgasmic. It’s the creamiest, richest smelling pineapple scent ever and I’m basically losing my mind over it.

I’m doing my first tasting in the Tea Press because I wanted to take it with while we spent the day running errands – mostly that meant going to various pet stores. We went to a normal one so I could bulk up on treats and essentials for Eilert and Wasabi and then to one that specializes in reptiles so that my sister could spend a few hours handling the different snakes in preparation for getting one of her own.

Several times today I referred to this as “Pineapple Creme Brulee” instead of its actual name – which is both kind of sad, because I am the one who named it, but also just a testament to how accurate the flavour is to what I wanted/had envisioned.

So, this is really rich and creamy and the custard and brown sugar flavours I wanted in it to kind of recreate the creme brulee aspect really come through very nicely. If this company would allow you to use four flavour extracts I would have chosen vanilla to just tie it together a little more/make it a silkier/smoother flavour but for what it is the flavour is well executed and accurate. The pineapple is REALLY amazing! It’s very strong, and easily the dominant flavour in the whole cup – for people like my boyfriend, who hates pineapple, that COULD be a big turn off but I’m totally eating it up. It’s very rich and sweet, and leans a bit more to the confectionery/candy side of pineapple that a super realistic/natural interpretation of the fruit: what it actually reminds me of the most is Jones’ Pineapple Cream Soda! Sweeter pineapple works in the case of a dish like creme brulee, though.

My ‘accent’ ingredients also play their part: the cinnamon is softly present and I think works to bridge what might have otherwise been an awkward gap between the confectionery elements and the fruits. This is a smoother transition and blend of those flavours. The lemon is also just a little bit present, and I think keeps the pineapple from being a little too candy like. Didn’t get much of the carob, but that’s ok! The flavour was still quite nice.

So yeah, pineapple creme brulee tea was a win!

So, I bought one of DT’s new Tea Presses – after years and years of refusing to buy an iced tea press. Honestly? I still doubt I’ll ever use this one for iced tea – but for hot tea I’ve been finding it pretty convenient to have around, and I like the red colour so much…

I made this one in the tea press the other day, with some milk.

I actually thought this tea was delicious! However, I do have some issues with it too. For starters, despite there being an abundance of carrot in the dry leaf I can’t really taste the carrot? Also, I always get really frustrated when people make carrot cake blends that DON’T also take a stab at the cream cheese frosting – and there’s no frosting in this tea either. Adding milk did add an element of creaminess, that kind of forced the imagery into the cup – but it’s not really the same thing.

That said, the spices are really nicely balanced and warming: in particular I thought that the allspice was a really nice touch. It’s very autumnal in feel, and right now I’m finding myself particularly drawn to more autumnal feeling teas as the weather sort of changes/transitions. Also! The walnut was really pleasant; that note definitely came through in a very nice way and the element of nuttyness with the spices was really relaxing, especially since the walnut adds this really subdued sweetness that I find spicier blends always need to feel put together.

It’ll be interesting to try it again, for sure – just to see if I can find the carrot flavour and make this a real ‘Carrot Cake’ tea and not just a spice cake. Holding off on rating for now, I think.

Iced tea, with a touch a honey added half way though.

This was such a good iced tea! I like white teas in general iced, they’re usually very light, delicate and natural which makes them REALLY refreshing. This one had a mix of soft peach skin, linen, and honey notes with a touch of a gentle floral top note. When I eventually added honey it was to make the flavours pop a little more and give something for my boyfriend to taste when he tried it – it really didn’t do much other than pull out some of the sweetness of the peach, and further enhance the already existing honey notes.

Very nice!

I’ve never had flan before; in fact, I’m pretty sure I only know what it is because if Friends.

However, I do know I like caramel – so I figured this would be worth trying. Something about the dry leaf smells weird to me; a little off putting. It’s not the caramel – but I think something to do with the custard? Reminds me of sour milk, just slightly.

Steeped tea tastes delicious though! No weird milk qualities. I don’t think it’s all that fancy though – just a very silky, smooth creamy medium bodied caramel flavour with floral undertones from the oolong base. I enjoyed it a lot; but it’d probably be improved with just a touch more tea leaf to amp up the flavour/richness OR some milk to make it smoother/creamier.

As it currently stands, it’s not enough to differentiate it from other caramel teas for me. My go to is still Dammann Frere’s Salted Caramel oolong; that’s definitely the kind of flavour this teas was competing against.