1378 Tasting Notes
TTB. Super Sorry. This is not from this TTB. It’s from the last TTB. Yikes. Good thing it’s a dark tea.
Loose Leaf: Pretty typical dusty look, browns, with a mix of leaves and some buds. Not much aroma.
Wet Leaf: Dark greenish brownish. Chopped. Slight muscatel. Old wood.
Flavor: old decaying wood. 1800s house kinda. Kinda tannic, but that’s probably my fault. Overall probably a good one I just don’t do most dark teas very well…
Do you ever have those times where you start feeling like the sneezing isn’t from allergies, and then suddenly you feel warm and just kinda meh? That was me yesterday. My immediate thought is always elderberry syrup. (If you get some, make sure it doesn’t have sugar!) I swear by the stuff. We didn’t have any, but I do have this tea.
Dry aroma: Cinnamon. Cinnamon bark, more specifically. And a hint of lemon.
Flavor: This is a pleasant blend. A bit spicy and a hint of woodiness. But overall, cinnamon. If you don’t like cinnamon, you will hate this. But if you enjoy cinnamon like I do you’ll find this quite pleasant.
Cinnamon
Cinnamon
It’s all about the cinnamon.
TTB 2025. Aged white tea is very hit or miss for me.
Unless you have a pu er knife or … a knife in general available to help open the leaves after the first rinse, it will take quite a while to open the brick fully.
Wet Leaf Aroma: Fruity. Compost. Slight old house.
Flavor: Woody. Resin. A bit tannic.
WHOA. Hold the phone. I dumped a bunch of water on the leaf to throw it into my garden, but got distracted by dishes. When I came back, those fruity notes really started shining! Cherry and other dark red fruits. Maybe this one is made for cold steeping after the first 4 infusions.
TTB: I have a soft spot for jasmine-scented teas. While I don’t 100% remember if it was Jasmine that started this adventure I absolutely remember drinking a crap ton of it in college. I also like to add a drop of honey to really enunciate the jasmine flavor. Granted, that was with tea bags. With loose teas, especially with this one, I won’t add honey.
Dry Aroma: Jasmine. Jasmine Jasmine. Oh, and a slight barnyard note.
Inital steeping aroma: >_> nail polish
Wet Leaf Aroma:
Flavor: The jasmine flavor is a bit subdued. I wonder if I should have steeped it longer. Arg. Oddly, I’m kind of missing the usual barnyard and summer floral/grasses notes. Either way, it’s a nice light jasmine. It makes you really stop and think about what you are drinking. To find the notes and fully appreciate them.
I made a short version. Trying to determine how I want to do these videos moving forward. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iqa8DmTxov4
TTB. Laos. I want to go. I want to go to all the tea-producing regions. Side note: Don’t go looking up the tea until after you take a few sips, or their tasting notes will influence what you taste. Nothing quite like yelling PEANUT BUTTER in the middle of a group tasting. I once told a lady (when I was 10) that poi tasted like wallpaper paste. She looked at me incredulously and asked: You’ve eaten wallpaper paste?! Funny how our palates and minds put things together.
Dry Aroma: None. That’s okay. Last of the bag.
Dry appearance is very nice. Dusty. Milk chocolate brown with golden buds.
Flavor: Dark fruits. Woody. Mahogany.
Wet Leaf: I wish there were a better way to describe this note. I sense it in many black teas. Some might say malt, maybe raisin bread.
This is another one that I feel might not quite represent the full tea so I won’t rate it.
TTB. Finished. Charcoal-roasted white tea sounds intriguing. I love a good charcoal-roasted oolong, but I don’t know if I’ve had any white tea that specifically does a heavier roast to taste. I’m on the dregs, so I’m not sure how representative this sample will be of the full tea.
It’s been raining hard for the past few days. I need tea. Lots of tea.
Dry leaf: Nothing
Wet leaf: Raisins. Sweet wood. Charcoal and old house in the second infusion.
Flavor: Dried wood. Charcoal. Very slight Palo Santo.
I think it would be interesting to try more of this one. I don’t feel like I quite experienced the depth that this one has to offer.
I feel like Cookie Monster but with tea. And I don’t throw the leaves around.
TTB. Being an American that is allergic to dairy I am constantly seeing dumb things with dairy in them. When I first came across this bag tucked away amid the many others I immediately dismissed it. “What have they done this time?” Was my first thought. Maybe added butter flavor like they did in that Buffalo sauce. But curiosity got the best of me and I took it back out.
It does have a somewhat buttery aroma once it’s brewed vanilla butter with mint.The flavor is strong with mint but the vanilla finds its way around your palate. It’s quite unique actually… Mint overpowers so much generally that it’s all you taste and while this starts out with mint in your face the vanilla slides up quietly and leaves you with a gentle mouth feel in the after taste that is really quite nice.
That all being said I do grow and sell my own mint. And this mint is a bit stale in comparison
Buttermints are an “old fashioned” hard candy popular throughout the UK, though my understanding is they’re particularly popular in England – though I know them more from the Scottish import store I grew up living near. Think like a buttery toffee flavour mixed with a soft peppermint note.
I’m trying to think of a North American equivalent and, frankly, blanking on one. The only thing coming to mind atm is Rhubarb Custards, which are also a British hard candy.
Anyway, the point being that Twinings is trying to emulate a specific but actually quite common/nostalgic regional flavour. It just so happens to be one that is far less well known (and therefore maybe assumed to be weird) here in North America.
Yup, sounds weird to me. No assumption needed. :-D
Ah!!! Thank you for the insight. I’m a big fan of Japanese foods and such so buttermint doesn’t seem to weird. I’m just glad it doesn’t actually have butter XD
I used to make something called Buttermints at Christmas and I assumed that was what this tea referred to, but I was wrong! They were candies made with butter, confectioner’s sugar, and peppermint oil and they were really just soft mints. They are pressed into molds or can be rolled into “snakes” and then cut into “pillow” shape. I did pillow shape, roses, and leaves. They were delicious! The butter is there just to bind the sugar together and you don’t particularly taste butter.
I use the same molds to make rose-shaped sugar “cubes” for tea parties. You mix regular sugar (not confectioners) with the tiniest bit of water and press it into the molds and then let it dry.
I’m a little bit lost. Is this a sheng pu-erh? Or just an aging “dark” tea? I can’t really tell from EoT’s description, either.
My guess is a sheng. It looked like a shou at first hut after steeping it tasted more of a sheng profile
Although the cake looks very dark for a sheng, you’re right that the steeped leaves appear more like a raw than a ripe. I wasn’t even sure of the cakes’ status as puer, since I did not recognize the large calligraphy on the center of the wrapper. Though I do now see the puer marking twice on the periphery. Nice that you’re enjoying it!
It’s a sheng! This was pressed in 2004, so as unbelievable as it sounds, this is a 20+ year old tea – very normal for the leaf to look so much darker and shou-like with some age on it. Afterall, shou is actually meant to replicate the look/taste of aged sheng ;)