Thomas Sampson

It was sooooo hot in my office today that I couldn’t make any tea! It was so bad that I even gave up eating half way into my breakfast, and only took a few half hearted bites of my lunch. Even the quiet people that I work with who never complain were complaining!!

After I went to class (where there is air conditioning!!) I started to perk up, and by the time I was walking home I was staggering like a zombie looking for brains and yelling “Thooooooooooooomas!!! Thoooooooooooooomas!!” (in my head ;) I fixed the quickest dinner possible so that I could plop on the sofa and have a big mug of my main man.

He is so delicious. Strong and sweet. Tonight the liquid almost feels thicker than tea – it’s so full bodied and the maltiness is very pronounced.

Ahhhh, I am human again!

In one of my last tealogs, I was wondering where takgoti had gotten to. Then suddenly, where is chrine? Well, the husband was in a car accident early – 6am – Monday morning on the way to work, detailed below.

The husband: Drives our Prius, The Bunny. At 50 mph on cruise control. In the right lane. To get 53 mpg. While commuting 45 min to 1 hour each way to work. Lights on cause it’s still dark out. Assumes truck will pass him at the last minute cause they often do. Highway is flat and straight. The speed limit is 70 mph. No other cars are around.
The 18 wheeler: Does not pass the husband. Runs into his rear end, driver’s side.
The husband: Propelled a bit into left lane. Gets car off the road and stopped without hitting the tree line.
The Prius: Damaged but fixable.
The husband: Not badly hurt, ever so thankfully. Impact related back pain. On meds. Drowsy, zoned out, quiet.

Now, the tea. Also in non-sentence form. First tea since accident. Not sure this was the best time to try a tea for the first time. What the hell though.

Leaves.
Look: Thin, longer than Jackee, more curled, black with spots of tan and brown.
Smell: Papery – dusty, musty. A bit floral, oddly. Slightly sweet.

Wet leaves.
Look: Flat dark brown.
Smell: Papery. Raisiny. Sweet.

Tea.
Look: Deep brown with red tones.
Smell: Honey-floral-papery.
Taste: Bitter. Honey/sweet. Soft. Bitter.

I think I need to steep it less time or at a lower temp.

By the way, if Jackee “caramel” Muntz reminds me of takgoti, Thomas “bake-y” Sampson reminds me of Auggy.

After going thru ANOTHER Home Stash last night I found a very little bit of this left and KNEW I was going to have to start my day with it. BOY OH BOY am I glad I knew right where this one was…it was a HELL of a NIGHT! Dogs woke me up at 3 (after finally getting to sleep around 1) and ended up on the couch AGAIN for ANOTHER night and then I didn’t get back to sleep until about 4 (when DH wakes up and leaves for work) THEN the massive thunderstorms started at 4:35-ish and I tried to fight the dogs freaking out but it didn’t work…I was totally awake by 5…BLAH!!!

TEA TEA TEA – Bring me MORE TEA! It’s going to be a Hellish Day again! Actually the next 3 weeks are going to be that way! Is there an end in sight?

At least I have a fundraiser to do today! I LOVE Fundraisers, Charities, and Volunteering (Plus I get to leave work a tad early eventho I should…but I haven’t been taking my lunches, sooooo)

Anyhow…another storm on the way…and sorry for the early morning ramble…but I had to vent to someone and apparently my fellow Steepsters are the only ones who listen to me! LOL :) Thanks guys! You are great!

OH!!!! SIPDOWN!!!! See previous notes for my thoughts on this tea! Woot!

Just enough for one last pot; it’s still a good breakfast tea, but in the greater and grander scheme of things, it had a pretty narrow “sweet spot” range; Assams should be un-ruinable.

Regardless, the image of a stout and brawny gentleman facing his fisticuffiant opponent with chin up and elbows in fits the morning - writing about helping children deal with fears and phobias today.

Change of topic and blatant mewl for input: moms and dads, what are some unusual (or annoying) childhood fears that drove (or are driving) you a little nuts?

This tea makes me happy but is bold enough that it’s a good morning tea (and does well with a little sugar and milk, making it a good take-to-work tea (though I spilled a little too much milk in today, but it dealt with it well)). These things combine in just the right way to make this a good tea on days that I’m both tired and grumpy and unhappy. It offers me the advice, in a not-unkind manner, to suck it up and soldier through the morning because no matter how bad it gets, at some point the morning does turn to afternoon (which can also be bad, but is inherently better than morning).

About five years ago, my cousin was in the hospital for an extended stay. He wasn’t around his immediate family (parents, siblings) so he was adopted into our family (well, more so than he already was being, you know, blood related) so we visited him regularly. During one of those visits, I made him cookies. Let me rephrase. I attempted to make him cookies. I was fairly new to cooking so still had a lot to learn (well, and still do though at least I’m much better than I used to be). I followed the directions I had for chocolate chip cookies, not realizing that the directions were for plain flour and I had self-rising. So yes, I used my self-rising flour (which already had salt, baking powder, etc) and added to it more salt, baking powder, etc. The ‘cookies’ that were created were more like unsweetened brownies (double the needed salt, you know) – tall, fluffy, bready, non-chocolate brownies. Well, there was a hint of chocolate since there were chocolate chips in there. I was so embarrassed but they were edible so I took them to my cousin anyway because thinking that even if he did throw them out (which I did tell him he had permission to do), at least hopefully he’d feel some warm fuzzies knowing that I cared enough to try to make him something. Turns out he really liked them. Asked me to make them again, in fact, double the salt and everything.

So why am I sharing this seemingly unrelated story? Because this tea is those cookies. Almost exactly. When I popped the lid open of my tumbler, I was hit with a soft chocolate smell. Not quite rich/earthy enough to be cocoa, but definitely in the same family. And sipping it? Lovely. Not sweet at all (not salty or tart either), but bake-y and bread-y and pretty much tasting like an unsweetened cookie. Sure, technically an unsweetened cookie would usually be called a cracker, but this is too bake-y and rich-bodied to be a cracker. So I got to thinking – if this wasn’t a cracker, what else would a non-sweetened cookie be? Maybe something like my lemon ginger snaps, but no, it doesn’t have the fruity or the warm ginger tastes. Plus, it tasted fluffier – more bread-y. And then it hit me – it tasted just like those mistake cookies. Fluffy/thick, bread-y, bake-y, a tiny poof of faint chocolate every so often but not enough to counter the lack of sweetness or the bread-y. Not salty or bitter or tart. Just… not sweet.

It’s almost enough to get me to make more mistake cookies.

This was the final tea of tea party today, and the final time I will be drinking Thomas Sampson, I expect. Not because we finished the tin, but because I have already boxed him up and am sending him to live out a more purposeful life with someone who loves and appreciates him more than I do.

Don’t get me wrong. My guest and I both loved Thomas, and today’s tea party was the first ever three way tie we can remember. This is one of the best Assams I have ever tried. Delicious.

But Jacqueline and her hubby actually shed a tear or two when their tin came to an end recently, and that kind of love should not be overlooked.

It isn’t fancy, there isn’t a card in the box, or pretty packaging, or other teas, but Jacqueline, know that I am sending him your way with lots of love, and the satisfaction of knowing that you and your hubby will give him a sense of having fulfilled his purpose in existing. Enjoy in good health and happiness!

Andrews and Dunham, is there any tea you sell that isn’t amazing? Or the best to be found of its kind? Bravo!

Auggy, I finally get it. BAKE-Y!

Let there be light!!!

This is the 1st tea that has actually screamed bake-y to me. Some have likened it to plain biscotti or perhaps an unsweetened baked good. I have to agree. Tannic and bready…but kind of crumbly bake-y like biscotti or shortbread would be. I like it. I’ve had several cups straight and a few with milk and sugar…both very good. Thomas Sampson makes a good breakfast cup in my opinion. The tea is hearty and seems to carry a decent caffeine buzz. I’m relatively unfazed by caffeine, so this means something. :)

I tend to drink black teas, such as this, in the AM and then move on down the milder chain throughout the afternoon and after I get home from work. Just as I was beginning to get a little sad about finishing off the last of my sample, I noticed something.

40 NEW SETS OF SERIES 2 HAVE BEEN ADDED TO THE SITE!
AND……
SERIES 4 IS UP AND RUNNING.

Word.

For the last year that I’ve spent on Steepster, I have read numerous posts raving about Thomas Sampson. Unfortunately, I never got the opportunity to give him a try…until now! Many thanks to JacquelineM for sending me a generous package full of teas that I’ve been eying!
This tea has a gorgeous aroma and the taste is completely full-bodied and malty! This is definitely a tea worth waiting for. There is caramel, malt and honey all mixed with a hearty, balanced black tea. This has truly turned my day around. I love when tea packages come on days that you need them the most!

Apropos of nothing in particular, whenever I read A&D’s full company name, I immediately think of Laraine Newman holding up a glass and saying, “Wow, that’s terrific bass!” I expect I’m the only weirdo who makes this association and I have no idea why.

Anyway, after venturing into Assam land with the Teavana Assam Gold Rain, I decided I couldn’t go farther without a visit with the legendary, incomparable Thomas Sampson. I’m always up for a challenge, so the mere fact that he’s incomparable isn’t going to stand in my way. I’m going to compare him to Assam Gold Rain just for grins.

First off, Thomas doesn’t seem to be as tippy. Though there are clearly lighter colored tips in among the leaves, the ratio of dark to light isn’t nearly as high as it is in the ASR. Thomas’ dry leaves smell better to me, though. Their smell isn’t as strong. It’s lower key, and deeper, and gives the impression of being fresher for some reason? Which is weird because I think I’ve had it longer. In any case, there’s a big difference between the way the dry leaves smell.

Thomas steeped, though, does remind me of the ASR’s aroma. It’s that anti-malty, yeasty smell, which I’m coming to realize (through a trend of two) is what Assams smell like.

But wait. How can something that smells so similar taste so different? There was something about the ASR’s taste that just plain rubbed me the wrong way. It was the yeasty thing, and it seemed sort of off to me.

Thomas, thankfully, doesn’t have that same characteristic. There’s a sweetness to Thomas that is closer to a true maltiness, and a smoothness. The ASR has a harshness that grates on me. It sits right under my sinuses and feels like it’s making the tasting equivalent of a screeching noise, like fingernails on a blackboard or a rake across cement. Thomas doesn’t even hint at harsh, at least until the swallow when he gets a little fresh and does a grab thing to my throat going down about a third of the time. But I forgive him that for what he makes up in flavor.

I’m amazed at how much more I like this than the ASR. I will give the ASR one more try on a lower temp setting before relegating it to black tea duty for chai.

Let’s end with a little of the ol’ modus ponens for those of you taking logic this semester: If Thomas is what a good Assam tastes like, then I like Assam. Thomas is what a good Assam tastes like. Therefore, I like Assam.

I have to leave it to others better versed than I am to verify the truth of the first premise, but my guess is yes. Now. What else tastes similar to Thomas? Given his limited edition status, I already have to start to worry about that.

I brewed this super-strong and added lots of milk. It’s very delicious, of course. Perfect for a lazy Sunday morning.

As usual, Thomas can do no wrong!

But he’s almost gone! Just a few teaspoons left in the tin. Maybe Simple Leaf’s Mountain Malt can replace him?