Lattakoojan Assam

Ooh, I love this one. Thanks for the sample, Stacy! It’s a lighter Assam than others I’ve tried, as in, it’s not as bold. A little more delicate. And then this fruity note swoops in and changes things up a bit too. Beautiful!

Selected by the ladies of the Tea Chat Room. I made a bit of a storing fail, it got left on a grape scented candle by accident. So now it smells a bit like grapes. It also has a scent of plums and malty chocolate. The flavour is plum hot cocoa. Which is pretty good.

Make sure you don’t leave samples with your candles, kids. At least it was a complimentary fruit and not ocean breeze or something.

Tea of the morning, and the final sample from my last Butiki order. I came close to buying a whole bag of this, but in the end I couldn’t decide between this and Dinjoye Estate. I’ve tried a sample of the Dinjoye before, so I figured I’d also try a sample of this and then decide in time for my next order. I love assam, so I fear it may not be that simple. Perhaps both are required.

Anyway, the tea. I followed the recommended parameters and gave this 3.5 minutes in boiling water. It’s delicious – absolutely all of the things I love about assam in one cup! It’s very malty, so much so that it’s almost thick tasting and sort of chewy. The initial sip is quite savoury, but a strong underlying sweetness emerges in the aftertaste. It’s very, very smooth, with not a hint of astringency. It’s also strong in flavour — even with milk this was an excellent wake up kick! There are tiny, tiny hints of cocoa and bread, but they’re not prominent. That’s fine with me, though, because there are other teas that have those characteristics in spades if that’s what I’m looking for. I love this one for it’s wonderful sweet, strong, overwhelming maltiness. I can see it being a definite purchase.

I can’t quite seem to make this tea work. I get a deep, smooth taste, and it’s tasty overall, but the astringency is a just too bit much for my liking. Perhaps I’ll try a slightly shorter steep?

I have to remember to do a comparison with Dinjoye before I drink this one up.

I’m not sure if age affects astringency or not, but holy pucker, this was bitter. So I played around with the parameters a bit but I finally got it right. I don’t remember this tea being bitter (but that was forever ago)!

3/4tsp makes a difference instead of a full tsp.

Now, this Assam is smooth, with notes of stone fruit, citrus, and chocolate. Yum

This is a sample from TeaSipper! Thank you!

Hey Steepster it has been awhile. My wonderful husband planned 2 vacations very close together. It looked good on paper, but man it made for a very busy month. Vacation was great. I feel highly motivated and ready to take on EVERYTHING. I guess that is a good sign of vacation.

This tea, we are going to have to dance again. It is very bitter for me this morning. The first part of the sip is very very lovely. Bright, hints of coco, hints of fruity-ness, but the end of the sip is nothing but bitter for me. I am at home today so that means higher water temps. I will try this with a cooler temp and see what happens.

wow a day and a half of working…careful now steepster, you’ll wear yourself out ;)

This hit the spot this morning. Somehow i brewed it just right and it’s a fantastic cup of tea this morning. that could also be, because i’m doing my usual stressing about the next leg of this epic 8 billion week journey. This morning it’s off to minneapolis, and the saddest part of all? Mandala is too far for me to travel to and verdant’s tea house is closed monday’s. bah.

A sample from Butiki! A very solid assam. A bit of an astringency with a robustness yet still has a nice depth of flavor. This is sad though… I see so many notes for stone fruits on this one, but I don’t taste that at all, and it’s one of my favorite tea flavors! My taste buds changed a couple months ago and most assam tastes like tomato and pumpkin to me now. I can’t begin to tell you how much I do not like acyual tomatoes. I loved my assams before! I should have more to say on this awesome assam but I’m simply shocked at my taste buds now. OH and one other thing that changed is the flavor of ketchup, which is especially odd since I just mentioned my teas are tasting like tomato. It brings into question even the purpose of my own tasting notes for myself if years from now each tea could change because of my taste buds. This tasting note doesn’t really do a Butiki tea justice, but this isn’t the best Butiki tea anyway.
Steep #1 // 1 tsp // 5 min after boiling // 3 1/2 min steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 min

Blankly staring into my tea drawer on my last day of vacation…my eyes found this tea. This tea that I can never seem to spell correctly. It always makes me smile. I’ve been drinking lots of single estate assam teas recently, and when I went back and read my previous reviews of this tea I realized that even with assam tea, my tastes have changed with knowledge and experience….which seems difficult to do, because assam teas are fairly limited with their “surprises” in flavor profiles. In their description of Lattakoojan Assam, Butiki points out a strong cocoa note and citrus note along with the usual suspects that accompany assam tea (malt, stone fruit). On my first tastings of this tea 8 months ago, I felt this was a smooth assam. Today, with the mileage that my palate has logged, I am aware of an obvious astringency that accompanies the detectable cocoa note. Malt? Most certainly. Stonefruit? Yes, some….but the citrus escapes me, as it did before. The cocoa note is still what I would call a bittersweet cocoa, not a Hershey flavor…. it’s earthy and almost “gritty”, if that can be called a flavor. It is not overpowering, but adds a depth to the profile of this tea that is certainly unique.
With a medium weight mouthfeel and astringency, Lattakoojan Assam’s base note of cocoa is what sets it apart from the usual assam profile. Try it while you can get it if you are an assam fan looking to try one that stands out in a crowd.

I came home to discover that my Butiki order has arrived!!!
Yay!! I started this order a week ago, & Stacy asked me if I’d to sample some of the new teas, giving me a list of what I could choose from. I ended up buying an oz of each one, because they all sounded so amazing, & I’d rather get an oz than a 1 serving sample any day. So I basically doubled my order, LOL.

I immediately made a cup of this one. It’s rich with malt & chocolate, but also fruity & bright. I haven’t been drinking as many assams lately, & this is a welcome potent cup of awesomeness. Thanks Stacy! You can always count on me to buy more tea!