Boulder Blues

Thank goodness it’s Friday. I rolled out of bed, went to the kitchen to pour my tea (bless whomever thought of/invented/perfected the One-Touch), and stood staring at the cup for a bit. For the life of me, I couldn’t remember what tea I had put in last night to have this morning. Couldn’t do it.

Upon sipping, I remembered. And I also remembered telling myself that I didn’t like this tea as my first morning cuppa because of its sweetness. It’s fairly tasty, not my favorite, but won’t linger in my cabinet for years, either. I just really can’t handle being slammed by this much sweet first thing in the morning.

I’ve recently been introduced to loose leaf teas, so this would be my first log. First, I should mention that finding a pocket of time during the day to have tea uninterrupted is pert near impossible. More times than not I start drinking the tea hot and finishing it up room temperature. I find boulder blues to be pleasant to drink from hot to room temperature.

I rarely select this to drink, and that is sad.

I rarely select it because it’s so… unassuming. It looks like a pretty plain green, smells like nothing special, and… rhubarb, really? (I know some people are really into making pies out of rhubarb and whatnot but I’ve never done that okay it sounds weird without personal experience.)

But that is sad because every time I actually have this tea, I quite enjoy it! The flavor isn’t in-your-face, but it’s the kind of subtleness that you really notice so long as you take your time with it. (And really, what is tea if not an excuse to relax?) I’m not sure if it reminds me of any of the individual ingredients, which either means they blend together well or that it’s super rhubarb-y and I just don’t know because I’ve never had that one. Or both? There’s a slight sweetness, enough to make me feel like sweetening is unnecessary but not so much that it seems like I’m drinking dessert — which is a great quality for a fruit tea to have, if you ask me.

A nice cup to relax with!

This tea smells fruity, yet subdued when dry. The scattered flower petals are beautiful. I went light on the steep 175/1 min as I wanted to avoid cooking the leaves. The description of this tea has to be incorrect as it doesn’t mention vanilla. Either that or I totally missed it. I’m getting a very big vanilla scent and flavor. I do not like vanilla, nor would I have purchased it had I known. The sweet vanilla flavor so permeates the tea, that I cannot focus much on the other elements. I can taste some fruitiness, but am not enjoying this, so I can’t report any further. It lingers far too long in my mouth and nose.

Smells of strawberries which carry over slightly diminished in the steeped tea. Smooth with elusive sweet fruit flavors.

1.5 teaspoons to 12 ounces of water (boiled, then allowed to cool 3 minutes) was a perfect balance. I used a teaspoon of organic honey to sweeten it a bit. I don’t drink this tea often enough – I really enjoy the subtle floral notes. It ended a little bitter, so I think I’ll shorten the steep time when we meet again.

Surprisingly, I really liked this tea. The rhubarb saved it from being too seet and the base tea – Chinese Dragon Well is excellent.

My sense of smell must be stronger than my palate because it smells like a delicious chocolate berry smoothie I used to make but it just tastes like standard green tea. I agree that it would be lovely with a side of chocolate.

Update: Some turbinado sugar helps bring out the flavor and there is definitely a lingering flavorful aftertaste.

Double update: After the 4th cup of pondering where I’d smelled this before it finally hit me. Chocolate strawberry bubble tea! I was madly obsessed with that stuff in college.

It smells like it’s trying for strawberry but didn’t quite capture it. It’s a confusion of strawberry, vanilla, and green tea.Recommended steeping time is 2-3 minutes. Steeped for 2 min with dunking. It tasted…leafy? I could pick up green tea, and sometimes the strawberries, but the flavors were confusing. Tasted 01.2019

This has to be one of my most favorite flavored green teas, I can totally see why this is their top selling green tea. I have tried other Strawberry Rhubarb teas in the past and found that the combination never really quite worked however this combo is perfect. The strawberry and rhubarb flavors are sweet and intensify the flavor of the sencha and dragonwell.

I will definitely be keeping this in-stock, so good.