1403 Tasting Notes
Went to the Art Gallery of Ontario today to see the Femmes Noir exhibit. Had this while visiting with a friend in the cafe. Think thick vanilla clotted cream with the barest hint of bergamot. Delicious. I added half and half to it to take it over the top. Highly recommend. (However, the tins are overpriced.)
Awesome exhibit. Catch it if you can. https://nowtoronto.com/culture/art-and-design/mickalene-thomas-ago-femmes-noires/
Ayup, GREAT vanilla toning down the lavender. And the lavender is toning down the bergamot. And all the flavours are toning down the rather harsh black base. All good.
Mmm, that sounds like a winning combo.
I like this tea because the vanilla is a winner and it overrides all else/brings it all together.
I just went to their website and I predict an order in my future.
Oh dear. Yes, this sounds amazing. I love cream EGs; I love lavender.
Well, now that ATR is, sadly, no longer, I’ve been hoarding the last shreds of this favourite.
The trick is, of course, to drink it while it is still holding its magic.
Initially, I was thinking that the magic had dissipated, but just when I was getting used to the idea that this was just ordinary. BOOM! A liquid sugary sweet raisin almond saffron pastry came through in each sip. All that was missing was that dense chewy fresh sweet breadiness that you bite into, leaving a tooth imprint in every bite.
To borrow from derk, this is an old ass tea. Perhaps three, moving on to four years old. That said, the packet had been unopened and reasonably well stored.
I steeped it with slightly cooled water to attempt to coax all the things.
Malt, a bit of citrus, and a bit of muscatel. A beautiful cup. The apricot is not showing up for me. Perhaps it has left the building altogether.
Unopened usually spells good things for me, despite age :)
Me too. And now that it is open, the pressure is on. :)
From Ms. Roswell Strange—
Basically, the use of “Clonal” means that the tea was grown from hybrid clones instead of seeds – it’s essentially controlling the tea breeding/growing to achieve specific qualities. With teas from India in particular, generally what is being bred for is a higher percentage of golden tips since the higher the percentage the higher the grade they can attribute to the tea. A higher grade generally means that they can sell for a significantly higher profit since there’s a perception that higher grade = higher quality. It’s sort of true that generally a higher grade is higher quality but since tea leaf grading ONLY describes the physical appearance of tea you can absolutely have lower grades that taste better than higher grades (plus taste is ultimately subjective anyway).
Discovered yet another tea shop/cafe while out in the world. This shop sells pre made cups of chai and various homemade snacks and desserts.
I had a large cup of Masala Chai made with Kenyan tea with cardamom and milk. Absolutely fabulous.
Stopped into DT’s today to try samples and pick up a bit of retiring tea. While there, the person helping me was kind enough to mention that I had FS points that had turned into a a free tea of the day set to expire within the next couple of days. So I had a cup of this—not a tea I would have chosen if I had had a wider range of choices.
That said, I quite enjoyed this cup. First of all, I was served out of the big vat of pre made tea. Thankfully, either the vat had been freshly steeped or the measurements and steeping times were more accurate than when I have had samples of this previously. A nice cup of gentle green, delicately flavoured with green apple. Refreshing. A far more pleasant experience than I had anticipated. Not a false flavour note in any of the sips that took me through to the bottom of the cup.
The other day I stumbled upon a wee tea shop/restaurant here that sells healthy plates of homemade food. The noodles and rice are both made with green tea. It seems each plate includes some sort of tea food. I didn’t have a chance to eat there, but I did have a big mug of Hong-Kong style milk tea made with Orange Pekoe and evaporated milk and a bit of brown sugar. It was seriously strong and glorious. Delighted to have made this find. Lovely ambiance. Lovely human being running the place. Great art. Excellent tea. All around, a big win!
That sounds tasty!
It does!