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Sipdown!

Sad sad day. I thought I had more of this tea but I can’t find it so it’s possible that I already drank all of this . Alas; It will be missed.

I THINK that this is Golden Snail. But I honestly have no idea. It might be Golden Fleece. Either way it’s gold. Looking at it the shape is probably more like Fleece than Snails. LOL. I found an unlabeled packet. It wasn’t properly sealed either and I think this tea has been exposed to moisture, so I thought ‘why not’.

Gabriel’s Oboe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ny_q8e9-Qo
That should be enough to say.
Other than that: malty, sweet, honey notes, nutty notes, but very light and not heavy. It had all these different notes, but didn’t have a distinctive characteristic to it so I could identify it as black or oolong or some such. More Honey than Nuts as the steeps went by, this is what I imagine honey castella in tea form would taste like. By the way this was done Gong Fu style, which I haven’t done in FOREVER. It was very nice. If only I knew what it was.

I’ll be sad when I reach the end of this tea, but thankfully that day is not today! I drank a good deal of this in April because it was one of the only 5 teas I took with me for a week long stay… then my luggage had a mishap on the way back (it melted…) and all the stuff I was able to recover sat in a corner for the past few months.

I was actually a bit confused this morning while drinking this for breakfast. For some reason I thought the name was Pumpkin Creme Brulee, but it tastes nothing like that. It took hopping on and seeing the Butiki Sipdown thread to recall the name, but as soon as I knew that it was Irish Cream, I knew that it was completely spot on, and took my time to savor the wonderfulness that is Stacy’s magic blending.

The pumpkin is light, and I want to believe that is because the tea has aged a bit… and all the pumpkin flakes had fallen out of the bag proper and was in its outer bag. But the delicate pumpkin flavor that was left was the perfect balance to the slight smokiness of the puerh. I was impressed to still have pumpkin flavor at all, since I followed the bag instructions to rinse, but it was great. If you’ve ever baked a small sweet pumpkin (those meant for pies) and couldn’t resist a spoonful of the soft warm flesh before continuing with the pie instructions, that’s what I was reminded of for the pumpkin note – a not too sweet but warm delicate pumpkin taste.

Usually I brew 60oz in the morning and that lasts me the whole work day, but that was all gone by end of lunch time today and so my afternoon tea was different.

I’ve been so bad at doing notes lately, which seems to be a running theme. These days though, it’s honestly because I’ve been trying to clean up after myself after I make tea in the morning, so by the time I’m home in the evening and have some internet time I have completely forgotten what it is. For example I know that today I had TeaLyra’s something jasmine pearls, and some sort of hojicha, and some sort of darjeeling. Not very helpful. It doesn’t help that ants have invaded my usual tea area (where the kettle lives) because I forgot a piece of candy out. I can’t even disturb the trail because I’m waiting for the ant people to come bait this trail…

Anyway, I’ve just been having a very bad luck, sucky kind of day. My house alarm went off, so I had to drive home from work and deal with that for a few hours. Then I started my chemical reaction late because I was in later…. and that didn’t pass spec so I had to start it all over again. By the time I had a pause for breakfast/lunch it was 5pm and I was super grumpy. But I got out by 8pm! at least there’s that… Then I came home and my sister yelled at me for not letting her know in my nonexistant extra time that the alarm had gone off.

Oh well, now I’m off to the airport to pick up a friend. The ant man comes tomorrow morning to treat the ant trail so hopefully I’ll be back to brewing tons of tea by Friday? lol. Tea gets me through the day, otherwise I’m sure I would have done some PMS style yelling by now.

Yummy! I tend to brew this lightly, only 1.5 min on the first steep and then increasing by half minute increments with every steep. This brews green and clear with a soft mouthfeel and a fruity head. It’s sweet peach, but it’s not so sweet as to be cloying, like momoko. The flavoring lasts well at least through the first couple of steeps, unlike some other teas where the flavoring is gone after the first steep.

It’s definately a ‘special occasion oolong’ compared to Lupicia’s normal flavored oolongs, but no so special that I wasn’t unwilling to just dump the leaves after 3 steeps. I’m sure there was at least 2 or 3 more flavorful steeps to be had, but I had to go. =)

Note: I thought I had posted this last night, but apparently I just typed it up and forgot about it. oh well. Happy Friday!

I’m revisiting an old favorite. I’ve actually been revisiting it alot lately. I didn’t really how much of this tea I still had left! This used to be an almost daily drinker in college, and my friend would kindly bring me back tins whenever she went home for breaks in Anaheim. She brought me another recently on a visit and I figure I probably should finish the last one before breaking into the new one.

This is still lovely juicy peach/apricot loveliness. The black tea base is a good medium strength, doesn’t go bitter too easily, and not too brisk. The tea is still fragrant even after sitting in this tin for who knows how long (probably a 2yrs since this tin was brand new.) I take it without additives and find it still completely satisfying hot or cold.

I’ve not been drinking much in the way of new teas right now, I’m trying really hard to sip down my collection into something not so overwhelming, so not too much in the way of logging new things. You wouldn’t believe how many places I’ve found stashes of tea in my room though…

note: yunomi – us, not yunomius. lol

roasty, yummy