Alfajores Yunnan Golden Needle Black Tea

AJRimmer Advent Day 1

So excited to have another homemade advent calendar to dig into this year! AJRimmer was so thoughtful and really seems to have kept my preferences in mind while putting this calendar together. I shared that I love caramel and coconut flavors in tea and this one has both! I let it cool 10 minutes as instructed, but didn’t add sugar since I almost never sweeten my tea. The resulting flavor was a bit lighter than I would have preferred, so I may try a touch of sugar in my second cup to see if I can coax out more of those caramel notes. But this was still a smooth, yummy cuppa!

At first, I just thought this tasted and smelled like a very mild coconut. Now that it’s cooled down and I’ve looked up the food it’s based on, I can sort of see what it’s going for. I taste a very mild dessertiness. It’s mostly coconut, but I could see it also being a cookie of some kind. This one would likely do better overleafed. The flavors are very light when brewed as recommended. I had this a second time a few months later, and I’m still not wowed, but it’s also not a preferred flavor profile for me.

I have decided to adapt my cold foam recipe for a latte topper as the cooler weather will be here soon enough. Basically I take 2 tbsps each of flavour syrup (salted caramel for this) and milk and then fill the frother to the line with whipping cream. Added that to this steeped tea and it was so caramel-y and rich. Honestly soooo good!!

Tea from crowkettle tea friends to the rescue with increasing the variatea in my cupboard while i wait for orders and to order. haha. I had this yesterday and forgot to take notes. soooo um thank you crowkettle! and more to come later hahaha

(52teas (Anne) 2022: 9)

Yes, delicious. Smooth and malty base, caramelly, coconutty; the flavours, coconut especially, really bloom in the aftertaste which is one of my favourite things about good teas. Also – I’m drinking this after eating a bunch of pita and garlic sauce, so it’s impressive that I can taste it this well! Looking forward to trying this with a cleaner palate next time.

Creamy coconut custard. Need to revisit this.

The weather is gloomy rain and I got my booster shot today. The two books I’m currently flipping between are both slowburn tales. (The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley is whimsical and slow; The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara is repulsive and slow, with a MC who has the hubris and “issues” of Victor Frankenstein x100, with extra content warnings.)