The Rescue

This morning I decided to try something different. After my brother admitted the other day to not liking fruit-flavored teas, and having not even opened the tins of fruit-flavored teas he had grabbed from the smorgasbord of samplers, I went down to his desk in the basement and liberated the two tins from their lonely exile. I decided to try the Passion Fruit Black Tea first. It was a lovely red-amber after 5 minutes of steeping and tasted like honey and black tea with a fruity note. Slightly floral. Absolutely lovely. I am very glad I rescued this from my brother's uncaring clutches.

It also brought out a nicely contrasting lemon flavor in the blueberry muffins I was eating.

Vanilla Chai

Still rainy, cloudy, and icky out and my son wanted to share tea again so I chose the Vanilla Chai from EnjoyingTea.com and added my usual spices. I know I didn't add any pepper but I can still taste it...and looking at the ingredients listed on the site there is indeed pepper.

Yunnan Jig

I decided to try another of the teas from my last tea trade. This time I chose Adagio's Yunnan Jig. I was really looking forward to this one.

1st infusion: 6 minutes, boiling water
The liquor was a deep, dark red with a slightly gold tone to it. It smelled malty and citrus and tasted just as it smelled but with a bit of pepper, earth, and astringency.

2nd infusion: 6 minutes, boiling water
The liquor was more of a dark amber this time around. It smelled of citrus and damp loam, but the taste...Sweet, malty, smooth. A hint of citrus. It was almost like drinking a different tea.

It is an absolutely lovely tea. The two infusions were so different though that I could hardly remember the first after drinking the second.

Feels like I just went camping

I was feeling adventurous this afternoon and decided to give the Green Pu'erh I'd bought from Old Wilmington Tea Co a try. I've seen so many different directions on how to steep pu'erh, I was quite confused on where to start so I figured start short and work my way to longer steepings if necessary.

1st infusion: 30 seconds, temp just under boiling
The liquor is a smokey gold, rather appropriate considering it smells, and tastes, like wet campfire. Like the smell you get when you pour water over the fire to douse it. It is like nothing I've ever had before. And for some reason I can't stop sipping at it. I'm not sure if I actually like it or if I'm drinking it in the hopes that the flavor will change. It's like...going camping but without the dirt/bugs/weather/lack of amenities/ever-present dampness/too-noisy kids from neighboring campsites that constantly race past on their bikes.

2nd infusion: 30 seconds, boiling water
The wet leaves now smell like wet, canned spinach dumped over hot coals. The liquor is slightly darker and tastes a bit more bitter.

3rd infusion: 30 seconds, boiling water
The same as the last except the campfire taste is slightly, VERY slightly abated...or perhaps I'm just getting used to it. There is also a slightly sweet vegetal flavor just hovering at the back of my mouth.

I could probably get a few more infusions out of this but I'm really not sure if I want to. Is this how pu'erh is supposed to taste or am I doing something wrong? It it just from being a young pu'erh? Would I get better flavor with a longer steep time? So many questions left unanswered!

Lemon Cream

My package of teas from my tea trade came yesterday and I was determined to try the Bangkok Lemongrass by Teavana. The smell in the package was a creamy lemon, like a lemon tart, and the steeped liquor was the same as well as being the color of lemon meringue. The taste was definitely lemon and cream with a faint note of something fruity in the background...perhaps from the rooibos.

This tea is so naturally sweet I could probably get used to drinking it without sugar which, for me, is saying quite a lot. I probably wouldn't drink this often but it would be a great occasional afternoon tea on a rainy day in the summer. With chocolate chip muffins.