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.

Lemony

I made up some of my Pad Thai again and wanted a green tea blend to go with it. I decided to use the lemongrass I had bought from Tavalon with Pingshui and Dragonwell teas from EnjoyingTea.com. I might have used a bit more of the lemongrass than I needed but it had a very pleasant, lemony flavor that went wonderfully with the Pad Thai.

A Peachy Morning

This morning I decided to try the Plum Peach Oolong I had designed with Design A Tea. It was absolutely lovely the way you could pick out each flavor and still have them meld together into a lovely whole. At one point I found myself thinking "Is this tea or is this nectar?" it was so good!

And I have found another tea that goes well with the spiced blackberry peach jam! Happy day!

Spicy Rose

Today I woke up to a light blanket of snow covering the trees and ground and decided to stick with chai again. I chose EnjoyingTea.com's Bangalore Rose Chai as a base and added Rosebud Black and Jasmine Yin Hao from Stash as well as my usual spices. I absolutely love the deep red that the Bangalore steeps to and the opaque peach-orange that results from adding milk is lovely as well. I should try brewing this the traditional way sometime.

Cherry Blossom

So for lunch guess what I had. If you thought "breakfast" go get yourself a cookie. Maybe I should get a cookie too after I write this... Anyway, I decided to have a nice floral green blend and chose the Cherry Rose Kyoto Sencha and Jasmine Dragon Pearls from EnjoyingTea.com. It was so naturally sweet that I almost didn't even have to put sugar in which is saying a lot from a sugar-lover like myself! I was eating French toast with syrup though so if I hadn't added the sugar the flavor would have been overwhelmed. I didn't add much though.

Chocolate Seduction

So this morning I decided to give the China Seduction from Design A Tea another try. I measured out two heaping teaspoons, double what I had used before, and as I was doing so I realized that only about a third of the mix was tea leaves. The other two thirds were chocolate nibs and rose petals respectively. Perhaps that was the cause of the weak taste last time.

After steeping the liquor was a murky red-brown. Very murky, I could hardly make out where the spoon touched the bottom of the tea cup and I use a small cup.

First sip...WOW! Now THAT is CHOCOLATE! Milky smooth but with a slight dark coco bitterness. It actually tastes a lot like the jasmine-infused chocolates that I have. I'll have to try blending this with some jasmine tea at some point.

It also went marvelously with the bagel I had spread with spiced blackberry peach jam!

A little something before bed

I wanted to have some tea before bed but I also didn't want anything with caffeine in it since my five month old refuses formula and I don't want to risk having her up half the night. Enter the fruit melanges I bout from Old Wilmington Tea Co. I blended the Berries n' Cream and Harvest and added a few cloves (love cloves, love love love) for a blend that was deliciously tart, creamy, fruity, and spiced all at once.

Revisiting an old favorite

Blasted weather still hasn't warmed back up yet. I needed a tea this morning that could warm me up so I chose Stash's Kashmiri Chai Green Tea and used two bags in my tetsubin for extra strength. Loaded up with lots of milk and sugar it was smooth and silky with just the amount of spice I needed to start my day. I was enjoying my tea so much I nearly forgot to eat my banana bread!

Headed South

So, yesterday afternoon I had gotten everything set up so I could make an omlet for lunch, including cracking the eggs into a bowl. Between one thing and another I ended up not getting any further than that on the lunch front. So this morning I decided to finish that omlet idea. I topped it with my black bean salsa and extra cheese and had a couple slices of banana bread as well.

Seeing how I seemed to be heading south for breakfast I decided to have some of EnjoyingTea.com's Roasted Mate Chai, rounded the flavor out with some Winey Keemum, and added my usual spice blend. I added a bit more nutmeg than usual though which gave the tea a pleasantly warm bite that complimented the salsa and the banana bread nicely.

Vanilla Rose Chai

Today dawned cloudy and chill so I decided to return to spiced black tea for the morning. I chose Stash's Rosebud black blended with the Vanilla Chai from EnjoyingTea.com and added my usual spice blend. I think it needed a bit more rose in there. I'll have to try that after our roses have bloomed and I've had the chance to dry the petals. Anyway, it was definitely what I needed this morning. And it even went well with the spiced blackberry-peach jam I had on my bagel, which I find amazing because usually the spices in the jam overpower the spices in the tea. While there was a bit of that going on the vanilla and rose flavor notes complimented the jam so well that it was totally forgivable.

Harvest in Spring

This afternoon I decided to try the Harvest fruit melange I got from Old Wilmington Tea Co. I must figure out what kind of cinnamon these companies use. The look and aroma is completely different from what you can get at the supermarket.

The liquor on this is a deep red in a mug, in a cup that holds less liquid it's more of a dark rose. It tastes a bit thin but the flavor fills out if you roll it around in your mouth…kind of like eating freeze-dried apple bits. There’s a little bit of a tang that saves this from being too light and sweet, definitely a good just-before-bed tea.

Raspberry Takeover

So I decided to try one of the flavors I made from Design A Tea, the Chocolate Raspberry with a black tea base. There was definitely a strong raspberry note! The chocolate, sadly, seemed to be in hiding. The leaves smelled strongly of chocolate, the liquor smelled strongly of chocolate, but the taste just wasn't there. So, strike chocolate from my list of flavors to use but at least the raspberry has potential!

The rest of the story

Sorry about how late I'm posting this but I had to rush off this morning and didn't have time to tell this like it should be told. Anyway, remember my post about the wonderful shopping experience I had over at Design A Tea? Well, the package came in last night! The package smelled absolutely divine even before I opened it (hmm, might need to get tins for these) and inside were, not only the teas I had ordered, but another designer sample and a coupon for a small, no-frills packaging tea...FREE. If this company is looking for return customers they have one right here!

I decided to try the second tea I had ordered, the one that came free. It is a black tea called Ice Wine and it does indeed smell, and taste very much like wine. The smell of the tea liquor actually smelled very much like one of those old timey country/antique shops, very potpourri. It's not as sweet as I had hoped but still very good. I think I might try this iced next time.

Mee and Dragon

With the lovely SPRING weather we've been having I was in the mood for something green. I chose Chun Mee from EnjoyingTea.com and Curled Dragon Silvertip from Stash (which appears to be discontinued as I couldn't find it anywhere on the site). When I went to take the leaves out of the pot I noticed that the leaves of the two teas were quite easily discernable from each other. The Chun Mee leaves were darker, flatter, and broken whereas the others were thicker, lighter in color, and whole leaves; some even had buds too indicating a spring plucking. The flavor was a bit lighter than I had been hoping for, but then I've forgone green teas for nearly three or four months so I'm a bit out of practice with them. It was very nice but I think I'll wait to experiment with the Silvertip again until we have warmer weather and I can appreciate a lighter tea better.

Breakfast for Lunch

We had french toast for lunch today so I decided to try the Port City blend from Old Wilmington Tea Co. I over-steeped it a bit (seven minutes instead of five) but it turned out OK for all that anyway, so...*shrugs*

The liquor was a bright amber with a very lively, brisk flavor. Strongly lemon with a bit of a floral note and a slight astringency. It reminded me of Earl Grey but tasted a lot better, in my opinion anyway (my first, and only, pot of Earl Grey got poured down the drain and the package swiftly disposed of to a more…interested party). Although I usually take my black teas with sugar and milk I decided to forgo the milk with this one because of the strong lemon flavor.

It is a pleasant afternoon tea. It didn’t wow me but I would consider drinking it again.

Sweet or Savory

This morning I had waffles and eggs so I needed a tea that would work well with both sweet and savory flavors. I chose the Winey Keemum English Breakfast as a base with some of Stash's Rosebud black tea, orange peel, and my usual spice blend plus some cardamom scavenged from another tea in my cupboard. The resulting blend worked perfectly with both breakfast foods.

Berries n' Cream

I wanted to have tea with lunch but with Katje's feeding schedule it just wasn't going to work. So instead I had lunch, fed her, then handed the now-sleeping baby off to a grandmother so I could brew up a mug of the Berries n' Cream fruit melange that I had bought from the Old Wilmington Tea Co. Sooooooo good! And a gorgeous red-purple liquor too. The tart fruit flavors were pleasantly rounded by the mild creaminess. A lovely afternoon tea.

Amethyst Bust

So, I tried the Amethyst oolong tea from Old Wilmington Tea Co this morning. I was quite disappointed. If you want more detail you can read my review over on Steepster.com but I will say I have not given up on it. I will try brewing this one again with different water temperature and steep time. I want to like this tea and I will not give up until I get it right!

The cinnamon raisin bagel I was having for breakfast actually seemed to help the flavor though.