119 Tasting Notes
The tea is background to the brightness of orange peel and crisp/dryness of grapefruit peel. If you don’t like strong bergamot, you most likely won’t like the strong citrus flavours, but hey never say never. I think this is interesting enough to try a sample. I would pair this with a fish course, maybe even raw fish like tuna sashimi. Any ideas how to infuse tea into a sauce ( say, a mushroom sauce)?
Preparation
Happy dance. Forgot to taste this for a while. So fragrant! For my second cup, added Numi Aged Earl Grey tea bag to emphasize the bergamot. This tea makes me re-evaluate the number of EG- related blends I already have and is staving my urge to jump in for a pound of Samovar’s blend. If I like it, I can always find another sale. I must have at least a year supply of EG and that’s not counting the more perishable whites and greens. Message to myself: DO NOT BUY MORE THAN THE MINIMUM. DO NOT WASTE $$ ON SALES FOR TEA YOU DO NOT NEED. TEA IS SUPPOSED TO BE EPHEREMAL. ENJOY WHILE IT LASTS.
Preparation
Decent smoky gunpowder for bagged. My expectation for " whole leaf Gunpowder Green Tea pearls" are exactly that but Numi’s or bagged tea industry mean that the broken tea leaf size is about a 1/4 in. length and 1/8 width. I assume tea in a typical tea sachet needs to be not whole to brew in the volume restriction. And this “pearl” tea is large in broken leaf size compared to other Numi tea which is about 1/10 this size. My emailed response from them did not address that issue but offered this: Please return the items and write the reason for your return on the back of your packing slip. For your protection, please use FedEx or Insured Parcel Post for shipment.
Shipping return I estimate several hundred dollars so this seems a template response and is flippant to my concerns. Oh well, I will try to enjoy what I have and have learned to be more cautious with bulk buying. (I know companies dump returned tea so either have non-refundable policies or don’t require return shipping if they OK a refund. Just know Numi Teas have neither.)
Preparation
This tea is a must for lovers of Earl Grey and dessert flavors. It has a sweet quality reminiscent of caramel without actual sweetener. I am stretching it with 2/3 standard EG, 1/3 EG Ceesecake and this blend has the same aroma, albeit not as strong as 100% 52 teas blend. This is my preference when I want to enjoy this all morning and not deplete my entire pouch in a week.
I am learning that I should go straight to asking for a personal blending of a pound of my 100 ratings rather than squirreling away extra pouches. Just need to save up for these addictions.
Preparation
The dry scent reminds me of honeydew melon initially. My boyfriend immediately identified watermelon so people who love both will enjoy this. I taste the fruity flavoring, then the tea alternately and those are balanced in the first steep. Second steep allows the tea to shine and the melon is the undernote. I was surprised at the suggested steep time of 4.5 min since that’s twice as long as usual time for white teas. I am reminded of a previous discussion that silver needle can handle hotter and longer due to having a thicker “body” in it being the apex leaf bud. I want to try a boiling temp rinse of 30 sec, then brew at the usual 170-185 for 2 min first steep, increasing steep time for as long as it can go. That adventure needs to wait another day though.
Preparation
My recent tasting of fresh Concord grapes reminded me to try this again. If I ever thought this tea had a candy grape jelly flavor – who knew, these grapes do taste candy-like. And this tea is perfect in this respect. Oh, brainstorm.. I HAVE to try this with a PB sandwich!
Preparation
This is not the most chocolately flavor but at least it tastes of tea, good tea at that. I think the flavor I imagined of this could only be managed with artificial means so I am content with this one. Rarely do steeped natural additives taste as they would fresh just as you wouldn’t actually taste tobacco in wines purported to have hints of such. Probably won’t replenish after I finish the 2oz. but mostly because there are so many other Butiki teas to sample.
