1305 Tasting Notes
Whoops, I took so long to finish my notes on the Tea Thoughts winter countdown box that the spring one is coming out in just over a week! I don’t remember the last time I had a Vietnamese tea, if ever. Thankfully this came with enough leaf to play around with. I made the last of it Western-style today. I enjoyed it, but I think I liked it better with a gong fu brew because the flavor was just stronger and more robust. Today, I mostly got malty, sweet, and jammy notes with a slightly drying effect at the end of the sip. Easy on the stomach, too.
Another excellent countdown box from Nazanin. I’m still thrilled about the cute little tea tray, and there were some delightful and interesting teas in here. I think I’ve skipped maybe one of her seasonal boxes since I started getting them a few years ago. I can’t say enough good things about them, I’m just a big Tea Thoughts fan in general. I like the stickers, the jewelry, the washi tape, the sticky notes, the notebooks, the pouches… I use my Tea Thoughts tote bag literally every time I leave the house (the old version with the zipper and inside pocket). I use handwritten notes for a lot of things, so I justify the stationery as a practical purchase. So yes, I think it’s safe to say that I’ll keep getting the countdown boxes :-)
Day 3 of the Inoki calendar! This was a more elaborate blooming tea than I expected. It gave me fond memories of the first time I visited my partner when he was living in Taiwan – I drank so much blooming jasmine tea when I was there. I was just starting to get into tea and I would drink the bloom grandpa-style, just topping it off periodically. This is obviously a different floral note, but it has that same balance of floral note to vegetal green. Three solid steeps from this. The rose is definitely present but it’s not overwhelming the base. This was such a nice stroll down memory lane!
Day 2 of the Inoki advent calendar. Made this gong fu, currently on steep 6 and still going strong. I’m going to have to stop after this and hope I can still sleep tonight XD
This is incredibly buttery, creamy with floral undertones and no harshness at all. Even this late steep still has a butter cookie quality to it. I’m inclined to agree with Roswell Strange that this might be flavored given how rich it is. That’s ok, this tea is delicious and I am finding it hard to care about whether it’s flavored right now.
Bonus advent calendar! Roswell Strange made this calendar sound so appealing that I asked for it as a birthday present. It was so pricy that I couldn’t quite bring myself to buy it myself, but that’s what birthday presents are for :-)
So, day 1! This is a surprisingly large flower. The only other time I’ve seen a chrysanthemum tisane this big is The Qi’s royal chrysanthemum. I’m more used to seeing it as small flowers. Since it is so big and beautiful, I brewed it in a glass mug for maximum prettiness. This flower isn’t just pretty, though. It’s delicious, too – earthy and gently floral. I got a bunch of resteeps out of it too. Feeling optimistic that this will be a good calendar!
Day 9 of my DIY mostly-Adagio advent. I’ve been a bit slow finishing this calendar! I was optimistic about these, but I ended up not particularly enthused. I found the jasmine to be more “jasmine flavoring” than “jasmine scented.” Drinkable but not exactly wowing me. Just tastes very mid to me.
Sipdown. I’m so glad I got this from the TTB. That fluffy, marshmallow-esque vanilla is just wonderful. The base tea isn’t incredible, but it’s a solid grassy, vegetal green tea that complements the sweet vanilla flavor well.
I made so many notes during adventageddon that I think it burned me out a bit. Hoping to get back into the swing of things but ::insert shrug emoji here::. Marking a sipdown of Te Company’s Green Sanctuary GABA oolong. I went to add it to the database but it’s no longer on Te’s website so I didn’t have all the info (and since it’s no longer for sale, it seemed less pressing/necessary). This one was so good. Creamy with notes of sauteed greens and maybe asparagus? It’s one of those good-for-all-seasons teas that isn’t too heavy or too light for certain weather. And of course was good for many steeps.
Very proud that this is my third sipdown today! This is a great holiday blend. The gingerbread spice blend is on point. Excellent as a latte.
Sample sipdown. I tended to give this a long steep. I assume the flavor would have been a bit different with a shorter steep but I only had a sample size of the blend and the few cups I made with it all got briefly abandoned during brewing. This is very cinnamon-forward, with spearmint coming in mid-sip and an apple-like chamomile on the back end. I don’t really smell or taste the florals. You know how lavender has a certain sensation to it, though? Sort of drying, I guess? I don’t have a great way of describing it, but this blend has it.
Sipdown for ashmanra’s sipdown challenge, of a tea I put off drinking. I really shouldn’t have waited this long to finish this tea off. I love a nice, thick, umami gyokuro, which this was, so I ended up drinking it sparingly in order to always have some around. Sheer foolishness to do with a Japanese green tea, especially one that’s been opened, and I knew better too. The best by date was nine months ago, which is too long for a good steamed green. This was still tasty today but not as rich as I remember it being at first. I did get a nice salad out of the spent leaves, though.
