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Day 2 of 52teas 12 Teas of Christmas

Okay yum. I was a bit iffy about this one when I scratched the panel to reveal what it was, because I dislike actual tiramisu. I needn’t have worried, though, because this tea is delicious! I am a fan of oolongs, and prefer them plain, but I think I will add a little sweetener next time to fully bring out the dessert aspect of it. The flavour is initially similar to a milk oolong, which then leads to the cream flavour becoming more prominent and full-bodied. The marshmallow root really works here, and I think the cocoa nibs, while they do add a mild chocolatiness, mostly contribute to the tang which makes me translate the flavour as sweet mascarpone rather than just cream. The espresso is mild but definitely present, and hits you while the cream still lingers, along with something boozy. I’m not much of a drinker, but I would guess at rum? Just when you think that it’s over, the final lingering note is of vanilla cakiness. I am amazed by how well this captures a tiramisu, and by how much I actually enjoyed it! I don’t think my pouch will last very long at all.

Merry Christmas everyone! This is the first of the 12 days of tea 2014 set.

I drank it blind at first, without scratching the panel, and assumed some sort of pumpkin white tea. I brewed it accordingly, at a fairly low temperature (no way to check exactly here at my parents’ house), and still found it very astringent and drying after only a couple of minutes of brewing. This surprised me when I scratched the panel and found out it was a green, so theoretically should have been able to take the temperature much better than it did. Next time I will try only brewing it for 90 seconds.

The pumpkin flavour comes through very well, and tastes pleasantly natural, which I think is helped by the dragonwell base. I do think, though, that maybe a different base would have helped the toffee come through more, which as it is I get only as a faint butteriness, and only after I’d read the name and discovered that I was supposed to taste it. I did quite enjoy it, despite the astringency, and think I might actually really enjoy it after a little bit of tweaking.

Happy holidays, everyone! (:

Super quick note on this one as I’m meant to be writing an essay! I had this at work with the banana bread it came with (which was pretty yummy) and was pleasantly surprised. It paired really well with the cake, and was more bold than I expected. I also detected some citrus notes, and to me it almost seemed like a very light earl grey. It definitely brightened up my afternoon.

Not really a sipdown since I never added it to my cupboard.

Sipdown! (19/254)

This sample came from the EU Travelling Tea Box Round 2, courtesy of KittyLovesTea. This was actually Frank’s pick from the original box, I think mainly because I was badgering him to go outside of his usual straight black or earl grey comfort zone, and this was the least outside of it he had to go to get me off his back. He turned out to really love it, and I was originally going to put the samples back ater one cup but he asked to keep it. I kept enough back to have my own cup at the end of the sample to satisfy my curiosity. Honestly, I think it must have been contaminated since, because if not, I don’t understand why he loved it so much.

I have since bought him some lavender earl grey from Adagio,which I have tried myself and really enjoyed. I assumed that this would be similar, but it turns out not really. The lavender scent is very powerful, and the whole kitchen smelled like my grandma’s garden right away when steeping. The bergamot was also present I a light, citrusy way. The smell was super good, but unfortunately the earl grey just didn’t translate into the flavour. The lavender is EXTREMELY strong, and completely drowns out the other flavours. For my first few sips, I found this enjoyable, although as my cup went on I started to find it cloying and was actually quite sick of it by the end of the cup. I also started to notice a sort of stale taste part way through, which I will attribute to the fact that I haven’t kept it entirely well, and the sample has been open for quite some time now. I can’t mark it poorly, though, as I did enjoy the first quarter of the cup, and Frankie’s opinion should be taken into account, too. It’s only fair. Plus I also seem to remember sneaking a sip each time I made it for him, and enjoyed it considerably more than I did today.

Drank with milk to tone down the punch of flavour, and a sprinkling of sugar to round it off.

Sipdown (18/254)! So my cupboard may have exploded again… and there’s more coming

I went home this weekend for my mam’s birthday and have been too busy to post anything for a few days. This is a backlog from Friday night. This sounded really warming, so I had it on a cold night waiting for my dad in the rain. It was nice enough, although I got absolutely no chilli whatsoever. I brewed it for ages, too, as I left it steeping while I was making sure I’d packed everything. The cardamom was pretty strong in both the initial sip and aftertaste, which is probably one of my least favourite chai ingredients. The other spices came through a little after the initial whoomf of cardamom, but the chilli itself was nowhere to be found. I would probably have been happier with it if the ‘chilli’ was omitted from the name.

I took some teabags of this to work with me today for my first full day(!) as I noticed last week when I started that a lot of people kept teabags in their desks and I didn’t really want to be the weird new girl that brings in loose leaf tea right away… But I did hear people discussing different types of tea today, so I might ease into it! Lol.

Just to clue you guys in, as part of my course I am doing a work placement module. It was meant to be done in second year, but I didn’t find anything so am trailing it in final year. A lot of the reason I didn’t find anything is because I was so stubborn – I was adamant that I wanted one at a publishers, as that’s what I want to do and what good is it going to do me wasting 180 hours (the required minimum) doing something which is irrelevant when I could be studying? I was told several times to just get one at a library, or a charity shop, but I held out on the hopes of a publishing offer, which in the end didn’t come through. A lot of the major publishing houses won’t take anyone on for longer than a week, which means I would have had to find six separate placements. I was so frustrated with getting nowhere and worried about failing my degree than I almost caved and just worked in a library. I was about to send off that application when I got an acceptance email from the first placement I applied to this year – and the only publishers! The one I wanted the most!! So it’s more ‘experience’ than ‘job’ since I get graded instead of paid, but it’s a foot in the door and I’m super excited :D it’s amazing and scary being able to say that I’m going to work. I’m starting to feel like an adult, which I love, but it’s also making me wistful for childhood. So yeah, I started last week (I only do Wednesdays – my only free day) but only for 3 hours and mainly a sort of induction, whereas today I did the whole 9:30-5:30, getting up at 5:30 and reading on the commute (an hour each way). I was exhausted by the time I got back tonight after 7pm, having been gone for 12 hours, and I imagine it must get tedious when you get used to it, but for now I am loving it.

I made sure I was well-stocked tea wise, with a few bags of this in a zip-loc pouch, a graze box cake with an included afternoon teabag, and a travel mug of Butiki’s Killer’s Vanilla. I chose to review this as I was far too tired to pay enough attention when I was drinking KV this morning. I drank this while working, which (don’t laugh) I found amazing. The only “proper” work experience I’ve done before is in primary teaching, so you definitely can’t sip tea while you work there! Such a small thing felt like an amazing privilege. There weren’t any teaspoons so this oversteeped – I waited until it was cool enough to take the bag out with my fingertips. As a result, it was quite bitter and very astringent at the end. There was a sort of greasy sheen on the side of my mug from the top of the tea, and it moved when my tea sloshed around. This was disturbing, but I attributed it to the fact that the water from the kettle had been boiled a lot, came straight from the taps of hard-water Yorkshire, and that I was using the same mug I’d taken KV in earlier that day. The jasmine was a bit more muted than I’m used to, which allows the green tea to shine. I would have preferred a stronger jasmine flavour. And less of the green tea, but that’s just personal taste.

Disclaimer: I may be viewing this tea through rose-tinted glasses, since I was just super happy to have any tea at all.

Sipdown! (17/203)

I’m cheating again, as this is only a sipdown because we don’t have it any more and it shouldn’t be in my cupboard still. And I thought it was up to date, too! Well it definitely is now.

This is a little expensive for what you get, and I can’t help thinking that I’m better off with my stash of loose leaf anyway. It is fairtrade, though, so I will always make an effort to go for the ethically sourced teas whenever possible. I think I will up my rating slightly, to reflect that, since at the moment it’s on a par with the budget range, mark-wise, and I feel it should get a bonus for being kind. These bags did well to tide me over, but my parents brough some Rington’s with them on their last visit, which will always win when available.

Mmmm. This tea is often in my cupboard, so I don’t usually bother to take it out, although I thought I should for my sipdown challenge.

This is hands-down my favourite traditional Earl Grey. It is a staple in my house and the houses of extended family members (it now strongly reminds me of Frank’s family every time I drink it, as they have it more often than unflavoured black tea). Clipper is one of the better brands of teabags usually found in British supermarkets, and I prefer to buy these when we run out of EG when I can afford it. The bergamot is very strong, as is the base tea, which is good for me as I love strong teas. The citrus-y bergamot has a lingering almost orange note, which adds a lovely extra dimension. I wish we had some of these in at the moment – writing up this note is giving me cravings!

Sipdown! (16/203)

Sipdown! (15/203)

Another one I forgot to remove from my cupboard a while ago. If I’m remembering right, this was the first time I tried a jasmine tea, a flavour which I still love. Despite my usual indifference to/slight dislike of green tea, I can drink it all day when paired with jasmine. For now, I have a few better loose jasmine greens, but when I first tried this, it was mind-blowing to me. The jasmine isn’t so subtle the green tea overpowers it, but it also isn’t too strong that it’s offputting or perfume-like. A delicate and tasty match, overall. Possibly my favourite of the Teapigs teas I have tried.

Sipdown! (14/203)

Apparently I liked this a lot more the first time I had it, because I’d rate it in the 60s at the moment. Reading my previous tasting note, the deep, grassy green taste doesn’t seem to have bothered me at all, and now, that is a flavour I try to stay away from. Maybe I used to be more tolerant of green teas than I am now, or maybe my tastes will continue to change throughout the years. Who knows. I still don’t think this tastes like popcorn, and I think they should rename it. People might be tricked into buying it expecting it to be sweet or buttery, and it may but off genuine fans of genmaicha. Even having said what I have about green tea, it’s not my favourite genmaicha I’ve tried – I prefer both 52teas and the custom one blended by KittyLovesTea. It’s an accessible route into genmaichas for the inexperienced, still, so I won’t begrudge it a place on shelves of my local teashop.