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Sipdown

This was a really lovely tea for breakfast. Ashman and I had it with our tortilla egg bake and it goes so well with food. After breakfast I made a third steep to sip as we do some work this morning and while it is lighter, it is still worthwhile to sip on.

This is a nice Yunnan profile. I had one or two years ago from another company that were so peppery and they gave me a bit of a tummy ache. This one is classic Yunnan without ache and not peppery.

I think the vanilla is fairly subtle, and oddly enough I noticed it more in the third steep. Perhaps that is because we were sipping and not eating.

Delicious tea!

March Sipdown Challenge – International Day of Happiness/Spring Equinox

I have had five or six teas today but I chose this one for the prompt because it is almost time for this limited season tea to be for sale again! In fact, today might even the day you can start ordering.

This is a low caffeine offering from Lupicia and even caffeine sensitive moi is not kept up by it. It satisfies when I want something special and foofy at night. I used it to lure myself away from a sugar laden ginger ale tonight. I am drinking it from my fanciest cup, Lady Carlyle by Royal Albert. And I made it last almost a whole year but hoarding it very carefully!

This tastes like those cherry lollipops they sell at Valentine’s, or like Luden’s cherry cough drops. Yummmmmmmm. As usual – no milk, no sugar, and I love that it steeps up fast so even double steeping we can have our tea pretty quickly.

March Sipdown Challenge – International Day of Happiness/Spring Equinox

I have had five or six teas today but I chose this one for the prompt because it is almost time for this limited season tea to be for sale again! In fact, today might even the day you can start ordering.

This is a low caffeine offering from Lupicia and even caffeine sensitive moi is not kept up by it. It satisfies when I want something special and foofy at night. I used it to lure myself away from a sugar laden ginger ale tonight. I am drinking it from my fanciest cup, Lady Carlyle by Royal Albert. And I made it last almost a whole year but hoarding it very carefully!

This tastes like those cherry lollipops they sell at Valentine’s, or like Luden’s cherry cough drops. Yummmmmmmm. As usual – no milk, no sugar, and I love that it steeps up fast so even double steeping we can have our tea pretty quickly.

Another tea from Martin – many thanks!

This is tied with Raspberry Lime for flavor! I actually drank this one yesterday at lunch. For me, the stevia is sweet enough and I do not add any sugar. The peach was more noticeable in this one than in the Peach Passionfruit. I didn’t realize that this was a black tea when I made it but no worries – I had it early in the day! Super convenient. Thank you, Martin!

Another tea from the big box that Martin sent – many thanks!

This is one that Ashman and I each had tonight. Neither of us have wanted to take the time to make a big pitcher of decaf tea and the fridge has been pretty full of birthday cake (just finished) from my daughter and coconut cream pie (also finished today) from my best friend, so there wasn’t much room left anyway. These teas have come in really handy!

I didn’t realize that was passion fruit in the picture on the wrapper. It looked like a peach and a bowl of oatmeal which didn’t seem a likely tea blend, but I have seen stranger things. Other than oeach, I didn’t know what flavor to look for in the tea.

That’s okay, because the flavor I got was peach plus generic berry. I still liked it! It was definitely sweet enough for me from the stevia but I added simple syrup to Ashman’s glass because he likes his cold tea sweet. He may not have needed it.

I liked the raspberry lime better but this was serviceable enough and helped me delay making a big pitcher by one more day! I have no excuse now to put it off anymore since the fridge has more room now!

Sipdown

Ashman finished the whole tin in about two weeks. He really likes Darjeeling and I thought this would be pretty similar, and indeed it shares enough similarities for him to like it very much. It is the less cut version of Broken Cloud, which is intended for cold steeping. Both are very good.

Sharedown

I am teaching three children who are siblings and there was one didn’t used to like tea, but since I have been sharing some teas with her mother she has found a few that she likes. She mentioned today that she prefers vanilla and simpke flavored teas to ones that have lots of fruit flavors mixed in, so I sent her home with the remainder of this tin. It will definitely be a repurchase unless someone shares an even better decaf vanilla tea, which I simply can’t imagine.

The loose leaf has always seemed superior to the sachets and I don’t why, considering that it should be the very same tea. I gave forewarning to the family that while the sachets are available locally at Target, it is best to get the loose!

I got a fantastic birthday package in the mail today from Martin! Tea and chocolate! Many thanks, Martin!

I didn’t look up the instructions for this one before making it and just assumed that you were supposed to steep it in the fridge for six to twelve hours like most cold brew teas I have done. After about two hours I saw that there was already lots of color and decided to have it with supper since it was caffeine free and wouldn’t keep me up tonight.

I have now read Martin’s review of it, and I definitely enjoyed it more than Martin did. The stevia didn’t bother me, which is really unusual because usually that is a big blech from me. The fruitiness was nice and I felt like the citrus tingle was maybe more lemon than lime and gave it some sparkle. It was so convenient, too! I will definitely be making more for lunch tomorrow!

March Sipdown Challenge Prompt – your oldest green tea

Mastress Alita mentioned going out for Japanese food for lunch today and that started a hankering for something Asian that wouldn’t quit. I have some frozen springs rolls and made do with those and a nice green tea!

I can not believe I let this get past its “best by” date. I held off ordering green tea for a long time because they do need to be really fresh and we don’t drink them as much as oolong and black tea. When I finally ordered this one and Huang Shan Mao Feng, two of our favorites, I thought we would finish them in record time. Not so.

I love this tea. It is smooth and nutty, and goes great with food as well standing on its own very well. This is not a sipdown. There is a lot left, so I am going to have to focus on these two out of date greens for a while. That will be an easy task.

March Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a tea that taught you something

The prompt is being fulfilled by puerh in general rather than this specific puerh. My first shu was purchased at A Southern Season and reeked of old shrimp. I steeped it with Sandy with some trepidation, and although the smell was bad the taste was good.

This is so different from that first experience. I love the scent of most shu. Barn, mushrooms, hay, yes manure but in a good clean farm sort of way, fall leaves underfoot, and so on.

I haven’t scratched the surface of all there is to learn about shu and sheng. I read about the Tea/Horse Road, tea with yak butter and salt, fermentation in caves and factories, the seven tea mountains, health benefits (which is why we are drinking it today as we had a fatty lunch and want to reduce the impact on our tummies), the presence of lovastatin naturally occurring due to the bacteria, and more. I watched videos of cakes being pressed and cakes being wrapped so skillfully and beautifully. I use puerh as my go-to tea when guests say they don’t like tea (they have never had the good stuff) and love coffee. They usually love it and request it in the future.