teabento

Gong Fu Sipdown (327)

I won an instagram giveaway and got a $40 voucher for a company whose teaware I’ve been eyeing for a while now. I definitely spent over the $40 but ended up with a bunch of new lovely teaware, including a lovely new tea tray, a glass gaiwan, and a cute monkey teacup. Pictures: https://www.instagram.com/p/B-N1BobAOo-/

The teaware showed up and of course I had to break it in and this tea just ended up standing out to me. I got about 8 steeps with the main flavor notes being cocoa, leather, and malt. At times, it got smokey. At other times, some raisin came through and in the last steep, even a touch of baked bread. It was smooth and full-bodied and quite a nice session of steeping while watching the Masked Singer on Wednesday.

I tried this as a snickerdoodle latte because I very much enjoyed it as a nutella latte and the snickerdoodle latte was very sweet yesterday when made with the banana pudding tea. So I used this tea which maybe isn’t as sweet as my flavored blends and only used 1/2 the sugar suggested. Yet this is not awesome either. The cinnamon is latching onto something in the tea that is really undercutting the snickerdoodle sweetness and making it more of an earthy flavor. This makes the snickerdoodle latte less enjoyable and this tea less enjoyable so basically this was a no go.

I moved this tea and Golden Arrow into my swap box. They are older teas (November/December 2017) and in larger amounts and I just don’t think I will drink them. This was given to me by Sil as it was a full size package of tea given to us as a sample in our joint order. It’s fine but boring and as far as oolongs go, I find if I want a plain(ish) oolong, its a milk oolong that I am craving. This is not a milk oolong so I just never reach for it. As for Golden Arrow, I could only buy large packages from August Uncommon and I thought I would like it more than I do. However, I have a lot of teas and I would rather spend the time drinking those before they get too old than trying to finish these for the sake of finishing them. If anyone has any interest in either or both of these teas, let me know!

I’d really thought I had this before but there is no tasting note so I guess maybe not. That or Steepster is pulling another disappearing act. However, today I had it during a gong fu session before class. I used exactly 4 grams and as soon as the water hit the leaf, it gave off a very strong oolong scent. Unfortunately, the first few steeps were so strongly mineral flavored and drying that I dumped the first out and had to push to get through the rest. After the third steep, I gave up. I will try this western style or perhaps only use the recommended 2 grams because as it was, I was not a fan.

An Earthy Chinese tea that tastes like a black tea. I guess I was hoping for a sweet/plum-like oolong with a bit of a roast. Maybe this is 90% oxidized, but I swear this tastes like the many golden tippy Yunnan blacks I’ve tasted. There is some sweetness, but mostly a leathery/Earthy flavour. I would have liked more sweetness or something floral/fruity.

Sipdown (292)

My first sip of this was an amazingly creamy malted vanilla. As I continue to drink, I am getting caramel as well. So basically it’s a big mug of caramel vanilla. It’s really nice today because it’s also a touch bready. This cup seems to be an anomaly but I’m enjoying it very much. Upped the rating slightly from 82.

ETA: As this cools, it’s milk chocolate.

I used 2 grams of this for a gong fu session last night. I considered making notes but decided just to relax, watch the last couple of hours of Crisis on Infinite Earths and sip on tea. I got about 10 steeps and even though the liquid was almost clear, it still had a nice chocolate-y flavor that I probably could have pushed for another steep or two if the water hadn’t cooled. This was probably one of the better gong fu sessions I had with no tannins and a lot of chocolate and caramel and breadiness and yum.

#adventageddon Day Seven – 2/3

I’m not ENTIRELY sure this is the correct entry for today’s tea, but the packet was labelled “Winter Jinxuan” with the sub descriptor “Ali Shan Jin Xuan” and there’s nothing on the Tea Bento website aside from this tea, so I feel like it’s safe enough to log it here!?

It was nice seeing a Jin Xuan as today’s tea option – I love this tea type, and those creamy and buttery flavour notes are the perfect thing for a mildly chilly December morning. I brewed up the sample Gongfu, in my Jin Xuan dedicated pot. If this is the same tea as “Ali Bear” then I’ve had it before, and at the time I owned Ali Bear I did not have this yixing pot, so brewing it here is a new experience.

I got around six infusions, which does seem like a light yield but the sample was also less grams than I would have typically brewed in this pot so I steeped longer for each infusion to compensate for the lack of leaf, and that resulted in the session being shorter/having less steeps. Sweet and brightly floral, with a buttery and creamy mouthfeel and mid sip flavour with hints of coconut milk and an undertone of red fruit!! I could probably sit here and smell the wet leaf for hours, but I have three more advent teas to do today so it’s time to move along.

This was a good tea!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/B5x_UBug2mE/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGnhT2GRVJs

Sipdown (613)!

I had an awkward amount of this tea left, so this was a slightly weak Western style mug. The tea tasted pretty nice, even it it was underleafed – the creamy and floral notes that you would really expect from a Jin Xuan, just more delicate than usual. Also a hint of underripe, green melons.

Had this one a few days ago, paired with a STELLAR curried cauliflower, jalapeno, and mango pizza with a mint yogurt drizzle. I know that’s a lot to take in pizza wise, but fuck me it was good…

This tea is excellent; it’s so beautifully balanced with really true to form tasting notes. I’d say the strongest, in my opinion, was the floral lilac elements alongside orchid notes as well. It’s also quite creamy, both in taste and mouthfeel, and has a mixture of grassy and vegetal (romaine) body notes as well. There’s also a really delicate stonefruit like undertone; something in the realm of white peaches.

I was worried that the pizza might outweigh the tea because it was a very busy pizza; and I think the spices did drown out a little bit of the nuances that would have been present otherwise. However, the mango was a great tie in for the stonefruit undertones, and the cooling yogurt seemed to make the vegetal/grassy elements in the blend seem crisper/cleaner. So, while there were some flaws it still worked overall.

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/BjBKxhJn7iR/?taken-by=ros_strange

Out of all the green tea samples I got from Teabento this one is probably the most distinctive from the others. As an assamese plant grown in Lao Cai, Vietnam (northern/China border), this tea has a profile reminiscent of a sheng puerh. Rich mushroom, string bean and other veggie notes provide an intriguing spectrum of sweet, sour and smoky. It’s a smooth cup, and a lot less nippy than some of the younger shengs in their early steeps. I still get a bit of smoky-sweet cedar woodchips though, which is something I associate with my limited exposure to sheng puerh.

I’m steeping this one western style with a 1min steep to start. I’m using a cup that I originally steeped the last of What-cha’s rose oolong in and I think it’s adding some creamy, floral (and possibly berry) notes to the profile (they’re a nice addition but not helpful when trying to discern an already complex tea).

Will do a gongfu steep next time! This tea deserves it.

All the offerings from Teabento’s green tea sample pack have been hits for me, falling in the 75-85 range, and this one isn’t an exception. I prefer it more than their Dragonwell and Jasmine Pearls, and maybe slightly less than the Kamairicha, Uji Sencha and Daejak. It’s flavourful sweet, nutty, vegetal profile has been my friend these last couple early mornings and evenings.

I’ll be sad when I’m out! It was such a novelty to have so many delicious unflavoured green teas in the cupboard. Besides this, only Lonely Saola is left and it’s smoky!

This was a lovely oolong. The first steep was a bit buttery vegetables. After that it was mostly variations of vegetables. So it was a very good tea just not something I would get again for myself as there are other Tea Bento teas I prefer a lot more.

This is a lovely Dragon Well, perfectly balanced with none of that drying quality that comes from over-roasting. Sweet and juicy (sugarcane, sweet peas, corn, stonefruit) play off savoury notes (butter, toasted nuts, chestnuts). The corn, nut and butter notes come together for a nice cream impression that either leads to a finish of umami-like seaweed (the crushed kind you’d find sprinkled on top of okonomiyaki or something) or creamed corn, depending on how my brain associates it.

I steeped this longer (2-3min instead of 1min) than what Teabento recommends because I like my Dragon Well that way. This particular offering has a gentle enough profile to handle it, imho.

Steep Count: 2

Think the peanut profile of a Dragonwell with the backdrop of a Japanese green (grass, grass, and more delicious sweet grass). I’m having a hard time finding anything negative to say about it. I’m seriously thinking of swapping my essential but problematic (ie.- pollution prone) Dragonwells for this tea type.

Thanks for the the sample, Teabento- I’ll be playing with this one all Easter! It’s also nice to be reminded of the existence of Pikas.

I’m putting this one into my “tricky steeper” file; when it worked it was awesome but when it didn’t it was meh. I also never got it to fly through multiple steeps (over 2).

The perfect cup was nuanced- mellow hay and cucumber layered with honey, stonefruits, melon, and nuts covered with a light dab of cocoa- leaving the mouth full of something surprisingly equal parts fruity (sweet, melon) and savoury (pepper, walnut, and smoke). The hint of “spice” reminds me a tad of juniper and cedar. There is also a touch of something subtly creamy smooth, like rice or coconut water, or maybe almond milk. This cup pairs surprisingly well with a chocolate peanut bar.

On a bad day it tasted like burnt hay and astringent messiness. Fickle, fickle tea.

Thankfully for the sipdown, today was a good day. Teabento says steep at 80C or 85C and I found life was better if it was steeped somewhere in the middle of this range.

Steep Count: 2 + Rinse

(Sample generously provided by Teabento)

I finished up this tea months ago, but it feels wrong not to leave a note on such a lovely green tea. I’m pretty sure this was Teabento freebie too.

Jasmine Pearls aren’t always my favourite (they’re my mom’s) but when they somehow end up in my cupboard it’s like stumbling upon a ballet performance in your kitchen. Too fancy, delicate and beautiful for my humble abode. This one stood out from the rest (H&S and Teavivre), lacking the soapy sour veg note of the parenthesized offerings. It was so sweet. If/when I’m looking for the Pearls again Teabento will be on the list of top contenders (it’s a short list but it isn’t a bad one).

I meant to sit down with this green and purposefully drink it, for the tea notes, but it ended up becoming my sloppy go-to green tea for the week evenings instead. What that means on a scale of 1-10 is I drank it with zero (0) mindfulness and ten (10) chugging speed.

What can I say now that it’s gone so soon from the earthly realm of CrowKettle Tea Shelves? It was sweet. It was refreshing. It was deliciously flavourful. Now it’s gone.

Steep Count: 2

This tea is really soft, gentle, not as bold as most oolongs I drink. It’s sweet – I find that a little weird – some honey, some stone fruit and of course some woody oolong. It’s good. People who aren’t a huge fan of dark oolong might like this one, it’s milder than other’s I’ve tried. I prefer bold, aged oolongs that are a lot like leather and old books – so this isn’t quite my cup of tea.

(Really tight hockey game happening – hard to focus on the tea when I’m sitting on the edge of my seat…… go jets…)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfcPdpUBWCZ/?taken-by=dex3657
That picture looks good on my phone but really washed out on my laptop…. weird….

Thanks to tea bento for the generous sample box. I made these green tea jasmine dragon pearls according to pacakage directions: gong fu style, 80-90c, rinse/1min/20s/50s/80s/140s/4min.

The first steep is a pretty standard jasmine green: floral and grassy. 20 seconds is too short for the second steep. It comes out tasty but too light. I did the third steep at 88c and that made the brew come out too tart. I went lower on the temp and brewed the fourth steep at 83c, but it came out bitter, as if the base was being oversteeped. I went way lower for the fifth steep and brewed at 75c, which was much better in that the brew was no longer bitter but the jasmine came out more perfumey than floral. The same problem happened in the sixth steep, with the jasmine taste becoming cloying.

Overall, I think this is a somewhat finicky tea that would benefit from fewer steeps at a lower temperature. I have enough left to try again so I can play around with it a bit.

Thanks to tea bento for the generous sample set. The dry leaf of this wild silver needle has a scent that is equal parts floral and hay. I steeped according to package directions: gong fu style, 80-85c, 4 steeps of 30s/15s/2min/5min. I didn’t try to get a fifth steep out of it.

The first steep was by far the best. It brews up very pale with a savory aroma of hay and sticky rice. The sticky rice note carries over into the flavor, which I really like.

Subsequent steeps also brew up pale but bring out an astringency in the leaf. The second steep is mildly astringent, with a dominant flavor of hay. The third steep had faint notes of cooked rice and hay. It was hard to make anything out past that initial astringency in the sip but the taste of bitter greens did linger after the sip. The fourth steep was the longest, which seemed to cut down on the astringency. The robust savory scent of that first steep returns. The astringency is still present but the underlying flavors are stronger than in the second or third steeps.

Overall, I think I would have preferred this tea brewed Western-style for relatively short steep times to bring out as much of the savory notes as possible while suppressing the astringency.