New Tasting Notes

Quite a subtle black tea that is not as robust as most examples of the category on the market. Its aromas are very floral with rose being the primary association for me. The taste is bitter and has a woody astringency as well as coffee-like sourness. There are notes of sap, peanuts, earth at first. Later, more of a “Japanese” character comes forward. The taste has more umami and hints of shellfish and wheat, as well as molasses and allspice in the aftertaste.

I really like many Jing Gu teas and this one is one of my favourite ones among them. It also shows how well teas from this region can age, I am really happy with its progression in my home storage.

The tea has quite a vegetal and savoury character with plenty of bitterness, but its taste profile is really hard to describe. What I can say with certainty is that it makes me want to drink more. The aroma has a sage note. The taste notes include dry earth, bread, sunflower seeds, cocoa beans, parsnips, almonds and also a strong fennel one that persists into the aftertaste. The tea is thick, oily and a bit spicy.

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – February 2025 Tea #5- A tea you hoard

Well, even though I’m still hoarding two small samples of this Very Good Tea, I went and ordered from Golden Moon anyway.  I noticed they still have their Madagascar Vanilla tea, still with real vanilla, so I couldn’t resist.  Anyway, I have tried this a couple of times with various levels of leaf in the mug.  It just isn’t as molasses/berry special as it once was.  It was once such a unique leaf.  Now, it isn’t exactly a BAD tea but now it’s just kind of decent.  Nothing very unique about it. It’s still tasty, especially for a Ceylon leaf and Ceylon isn’t usually my thing.  ah well… It’s all a gamble when it’s new tea harvests, I suppose.  And the other samples of Sinharaja I had are probably some of the oldest teas I have, so I certainly couldn’t expect it to be the same flavor after all these years.  The WORLD has changed since then.  Ceylon has changed. The tea must change.

Sipdown

The first time I had this, I noted that I would like to try with Bordeaux cookies sometime, and I realized today that I have some stashed away! I said in the original note that I had trouble finding the lemon flavor but the berry and lavender flavors were there.

Today the lemon and berry were more front and the lavender was present as well, but perhaps a little more subtle. The lemon almost came across minty to me.

While it was a good tea, the pairing with Bordeaux cookies was not the best choice to me. It is possible that the mix of ingredients in the infuser had changed or that the cookies changed my perception of the tea, just as cheddar cheese can make unsweetened tea taste sweeter, but lemon and these particular cookies didn’t make my heart sing.

The bottom line – the first time the lemon was hiding, this time the lemon said, “here I am!”

Countdown To Catching Up – Tea 6

This is one of my faves from my recent blends. It’s warm & cozy without being too spicy – making it the perfect cuppa for yesterday – maybe not today, but I’ll just transport myself to yesterday in my head since I was out adulting yesterday (aka running errands: grocery shopping, doctor appointments, – you know, all that less than fun stuff that still has to be done & I didn’t really have the time to sit down with a lovely cuppa.)

This tea is also incredibly tasty, so even though it’s not “that” season any longer & we are quickly moving into Spring, this is still so good that I’m going to be enjoying it well into spring.

The black tea base is nice & smooth, the spices are warm & inviting & this makes a fantastic latte if you wanna go that way with it, but I’m currently sipping it hot, no dairy & just a little bit of sugar to bring out the spices a little more. There are notes of maple here – while blending it, I decided that if I were having an actual gingerbread scone, that instead of clotted cream, perhaps some maple butter would be more appropriate & that little bit of maple really elevates the flavor of this cup.

I don’t rate my own teas, but if I were to rate this, I’d probably give it an 89. Yeah, not a perfect score & that’s just fine with me. This tea isn’t perfect, but, I also don’t know what else I would have done to make it better. A delightful, delicious tea that brings a smile to my face every time I sip it.

A strong peppermint that is still potent after many years in my quarantine jar (where all mint teas go so they don’t contaminate my fruity ones) because it was in a sealed plastic wrapper.

Nothing particularly notable since all peppermints are pretty much the same. It is stronger than some other peppermints I have tried.

I had two lovely cups of this tea today (one plain, one with a dash of unsweetened soy milk) and enjoyed both. I am your average rooibos enjoyer but I particularly love vanilla rooiboses. The woody mineral notes and the honey/sweet notes go so well with the aromatic vanilla.

What I like about this blend is that the rooibos has a lot of that sweetness I associate with honeybush, which is interesting. And the vanilla is quite intense, so you can rebrew it a second time and get a strong second cup.

Picked this up at last year’s Toronto Tea Festival and just getting around to it now (egads!). It’s spicy, ginger-forward and warming, with a richer tea taste to it than other chai I’ve tried. It’s really good, very enjoyable but I noticed a lot of fennel in it. Luckily, the flavor didn’t transfer too much to the brew. Picky note from me: this chai is a bit more finely chopped, so it tended to clog both my chai pot and the filter in my teapot when I decanted it.

Fruity red rooibos sometimes comes out murky to me, and that’s definitely the case here. I taste the nonspecific fruit flavor, and it mixes with the rooibos to be pretty muddled and meh. It was okay cold, but I wish I could have tasted the mango or that the base could be changed.

My newest tea purchase in my massive tea collection. This tea purchase was actually inspired by a candle I own called Crunchy English Toffee. I saw this tea on Amazon when searching for toffee flavored teas. I really enjoy it. It’s very smooth and mild. As for the flavor, it has a subtle sweetness in the beginning, however, almost near the end is when you can really taste the sweetness of the caramel and toffee. It especially tastes amazing with beetroot rock sugar. I’ve only had it hot. Would love to try it iced. I’m still pretty new to Pu-erh tea, as I mostly prefer white tea. So I’m still trying to figure out the correct time and temperature on my Breville electric tea maker.

One doesn’t expect much from a box of teabags on one-dollar clearance at Wal-Mart. This performed right on point. The astringency that I associate with Red Rose has been de-caffed out and what’s left is mild and maybe a little soapy, but not undrinkable. It will be a good carrying mechanism for additives.

Sweet, fragrant taste similar to raisins or figs. Does not grow bitter easily.

First time with Work Fu, or fuzhuan steeped western style at work. Lots of vanilla overtone here on top of a fairly smooth autumn leaf base. Slightly drowsing but complements today’s cold rain.

This kind of tea doesn’t have the deep, grounding character thatother heicha can have. It’s lighter and more gentle for my constitution.

It seems nice and smooth, no harshness that I am detecting either hot or cold and it is standing up well to full boiling water for steeping purposes.

However, I honestly can’t really identify what I am tasing. Its not quite a roasted flavor, but it has some similar vibes.
There’s a little sweetness as it cools, though less noticeable when hot.

Overall, not really my thing, but there’s nothing objectionable about it.

A sipdown! (M: 9 Y: 25)
I have decided to spend remaining 7 grams in a single gongfu session.

It tastes very differently, it is not so mineral and salty; but heavy notes of wet forest floor, mushrooms and different woody notes are still present.

Flavour-wise it is not too complex, but it is suprisingly mild for stomach, despite dark and strong notes that I wrote about in previous paragraph.

Longer steeps weren’t bitter or astringent, it was just like you have doubled the mushroomy (shu) notes. In a certain way this tea reminds me Bancha Goishicha from Japan; which is also in my stash… so I should compare it in a short time, in a time I still have a memory of this one.

Marshall! Thank you! This was also very educational. If you dry the kernel inside an apricot, you can apparently eat it. When I looked up pictures all I thought about was almonds. Being that I am allergic to almonds I feel like I have to try to make these on my own.

Dry Appearance: Long leaves. Dark chocolate brown with some golden hints. Slightly dusty. Tightly twisted.
Dry Aroma: Dry and sweet. A bit of Vinsanto. A sweet wine by Gaia in Greece. (Btw, if you ever go to Santorini, visit the Gaia shop. It’s amazing) Also some mineral notes.
Flavor: Lots of minerality. Very fruity. Dried apricot. When infused longer the minerality really kicks in. Wet rocks.
Wet Aroma: Mix of fruit notes and raisins.
There is a slight astringency when you let it steep longer but it plays very nicely with the minerality.

Today I want to revel in quiet gratitude. I wasn’t in the mood to look for a sipdown or fulfill a prompt. I just want to drink a tea that makes my heart feel happy.

This was a gift from Superanna. I usually have black tea at breakfast but I was organizing tea yesterday and putting some things in tins and noticed this one and just wanted a sniff and the aroma has been on my mind ever since. I decided it would be my breakfast tea today.

There is bergamot in this but it does not resemble an Earl Grey or an Earl Green in any way. This is floral and fruity for dry leaf aroma, and mostly fruity in the steeped cup. The first time I had it, I was not yet a fan of violet or lavender tea or violet candies. Now I adore those things. If you are put off by floral flavors in tea, you may still like this because the taste is mostly fruity. It has a lot of flavor but none of them are aggressive. It is simply delightful and perfect for watching winter rain fall with a warm shawl around your shoulders and your prettiest tea cup.

Leftover teabag from a TTB. This was much better than I would have guessed! The black base was hearty enough, and the spices were pretty well balanced, though I can’t tell for sure what I taste most strongly. I enjoyed it with sugar and milk and would drink it again if I came across it, though I wouldn’t go out of my way to purchase it.

I really wish I would have had honey with me in office to add to this, but even still it was such a fantastic cup. Lemon and ginger at its most simplified, but there’s so much else interesting happening with this tea starting from how fresh and zesty both the lemon and ginger notes are but also from the deeply aromatic and camphor-rich complimenting notes of cardamom and such complexity and playful savory notes from the thyme.

The combination of everything almost leaves a light tingly or “buzzing” sensation on the bed of the mouth. If I can get ethereal for a moment, it taste/feels the way I might imagine it would if a bunch of fireflies were dancing across your tongue.

I find it a little too nuanced/sophisticated to be the “right” lemon ginger tea to drink when I feel sick, but for a pure flavour experience it’s very tough to top.