Full-Steam Black Tea [renamed 100 Year]

The lovely Nicole sent this to me and I figured having both Hugo blacks in the house was a good excuse for a sipdown and a comparison :)

I prefer this version to the mornings journey, if only because this has more oomph. I only steeped it for 3 mins because I didn’t bother to look anything up. Haha. This is malty and robust…it’s not bitter, it’s not astringent. There’s a flavour hidden in the brew that makes it different from your average every day malty cup. It’s somewhere between sweet and sour and makes my mouth tingle haha. Thanks so much for sharing Nicole!

Edit: 144

Man, this is some good tea. The blend on this is just fantastic. And with the addition of some cream – madly good.

This is a dangerous sipdown. I have sworn off buying any more for a loooong time – I don’t have a problem with having a large stash of tea, but I don’t need to spend any more money on tea. This one will make it hard to stick to that vow since I can just pick up a tin locally. Such a problem to have. :)

And a sipdown!
This is nice. A tea with a nice body and flavor.
Not a forever favorite, but one that I would certainly have again, if the occasion arrived. But for today, a sipdown.

Thanks for this one a whiillle back, TeaTiff! I’ve sipped it before but it is a tough one for me to figure out, so I haven’t written a note for it. The leaves are gigantic, black and dusty. They look like an ancient, wild leaf tea leaf. The flavor is mid-level strength, a light amber cup. Somehow I’m just getting hints of tomato and cherry and not really anything else. A weird combo but they seem to come and go at different times, so it isn’t too odd. I wish I had more to say about this one, but it doesn’t seem to be a good fit for my tastebuds.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoon // 5 minutes after boiling // 2 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 min

This was one pleasant surprise!
I drank some of this before breakfast and then throughout the day since I brewed a large pot of it. The taste is smooth and not unsettling. Nice strong smell as well.

Hugo’s Full Steam leaves are dark chocolate brown, large and twisty….when steeped at 3 minutes 30 seconds, they release a deep lacquered fragrance of cannabis/rye (I mix those 2 notes up sometimes) and cocoa maltiness. The cup delivers the same. It is a stout Yunnan… almost Fujian in flavor profile, but because there is also a touch of molasses and toasted oat, it reminds me of Guinness in how it feels it can fill and warm my belly….something the people of Kansas City probably appreciate during their luxuriously long winter.

So here I celebrating my 3 day winter (I wish I was joking) by sitting in front of an open window with tea, book, blanket and whichever cat decides I look comfortable enough to join. I wait all year for these days….. and thanks to Teatiff I have a well-suited cup of tea to accompany me. Cheers!

From the Round 3 Here’s Hoping TTB

Wow… I like. This is bready and malty with a good bit of heft. This is definitely a tea to get you up and moving in the morning. Lots of strength with no bitterness or astringency. It could easily handle milk and sugar, but I drank my cup plain and found it really enjoyable. This one could easily find its way into my cupboard at a future date.

HHTTB Round 3

This one has a lovely bready, malty quality to it. I also get a bit of chocolate, though only a hint. I bet if I were to take the many suggestions here to steep it at 3 minutes I would get more chocolate flavor, but I’ll refrain since then there wouldn’t be any left for the next person. Definitely glad I got to try this one though.

TeaTiff was nice enough to send me a generous sample of this tea. It says on their website that this tea is from Yunnan, but the leaves look Taiwanese to me. They have that long, twisty, spindly look and they’re quite dark. Smells strongly of dry, unsweetened cocoa and honey with some maltiness.

Initially, I followed the directions on Hugo Tea’s website and steeped for 4 minutes. The aroma was malty with honey, but there was also a kind of peppery, herbaceous quality that reminded me of fennel seed. And it turns out, that’s exactly what it tastes like too! Very similar to pumpernickel or rye bread with a strong fennel seed taste, along with some malt and an aftertaste of dry cocoa. Wow, this tea is so unique-tasting! I kept taking sips just to experience the fennel phenomenon again!

After reading some of the notes on here, I decided to also try a 3 minute steep since a lot of people did that and mentioned more chocolate and caramel notes. Aroma was more cocoa and honey and less fennel this time. It definitely tasted less fennel-y, but I didn’t really find a lot more cocoa or honey in there. So I definitely prefer the 4 minute steep! And it’s much more honeyed with just a small amount of sugar. Pumpernickel bread with honey smeared over the top, mmmm!

T&C TTB Tea # 9 – Backlog May 24

I had been interested in trying this one based on everyone else’s reviews. My first attempt was a failure because I brought it to the movies in my stainless steel travel mug….stainless my ass. Those things soak up the taste of whatever you put in them, so now mine is basically a mishmash of all the flavoured teas it has previously contained. I will clearly have to get one for black teas.

I tried to get something out of it but with no luck, the mug just ruined it. I couldn’t even tell what colour it was, it was basically a decent, nondescript black tea. And that was me, nondescribing it.

I did try again with the rest of the leaf, it brewed up a dark liquor, malty with very noticable toasty and roasty notes. Slightly fruity.

I drank it after drinking a fruit smoothie so I’m not sure if that affected anything.

(overleafed a bit, 3 min @ 96 degrees)

I would like to try again sometime! Though I can’t recall if this company has reasonable shipping costs to Canada or not.