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Sipdown

I am sure I reviewed this several times a few years ago only to come here and see that it wasn’t even listed now. And now it is a sipdown!

This is a black tea with fruity raspberry flavor. The coconut is not strong at all, and almost unnoticeable except perhaps as a sweetness. I had an awkward amount left and figured I would just make a slightly stronger pot of tea, then I got distracted and oversteeped by about two extra minutes. It didn’t hurt the tea at all. It is safe to call this one not finicky and very forgiving.

Sipdown

This tea was so sunny and happy last time I drank it. How could I resist trying it as an iced sweet tea on a hot day, during a break from garden work?

It is really refreshing cold, and I am undecided as to whether I prefer it cold or hot. It really works both ways. It has a lightness that suited itself to gulping it down sweet from a chilled mason jar, but it was also lovely as a plain hot tea.

May Sipdown Prompt – a cold steeped tea

I put this in the fridge this morning after breakfast and took it out after lunch. I used the Rare Tea Company glass cold steeper, so this was refreshingly freezing cold, much colder than plastic containers get! I think the tea should have had more time, though.

The bergamot came through very well, the rose was muted, and the tea base itself just hadn’t had time to extract as well as I had hoped. Still it was quite refreshing to drink outside on this hot and muggy day. I will definitely be trying this again, giving the tea more time to infuse. The citrusy bergamot is great as a cold tea flavor.

May Sipdown Prompt – the tea with the shortest name

I didn’t look hard, but I am pretty sure that four letters is the shortest tea name I am going to find in my cupboard. This tea could fill several prompts this month, including a tea that I will re-order asap – and I expect I will after this is gone.

I usually drink this alone as the rose flavor that I barely taste is stronger than Ashman likes. The strawberry and vanilla are much more in the front to me, and the tea is a nice, strong one that resteeps well for combining thanks to the CTC base. It is beautiful to look at and delightful to drink.

May 1 Sipdown Challenge Prompt – May Day! Drink a floral tea!

My mother told of the May Day celebrations at the orphanage when she was growing up. Girls did Maypole Dances, winding the colorful ribbons around and around. The littlest boys had frog costumes and hopped over the valley to delight the townspeople who came for the festivities.

When my kids were little we made tussy-mussies, or colored pictures of flowers, or made little wild bouquets. The local botanical garden had a May Day party and you could make flower crowns (wreaths) to wear and – their favorite part – you could attend the reptile lecture and hold a snake!

Here in the South, the dogwoods and azaleas have finished blooming, violets and pansies are perishing in the heat already, but summer flowers are already everywhere.

This is my most floral tea. I could probably have used it as my tea with the most ingredients, but that prompt may have to be another tea now.

I had this first as a jelly. Superanna gave it to me some time ago, and it occurred to me that if Dammann Freres made a Jardin du Luxembourg jelly there must have been a tea first. Sure enough, there was, and onto my wishlist it went.

They use a nice strong oolong, not deeply roasty or nutty, but definitely not shy enough to be buried by the flowers. But this tea really is all about the flowers. It is delightful and pampering, and I reach for it on afternoons when I want to feel fancy. Lovely to pair with Fortnum cookies or lemon pie.

April Sipdown Prompt – a soothing tea

I suppose it would natural to choose chamomile or tulsi for this prompt but jasmine green tea is one of the most soul soothing to me.

My jasmine vines are in bloom and the fragrance really stopped me in my tracks as I headed in the house. The last few days have had some stressful moments (as well as good ones, we must not ever overlook those!) and I decided that a cup of jasmine tea in the shade would be very nice, indeed.

This particular one is blended with health benefits in mind and is the only pure jasmine green I have on shelf right now. Made as directed, it is sharp and best with food, but made as I usually make a jasmine green at 175F for three minutes it is smoother and drinkabke on its own for me.

I still greatly prefer Teavivre Premium Jasmine Dragon Pearls above all others, including Harney’s Jasmine Dragon Pearls. I might try to order if the tariffs don’t make the price unthinkable.

If anyone has a recommendation that I can get from within the US, please comment!

Sipdown

I haven’t had a vegetal, high note oolong in a while! Many thanks to Youngest for the share.

Ashman and I polished this off at breakfast. Resteeps well. Aroma at the outset of steeping is definitely good old Southern style greens like turnip greens or collards. It doesn’t taste like collard liquor to me, though. Is that a regional term or does everyone call it that?

Mouthfeel is smooth and light. Taste is light floral.

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A lovely, earthy black tea with a mild level of rose flavor, specifically darker and muskier than many. Very nice tea. Taken without additions but can handle them if you wish.

April Sipdown Prompt – Earth Day: drink an earthy tea

This tin is nearly empty, and I did not choose it for this prompt. I was going to have puerh for lunch because puerh is certainly earthy. I hadn’t had this tea in a while and when I drank it for breakfast I was sure the strainer had lingering flavor from a previous tea. It was so very earthy!

I decided to steep it again at lunch using a different pot and strainer but I get exactly the same taste. Looking back at my only other note on it, I see that I described the rose as dusky and the tea as having mostly low notes. I will now amend that to say that the base has mostly low, earthy notes. I can believe believe this is Sri Lankan tea, known to most tea drinkers as Ceylon. It certainly must be a low grown tea because it has none of the high, minty, lemon, or menthol flavors that I associate with high grown. Low grown Ceylon tea is my favorite sort from Sri Lanka. Perhaps that is because it reminds me more of the Fujian and Yunnan teas I love.

The rose is noticeable but I wouldn’t call it strong. Harney and Son’s Rose Scented is strong. It will arm wrestle you and win. (But I do like it and will be an agreeable loser in that wrestling match.) This truly is a low, dusky, darker rose scent that you catch in the aroma and that softly remains with you as you drink. If you want a black tea with some rose and nothing else going on, this is great. If you like to have “rose and” I highly recommend Yume.

I did not expect to like this tea this much.

I saw it when I was stocking up on Vanilla Comoro which serves as the base for my summer “soda” syrup. Superanna loves horchata so I was mainly getting it for her, planning to try one sachet and pass it on to her. This I will do, but I think this will be on a future order of my order.

The main thing I have to say about it is that the cinnamon is perfection for me. This is just the right level, and is pretty much the type and amount I remember being in Heirloom Bartlett Pear. It gives the same warm and cozy feeling.

The toasted rice doesn’t come off as burned popcorn. The oolong is so light it is almost like a white tea base. The vanilla and milk flavors are sooo creamy.

I love this just as it is, but if you really wanted to add milk and sugar (I am usually disappointed when I add anything to tea) I bet it would be good. In fact, I may try it that way ice cold.