I’m going to have two kinds of posts for this blog: tea tasting posts and tea thoughts. Tea tastings will be tea reviews where I give my impressions of the tea and how they taste to me. Tea thoughts will be me writing about whatever the tea reminds me of that day while I drink a cup of tea (this could be about anything really–I just wouldn’t want to keep buying new tea just to write a new blog post. That’s super wasteful! If I ever have a lot of new tea tasting type posts, it’s going to be because I had a pot of tea or a to go cup of tea at a tea place and didn’t purchase a whole bag or I bought a bunch of little sample sizes.)
Before I officially start rattling off about tea, I want to state that I am no expert or tea sommelier though I seriously wish I was. So, going forward, when I describe teas and write about my opinion/observations about them, take everything I say with a grain of salt. I will not be rating the teas simply because I feel that taste is subjective and I really don’t think that I’m qualified to talk about tea leaf quality or anything like that unless there’s an obvious indicator of bad quality (e.g. if the color of a matcha powder is practically brown/yellow I may mention that it isn’t of high quality). I may state that I will be repurchasing the tea or maybe that I will not be buying the tea again or very often, however I will try to refrain from describing a tea as “bad” or “good”. I may describe why a flavor does not work for me, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be good to other people. I will not be mentioning any teas that I really wouldn’t be able to finish a cup of (*cough**cough* certain bagged teas that I find appalling *cough**cough*) just because, if I can’t finish the whole cup of tea, then I’m too biased to talk about my experience with the tea in a balanced manner. I feel like it’s okay to be overly positive about a tea I love, but I wouldn’t want to write something wholly negative about a tea I can’t finish, since, as mentioned before taste is subjective.
When I write about the tea, it’ll be in this format (which is based on this helpful template):
An introduction/hello/story time/general thoughts
The tea name
Company; origin of tea if I can find it; price point
The dry leaf: This is where I’ll describe my impression of the tea leaves without water (how it looks, smells, etc.).
The wet leaf: This is where I’ll describe my impression of the tea leaves after I’ve steeped them (looks, smells, etc.).
The tea: This is where I’ll describe my tea drinking experience (looks, smells, tastes, etc.).
Tea Leaves to Water Ratio (e.g. 1 tsp:1 cup/8 oz water)
Steep time (e.g. 3 minutes)
(Just a note: if I’m writing about a tea that I’ve ordered a pot or to-go cup of, I’m going to be skipping the the dry and wet leaf portions and the tea Leaves to water ratio and steep time portions.)
Thoughts: Where my thoughts and opinions about the tea will go.
With milk and honey: I just really like milk and honey with my tea–I’ll always try my teas without it at first just to know what the tea actually tastes like on its own, but at the end of the day I like adding a little milk and honey. This is where I’ll be describing my take on the tea with milk honey since adding them will change the taste. For this, I may change up the ratio of leaves to water to give the tea a fighting chance to shine through the milk and honey (some teas love honey and milk, while others need a little help).
Next week, we start talking about tea! (or if I’m too excited, I’ll post sooner. Maybe today? I mean this is all just set up and introduction…We’ll see!)
Onwards and Forward, Always Yours,
Simon
The Tea Sampler 