Mao Jian

Mao Jian fro DavidsTea

Ingredients: First pluck green tea from Henan Province, China.


Only available in stores, I noticed it completely by accident, hiding on the back shelf under the tea shelves. Barely advertised, and not mentioned at all by the sales clerks (even when I asked to know what was new), who seemed more interested in insisting that I try the new summer teas.

Taking a sniff from the bag once I got home instantly reminded me of when I used to work in a pet store... Alfalfa. A sickly-sweet kind of grassy scent, which I still can't decide how I feel about.

Once brewed, I found it definitely has the asparagus/artichoke scent that the description talks about. It puts me off a bit, thinking of drinking something that looks a bit like wee and smells like asparagus. (this is how my mind works)
But Yoshi seems to like it because he currently has his face dunked in my mug as I type this before I have even had a single sip.

Pleasantly -and greatly- surprised!
I can see why the little bird won't leave it alone. Very sweet, amazingly fresh, light green. I love it.


I recommend everyone give this a try before it isn't fresh any more!
Get your butt to a DavidsTea if you love a light green.


 Happy Steeping,

~K



I am struggling to drink around my bird. He refuses to get off the lip of my mug while I'm trying to drink. He nudges at my nose and eye as I tip to drink.
Honestly, tea lovers, I don't recommend a pet that loves tea as much as you do.

Organic Japanese Sencha

Japanese Sencha from DavidsTea

Fine organic steamed Japanese green tea from Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan

OI OCHA!
(tea, please! apparently...)

"Japan's most popular tea"! And for good reason. This is a lovely light green tea.
The directions said to steep for 2-3 minutes, but three minutes was just too watered down for me, so I gave it another two in what was technically a second steep!

Is this tea ever smooth. The flavour lingers on your tongue, but not like your average green. It's very vegetal, almost grassy... in a good way. (Saying something tastes like grass doesn't really make it sound delicious, does it?) It's really nice, and I hope the other sencha that I have a lot of (and not just a sample size) is just as good. I could drink this ALL the time.

Aaaaand I just spilled a bunch on myself trying to take a drink. Because I'm about as graceful as a brick in the wind... yeah.

Yoshi likes it as well. Unfortunately, he is too afraid of the cup to take a drink so I can capture it on camera. Last time he attacked my tea a little too soon after being steeped and burned his little toes, poor baby. He wants it from my mouth, birds are gross.

It is also just as nice cold! Yum

This is the corner of my desk, where I write my blogs. This is not staged (besides the picture of me as a child with my dad that I moved out of frame). This is actually my desk with a -working- 115+ year old typewriter and that lump in the back is a chunk of fossilised dinosaur jaw. The rest of my desk is no less nerdy. The other corner has a ton of crystals, a crystal lamp and candle holder, and an ammonite. I will take a picture some time of my whole office when it isn't so bloody messy. (I'm such a slob!) And when I get better lighting, I had to point a lamp at my tea because the light fixtures in our bedrooms are on one side of the room, and my desk is on the opposite side.


WELL! Enough rambling about myself.

Go take a cheap trip to Japan (ie: in your mind, for us poor folk) with a cup -or several- of sencha!



Happy Steepping!
~K

Spiced Fig

Spiced Fig from DavidsTea

Ingredients: Apples, cranberries, black mission figs, calimyrna figs, dates, almonds, rose hips, cloves, natural vanilla flavoring.


 Ah, the classic fruit in a pudding from the Christmas being demanded for by obsessive carolers. Figs.
Let me be clear, I do not like figs. They are a disturbing fruit created via wasp sex. That's right, WASP SEX. Look it up and gag along with me. 

I'm doing this or you. Therefore, I do not like you right now...

The smell is very off-putting, I really do not like it... but sometimes taste is better than smell when it comes to tea, so I steeped it for the 8 of suggested 6-8 minutes. I was hoping the crazy overbearing cranberry to fig ratio would help me get through this tea, but no... 

Wait for it... it's a first... are you ready for this???

I do not like this tea.
At all.

It tastes like someone threw a fig newton in warm water... only without the awesome cookie sweetness... It's just a fig in water. It has a lot of ingredients, but I just don't taste any of them!
I don't know how else to describe it. It tastes like baby's first tea. Bland, far too light, I just can't bring myself to drink any more. I won't even be finishing this cup. YUCK

No thank you. Not for me.



Happy Steeping,
~K