Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge Thursday, November 25th: Thanksgiving – Pumpkin Dessert
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating today! (and a happy last Thursday of November to all us us who aren’t. November speeds by so quickly.) I’m thankful of all the amazing people in this little community – you all rock. :)
While I’m not doing anything special today, I thought it’d be fun to try to “recreate” a Thanksgiving dinner via tea sipdowns. Except it seems I’m starting with dessert (typical). I’ll probably end it with dessert too, if I actually end up drinking up more than one tea (unlikely).
I was initially a little conflicted with this tea, but then remembered that with the pre-Anne 52teas I used to understeep them for preferred results – especially the “cheesecake black teas”. Change the steep time to 2min30s @ 205F and magic! My tea now contains all the smooth tangy cheesecake notes I desire without a good portion of the tannins and bitters from tea and spicea (cheesecake is still subtle but something my brain consistently reads as cheesecake; mileage may vary though). It doesn’t need milk like this; it already tastes creamy, with an assortment of spices. It’s a pretty good way to finish this one off!
Steep Count: 3 (all around 3min and all quite good).
Flavors: Cheesecake, Cinnamon, Cloves, Creamy, Ginger, Lemongrass, Nutmeg, Pepper, Pumpkin, Pumpkin Spice, Tangy, Vanilla
Preparation
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I tend to understeep all black teas too: lower temperature and fast-ish. I do probably use more leaf too as I measure using a heaping DT’s perfect spoon, which is likely designed for tea which contains heaps of non-tea.
My leaf measuring varies so much from cup to cup… This cup, I think, was slightly underleafed. XD
That’s a good theory about DT’s “perfect spoon” (I always thought it was a ploy to work through more tea quickly).
I think both are true. I used to be quite frugal with leaf, but now the norm for me is a heaping DT’s perfect spoon and fast cool steeps. Why do you underleaf and why does it vary?
I sometimes overleaf too, and it all pretty much amounts to laissez-faire measuring practices (what I “feel” looks right). It often depends on the tea company (52teas I usually underleaf because I don’t want too much flavour; this dates back to “old 52teas” preferences), the tea type (leaf size, fruit pieces), or whether or not I want a milk cup or not (milk gets more leaf).
I don’t always use a spoon to “measure out” tea leaf either. I’ve shaken it out directly from the tea package before (ex- to avoid breaking big, long leaves). I’m definitely not exact XD
This one was underleafed because I reached that awkward end of the bag amount lol
Thanks for clarifying.
Ah, that’s when I haul out my Keemun Classic to make up the difference. Or if not black, then I just overleaf to avoid having to deal with the awkward amount (or make a little tiny cup).
I tend to understeep all black teas too: lower temperature and fast-ish. I do probably use more leaf too as I measure using a heaping DT’s perfect spoon, which is likely designed for tea which contains heaps of non-tea.
My leaf measuring varies so much from cup to cup… This cup, I think, was slightly underleafed. XD
That’s a good theory about DT’s “perfect spoon” (I always thought it was a ploy to work through more tea quickly).
I think both are true. I used to be quite frugal with leaf, but now the norm for me is a heaping DT’s perfect spoon and fast cool steeps. Why do you underleaf and why does it vary?
I sometimes overleaf too, and it all pretty much amounts to laissez-faire measuring practices (what I “feel” looks right). It often depends on the tea company (52teas I usually underleaf because I don’t want too much flavour; this dates back to “old 52teas” preferences), the tea type (leaf size, fruit pieces), or whether or not I want a milk cup or not (milk gets more leaf).
I don’t always use a spoon to “measure out” tea leaf either. I’ve shaken it out directly from the tea package before (ex- to avoid breaking big, long leaves). I’m definitely not exact XD
This one was underleafed because I reached that awkward end of the bag amount lol
Thanks for clarifying.
Ah, that’s when I haul out my Keemun Classic to make up the difference. Or if not black, then I just overleaf to avoid having to deal with the awkward amount (or make a little tiny cup).