Sunday/TeaDay 6/22/08

[Chip]

..."scent/aroma/bouquet" was highly important to TeaChatters in yesterday's poll. You can still vote and discuss this rather aromatic topic.

Welcome all TeaFriends to TeaDay. Let's go brew and then gather round and share what is in our cups today...all day. If you need to, you can reflect back on your TeaDay.

Today's TeaPoll and discussion topic again centers on aroma and tea. I am sure I missed more than a few aromas in tea. But please share your favorite TeaAromas.

As always, I look forward to sharing TeaDay with everyone. Bottoms up, refill, repeat many times...

[olivierco]

I chose fruity, but other (marine, veggie, grassy, floral....) are good as well.

Keemun with breakfast.

[Salsero]

Shincha Miyabi Sencha from O-Cha (thanks, Chip) and a stunning vermilion chataku from Hibiki-an. The salad is composed of the leaves from Hidden Lilies.

[olivierco]

a stunning vermilion chataku from Hibiki-an.

Nice chataku. It looks much better than on hibiki-an's website. I might buy one pair with my next order.

[chrl42]

I choose most basics - grassy (greens) and toasty (oolongs). I don't like intentional fragnance like with flowers or fruits, to me it came good in the beginning and then got cheesy as time goes by.

[omegapd]

I chose other. I like the term "earthy". That can encompass the dark aromas of Pu-erh (which I love) but can be found in more subtle hints in many of the blacks that I drink too- like Red Rose.

Strangely enough, vanilla is one of my favorite scents of all time, but I pretty much hate it in tea.

Long sleepless night here. The Lapsang is out on the counter, but I think I'm going to dig through some boxes to find something else this morning...

Happy Sunday!

EW

[witches brew]

Since I'm often drinking green tea, I chose veggie of the astringent kind. A good green tea makes me think of asparagus, spinach or vegetable soup. All yummy!

Today, I'm not drinking green tea. I'm finishing yesterday's iced darjeeling, and wondering if the rain will hold off for this afternoon's post-solstice gathering.

[britt]

Grassy

Freshly cut grass as in first harvest sencha, not two week old cut grass as in much of the cheaper, yellow sencha found in so many local Asian markets.

Green grass as in Yutaka Midori and Hatsumi.

[Ti]

I put I don't know where to begin. My favorite changes from day to day.

I'm kicking the day off with pu-erh. Tastes like the cellar of the old abandoned church that I remember from my childhood.

[Riene]

I'm not sure how to describe it...but it's the scent that rises off my favorite Assam.

[kymidwife]

There wasn't an answer that 100% described the aroma I adore in tea... I almost picked "other" but decided to go with floral. One reason is that there is just nothing in the world that smells better than Jasmine Oolong... but that's not the main floral scent I refer to in my vote.

I'm drinking Adagio's Darjeeling #1 this morning, and the aroma is absolutely sublime... that soft earthiness, a hint of citrus-like fruity notes, and something I can only describe as musically floral. This is some of the most delicious tea I've had in the last 2 weeks... and I thought I didn't care for Darjeeling... I will definitely have to go back and try #22 again.

I love bold aromas too... puerh, lapsang, keemun... love them all, on various days. But since you asked me today, and since Darjeeling was in my cup and captivating my senses... floral got the vote.

Does anyone know what's the difference between Darjeeling #1 and Springtime Darjeeling from Adagio? The description reads the same, but the price is a bit different... and they are sold out of larger quantities of Springtime. I will post in the adagio section about this as well, as I might want to try the springtime version unless its pretty much identical.

Have a great Teaday, everyone.

Sarah

[neowolf]

I put sweet, but that's kind of a cop-out as I find most teas to smell quite sweet on their own. I really don't know how to describe what I enjoy in smelling tea, just that I do!

Right now I've got some nice Irish breakfast to go with my morning bacon.

[auggy]

I voted floral since that is my fav smell in oolongs. My fav is a TKY that has an orchid smell. Another oolong had a nice honeysuckle aroma. As much as I enjoy the floral scented/flavored teas, I love finding these floral smells in "regular" tea.

For greens, though, my fav is a sweet grassy sort of smell. Just so lovely.

Okay, I think I'm going to have to go smell some teas now. It'll give me something to do while I plan out my day. Grocery shopping? Costco to print pictures? Craft store to buy adhesive? Starbucks to replace a melted tumbler lid? Vacuuming? All of the above? Decisions, decisions!

[Cinnamon Kitty]

Toasty! I absolutely love the smell of the roasted, toasty oolongs. It slightly surpasses the grassy scent of green teas. In fact, I am drinking Oolong #8 this morning, which I love because of the toasty taste and smell.

I successfully converted my best friend to tea last night! She was so thrilled by everything that I had given her that she went online after she got home to order the PersonaliTea teapot since she really liked mine when we made a pot of tea to share and a sampler of herbal tisanes.

[trent]

There is absolutely no way I could pinpoint my favorite aroma, so I put other.

I generally savor the unique aroma of varying kinds of tea, or varying vendor's versions (say that 10 times fast) of the same kind of tea. I don't expect anything from the tea, I just brew it and discover where it excels, and where it doesn't. For example, some sencha is wonderful because of marine notes, and other because of citrusy notes (not the only categories, just 2 examples). I can't pick a favorite scent b/c in the marine sencha, I would obviously prefer the excellent marine notes over the sub par citrus ones, and vice versa for the other sencha.

So, my favorite scent is determined by the individual characteristics of each tea.