Producer: Finlays
Origin: Sri Lanka
Brewing Parameters: 5 minutes, 100°C, 1 teabag (recommended)
Appearance: Tall trapezoidal, bleached white teabag with black tea fannings
Rating: A- | 90/100
# of Brews: 1
Tasting Notes and Thoughts
So, 200th tea today! The tea itself probably doesn't seem that special, but I think it has some good memories associated with it. I picked this one up during the California We the People state competition; our team has a tradition of going to Disneyland at this time, so we were in Anaheim after winning first place. The rooms were really nice– they had a kitchen, two bedrooms, and two bathrooms. I was with the guys I was cool with on the team; they're all kind of nerdy, but were chill and easy to room with. I remember one of them spent the entire night talking to his girlfriend on the phone (a conversation that wasn't going that well) and another one staying up past 1 or 2 AM on reddit and reading comics. As for the team it's kind of weird; I found it left behind in a container in the kitchen cupboard. I know I probably shouldn't trust random teabags I find in hotel rooms, but hey, I'm going to college. Time to take chances! That same night we stayed in that hotel, I hung out with the rest of the team playing video games until midnight, and was invited to come with some random girls to their room while in the elevator (I politely declined). This tea just feels a bit symbolic for me, especially considering I've changed so much since I've started writing this blog. Here's to a great senior year, and an even better four years at Cal.
Apparently, this is a popular Arabic tea. The producer has a very in depth website, which is great for me, since the packaging itself is relatively bare. Brewing per the instructions makes the tea come out very strong and dark; I'd say it looked like a cup of coffee, a very dark opaque brown, without the smell. The aroma was similar to English Breakfast, with its earthiness. However, it was definitely more sweet. For some reason, it reminds me of spices and cola, with all of its sweetness. Despite its color, the taste was surprisingly not too bitter or too strong. It's a very rich and savory tea; it's earthy, like the smell, and malty, with a little bit of coffee notes in the background. I thought it tasted like chai, without the milk or kick from spice. Like most black teas of this type, it gets a bit sour and leaves somewhat of a waxy feeling in the mouth, and had a slight bit of astringency. However, it was still a lot better than I expected (I thought it would be essentially the same as English or Irish breakfast, or maybe even Lipton), and I think it'd be great with milk and maybe a bit of sweetener. I'd definitely buy the loose leaf if I could ever find it in an international store.
Other Notes
Today's album is Twin Cinema by the New Pornographers. This album is interesting since it has a nice balance of indie rock and folksy stuff. I've liked the song Streets of Fire by them for a while now, after hearing it on an art stream a few years ago, and I finally bought the album on CD when I found it at Half-Price Books yesterday. More on that below.
Yesterday seemed like one of those quintessential summer vacation days, and I'm so happy it happened. My Cal friend wanted to hang out and get boba since she's going backpacking for the next few days and won't have access to social media. I picked her up, along with my unitmate, and we went to the Asian grocery store for drinks. We hung out there for a while, talking, and when we finished, we explored a bit for snacks. Without any plans, really, I drove them to Half Price Books where we spent most of the time there looking through music; my Cal friend and I both have interesting music tastes, mostly indie. HPB surprisingly has a really good selection of CDs and vinyl, mostly used, and when we found Twin Cinema, we immediately chose to buy it to listen in the car. We had a quick stop at the thrift store before we drove back to drop off my unitmate at her house.
Once she was gone, it was evening and the sun was setting. We played the CD and drove around town with the windows down, and we went to a park that my friends and I have gone a few times to smoke. I brought her up to a big hill that overlooks the city, where you can see a ridge, hills, trees, and a farm, and we watched the sunset together and talked. We were there until it got dark; the moonlight illuminated a lot of the trail and we enjoyed the summer breeze. There was a meteor that passed by, too. It was getting late, but we walked through the park together and played on a big metal slide and some swings for a while. Getting back to the car, we had to run through a couple of sprinklers, but after that, I drove her home. It's been a long time since I've had one of these days, but I'm glad I had one before I go to Berkeley, and I'm glad I spent it with her.
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