Eric Scott

This tea review is inspired by Bonnie and her unique style!

I have some big decisions to make soon and my mind has been racing all of yesterday and today. I needed something to clear my head. A hike? Some tea? Why not both! I packed up my Jetboil camp stove, my most durable yixing pot, a cup, a tiny vase, and some Mi Lan Xiang Dan Cong from Red Blossom. I found a spot near the bank of the Cache La Poudre river and created a tea space with rocks and logs and a cloth I brought with me. In the vase, I placed the first signs of spring—some willow branches close to bud-burst. The first steeping was intense, probably brewed a little too long, but full of flavor! Sweet plumy flavors and floral aromas were balanced by a slight astringency. Subsequent infusions lead to less complexity, but a more harmonious flavor. The slight astringency was replaced by a smooth and full-bodied mouthfeel and the floral aromas mellowed into a more honey-like taste. At the same time, my mind slowed along with the tea. Disparate and racing thoughts disappeared and were replaced by a calmness. I was finally able to be solidly in the present for the first time in a long while.

No notes yet.

Wonderful oolong with lingering flavor. This is an incredibly interesting, and perplexing tea given it’s description. I was expecting something like a traditional roast Dong Ding, but it is in fact a lot more like a Dan Cong in flavor. Wonderful sweet apple and honey fragrance with a hint of something floral in the first steeping. Later steepings give some more astringency and actually are better with a shorter steeping. Oddly, you get more of the roasted notes in later steepings. Because of the roast and the lingering aftertaste, I’d immagine this one would be a good candidate for aging as well.

I tried a sample of this the other day (thanks Bonnie!). I was skeptical at first because it was called genmaicha but looked like it was made with gunpowder green tea. I read the label though, and started to get excited when I saw that it was tea grown in Thailand. I’d never had a Thai-grown tea before! It looked to be about half tea and about half toasted purple sticky rice. I LOVE purple sticky rice. The fragrance is amazing.

Flavor-wise, this is NOT genmaicha, or at least not recognizably so. It’s a fairly full-bodied tea with a wonderful jasmine rice fragrance. I steeped it twice and it held up to re-steeping well. A win for creativity for sure! I don’t think I’d drink this on a daily basis, but it was fun for my tastebuds!

No notes yet.

Thanks Bonnie for the sample! I brewed this tea in a yixing pot. I used approximately 2 tsp of leaf for a roughly 6 oz pot.

Dry leaf appearance: almost like bits of charcoal. Very dark, crisp looking leaves. This shou is loose-leaf, not compressed into a cake.

Dry leaf aroma: Very little aroma from the dry leaves, likely because the leaves are very old!

After a short rinse, I brewed the first infusion for around 20 sec with boiling water. The liquor is surprisingly light considering the darkness of the leaves. Aromas are musty, but not in a bad way. The flavor is very sweet and toasty (but not roasty) up front with some very interesting notes that I couldn’t really name. Subsequent infusions reveal a peppery spice and increase the sweetness.

Oh, and this tea does indeed have strong chi! After four infusions, I can definitely feel the theanine kicking in.

Just absolutely incredible. So so good. It has all the rich chocolatey flavors of a new jin cha, but all these flavors are much deeper and smoother with age. The taste just lingers and lingers in your mouth. This is hands down my favorite black tea. Every time I drink it I can’t help but shout “YUM” repeatedly.

I usually brew this gongfu style in a gaiwan as it’s delicious for at least 4 infusions.

Aroma and flavor of dried plum. This aged wenshan baozhong has never been roasted and has been stored well for it’s 20+ year lifespan. No roasted notes as in many aged oolongs.