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Got this as one of many samples in my BLT order and drank it towards the end of last week, but didn’t have Steepster up to note at the time.

Steeped this according to their recommendations to get a deep-colored brew with a dark, sweet, earthy aroma. I got sweetness and a nice, thick mouthfeel right from the start, and the sweetness really started to come out in the second steep and carries on throughout the session. I’ll need to give this one more dedicated attention in another session, but I found it to be an easy to drink and enjoyable tea.

I had big plans to drink super awesome tea all day on my birthday. At the beginning of the week, much to my concern, I started feeling the telling feeling of sickness coming on. Tried to fight it off all week and failed, so today has been mostly large mugs of fragrant tisanes and decided to do this instead of any of my higher end teas. Was just able to taste the fruity, chocolatey notes in this. So I’ll have to make do with it until I’m all cleared up!

The SO wanted oolong this morning, so we decided to try out two gui fei oolong. This was one of them. The leaves are tightly rolled with white fuzzy bits all over them. Despite being a light roast, the roast becomes immediately apparent upon washing.

These leaves take a few steeps to really unfurl, but the flavor is strong from the first steep. This oolong has reportedely undergone medium oxidation which makes sense, as there are still a few hints of green on the leaves here and there but it’s got much more depth than a greener light roasted oolong. After several steeps, I also get hints of some of those citrusy notes that leaves can develop with oxidation.

Good drinking experience, but the flavor profile is not quite to my preference for an oolong. I think it’s definitely worth giving a try, though!

The SO wanted oolong this morning, so we decided to try out two gui fei oolong. This was one of them. This oolong is on the greener side with just a light roast, which is how I tend to prefer them. Nice fragrance comes off the leaves as soon as the water hits them, and they begin to unfurl rather quickly after a very brief wash.

The liquor steeps out a very light, transparent gold that has a nice, sweet, lightly roasted smell. First sip tastes like roasted sesame oil! The texture is super smooth, and more and more sweetness and creaminess emerges over subsequent steeps.

Definitely like this one!

Feeling blah the last couple of days. Time to load up on fluids and sip massive mugs of hot herb water.

Autumn 2016 harvest.

Drank this alongside the 2016 tung ting and lost my notes in a freak browser accident. Fun times. This is Stone Leaf’s darkest roasted oolong at the moment, and the leaves have an appropriately roasty aroma. Steeps out a nice, deep amber that gradually lightens over subsequent steeps. The roast in this one brings with it a distinct, pleasant sourness that complements the vanilla notes and deep, dark sweetness present in this tea, and adds some complexity to the otherwise smooth texture.

I feel like this one holds up to additional steeps a bit better than the medium roast, maintaining its bolder flavor very well.

Spring 2016 harvest.

Drank this alongside the 2016 bamboo roasted tung ting, but lost my notes yesterday. This one is medium roasted, and steeps out a bit lighter in color than the other initially, but the color of the liquors gradually becomes more similar after several steeps. The roast definitely helps bring out some of the flavors in this one without overpowering them. I can still get a sense of florals, but they’re rather light, and there is a vanilla cream sweetness present. At the beginning of the session, there is a lemon peel-like hint of citrus that gradually evolves into more of the orange peel flavor noted by the vendor.

Easy to drink and lasts for a good number of steeps, remaining smooth and creamy throughout the entire session.

So I chose this as the first thing to steep in the shiboridashi I made and oh my goodness. Umami and brothy with a creaminess that is more butter than cream. I get spinach out of the vegetal element here, and the brothiness is definitely of a briny nature.

While the first steep came out a deep golden hue, the second and third are a deep, vivid green, thick, silky soup, full of a more balanced medley of flavors than the first steep. So glad I got as much of this stuff as I did!

50C/80C/80C
120/20/30

Been looking forward to trying this one. Was glad to be able to get some of this from JWhisk’s stash. Steeped it at work to produce a nice, dark, thick smooth liquor and I had to come back to this one after a couple of days because I just couldn’t finish the session in one day. I got sweetness out of this one right from the start, but it took a few steeps for more flavor to really start emerging, after which point the taste of the storage became very apparent. The sweetness persisted and I started to get some mustiness and wet soil, along with lingering camphor. I found there to be so much depth to the flavor that it was hard to put words to some of it, and I look forward to another session with this one.