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I won this tea in a draw that Teavivre hosted about a year ago. It’ll be interesting to compare it to what I remember of the company’s 2016 She Qian Dragonwell, which is an earlier picking by a few days. I steeped 3 g of tea in a 120 ml teapot at 175F for 20, 40, 70, 120, 150, and 180 seconds.

The leaf is a vivid green, is mostly unbroken, and has ample white fuzz; the aroma in the teapot is of spinach and other veggies. The first steep has notes of spinach, peas, asparagus, chestnuts, cream, and umami. From what I can recall, it packs more of a punch than the She Qian. In the second steep, the chestnut and green notes are intensified and the tea has a touch of astringency. Subsequent steeps retain the nutty character, but get increasingly green and vegetal.

This is a high-quality, refreshing green tea that has more substance than its She Qian counterpart. I have over 20 g of this to finish, so I’ll be able to explore different preparation methods.

I’m finally getting to the end of my Zen Tea samples. I steeped 5 g of tea in a 120 ml teapot at 200F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

This is a toasty, nutty Da Hong Pao. I get toasted grain, honey, caramel, charcoal, walnuts and other nuts, and tobacco in the first to third steeps. It’s drying without being bitter, with a persistent nutty and charcoal aftertaste. The tea acquires a mineral taste by steep four, but otherwise remains consistent.

By steep seven, I find, like other reviewers, that this Da Hong Pao starts to peter out, with the nuts and grain becoming attenuated. This tea thins out into a charcoal and mineral finish around steep ten.

This Da Hong Pao had a promising beginning, but faded quickly. What there was of it was good, though. Still, I’ve had other DHP’s with more staying power and complexity.

As a fan of this terroir, I bought the Shan Lin Xi, Long Feng Xia, and Shibi winter harvests for comparison. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, and 120 seconds.

In the teapot, the leaves have heady aromas of flowers and sweetness. The first steep offers notes of wildflowers, orchids, and lilacs, although my palate for flowers is not too great and I’m kind of guessing. I also get grass, cream, and resin. The body is a bit thin, but the aftertaste is persistent.

The next few steeps are even sweeter and more floral, though I wouldn’t have identified this sweetness with corn. The balsam note is also very prominent, as is the “greenness” that accompanies it. Although this greenness gradually increases, there’s enough floral and sweet notes to keep it tasty. It only starts getting overwhelming around steep nine.

If you like floral oolongs with strong balsam notes, you’ll enjoy this tea. It also has good staying power for a green oolong. I highly recommend it!

My cupboard clearance continues with this tea from 2014. This is my first Keemun Mao Feng, so I don’t have any benchmarks for comparison, even if it would be fair to judge such an old tea. Not surprisingly, the aroma is almost nonexistent, although I detect faint notes of smoke and hay. I steeped 5 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 203F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The first steep has notes of honey, hay, leather, smoke, and tannins. The astringency increases on the second steep, although it’s compensated for by more sweetness and what may be a hint of tart, unripe plums. Subsequent steeps offer a suddenly prominent note of buffalo grass, along with earth, malt, tannins, and minerals.

Especially in the initial steeps, this reminds me of Yunnan Sourcing’s Bai Lin Gong Fu, a tea of which I wasn’t particularly fond. Although I liked the progression of flavours, few of them appealed to me. I’ll have to try another Keemun Mao Feng to see if this one is typical of the style.

Since I started getting into loose leaf, I’ve wanted to try all ten of China’s famous teas. After this one, I should only have two more to go (Du Yun Mao Jian and Jun Shan Yin Zhen), although I’d like to revisit a few more. I steeped about 3.5 g of leaf in a 120 ml porcelain teapot at 185F for 20, 40, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

This Mao Jian is a bit more assertive than other greens I’ve tried, with notes of snow peas, kale, bok choy, and other bitter greens on the first steep. In subsequent steeps, I get a stronger vegetal and umami flavour and a hint of smokiness. The liquor is somewhat astringent and has an oily mouthfeel on the later steeps, combined with a long, vegetal aftertaste. The two last steeps are more astringent than the others, but are still enjoyable.

This was a pleasant green tea that I imagine would be very refreshing cold brewed. It would be fun to compare it with its Du Yun counterpart.

My nose has been kind of stuffed up lately and I’ve been trying to finish older teas, so I’ve been rather inactive on Steepster. This tea has been open for a while and, though I’m not head over heels for it, as I’ve been for some other Eco-Cha Tea Club offerings, it’s still pretty good. I steeped 6 g in a 120 ml porcelain teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 180 seconds.

The first thing I notice about this tea is how sweet it is. I get notes of custard, cream, flowers, and grain in the first steep. The second reveals more floral notes (osmanthus?), honey, and a kind of tart green apple flavour. The roast on this tea is very light, letting a lot of the greenness show through.

Floral, honey, and creamy custard notes persist throughout the next few steeps. The tea also has a thick, heavy mouthfeel that seems to make the slight roast more palatable. By the eighth steep, the tea is roastier and drier, but still engagingly floral.

This tea combines the floral freshness of a green oolong with the sweeter character of a slightly roasted one, and as such, is very pleasant to drink. But I don’t have the desire to hoard it for special occasions like I did with their Tie Guan Yin or their bug-bitten tea club selections. This might be a tea for those who dislike the grassier notes of greener oolongs.

This sample is from the 2017 harvest and is a tea I’ve never tried before. Following Teavivre’s instructions, I steeped around 4 g of leaf in a 120 ml porcelain teapot at 185F for 30, 50, 70, and 90 seconds.

The first steep has notes of green beans and florals, with a touch of astringency. The second tastes like buttered green beans. I can smell a peach aroma in the teapot, but it doesn’t make it into the tea. Although I wouldn’t describe it as nutty, I get what others are saying about it being reminiscent of dragonwell. The next couple steeps have notes of beans, peas, lettuce, and other veggies.

This was fresh and enjoyable, but it doesn’t make me a green tea convert. I’ll have to try it Western style to see if I can pick up on some other flavours.

This is my second session with this tea. I was going to write about it before, but was overwhelmed by its complexity. This high mountain oolong from the Li Shan area performs well above its relatively modest price point. I steeped 5 g in a 120 ml porcelain teapot at 205F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The first steep is a wonderful balance of floral, fruity, and vegetal. It has notes of peonies, sweet pea flowers, dried fruit (cranberries?), cooked spinach, arugula, and herbs, and is much pleasanter than that sounds. In the second and third steeps, nutty overtones become more noticeable and the liquor gets stronger and tangier. It also has the silky mouthfeel I associate with good Li Shan teas. I’m having trouble describing exactly what’s going on because this oolong is so complicated.

The next few steeps are nuttier and fruitier as the florals fade into the background. There’s a hint of grain, as mentioned on the website. If I were being fancy, I’d describe this as a cranberry-almond biscotti next to a receding bouquet of peonies. Even after nine steeps, this tea isn’t a sad vegetal mess like some high mountain oolongs, retaining its tangy, dried fruit flavour.

This is an exceptional oolong that I’m surprised is still in stock.

I’m experiencing a green Tie Guan Yin shortage, and while I know I should wait until the spring 2018 harvest comes out in June, going several months without one of my favourite oolongs seems dire. This is the second-last reasonably sized package of green TGY in my cupboard, and it’s pretty good. I steeped 5 g of tea in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 120, and 240 seconds.

The first steep seems slightly more oxidized than a typical green Tie Guan Yin, with notes of orchids, butter, grass, honey, and miscellaneous florals, which become violets in the second steep. Nectarines and vanilla appear in steep three, making the tea much more interesting, but also more perfumey. The fruit leans more towards apricot in the fourth steep. The next few steeps maintain this balance of flavours before petering out into grassiness.

This is a nice Tie Guan Yin that hits the spot. It has few surprises and fades faster than I’d like, but it’s pleasant while it lasts. I hope Zen Tea continues to carry it in the future.

I don’t have much experience with Hong Shui oolongs, although with the three I’ve received thus far in the Eco-Cha Tea Club, this could soon be rectified. The dark, loosely ball-rolled leaves look fairly different from the oolongs I’m familiar with, and don’t give off much of an aroma. I steeped 5 g of tea in a 120 ml porcelain teapot at 200F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The first three steeps taste exactly like spiced banana-nut bread, with notes of grain, cooked banana, roasted walnuts, honey, and spices (nutmeg?). The tea loses some of its nuttiness after this and takes on a sesame flavour. It also acquires a peachy finish and a mineral note reminiscent of Chinese Wuyi oolong, although this could be just my imagination. The leaves consistently smell more peachy in the teapot than they taste in the cup.

A perfect dessert tea, this Hong Shui is rich, mellow, and indulgent. If it had come through with a bit more of that peachy flavour, it would have been among my all-time favourites.