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FINALLY getting into my samples from CLT’s 2016 lineup. I feel like I ordered them months ago, but I’ve been out of state, so only got to unbox them about a week ago. I’ve been meaning to try some of their stuff basically since I got into puerh. I’m glad to report that this first one does not disappoint! The leaf from this one was pretty nice looking, and had a sort of floral hay aroma – I think I smelled a bit of smoke on it after a rinse, but that didn’t persist into the flavor of the tea.

Many teafriends I’ve spoken to online have issues with Lincang teas, but I have only had good experiences with them thus far. They tend to have a really nice sweetness and, again in my experience, not a whole lot of unpleasant bitterness or astringency.

The first two steeps here were floral, with just a touch of bitterness in the first steep. Soft and sweet with a literally mouthwatering huigan I tasted mostly in the corners of my mouth. That aftertaste was definitely the highlight at least of the early part of this session.

In the next three steeps, the floral notes dropped off a bit, displaced by a bit of a vegetal taste – the tea was still sweet and thickening up some. I noted just a minor astringency in a couple of these steeps. The aftertaste remained strong, having received most of the tea’s floral bouquet along with a sugarcane sweetness to round out the sip.

I got another 11 or so steeps out of this tea – that’s another thing I’ve noticed with Lincang teas, they seem to just go forever – all of which had mostly the same character. They were slightly bitter on the front of the sip, though this faded as I got towards the end of the session, with a vegetal or maybe herbal flavor, followed by a sweet finish – between floral and sugarcane. It maintained a moderate thickness. This tea never got super oily or creamy thick, but I could appreciate the body. If I had chosen to, I probably could have gotten a few more steeps off of it as well.

I found this better in the 100mL Jianshui teapot I also just got from CLT than in my gaiwan. I’m glad that I enjoy what it does with sheng so far, because it’s so pretty that even if it didn’t make as good of tea, I’d still find it hard to stop using it! After trying Hidden Song, I’m excited for the rest of CLT’s 2016 lineup, all of which I have samples of cakes of. Their sample packaging is also pretty neat – at first I thought it seemed a little insecure, but opening/closing the packaging a few times without spillage has assuaged my doubts.

When this tea was first released, CLT had a contest of sorts, in which anybody who could guess the song that was printed on the wrapper would receive a tong of this tea as a reward. During a google hangout with some teafriends, we spent probably a couple hours trying to guess what the song was using only the notes which were visible from the front of the wrapper, as none of us had a complete cake. Needless to say, we failed, but while drinking this tea, I found myself chuckling at the memory a couple times :)

I don’t know if I was supposed to keep that a secret or not – oh well.

This is the one that came with another mini cake of Mengsong Black Tea (not with a couple little balls) – June maybe? Just tried a couple sessions with this tea out. It’s pretty tasty! I agree with another reviewer that this one tastes quite a bit like a green tea. Not too surprising as it’s a baby sheng. It’s definitely not a green tea though – much more body than I’ve ever gotten out of a green tea. Though, I suppose I’ve never used boiling water with this ratio of tea for a green…hmm. Might be an interesting experiment.

Anywho, early steeps were thick and grassy with a sweet vegetal beany note. As I steeped it out, it got thicker, to the point where I would describe it as creamy, and the grassy character dropped off a bit. It did get slightly bitter a few times, but never to an offensive level. I found it smooth and intensely creamy – carrying a thickness I’ve still yet to experience in anything besides W2T’s offerings. This continued steadily for around 6 or 7 more steeps, giving me maybe a dozen or so total. The final couple tasted more steeped out, and had a kind of high-chlorophyll grassy taste to them again.

I really need to get out the cake of Mengsong Black that came with this, but I’m having too much fun with my Jianshui teapot that I’m just using for sheng! Hopefully I’ll get to it soon!

Today I drank a tea which was gifted to me by my brother’s friend who is a girl (not girlfriend) from China. She visited our house for a couple days while I was working out of state, but knowing that it was my birthday and that I like tea, she gave a tin of tea to my brother to pass on to me. It came with 6 or 7 little vaccum-sealed packages of Tieguanyin. The tea seemed decently fresh – certainly more than other Tieguanyin I’ve had in the past. It was pretty good tasting – some floral and vegetal notes. Not my favorite style of oolong, but it’s the thought that counts anyways, so I appreciate it regardless. I’d probably rate the tea 73/100.

This tea was another I got to try out teas produced by puerhshop.com. It’s a little confusing, because I believe the teas labeled “MGH,” “American Hao,” and “Zenpuer” are all produced by the people behind puerhshop.com. This one was alright – drinkable, enjoyable even, but nothing special. Grassy and floral flavors in the early steeps, later developing a beany vegetal flavor. Thickness of the liquid was mediocre.

Finally home to drink this sample which was graciously sent to me a couple months ago by mrmopar. I’m pretty sure this is the right tea. My first tea from CLT, and the second session in my new Jianshui teapot from CLT, which I’ve already fallen in love with. I haven’t quite gotten the pour timing down, so some of my early steeps were a bit intense, but nothing I couldn’t handle!

The leaf smelled a little bit smoky, but this didn’t really come through to a great degree in the flavor. The first three or four steeps held a pretty hefty bitterness to them, but also got floral and honey sweet notes to finish. I also sometimes picked out a nutty note on the front and the occasional resinous piney inclination. Over the next few steeps, the bitterness began to recede, and this became very sweet, but still powerful feeling in a nice Bulang-y way. For these steeps I was getting almost all sweetness as far as taste goes, with honey and mineral notes most notable. The final five or so steeps became a little less flavorful and also lost a bit of their edge, taking on a more gently sweet taste/feeling.

This tea was decently thick in the mouth through most of the session. I also picked up some qi, which made me feel just a touch jittery – quite possibly due to two tea sessions in rapid succession rather than this tea only – but it definitely has some power to it. I quite enjoyed this one, and I look forward to drinking through my samples of CLT’s 2016 lineup to get a better feel for their style and their teas.

A rather different seeming gyokuro. Leaf buds and tips are smaller than the leaf usually used for this kind of tea. Taking that in mind, I didn’t brew it as long as I normally do for gyokuro, and I’m glad I didn’t. First steep was 1 minute at 140F – this steep was thick, with umami and grassy flavors, along with a nutty or bready finish that I really wasn’t a huge fan of. Next, I did steeps of 15s, 30s, and 1m with 175F water. The umami was basically gone after the first steep, as was the nutty/bready business that was going on. The grassiness took a more prominent place for the rest of the session, and the tea developed a pretty nice asparagus vegetal note as well.

A tea from the Puerh TTB labeled “2016 Xigui Caicheng.” I think Xigui is the factory, not 100% sure though. The leaf for this one was very green. Smelled of straw and grass when dry. After a rinse, I got a slight briney note on the nose as well. Bitterness is the main thing I noticed with this one for the first 5 or so steeps – a rather unpleasant and astringent bitterness. Also detected nutty and straw notes – more like I had oversteeped a green tea. That harsh astringency did start to fade around steep number 6, after which I got around 6 more steepings with a basic sweet hay characteristic and slightly thick texture. Wouldn’t consider this tea a winner, though part of that could be that I brutalized it a little bit with boiling water. I’m guessing it would be more tasty with a few years’ age on it to cut that bitterness.

Rating: 73/100

I got this in a reddit swap – can’t remember who I swapped with really…oops! An interesting black tea, different from any others I’ve had. In my mind, I described it as if a black tea and a baozhong had a baby. The dry leaf didn’t have much of a smell, while the wet leaf smelled like steamed vegetables.

Throughout most of the session, the tea had a beany taste with a slight malty finish. For steeps 2-4 or so, there was a bit of cocoa in the finish as well. Also got a bit of milky creaminess in those steeps. Not much change through 9 steeps otherwise. An interesting and different black tea for sure.

Good god, I’m so far behind on teaclub drinking – they generally just get tossed in to my big box/bag o’ samples, forgotten until I’m randomly digging through for something to drink. Another pretty nice black tea from W2T, though it was definitely nicer the second time, after I remembered I’ve been using 200F water instead of boiling for these ones. With boiling water the tea died quite quickly and was never particularly good. With slightly cooler water, the tea lasted about 8 steeps – pretty good for a black tea that seemed to be composed of pretty small leaf.

The leaf, both wet and dry, gave off a nice cocoa aroma.

The first two steeps were soft with notes of cocoa and malt, along with a bit of creaminess. Very friendly on the palate. On my third steep, I think I upped the time a tad too quickly and the tea got a slight musty note along with those sweeter flavors. From the fourth steep, the tea started to take on a bit of a woody note. By this time, the cocoa flavor had gone out of the tea, so the remaining few cups from this session had a woody start which became bolder and more forward as the flavor steeped out, with a sweeter malty finish that diminished over a period of multiple steeps.

This was a very drinkable tea once I used the right temperature – a decently quick session and not a tea that made me think too much. I have read other reviews indicating that this tea took a long time to steep out, but I didn’t really find that to be the case (though maybe I’m just comparing it to sheng puerh that can go 12+ steeps, I don’t know).