Roughage

Free sample from Fong Mong

Lovely tea. There, that’s all I need to write. It isn’t? Ok, well, upon opening the packet I got that proper oolong aroma, which immediately got me excited. The 6 minute recommended steeping time made me go “Eep!” as with the Blue Jade from Fong Mong. Still, I followed the directions and soon a lovely aroma was arising from my teapot. Impatiently I tapped my foot and waiting while the tea steeped. Then I got to taste it. It was light and creamy on my tongue. There was a definite fruity note to it with a sweet, slightly floral aftertaste that really came to the fore as I exhaled. Fresh, tasty, definitely one to keep in stock. I really liked this tea.

Free sample from Fong Mong Tea

I was curious to taste this tea because it sounded like something completely new to me. Opening the packet, I was hit with a malty aroma and could see that the leaves were large.

When I began brewing the tea I got more of the minty aroma coming off it. So, malt and mint. What would it taste like? There were undertones of other black teas I have drunk in this cup, but the dominant flavour was mint with a bit of malt. If anything the minty flavour was too much for me but I decided to resteep the tea with a slightly shorter steeping time and see what came up. I was able to reduce the mintiness a bit and that helped my enjoyment of the tea. Overall, I was not sure about this tea. It is clearly good quality and the flavours are there as advertised, but it did not enthrall me despite that. Now that I know what to expect from it, I think I need to experiment a bit with brewing parameters to get the best from it. Perhaps I shall learn to like it more, or perhaps it is just not to my tastes. Still, as I wrote before, it is a good quality tea and others may enjoy it more if the flavours suit them better. Thank you, Fong Mong Tea, for the chance to try this one.

Free sample from Teavivre

The pearls smelled malty and slightly chocolatey when I opened the packet. They were larger than other pearls I have had. I must say I rather liked the hefty chunk of them. So, out with the infuser mug, which I generally reserve for my jasmine pearls and gunpowder, but that is a practicality decision, not because it brews them best. I was not sure how many pearls to put in, so I plumped for five pearls. The mug is about 200ml.

As I poured the water over them, the maltiness of the aroma increased. Once steeped, I had to wait a bit, because it was really too hot to drink. I am not good at waiting! The first sip told me what I needed to know. This tea is malty with a smooth, thick underlying chocolateyness that is gorgeous. The liquor is reminiscent of dark chocolate too. The sweet aftertaste lingered at the back of my tongue for some time too. Lovely. In some respects, this tea was like drinking a mug of cocoa, but nicer.

In the end, I managed to get four steepings out of the leaf, but the real flavour only lasted for the first two. After that it was slightly chocolatey sweet water.

I generally struggle to find black teas that I really like (other than Darjeelings), but this one definitely hits the mark and will be making a reappearance in my cupboard soon.

Still enjoying the grassy, vegetal notes and the nutty flavour. Shame that I am getting to the bottom of the packet now.

Free sample from Fong Mong Tea.

Upon opening the packet the first thing I noticed was the oxygen absorber pad. That’s an interesting bit of attention to detail that I have not encountered before. Then I looked at the little green nuggets of tea. Smaller than I am used to, but the smell is lovely and grassy with a heady undertone of flower meadow that bodes well for the flavour of the tea.

As others have noted, the steeping guidelines indicate a 6 minute steep! I echoed their “Eeps” at that, so I started with 3g of tea in my 140ml gaiwan and an initial steep of 2 minutes. As I poured the hot water onto the tea, I was hit with a beautiful tropical garden aroma that built up as the tea steeped.

1st steep: the flavour was delicate, light and floral. It lacked a little depth, probably because of my short steeping time, but it was still lovely. The nuggets had not fully unfurled by the end of this steep, which may have been part of the problem with the lack of depth.

2nd steep: I increased the steep time to 4 minutes and suddenly the tea was right there. Orchid notes combined with lychee flavours to give a beautiful tea that made my tongue very happy. The sweetness lingered on my tongue for ages and I also noted a calming feeling in my body.

3rd steep: Up to 6 minutes now. The tea tasted lighter than the previous steep but still very pleasant and the sweetness still lingered on my tongue.

4th steep: 6 minutes again. Definitely past the strongest flavours now but the tea still reminds me of a walk in a tropical garden. The leaves have filled my gaiwan and smell lovely and the tea is light and Summery. The sweet aftertaste still lingers. I stopped here for now, but I shall return to the gaiwan later for more to see how long the tea will go on for.

Overall, I really enjoyed this tea and I am pleased that I have enough left over in the sample for another good session. I reckon I shall take the plunge and try steeping it for the recommended 6 minutes next time to see how that works out.

I bought this a bit back when Canton had it on special and finally cracked the beeng yesterday. I’m not sure what I was expecting from it really, although I could not help but compare it to the 2010 Xing Hai that Canton sells for half the price. So, my thoughts?

The beeng smells lovely. I get that people will get a tobacco smell from it. For me, although there is something of pipe tobacco in it, the aroma of the beeng itself is redolent of the stableyard, just like the Xing Hai. It’s a lovely grassy horsey smell that reminds me of good times.

When I picked it apart, I got large leaves with bits of stalk. I mean some of those leaves were huge. Great stuff.

Yesterday I made it in my gaiwan: 3g of tea in a 140ml gaiwan, temp at 95 degrees as recommended on the website. With steeping times starting at 10 seconds and rapidly escalating, I found it to be on the insipid side (or delicate, if you wish to be kind). The flowery taste was there, but I got little in the way of aftertaste or depth of flavour. Shame that.

Today I opted for my dedicated sheng pot (170ml duan ni). I jammed 8g of leaf into the pot, and I mean jammed. Some of the leaves were too large to actually fit comfortably into the pot. I was going for destruction testing this time around, as far as I was concerned. I reckon I did the right thing too. The first steep was 20 seconds. It came out slightly flowery and a bit peaty. Not really fantastic, but pleasant. The second steep was also 20 seconds because I figured the first steep was a wake-up call and I was right. The taste came in a lot stronger. The peatiness and smokiness were emphasised but without killing the floral flavours. It was sweet and only just the right side of bitter. There was an aftertaste that really came into its own on the exhale, at which point my tastebuds started jumping around. Yes, that was about right for me. It reminded me of nothing so much as some of my favourite malt whiskies (without the alcohol, of course!). From that point on it was good all the way through to the sixth steeping, with some mushroom and mineral flavours developing along the way. I had to stop at that point else I shall not get to sleep tonight. Let’s see what it is like in the morning.

It seems to me that this tea likes it rough at the moment. It is robust enough to cope with some harsh treatment, and, for my taste, it needs a bit to bring out the best in it. I look forward to seeing how this tea ages, and will have to get a beeng or two more so that I can ensure a supply for some time to come.

I’ve been drinking this for the past few days but have been having trouble accessing Steepster, so I have not posted before now.

Following on from my previous note, this tea is marvellous. In the short time it has been sitting and airing in my cupboard, my skill at making it has improved and it has mellowed a bit, taking the sharper edge off the smokey flavour and I find that it loves my duan ni pot too. Most excellent. Better yet, it just makes me feel relaxed. The tea is happy and it makes me happy. What more needs to be said?

This tea tasted of peaches today. Odd. There did not seem to be any nuttiness to it, but the peachy flavour and peach-coloured liquor was still smooth and creamy. My tastebuds must be doing odd stuff.

I can’t believe that I have not written any tasting notes about this tea. It has been in my cupboard for ages and I drink it regularly. I really must get better at recording all my teas! Anyhoo, I put half a dozen pearls in my infuser mug, wait a bit and drink. Resteep, drink again, etc. I can get half a dozen mugs of good tea out of that lot. This is the tea I go to when I want something sweet and easy to make. The balance of jasmine flavour to tea is just right. It is smooth and velvety, and is just what I want when I want something that does not require me to pay very close attention to it. Is that a bad thing? I don’t think so. There is more there if you do pay close attention to the tea, but you can get plenty from it without that. This is a staple tea for my cupboard.

I returned to this tea on Saturday but have had no chance to post at all over the past few days. Anyway, I like it more now than I did before. It makes me feel all calm and happy. The smoky flavour is there and all the other notes that I recorded before, but now they are mellowing a little. My duan ni yixing teapot is perfect for this tea and really seems to like it, which also helps, and I really think I am learning to get the most from this one.

It’s all gone. :-( I have really enjoyed this tea as you will see from my rating of it and my notes about it, but I just finished it off. Perfect for a hot day here (well, hot by my standards); light, refreshing and tasty. I need to buy more of this, but I am torn by the range of teas I have not tried yet. Talk about being caught on the horns of a Dalai Lama!

No notes yet.

No notes yet.

No notes yet.

My wife was given this tea for her birthday. Naturally, she wondered if it was really for her! We have not tasted Genmaicha before and we tried it for the first time today. It is a hearty tea with a very toasty taste and aroma to it. I cannot decide how much I like it, but suspect that it is a ‘mood’ tea: great when you are in the mood for it. I did not notice much green tea in the flavour, because it seemed to be swamped by the toasted rice flavour that dominated. I think I was expecting something more delicate. Well, never mind. This is another tea that has its place in our cupboard for when we are in the mood for it. I shall try it again and report back when I have more time to spend working out the flavours and seeing if there is as much behind the rice flavour as the blurb from the website claims.

No notes yet.

My brother in Copenhagen sent me some of these for Christmas and finishing the packet has reminded me that I need to write them up.

I like flowering teas because of the sheer aesthetic pleasure to be had from watching them unfurl. I have a large glass teapot for this purpose and often bring it and a flowering tea out at the end of dinner when we have guests round. My family are a bit blase about flowering teas now, but I still get a good reaction from other guests.

This tea is a nice green tea that unfurls with pink flowers. The tea itself is as you would expect a decent green tea to be. It is not absolutely stunning, but it is just the thing for a hot day: light, refreshing and you can drink a lot of it without unpleasant side-effects. It is not stunning like my favourite Anji Bai Cha, but it is not awful like some of the bagged green teas either. It is a solidly good product. I shall certainly not complain if I receive more of this next Christmas! Hmm, I wonder if my brother actually reads Steepster. If so, hint, hint, bro! :-)

No notes yet.

No notes yet.

Can’t believe I have not logged this tea before. It is everything they promise in the description. The liquor is almost clear. The flavour is light, refreshing, sweet, slightly grassy with a floral aftertaste. There is so much going in in this one that it takes a while to really get to grips with it. I know that when I got my first packet of it last summer, I thought it was nice but not mind-blowing. Now that I have a lot more experience under my belt, I find it to be a most excellent tea for summer days sitting in the conservatory marking essays, or indeed any other occasion when a lighter tea is needed.

This is also another tea that looks awesome in the glass teapot. Visually, it is not up there with the Anji Bai Cha, but it is still most pleasing.

This is the last of the samples I received from Teavivre. I have been meaning to write it up for a while but can only plead extreme ennui, which is a shame because I received a large sample and have been enjoying it regularly for a week now.

The keyword in my excuse above is ‘enjoying’. This is a lovely green tea and it has given me much pleasure. The leaves look beautiful and suspend in the teapot very pleasingly. I generally use a glass teapot for my green teas, and in this case particularly, the visual aesthetic is emphasised by doing so. It smells grassy and slightly nutty. When brewed these flavours come to the fore and I find myself not wanting to swallow the tea because my tastebuds are dancing around in delight as I roll the tea around my mouth. The aftertaste is sweet and I can imagine that my breath now has a nutty, buttery, grassy deliciousness to it as I breathe out. Yes, this is a tea that is well worth savouring and is one I shall add to my buying list.

No notes yet.

With more teas under my belt, I have returned to this one. It now reminds me of the aged TGY that Canton do but with a less overpowering cocoa flavour. The taste is complex with the cocoa flavour at the top but some muscatel and raisins underneath. There is a lot going on in this tea and I am pleased to find that I still enjoy it as much as before but that my experience is richer for having tasted a lot of other teas between my first tasting of it and now.

No notes yet.