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I came very close to just steeping this once on the theory it is a “flavored” pu erh. I’m glad I didn’t, because I’m not sure I would have liked it as much as I did.

The nests in the tin smell like two parts earth to one part rose. I rinsed and steeped in the gaiwan at boiling for 10/10/20/30/40/60/120/240/300/360

Unlike the other tuocha’s I’ve had, this one took its time falling apart. It wasn’t until the fourth steep that it finally came apart — I wonder whether the petals have an impact on how the tea holds together?

Until the tea completely fell apart, the tea was not very strong — none of the usual cognac colored liquor until steep 4. Which is why I think I would have missed out had I steeped this western style. Though of course, if I steeped it longer in one steep it’s possible it would have come completely apart during that single steep.

The first steep had a faint rose scent/flavor and an equally as faint earthy/mushroom one. The mushroom did not increase, nor did the earthiness. Instead, the tea became some sort of undefinable flavor that was mild and sweet with a “highlight” of rose.

Different and enjoyable.

I find this tea a little puzzling because pretty much all the tuo cha teas I’ve had seem to have a similar flavor profile. This one doesn’t. It says it is “green” which I am guessing means it is not shu? Which could be why.

The little nests smell very much like rice. Like browned, fried rice.

I tried to cut one in half because the nests weigh over 4 g, but I gave up. I could not get the pieces to combine in a way that got me to the number I was looking for and I got bored with trying, so I just tossed the whole thing in the gaiwan.

I rinsed, and did an initial 10 second steep. That’s when I decided to steep this as a sheng even though I’m not entirely sure that’s what it is. The liquor is paler than any shu I’ve ever seen, though admittedly I haven’t seen many and it has that yellow sheng look rather than the brown I typically see in shus.

So — I let the leaves sit for 15+ minutes and then went 5/5/7/7/10/10/20/30/40/60

I am not sure whether it is because there was too much tea or not, but the first few steeps were quite bitter. If this is in fact sheng, which I am more and more certain it is, then I have finally experienced the bitterness!

After about the fourth steep, the bitterness went away and what was left was basically the single toasted rice note through the remaining steeps.

That note is nice enough, but once the novelty wears off, it just is what it is.

Sipdown no. 6 of 2019 (no. 494 total). Two teabags, gifted to me as part of a Harney order.

I feel rather liberated now that I’ve decided I don’t need to do a sipdown a day during 2019. I can just do 10-15 a month and it doesn’t matter when I do them. Otherwise I would have felt compelled to cheat and save this sipdown for tomorrow since I already logged one today. And that would be weird because I actually drank these last night.

In any case, I like the idea of chamomile more than I actually like chamomile with the exception of the really excellent Samovar chamomile I had once upon a time. Even though it has been a year since I sipped down my last sample of this I can’t really improve upon the note I wrote last year.

Another twisty tea from Indulgashinna. It’s funny, I think the Thousand Arrows looks more like unicorn horns than this does. Thousand Arrows is uniformly twisted. These are fuller in the middle.

I had the impression of joints when I first looked at them. I needed a reality check so I asked the BF to take a look. He said: “looks like weed.”

In any case, the two teas smell very similar in the tin. Which makes me wonder whether they are made from the same underlying leaf?

I put 3 “horns” in the gaiwan, rinsed, and steeped at 195F for multiple steeps starting at 15 seconds and increasing by 5 each time. I did 4.

The first steep gave a very light colored liquor, just the palest yellow, and not a ton of flavor. The note that Terri mentioned (bleach) was something I was also aware of, though I don’t know if I’d have called it that without reading her note, but there was also a sweetness.

Steep 2 gave a much more in the realm of oolong pale yellow liquor and an even sweeter tea. It’s not really a honey sweetness like I got with the Thousand Arrows, though. It’s more like spun sugar.

Steep 3 is where the tea starts to bear an aroma and flavor similarity to the Thousand Arrows. The liquor is deeper in color, and the wine/grape note is more prevalent. The sugary aspect also takes on something deeper, darker, and more honey like.

Not as charming looking as the Thousand Arrows, but a very interesting presentation nevetheless. This alone means I’ll be holding onto it for a while as Shanti no longer has this available on its website and it appears to have been discontinued.

I’m rating this where I rated the Thousand Arrows and bumping the Thousand Arrows up some.

Visually, this tea reminds me of the Blink Bonnie from the now departed LeafSpa. Definitely a more interesting than usual look.

The Blink Bonnie was a green tea and this is a Sri Lankan oolong. Interestingly, Blink Bonnie was also a Sri Lankan tea — it was Indulgashinna as well. It appears that Blink Bonnie may be an estate, but it also appears that Indulgashinna makes more than its share of these twisty leafed teas.

Sri Lankan oolongs generally aren’t among my favorites, but I might have to make an exception for this one — mostly because I just looked on the Shanti site and they don’t have it available anymore.

It would be a shame not to have in my collection a tea that looks like this. It’s just too cool.

In aroma and flavor, this isn’t like the typical green oolong, nor is it like the typical dark. It has a sort of wine-like note to it, but it’s not overly sharp. I am afraid I’m relegated to describing it more by what it is not than by what it is.

Not: floral, orchid, lilac, dairy, butter, milk, toasty, roasty, woody, smoky, stonefruit

The best I can come up with is nutty-honey-grapey-wine. The tea starts out a sort of butter yellow and becomes a darker gold with repeated steepings. I rinsed and steeped in the gaiwan at 195F for 15 seconds and added 5 seconds more each time, for five steeps.

Something to hold onto until it returns to Shanti or another Indulgashinna distributor turns up — but most of its points are attributable to the visual rather than the flavor.

Sipdown no. 5 of 2019 (no. 493 total).

This is one of those things where if I had the ability to keep an unlimited number of things for an unlimited amount of time, I would not have sipped this down now.

It’s actually very tasty, and quite tasty as a cold tea unlike most other smoky teas I’ve had.

I probably rated it a bit lower than it ought to have been rated, so I’m bumping the rating. But my decision to put it into the cold brew queue was based on its former rating.

Somewhat sad to see this one go.

I got this as a sample when I ordered some yixing pots from Yunnan Sourcing a while back. The dry tea smells very much of hay.

I’m a little nervous about being the only non-full fledged pu erh aficionado to write a note about this one. I’m such a n00b compared to the two experts on this page.

But nevertheless, I persist. I rinsed and let this sit for 15 minutes+ before steeping in the gaiwan at boiling: 5/5/7/7/10/10/20/30/40/60

The tea starts out a little pale yellow but gets darker to a sort of medium to light butter-lemon color that is clear.

The aroma reminds me of the taste of chocolate covered raisins — a little dried fruity, a little cocao-white chocolatey.

That’s a note I’ve been getting a lot from sheng and that I continue to find surprising. How can something that light in color have that sort of flavor? Maybe I’m the problem.

I’m finding a lot of the shengs I try to be quite awesome. I can’t remember the last time I had so many 90+ ratings.

Maybe it’s the novelty?

Steeped according to package directions. 1.5 tsp in 12 oz boling water for 5:30.

Yep, it’s pretty much exactly the same as the American Tea Room with the same name which I described as:

Sipdown no. 132 of 2018 (no. 488 total). A sample.

For the last caffeine of the day, I decided to crack open my sample of this.

I’m not sure what possessed me to buy this. I sort of think that flavored pu erhs are a mistake in general. I’m not an expert in pu erh but that is my uneducated opinion.

However, the BF came down with some awful thing while we were on vacation and he sounds like he’s coughing up both lungs. So he wanted me to make something he could drink and though I’m not sure this would ordinarily be his thing (he’s more of a fruit blend sort of guy) I thought it would kill two birds with one stone so to speak. Making this western style in the size cups we have basically sipped the whole thing down.

In the packet, there’s a strong primary smell of mint, and a secondary smell of vanilla. I have to search for the pu erh.

Because this is so highly flavored, I couldn’t really bring myself to put it through 10 steeps in the gaiwan. It just seemed a bit pointless.

Instead, I heated water to the temperature on the packet, 195F, and steeped for four minutes per the directions. I didn’t rinse, either.

The tea steeps very dark and almost opaque. Not as dark or opaque as coffee, though, and redder. It smells of minty peppermint and beany vanilla. No tea smell that I could discern.

And it tastes pretty much exactly like it smells. I didn’t expect to like this at all, and I have to say that I do like it. But not because of the pu erh, which I can’t taste at all, but because the pu erh makes a nice silent partner for the delivery of the mint and vanilla.

I think this is more aptly named Mint-Vanilla, with a hard to find pu erh base.

Tasty and worth trying, but it’s not the sort of thing I’m going to wring my hands over not being able to have again now that ATR is kaput.

I’d rate it higher but for the fact that the name doesn’t really describe the tea.

In the tin, this has the expected look of a tie guan yin (rolled balls of mostly green-colored tea) though it seems to have rather more silver highlights than others I’ve had recently. The tea in the tin smells green and grassy.

Gaiwan. Rinse. 195F for 15 seconds, plus 5 additional seconds for each subsequent steep.

The tea has a light, lemon-yellow liquor with a green tinge and is clear. It has a buttery, floral aroma, and a mild, buttery floral flavor.

It’s pretty much exactly what I’d expect from a tie guan yin. The only reason I’m not rating it higher is that it has a bitterness to the finish that is more pronounced than I’d like.

But I do love the way the leaves unroll and double to triple in volume!

Sipdown no. 4 of 2019 (no. 492 total). A sample.

A ittle less sour/bitter when steeped for only 7 minutes and slightly overleafed. But still not a favorite.