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The aroma has a hint of butter and fresh baby spinach. The color is a cool green, bright but not electric. The first sip has the same fresh baby spinach quality. With a higher roast, the greens would give way to a sweeter, more coconut like flavor.

This oolong comes by way of my Bosses who recently toured the tea gardens of Hawaii. The leaves look like a a cross between mao cha and a lazily rolled oolong. Wet leaf aroma smells like a medium roasted Tie Guan Yin and brews a light amber similar to a Bai Hao oolong. After the first infusion, the roasty qualities fall off completely and leave the more floral notes I would expect from some high mountain (volcano) teas. The body of the tea I would describe as being more similar to a Bai Mu Dan than anything else. The flavors are smooth and a little dry, although not as dry as the other hawaiian teas I tasted (maybe it’s my water?) there’s hints of butter and a bit of oats or maybe a barley like taste. Interesting to say the least, I’m about to post a more detailed version of this tasting on my blog with some pictures added.

Revisiting this TGY from 2011’s harvest. This roast is subtle but enough to come through on the finish. Some of the more floral flavors have mellowed in it’s almost two years since harvest. A nice night cap of something different than my usual Wuyi oolong.

This tea is the mellower sibling to the Grand Golden Needle. The flavors are still quite good but a little bit smoother and rounder. The Cocoa nib flavor is more present than the maltiness I find in Dian Hong usually.

The infusion is a classic deep red and the aroma has that sweet, dry and even a little bit floral aroma that takes me right back to the fields and factories where this tea was made!

I have never had a Puer from this mountain before so I was curious to see how it compared to Yiwu or Banzhang.

I enjoy the initial flavors, nectarine and some yellow squashiness. The finish is clean and sweet, not too dry but just woody enough that I have a nice full mouth feel for 10-15 infusions. I can see this being great in 5 more years.

This tippy tea was a wonderful discovery. Made from the Liu An plant and harvested at the same time to create two different teas!

The brew is grassy and sweet. Liu An plants produces some of the smoothest creamiest brews I’ve ever consumed.

Mild in each brew, but surprisingly durable and forgiving. 8 great cups and my palate is filled with asparagus and a little bit of honeydew.

I got a 25gr sample if this tea to see if I wanted more. I was warned that 90% of the people didn’t like it and the 10% that did were mostly Russian customers. Something in my Russian heritage must have come alive because this is a wonderful find.

The aroma is quite strong, pungent and a little smoky. The fist infusion was little light but the flavors were noticeable enough to pick out some hints of what was to come. The second infusion was fantastic, like a hickory smoked meat or cheese but without the saltiness.

You can really taste the age of the tea, the woodiness has a little more kick to it. There isn’t much if any fruity notes that I have found in Shengs even as old as 2003 so I think that speaks to the wet storage speeding up the aging, creating the darker, richer brews. The liquor was a deep orange, Grade B Honey hue.

I’m 10 infusions in and not going to quit any time soon. This has high potential for my Puer class menu!

I bought this tea from a villager at the base of a 3200 year old tea tree. The leaves are nice a big, wiry and full of mango and dried apricot flavor. I’ve been drinking this tea a fair amount, and I’ve been impressed with it each time. Every new brew tells a different story of Yunnan.

The aroma of wet leaves is that of asparagus being cooked in a small amount of butter. The flavors are grassy but not in the same way a Japanese green is, they still have a pan fired toastiness.

The leaves are small and delicate, some quite fuzzy, while others are rather plain looking. interesting to note that while most bushes we saw in China looked like they were in active harvest, the bushes on Putuoshan looked somewhat neglected.