Camellia Sinensis

No matter how many times I brew this tea or how many different measurements/water temperatures I try, I can’t get it to be very flavourful. What flavour it has is pleasant, but it just doesn’t taste like much. Trying hotter water than recommended only brought out a blandly unpleasant bitterness, as did increasing the steep time too much. I’m used to better from Camellia Sinensis; their teas are usually quite exciting. Best results at 85c / 3 minutes 30 seconds.

This is certainly the highest quality Indian Assam I’ve tried, though most of my Indian Assam consumption was through bulk bins at health food stores. That’s not to say this is only good by comparison. This is clearly quality tea, though it is fairly straight forward. Malty assamica notes are clear and present, but a muscatel character reveals itself along with notes of minty herbs, as well as fruity tones I normally associate with Taiwan-style black tea. The leaves are not whole, but that doesn’t affect my enjoyment, even in a gaiwan. Nice for a slightly more refined Assam experience.

Sipdown (153)!

Wow my cupboard jumped up this month! That just means I need to focus more on sipdowns and trying all the new goodies I’ve got, though. I’m finishing this one off tonight Western style because I wanted to use the tin for one of the new teas I just got – and I’ve been holding off on this sipdown for a while anyway.

This is just a nice, enjoyable tea overall – I absolutely adore the roasty quality it has and how that’s supported by flavour notes that are maybe just a bit more atypical for a roasted oolong. Things like the crustacean and mushroom notes I’m getting, and the intense umami. Of course, there are more common notes as well that tie everything together in a more complete way: wood, nuts specifically peanut, barley, maybe a little cocoa? It’s still very salty – but today I’d say less buttery/creamy than I observed last time.

I don’t know that I’ll order this one again; there are so many lovely aged oolongs out there that deserve attention as well. However, I loved having this Orwellian feeling tea on hand for the time I did!

Hard this one on the commute to work because I found myself craving a darker, more roasty oolong this morning…

This was Western style, so it was a bit different than my Gong Fu session. Still, I found it very enjoyable and I was even able to pick out (in my sleepy early morning haze) some flavour notes that were pretty unique. The big thing with this one is that the start of the sip starts out very roasty with mineral, slight char, nutty, and wood-y notes accompanying. The body is definitely pretty unique; there’s a subtle creaminess but also a lot of more savory/umami notes like dill, sea salt, and salted butter. So much salt. Also, this is MAYBE a weird observation coming from a vegetarian who has no actual memory of what real crab/lobster tastes like and I’m told the vegetarian version doesn’t do the real flavour justice but I found the finish of the sip rather marine with crabby/crustacean-y notes. I felt like I was drinking the broth/stock for a crab based soup or stew, to be honest. Totally not a bad thing, though – it was delicious!!

This is a queued tasting note.

So, we’ve all had a tea (or teas) that we bought for reasons completely unrelated to the tea itself, right? The art on the wrapper looked super cool? Or the name was really geeky? Well, I bought this one because I was looking for aged oolongs to sample and the year 1984 caught my attention as I’m a pretty big fan of Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm novels. I needed 25g of this, stat, for that reason alone. So, buckle up guys, gals, and people inbetween or otherwise ’cause the Orwellian puns in this review are gonna be doubleplusstrong!

Also, this is a stream of consciousness review, meaning I essentially just took jot notes as I was drinking of my immediate thoughts and that’s basically what I’m writing up now. Unfiltered, pretty much. Bonus, unintended Newspeak puns!

- Started with a five second rinse…

Infusion One: Less than five seconds
- Light brown/gold liquor
- Roasty/mineral aroma
- Peppery “tickle” on the forefront of my tongue and back of my throat
- Dank/wet earth and mineral notes
- Woody/vegetal; oak
- LIGHT roast overall

Infusion Two: Seven seconds
- Stronger Plusstrong roast aroma; slightly more nutty plusnutty
- Darker Plusdark brown liquor with a red tinge
- Roasty/peanut top notes
- Brothy; stewed veggie and mineral body
- Cocoa finish?
- Still woody

Infusion Three: Seven seconds
- Leaves look like black velvet w. spare brown/olive hues
- Earthy/roast/nutty aroma and same liquor colour
- Rich top notes: peanut, earth, barley, cocoa
- Very Plusnatural body; wet earth, woody, nuts
- Mushroomy and raisin finish
- Plussweet!

Infusion Four: Ten seconds
- Brothy/meaty umami aroma but still sweet
- Earthy/wet soil, musk, mushroom, peanuts, cocoa
- Slight raisin background taste
- At this point has a bordering salt flavour?
- Still some roast but it’s a little less unstrong

Infusion Five: Twelve seconds
- Liquor is lightening up in hue; it’s plusgolden again and has an unred tinge
- Smells like wet soil/rocks/leather/salt
- Reminds me of a salt lick rock I had as a small child…
- Beginning to taste doubleplussalty
- Salted peanuts and seaweed???
- Uncocoa notes and starting to be unsweet

Infusion Six: Twelve seconds (Last Infusion)
- Seasalt and earth smell
- Doubleplussalty!!! Definitely seasalt and seaweed
- A touch of a peanut taste
- Relatively monotone/flat flavour overall though

So yeah, that’s it! I think my personal sweet spot was the third infusion? I liked infusions two to four a lot though, but after infusion five the experience was definitely declining quickly. Also, a note – when I say I had a salt rock as I kid I literally mean somehow I was given something like this: http://globalendurance.com/store/products/redmond-rock-sea-salt-lick/ and for whatever reason I would carry it around and, like a horse, occasionally lick it. I think I was maybe six? Don’t remember what happened to the bloody rock or how I even got it, but yeah that’s a thing…

Also, maybe a handy reference? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Newspeak_words

So glad I was able to get some of this in a swap with someone because I have eye balled this tea for awhile.

From the sight of the broken tea I was already happy. Dark and light green mixed in with some purple and almost yellow hue. The first steep was kind of odd so I went on to the next. A few steeps in and I was tasting an interesting mixture of a roasted dancong and purple yaoba. This is a highly complex tea with a lingering astringent fruity taste. Still on the end of needing to breathe a bit, but I think this is still fantastic right now. I’m not much of the sour pucker taste that comes with the astringent notes however this is just something I really enjoyed. Highly recommended and I will probably grab a cake around June because I’m curious how something like this will age.

I’m guessing it’ll be a candy apple tea by 2019

This tea is quite good. There was very little bitterness. There was a bit of a green, vegetal taste early on but that did not last. What it had was a honey like sweetness without the actual intensity of real honey but the flavor. This was one good tea. In the end I only gave it eight steeps because I am really watching my caffeine but I thinnk it would have gone a few more. The tea liquid was a very light color even in the early steeps but had a lot of flavor.

I steeped this eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with 7.2g leaf and 190 degree water. I gave it a 5 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec. It had gotten quite light colored in the eighth steep but still had a lot of flavor. I think there were a couple of steeps left.

This Sencha is from the 2015 June green tea leaves from Shouzou Japan. It has an interesting full bodied flavor. It is a light steamed green tea with a flavor aftertaste of sweet green vegetables and sweet grass and the tannins are very low. There is no bitterness and there is no astringency to this tea. This tea has a very high amount of antioxidants, around 2250 micromoles. Polyphenols is the type of antioxidants in green, black, Oolong, Pu erhs and white teas. This tea helps me relax and calms me down. This is a wonderful and good light green Sencha tea from Shouzou Japan just a little bit south of Toyko.

Gongfu!

Splashy shou tea session featuring 2006 Macao Scenary & this cute loursetleloup teacup that was a gift from Marika last Christmas!! I love this shou so much! It’s so deep and camphorous with these grizzled decaying wood/wet forest undergrowth notes. Reminds me of gardening with my grandma after a heavy rainfall; so much petrichor and potting soil (in the best way). I’ve described it better before, but the bottom line is that it’s always a good brew – and has such intense longevity as well!!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CGxmgmeAgrp/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUC5o_N2JD8&ab_channel=dvr

Gongfu!

I had a lot of really good Gongfu sessions this week, but this one really sticks out to me as just so deliciously perfect! I knew that I liked tea tea before, but this really cemented for me how much I absolutely love this shou. I’m also getting painfully close to finishing my sample so it’s serious time that I consider whether or not I want to cake/brick this tea and I think the answer is likely yes, yes I do.

Here’s my instagram summary:

“Intense, deep & full bodied! This session is filled with heavy earth notes; a mix of potting soil & a surplus of petrichor/wet earth – this is one of my favourite combinations of notes in shou. It has a brothy umami quality w/ a hint of very dark cacao. The finish reminds me strongly of earthy beets, plucked right from the garden.”

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/B1tUJsGAJcL/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSTwlM-yt1M&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=55&t=0s

Pretty subdued for a shou, but very nice leather and petrichor notes from what I remember. I have to stop doing this before bed shou thing though; I can never recall the details of the tea I’m drinking even though I love it…

Gong Fu!

Not fully finished this session – I’m breaking it up over two days because I’m realizing now that realistically it’s much too late at night for this much caffeine and if I drink any more tea I’m going to be up for hours, which just isn’t good for my work schedule tomorrow.

Notes from the first 1/2 (four infusions, not counting the rinse):

- Dry leaf smells STRONGLY of wet earth/minerals
- Smooth right off the bat with thick mouthfeel
- Robustly earthy with lots of wet rock/wood notes
- Medium to light overall body
- Also notes of leather and somewhat of a mushroomy quality
- Subtle developments from infusions over time
- Takes on more of a mineral/sweet aspect
- But really just perfectly embodies the essence of the earth after heavy rain fall

I may or may not log the rest of the session tomorrow though, depending on whether the flavour changes to the point where it’d be noteworthy/anything interesting results from it.

- Steeped Western style
- Strong/potent aroma of wet earth/soil
- Reminds me of a Spring garden after rainfall in smell and taste
- Though the taste is lighter than the smell would seem to indicate
- Earthy, damp, petrichor notes
- Also a hint of a leather/“musk”
- Also evokes feelings of the underbelly of a forest
- Lighter taste than aroma, overall
- Quite pleasant!

I look forward to exploring this one Gong Fu!

Bought 50g of this loose tea at the tea festival last Saturday. It is apparently not available on their website. So no picture with this tea. It is fairly good. It has a fair amount of fermentation flavor left. It’s not of the real unpleasant sort. It was dark an d rich in the early infusions tasting of dark chocolate. I can’t say it developed a fruity flavor later. It was also fairly bittersweet at first. Took a while to recede and leave the tea fairly sweet. Only gave it eight steeps because I want to move on to something else.

I steeped this tea eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with 10g leaf and boiling water, I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec.

Cold Brew Sipdown (133)!

And this cold brew finishes off this sample from Camellia Sinensis. Overall, this was the worst of all three preparation styles. The brew lots that buttery, artichoke note which I personally thought was the best aspect. Instead, the smoky note got really, really strong and intense and the brew took on a bit of an overwhelmingly bitter note. Mmm, nope…

I enjoyed playing with this tea though; I got to try it in three different styles and that was really fascinating seeing how that effected the overall taste with each different method. It was a good learning experience.

Brewed this one Western style for comparison with the Gong Fu session…

There were definitely strong similarities; this was very buttery and vegetal with notes that clearly reminded me of artichoke hearts and a smoky undertone. However, I feel like I also got fresh notes of garden veggies like crisp Snap Peas and maybe even cucumber peel?

I don’t know; despite noticing a few different things I think that the Gong Fu session was better overall. This was still a pleasant cup, but the evolution of flavour that I experienced with the Gong Fu session was more enjoyable.

This is a queued tasting note.

- Gong Fu session in one of my smaller Gaiwans
- Eyeballed the measurments; approx. 2/3 of the cup
- Starts off very fresh and light tasting
- Not sure if it’s cause I’ve been drinking more Japanese greens lately…
- But this seems especially smoky to me
- Also, floral for the first two or so infusions
- As well as nutty, with a nice buttery vegetal note
- Very clean taste/profile overall
- Description teases “bitterness”
- But that wasn’t experienced until the last few infusions
- About six infusions, then it just began to feel brewed out

Brewed this up this morning after a bowl of matcha expecting a nice roasted tea to open the day. I was rather surprised to find that this was much alike the 1989 oolong from Tea Urchin. Hints of cocoa in the background with a sweetness that mixes in the overall taste to be like a caramel taste. With a minor roast profile, this is an ideal tea for drinking now and in the future. Absolutely wonderful. For roughly $10 an ounce at bulk buy, this is a wonderful price. Easily getting 10+ steeps out this and I can easily say that this tea evolves. It slowly opens up into a earthy, woodsy, type of oolong after the sweetness fades away. Wonderful buy. Now I need to drink the other aged oolong from CS and find out which ones I will be buying a lot of.

This was offered to me as a gift from Camellia Sinensis last purchases. I love this tea. It’s little twisted leaves are well crafted and deep green with some silver tips. The dry leaves smell green goodness, spinach and Swiss chard with some sweetness to it. By contrast the wet leaves offer a very different impression. It’s still green but more cooked or boiled vegetable. The first steep develops into a very rich buttery notes with a bok choy. The second one reminds more of refined nettles or some water cress with a bit of bitterness toward the end. He following infusions are more peppery and remind me of fresh sage leaves in butter. The wet leaves are more and more bitter and over cooked vegetables striking difference with the soup. The aftertaste is long and more like chalk. A great find.

All bright grapefruit and subdued citrus today in one of my favourite rooibos/fruit blends. Such a happy evening tea.

Perfectly balanced grapefruit rooibos. Zippy and bright.

This tea is visually beautiful. Small and shiny balls of greenness with yellowish stems. This tea is well made already.The dry leaves smell green and grassy, fresh and strong. Each time I brew this tea in a gaiwan, I made up to 9 steeps (water at 200 for 5’ infusions, open gaiwan). each of them so different in taste and feelings. It is a very interesting green tea that evolves with time and the temperature of the tea in your cup. It has a very pleasant smoky feeling that is not overwhelming. It is first very herbal and grassy with some sweetness in it.it always has a mineral subdued taste during all infusions (pebble).During the last infusions the tea change to more floral notes (spring). The most striking with this tea is the continuous freshness of each cups. fresh and light yet with a presence and a nice energy in your mouth. a must try.