Grandness Tea Shop (AliExpress)

Took a random punt on Aliexpress and glad I did. This one is interesting to me. The black and white cake is tightly packed but comes away quite nicely. White buds and almost black (under home lights) first and possibly second leaves.

This is my first review and first time with this tea so I may come back and edit this with updates. After a quick rinse the lid aroma is slightly malty with a subtle sweetness that I cannot describe as my descriptive skills are somewhat lacking. Initially there is the light maltiness and hay you get with Bai Mu Dan with subtle notes of button mushroom sweetness you get with a young sheng. I am also getting a dried burley tobacco flavour. There is a lovely sweet finish to this one.

Currently on infusion 5 and the there is mild astringent coating inside my mouth and the sweetness is growing. There is no bitterness. I’m sure there are several more infusions to go. I am definitely getting a physical response to this tea, getting a little sweat on, not something I normally experience. Looking forward to giving this another go.

Got given this as a sample in my Mi Lan Xiang (Honey Orchid Aroma) order, which turned out to be Gu Jiaju Xiang (Ancient Furniture Aroma).

I like this TGY. Its not amazing but its ok for day-to-day drinking. You get the guan yin floral flavour and aroma, some creaminess and nuts in there. A soft vegetal thickness present too.

I oversteeped it a bit to test and it did go bitter, but nothing too bad. A slight astringency.

I would defo buy some of these to give out to all my mates as gifts, and then if anyone appreciates the taste I can go all tea mad on them.

My first AliExpress order, I thought I would try to find a cheap oolong that I could drink all the time so as not to delve into my good stuff, I thought that while it wont be remarkable it could at least be drinkable. I really wanted to like it and will try to be neutral in my review.

This is (apparently) the Autumn 2015 Mi Lan Xiang, which is a Dan Cong I really like.

I opened the bag to be greeted by a smell which I can only describe as a dusty old sofa. It really does smell like that. Perhaps a hint of pot pourri in there. okayyy.

On to the brew, I tried this twice before deciding I am just going to bin it. It doesnt just smell like an old sofa, it also tastes like one. Like, when you were a kid (or adult) and you ate the cushions of your sofa? it tastes like that. Barely perceptible aroma, and mouthfeel of sofa dust. drying and.. salty? I didnt even get much oily weirdness at the bottom of the cup where the leaves were.

Thoughts of how this stuff was stored, and/or how old it is running through my head. I dont know if im spreading misinformation as I dont have a clue how this is stored or if its old but it doesnt taste fresh and nice to me. It really smells like old dusty furniture, not a pu-warehouse storage smell at all.

I tried to brew my current fave Mi Lan to get the taste out and the damn stuff has stuck to my mouth permeating into my current tea with its pot-pourri & dust-flavour, erm, yuck.

Bin it goes :D

p.s. I could only list ‘dust’ as a flavour because ‘old sofa’ isnt on the list

p.p.s. Also, the bag wasnt vacuum sealed, as you can get with other teas, I dont know if that is ever relevant to freshness.

This one has promise on it. Not bitter or astringent almost a saltiness to the brew with a hit of honey and lemon. I have been 9 steeps now and it has faded some. It brews golden light orange in color. I used 15 grams in the Gaiwan and steeped away. The first infusions were pretty strong with the good throat feeling. You could feel this a minute or so after drinking. The later steeps give a touch of soap maybe? Hard to tell for sure. A good sheng for $20.00.