Various Artists

A family member acquired a box of medicinal tea while on their travels in Sweden. They brought this back for me, because they know how much I love tea. This box (named Bad Heilbrunner) has been sitting towards the back of my cupboard for some time. I am beginning to come down with something, so I decided to bust it out. The entire box is in Swedish. There is not one english syllable on the whole thing. I am guessing, since its herbs, to brew high temp for a long time. As a side note, there is a warning paper included inside the box, which I found kinda amusing. I hope this stuff works.
The brew smells of an odd variety. I can note at hay, lemon, vine, honey, and some sort of menthol root. The flavor is incredibly herbaceous. It has strong grass flavor like Yerba Mate, but this is followed by a calming mouthfeel. I can feel a slight tingle travel across my body. The flavor reminds me of a zoo in the middle of summer. It has a desert flavor to it. I can note at dust, roots, earth, dried grass, and a slight hard fruit. Its a very exotic taste. I like it and figers are crossed this stuff beats the sickness out of me.

This tea is from Lulu, a generous random sample that was sent out for what seems to be an upstart online business. It is a sun moon lake black tea from taiwan.

The leaves are LONG, thin, and spindly, and of course, black. They smell like honey, with a hint of straw. Quite nice, but this is def a tea that you would want to measure by weight, not by a tsp, just because of how difficult it is to get them in the spoon.

Not having any type of food scale, i just guessed about how much i should use, about 3 quite empty tsp lol, and 10 oz of water at 190 for 4 min.

the liquor was a nice, dark red with a brown tinge. It tasted quite light, possibly due to me not using enough leaf, possibly because thats just how the tea is. either way, it was still nice. It had the nice malty flavor of a black, with faint hints of chocolate. i have heard mentioned that this type of tea has a kind of cinnamon taste, and while it diddnt come though for me, there was SOMETHING there, almost spicy like, but not really. so in hindsight, i might not have used enough leaf. But this tea was still quite nice.

Over all, to me, this tea reminded me alot of golden monkey, only maybe replacing golden monkeys straw like flavor with a hint of spice. Im quite pleased with this tea, but i think i prefer golden monkey slightly more.

Grandpa brew all the things!

It’s been a ridiculously busy few weeks and March doesn’t look like it’ll be fun at all. I’m out of the country for about two weeks for a class and have so many things to turn in/submit when I get back. I’m computerless in the meantime, since my laptop’s been out of commission for months (I do all of my writing on my desktop). I doubt I’ll be able to properly type out papers on my phone, haha.

Anyway, I’ve been grandpa brewing the hell out of anything that I can get my hands on in the morning over these last few weeks. Quick note of things brewed in my 12-oz Thermos Tea Tumbler, all water temps at 195F. Leaf quantities all ‘eyeballed’ but definitely on the lower end of everything, since the leaves just sit in the tumbler all day. I lug a 40 oz thermos around in my bag alongside the tea tumbler and top off the water when it gets low (half or 2/3rds gone).

Verdant’s Laoshan Roasted Oolong – use very, very small quantities of it. Roasty, chocolaty, with a cocoa bitterness that becomes more of an overwhelming burnt chocolate when too much leaf is used. Lasted for a full day— it got uncomfortably bitter for me the morning of the second day so I dumped it and went for fresh leaves.

White2Tea’s 2014 Bulang Lao Cha Tou – really sweet (molasses or brown sugar type sweetness with a touch of powderiness that reminds me of Special Dark), about 4-7 rinsed nuggets will do for an entire day. Got a sample of it from the tea club a week or two ago and immediately ordered another 100g that just came in this weekend, and now I wish I’d gotten even more just because of how convenient it is. This lasted for a day, but I probably could have pushed it to two days with hotter water on the second day.

Mandala’s Not-So-Mini-Tuos – dropped one in the mug, gave it a quick rinse, and off I went. Really bold/hearty and earthy, and the first mugful or two were really strong for me. Halving the mini tuocha might be a good idea next time. This lasted me for two days.

Mandala’s Pu Wen coin – I really loved this one grandpa style. It’s tied with W2T’s Chocolate Mini Shu and Bulang Laochatou in terms of tastiness/convenience when busy. Unfortunately, it’s the priciest of the three so I’m trying to save the ones I’ve got. Lasted two days.

Mandala’s Rou Gui – fruity and sort of cinnamon-y, mildly roasty and ‘bright’. A pinch or two of leaves lasted for about a day— the flavour started weakening near the end, so I don’t think it could have gone for two full days.

I tried a blend of 2 different teas at a friend’s house recently, so I decided to stop by (gasp!) Teavana to grab myself a little of each. After a horrible, pushy interaction during which the saleswoman was rude and tried to sell me three unrelated things that I didn’t ask about, I finally got what I went for. (Even though I bought more than I needed. 2oz minimum? EACH tea?! Ugh.)

This is a combination of Caramel Almond Amaretti and Spice of Life. Ratio is about 2:1.

Method:
2tsp CAA+1tsp SL/12oz
Preboiling
First steep: 3min
Second steep: 4min

Herbal teas with fruit always confuse me. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to put them in an infuser or just eat them. There are a lot of fruit in both of these teas, and I couldn’t see any white tea in Spice of Life. Where is the tea?! No matter. Brewed, it smells—and tastes—a bit like spiced almond cookies or biscotti. There’s a peek of citrus. It certainly tastes like there are artificial flavorings present. That’s really unfortunate. However, I consider this to be more of a tea-like drink than actual tea. For a tea-like drink it’s quite alright. I have to add a considerable amount of sugar to bring out the cookie aspects of this drink; otherwise, it falls flat. It’s not as good as I remember. I’ll probably be drinking this before bed since it’s basically an herbal blend. I could try it when I’m craving dessert tea, but I admit, there are much better dessert-like teas out there.

Here’s my sort-of guilty admission. This blend tastes GREAT with Double Stuf Oreos dunked in it. I’m not joking. If you dunk an Oreo for a couple of seconds, it’s long enough for the icing to melt and the cookie to soften without completely falling apart. It melts in your mouth. I have a bit of an addiction when it comes to Oreos, and this makes it WAY WAY worse. Or better, however you look at it.

In a nutshell:
Tastes sort of like a cookie.
Artificial flavorings! Boo!!
Try it with Oreos. Actually, just always drink it with Oreos.

Not worth the money. I would have bought way, way less of it if I could have. Now I’m sitting here thinking of all of the other teas I could have bought instead…sigh.

Trying out my newly seasoned yixing, which I fear I’m already madly in love with. ;)

So far I’ve brewed:
Ailaoshan Black (Whispering Pines)
Tanyang Gongfu (Nannuoshan)
Heaven’s Trash (Butiki)
Qi Hong Xiang Luo (Nannuoshan)

I cannot get over how delicious everything that I brew in this vessel turns out to be. They are all very very good teas but the yixing imparts a lush, juicy, fullness that I can’t describe. It enhances the natural flavors of the tea and also adds to them. There is a lot of honey because I seasoned it with a combination of Honey Black (Green Terrace), Coonoor Nilgiri (Single Origin), and Laoshan Black (Verdant). Many of the teas I’ve brewed contain elements of grain, malt, stone fruit, cocoa, caramel, and honey…Essentially a combination of all of my favorite flavors. Every cup I’ve brewed has been perfect. I wish I still had thicker, maltier, more chocolatey teas around, but I sipped many of them down in an effort to downsize my cupboard. It will have to wait until my shipments begin arriving. Until then, I’ll be sitting in the corner, clutching my new teapot and making crazy eyes at anyone who gets too close.

Okay, since I don’t feel like making a custom tea for this blend that I’m working on just yet, I will put it under this ingenious tag.
I have been drawing out my supply of Vanilla Mint Mate since Teaopia closed down two years ago. This is an old tea for me, but a really classic wake-up tea that I genuinely miss in my cupboard. It’s great for those mornings that I really need a caffeine hit, but don’t want anything as strongly flavored as a black tea. I attempted to replace it with The Killers Vanilla, but that tea is just so chocolate-y to me (something about the addition of lavender), and I detest chocolate! The original tea had a definitive, but mild green mate flavor on the sip with a heavy dose of cooling on the swallow, but maintained a pleasant level of sweetness and creaminess from the vanilla all the way through. I have one cup left of the original, so I’m hoping to compare it with several options of my finished blend.
Fast forward to my first online order of tea from Upton last year. I got a giant bag of green mate and an even bigger bag of the most cooling peppermint I could find. Dinosara spoiled me with a bundle of Madagascar vanilla beans to complete my project. Well, I’ve finally gotten around to experimenting. I figured my tea log was the best place to record the endeavor for posterity. My goal today was to determine the ideal mint/mate ratio, into which I will toss a vanilla bean and let it age.
To make each sample comparable, I made sure the brewing was exactly the same (side note: who knew I had three tea balls floating around my house?!) for each mix. I will now review them separately:
1/2 mint/mate mix: I really can taste the earthy greenness of the mate, tempered just slightly by the mint. The cooling really shows up on/after the swallow. The cooling is just not quite what I want it to be, but it taste the most similar to the original.
1/1 mint/mate mix: The cooling is at the right amount now, but the flavor is much too peppermint. The mate is there, but the bad influence of the mint overpowers on the sip when I really want it confined to the swallow. This blend really loses the warm and fuzzy smokiness of the mate. It was a tough call, but I think this is too much mint.
2/1 mint/mate mix: This is basically like a pure mint tea. The sod-like under flavor of pure mint shines through the overpowering cooling of the tongue. Definitely not the winner.
For now, I will most likely proceed with variable amounts of vanilla bean in the blend with the most mate, but perhaps I will bump up the mint just slightly in that mix and try it first.

Well, I found this amazing little café in one of the buildings on campus. It’s about 2/3 of the way between two of my classes on Friday, so I know where I’ll be going every week. Their tea is great, too (loose leaf? on my campus?!). Sadly, I have no idea what brand it is. The shop itself is an offshoot of Lavazza but their tea looks nothing like what I had. What a mystery! Maybe I’ll ask if I ever catch them at a slow time.

On to the tea: this jasmine green is really good in a subtle way. The jasmine flavor sneaks up on you. It’s a little bit fruity at first, then sweet, with a beautiful floral aftertaste. The green flavor is a steadying presence in the background but never overwhelms; the whole cup is subtle. Utterly delicious (and even better with a lemon bear claw)!

Houjicha of the Autumn Moon
Home-roasted houjicha from Obubu Tea Farms Sencha of the Autumn Moon

This is my second time turning some of my Obubu green tea into houjicha. This one was particularly tantalizing, as it smelled like pumpkins as I was roasting it. It smelled sweet, a bit like yams, and even more like the smell of a freshly carved jack-o-lantern when you’ve got a lit candle in it, perhaps a bit sweeter. I’ve always picked up a pumpkin note in this tea, and roasting it brought it out in the scent even more. It’s great. Definitely autumn, without belonging to the generic “pumpkin spice” persuasion.

The scent of the brewed tea is very caramely and sweet, with a hint of roasty char and cigar tobacco. The taste is mellow and mostly reminds me of cigar tobacco, mildly sweet. It’s really comforting. I tiny hint of the pumpkin taste comes through in the finish.

The second infusion tastes a little more green, with a pistachio like taste and a hint of cucumber, and it has a sweeter lingering aftertaste. I could swim in this cup. It’s so delicious.

The best two houjicha I’ve had now have been the ones I roasted at home from Obubu’s green tea. I may just end up doing that from now on. I’m not sure if houjicha is just better when freshly roasted, or if I’m just using teas that are more to my liking for this type of flavor. Either way, Obubu sells their teas at greatly reduced prices when they aren’t in season, so I’ll be picking up some of these to roast with my next order from their website. Order from them direct. So many people I know order Obubu’s tea from Yunomi, and pay the huge markup that comes with it. I’m not sure why.

Houjicha of Brightness
Homemade Houjicha from Obubu Tea Farms’ Sencha of Brightness

I wonder what Obubu Tea would call this houjicha if they’d made it themselves? They’ve got Houjicha Amber and Houjicha Gold to refer to some of their Houjicha made from sencha rather than lower grade bancha. Maybe this one would be Houjicha Bronze.

I had some Sencha of Brightness in storage that was getting a little old. It’s January now and it’s a summer harvested tea, so I decided to roast some in a pan and make houjicha. This is my first time making my own houjicha, so I’m excited.

On the nose, there’s a definite scent of cigar tobacco. The taste is milder than most houjicha I’ve had before, and very, very clean, with an almost minty tingle in the finish. The flavor is like a sweet cigar tobacco, with more sweetness and less roasted flavor than most houjicha. The color is a deep copper. Honestly, I can’t stop drinking this quickly. It’s so good and so quenching! I’ve never had houjicha that had such a clean mouthfeel and finish. Wow! And the flavor and scent are so comforting.

The source material, Sencha of Brightness is a partially shade-grown sencha that is definitely a bit on the sweet side. It’s light and delicate and Obubu recommends it being made as iced tea.

On the second infusion, the flavor is even more sweet and creamy with notes of malt and heavy cream.

I’m so happy with how this turned out. This is wonderful. I will be tempted to roast the rest I have left of this tea. Mmm mmm. DIY houjicha may be a new addiction for me.

Drinking one today that Moylor sent as a free gift. I didn’t realize just how inexpensive the brick was on there site, less than $3. Fot that price I would normally expect an absolutely terrible tea but this one was fairly good overall. It had a strong fermentation taste that lasted through at least five steeps. It also had a case of disappearing mold. One photo of the tea it appeared moldy to the camera. But a took another photo in better light and there was no mold. I only steeped this six times but will steep it again for some pictures of my teaware.

I steeped this six times in a 180ml Yixing Teapot with 12g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, and 20 sec.

Today I drank the 2017 B___ P___ from the White2Tea club. They sent only 50g as this is said to be of high quality leaves. It was good tea, whether it was truly higher quality I don’t know how you tell this. It was sweet from the beginning with floral notes to it. The tea did develop some notes you might call Apricots or Stonefruits. This is probably one I would buy if they put it on their site for a reasonable price.

I steeped the tea eight times in a 50ml gaiwan with 190 degree water and 3.5g of leaf. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 seconds.

Today I am drinking Earl Grey from Adagio Teas. I didn’t buy online but found this at a local Bed, Bath, and Beyond that has a decent selection of teas including some loose. This one is reasonably good but nothing spectacular. It has a strong taste of bergamot oil.

I brewed this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Teat Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 3 minutes.

Today I drank the May 2017 offering from Global Tea Hut, a 2015 Sheng Maocha. This was a reasonably nice teae. It was not as good as some of their previous tea I think. It was sweet initially until the leaves opened up. Then it got more of a bittersweet note to it. The bitterness lasted only a few steeps and it was back to sweet. Not sure that I would use the term apricots to describe the sweet note. It was not quite that strong. Maybe more of a sweet grass note. In any case it was good but not phenomenal.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 50ml Teapot with 3.5g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 minutes.

The tea I drank was called Enlightenment and was phenomenal. This is a tea I wish I could get more of. I did not prepare this tea. It was prepared for me by WuDe of Global Tea Hut fame. He doesn’t consider himself a tea master but I disagree. He prepared this tea for about 23 of us in attendance. It was not a ripe puerh according to WuDe but tasted a bit like a ripe puerh but the earthy flavor of it was very pleasant and not at all dirty like a poorly made shou. I actually had three teas prepared by the man but this was the best. The first two were in a course on the art of Cha Dao. The tea enlightenment was prepared for the evening tea ceremony. He prepared the tea in what I would say was a 1 liter kyusu style teapot and then put the first steeping into a big glass teapot used as a cha hai. Then he made a second steeping and added it. After this he gave it to a woman who went around the room serving us small bowls of tea, a little more than in a standard gongfu style teacup. If I rated teas on this one it would rate at least a 101. It was quite possibly the best tea I had ever had. One of the earlier teas in the earlier session on Cha Dao he said was from 1000 year old trees. Now WuDe is someone I could see actually having the connections to get some of this. These teas were simply brewed in our bowls again and again and again. All this was an incredible experience to say the least. I wish I could go back tomorrow for more but I have to work.

Today I drank the June offering from the White2Tea club. It was a mixture of old tree and very old tree sheng according to White2Tea. It was picked in April from a Mengsong Mountain old arbor garden. This is all information that I have to trust the seller on because there is no way to check on it. That being said this was a nice tea. There was little if any bitterness to it. It was the sort of young sheng made to drink now as opposed to one to age. It had a a sweet note from the beginning. At some points you might even call them apricots and stonefruits. However the finish tasted just a little flat to me. Sweet yes but not as much flavor as you would expect.

I steeped this twelve times in a 85ml Silver Teapot with 5.6g leaves and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 mini, and 2 minutes.

Puerh Tea TTB. Jalam 2015 Bada Mtn Sheng Manyue Village. This tea was not actually bad tea but I didn’t enjoy it that much. On my third sheng of the morning it is just too much sheng overload. This tea was sweet with a bitter aftertaste and a fair amount of astringency. This tea would not convince me to join the Jalam club.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 75ml teapot with 6.4g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 minute.

Today I was watching my caffeine at this hour so I picked out something I bought on EBay, a 2016 Tea Flower Cake. While this cake made the claim of being ancient tree I don’t know if it was true or not. It might be true because I don’t think the tea flowers from any age tree are worth much and I didn’t pay very much for this tea cake. The tea flower tea has an unusual taste. It was a little unpleasant at first but got somewhat better, even sweet to some degree. Kind of a mushroom sweet I would say. I specifically bought this for times when I wanted tea but couldn’t have caffeine because tea flowers have so little caffeine as to be basically decaf if not quite caffeine free. Still I didn’t take any chances and only steeped it five times. Despite being from 2016 it brews up very dark in color. If this was sheng yoou would think it was ten years old from the color of the tea. In the end I didn’t mind this tea as something to drink but I would rather have had ripe puerh if there were such a thing as decaf ripe puerh. I worked early today not having time for tea in the morning and got home too late to risk having any significant caffeine so this seemed the perfect choice. If nothing else it was a chance to try out the new gaiwan I bought the other day at Clipper Ship Tea Company.

I steeped this five times in a 180ml gaiwan with boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, and 15 sec.

Yesterday I received the Puerh Tea TTB in the mail. Today I am starting on the teas. I just drank the Longyuanhao 2016 Banzhang Sheng. I don’t know the origin of this tea or if it is a real Banzhang. I was, however, pretty good tea. It was strong and fairly bitter but with a sweet aftertaste. After a number of steeps the bitterness was gone and I was left with a nice sweet tea. Maybe apricots but I am not certain of that. It was good.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 75ml teapot with 5.1g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 minute.

Drinking a sheng today that I got from Dragon Tea House a couple of weeks ago. However they sold out and removed it from their website so I am not certain what it is. I think it is the 2015 Dr Puerh Small Bing Dao raw tea. But I am not sure. If anyone can read the Chinese on the wrapper I will post the photo.

This was a fairly nice sheng with very little bitterness at the start and a sweet note that developed into what I would have to describe as apricots and stonefruits. I gave this twelve steeps and it certainly would have gone a few more.

I steeped this twelve times in a 110ml teapot with 8.1g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 minutes.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BTgtrhHBYbP/?taken-by=allanckeanepuerhtea

Today I drank a moonlight white tea cake. It is however a mystery as I have no idea where I got it. I thought I might have gotten it a Dragon Tea House but couldn’t find it among my invoices. I checked my EBay and Aliexpress orders and didn’t find it. I suppose I could have bought it from Chawangshop. In any case it was overall very nice. It had a very sweet taste with a slightly bitter aftertaste. Not entirely sure what to call the sweet note.

I steeped this eight times in a 150ml gaiwan with 185 degree water and 10.2g leaf. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec. I could have kept going the leaves were not done but I want to move on to something else.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BS00UOEB0Ge/?taken-by=allanckeanepuerhtea

Steepster seems to be having hiccups again. I tried to add this tea to the catalog but was unable to do so. Today I drank Competition Grade 3rd Place Muzha Tie Guan Yin Roasted Oolong Tea Winter 2016 from Taiwan Sourcing. This was a very lightly roasted oolong tea. The roast was not strong but lasted through the eighth steep. A sweet note was hidden behind the roasted note. I am not sure how to describe it however. If I had been able to enter this into the catalog I would probably given it about a 90. It was really good.

I steeped this twelve times with 7.2g leaf and 190 degree water in a 100ml gaiwan. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min.

Today I have been catching up on my Global Tea Hut samples. I drank the tea sent in March, the 2016 “Golden Thread” Liu An BLack Tea. This tasted very much to me like a regular black tea but perhaps a bit sweeter. There was some bitterness and some maltiness to this tea. A sweet note did develop by the eighth steep. Kind of a weak fruity note. This is an interesting tea to drink. I always thought Liu An would taste very much and more different than a black tea but this one had a great deal in common with black tea.

I steeped this eight times in a 100ml teapot with 7g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 minute.

Today I drank the January 2017 offering from Global Tea Hut, 2014 “Old Town Gathering” Shou Puerh Tea. This tea got off to a bad start. It had a lot of fermentation taste and that taste was definitely fishy and funky. I would have expected better from Global Tea Hut. The tea did improve over the course of twelve steeps. And there was little bitterness to this tea. It evolved into a nice sweet tea after the fermentation was history after about six steeps.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 100ml Teapot with 8g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min and two minutes.

Today I am drinking the 2014 Naka by Chen Sheng Hao from Liquid Proust’s group buy. This was a strong and bitter sheng. I’d say noticeably bitter for the first eight steepings before a sweet note started to emerge. So far I have tried the 2016, 2015 and 2014 Naka by Chen Sheng Hao. This one seemed the most bitter to me. They have also reminded me that I prefer shou to sheng in general. It’s not that this was a bad tea, just not really the sort of tea I really like. I am not overly fond of bitter sheng. And more sheng is bitter than not.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 8.5g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min.