What-Cha

The loose leaf looks great, though it is 6 years old. As derk noticed, as it is from her, and actually from White Antlers (Thank you both!). The leaf looks pretty much as on photo, though bit darker.

I decided to brew 3 grams in my 300 ml glass cup. I broke my gaiwan today, so I have decided to order a new one! From Tangpin (someone suggested them and I kinda liked some stuff they had and this was the “last drip” to place an order)

Well, it wasn’t remarkable tea. It was green with mineral notes, quite dry. Overall somehow too much hay-like. This tea seems I will get rid off soon somehow. Not really impressed and having way more another greens which needs to be drank as well and they are better.

I was intrigued to see this very old tea in my package from Derk. Thanks for the sample, which may sadly reflect some of the older teas in my own collection. I followed the instructions on Steepster and brewed 2 teaspoons in a 355 ml mug at 185F for 2, 4, 6, and 8 minutes.

Dry, the tea smells like orange blossom and old-lady perfume, with a strong tinge of alcohol. The first steep has some nice flavours of orange, orange blossom, flowers, malt, wood, and spice, though these are unfortunately overwhelmed by perfume and decaying lawn clippings. This tea is like Constant Comment if it became a zombie. I went through three more cups of this tea, which grew maltier and more tannic but never lost that perfumey quality.

I won’t rate this tea due to its age, as I’m sure it would have been much more enjoyable fresh. As is, it’s a warning to drink my Indian and Nepali teas before they taste like something that should have been laid to rest long ago.

Dang, note lost.

2 teaspoons, 2 minutes, 79°C water.

Lacking flavour a bit, but amazing aroma of chesnuts was great. The flavour was mostly dry grass/hay/grass seed. It is 5 years old GREEN tea so I am not surprised it is lacking; but it was enjoyable, though missing a bit that moment of fresh grass note that I am always expecting in green tea.

Considering, it is 5 years old, it is still great. Fresh would be lovely, but it is a gift and I can’t blame previous owner that it was delivered so past the prime time of this tea. It’s not bad one. I actually enjoy it as simple drinker nowdays. If it is fresh, I suppose I will say it is great one. 5 years old is “only” above average. This tea don’t deserve my rating, because it’s old.

The dry aroma of this tea is so strong, fresh and moslty of cashnew and chesnuts. I would not expect it is tea from April 2015; but it is and it’s Best Before date is April 2018. Though old… thank you White Antlers!

I was preparing it grandpa, but well… 5 grams were too much and while pouring (I thought it is for liquids only) it a big chunk just released and my cup of thermos I used instead of bowl, was full with tea. It was hard to spill it back to the pouch. So I think that about another 5 grams were dumped.

Anyway, back to the tea… 5 grams and 82°C water (I measured this time!), volume was 300 ml and well it was too strong, especially brewing grandpa. It turned out quite bitter with vegetal notes. Certainly past its prime time, moreover my preparation method wasn’t the most clever one. I have still lots of to try so won’t rate this time. I noticed as well the minerality, but hey so strong as those previous notes.

Need to re-try and with less leaf

Inoffensive, quaffable black tea. Not much of any taste, but far from bland. I won’t get it again because it hints at tastes I get more of in other black teas. But it’s still really drinkable.

This was the last of the Japanese black teas that I finished in September. Of the three, I found it to be the most challenging and least consistently likable overall. That being said, it was still not a bad tea. I am fairly certain that the way I chose to brew it brought out more bitterness and astringency than would have been present had I opted to dry a different approach.

I brewed this tea in the Western style. I steeped 3 grams of loose leaf material in 8 ounces of 194 F water for 5 minutes. I did not rinse the leaf material prior to infusion nor did I attempt any additional infusions.

Prior to infusion, the dry leaf material produced aromas of hay, malt, and autumn leaves. After infusion, I noted new aromas of cinnamon, cream, butter, baked bread, pine, cherry, and orange zest. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of hay, grass, malt, cream, butter, baked bread, autumn leaves, orange zest, lemon rind, vegetable broth-like umami, apricot, earth, cinnamon, Asian pear, red apple, plum, pine, kumquat, roasted walnut, oak, and cherry that were balanced by hints of bitter hickory, blackberry, and grapefruit pith before a bitter, astringent, tannic, and earthy fade.

As stated earlier, this was the most challenging and least approachable of the three Japanese black teas I polished off last month. I should have followed the brewing guidelines recommended by What-Cha, but I tend to brew my black teas strong in order to bring out the most in terms of aroma and flavor. I had also had success with longer infusion times for Japanese black teas in the past, so I did not see a reason to alter my usual approach with this tea. Honestly, I was just being lazy and trying to finish it off as quickly as possible. It deserved more attention, consideration, and respect than I showed it. Despite the distracting bitterness and astringency (again, very likely the result of me insisting on sticking with a 5 minute infusion time), this tea had some very nice aroma and flavor components. I would be interested in seeing what someone with a lighter touch would be able to get out of it.

This was another late summer sipdown. I think it actually may have been either my last sipdown of August or my first sipdown of September. As usual, I can’t remember. Anyway, this struck me as being a pretty good autumn flush Darjeeling black tea. I tend to be quite picky about such offerings, though, so some people are bound to enjoy this tea more than I did.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped 3 grams of loose leaf material in 8 ounces of 203 F water for 5 minutes. I did not rinse the leaf material prior to infusion nor did I attempt any additional infusions.

Prior to infusion, the dry leaf material produced aromas of malt, baked bread, red grape, and fig. After infusion, I detected aromas of plum, earth, black cherry, oak, smoke, cream, and cocoa. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of cream, earth, grass, oak, fig, black cherry, blackberry, plum, red grape, cream, baked bread, cocoa, hickory, roasted walnut, and orange zest that were balanced by hints of smoke, straw, blueberry, lemon zest, caramel, roasted peanut, cooked green beans, and red pear. The finish of each sip was dry, oaky, and fruity, reminding me a bit of red wine.

This was a complex, deep, and in some respects, extremely refined offering. I absolutely loved the heft and texture of the tea liquor in the mouth and the way it finished on each swallow, but there were also some aroma and flavor components that clashed for me. Like several other Darjeeling black teas I have sampled from 2018 to the present, this one struck me as a mixed bag, though there was considerably more to like than to dislike about it.

Okay, people. I’m back. This whole not having a working computer at home thing is killing me. Hopefully, I can get that issue resolved in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, I’m going to bust out a handful of reviews while I’m here at my parents’ office in town. This was one of my sipdowns from either late August or early September. I found this tea to be enjoyable though inconsistent and confounding. No two cups were the same. Sometimes I loved it, and sometimes I totally hated it.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped approximately 3 grams of loose leaf material in around 8 ounces of 194 F water for 5 minutes. I did not rinse the leaf material prior to infusion nor did I attempt any additional infusions.

Prior to infusion, the dry leaf material emitted aromas of raisin, tobacco, prune, baked bread, and pine. After infusion, I detected new aromas of malt, straw, strawberry, green olive, honey, rose, smoke, and orange blossom. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of grass, straw, pine, raisin, strawberry, raspberry, cream, butter, prune, baked bread, pine, green olive, green bell pepper, honey, grape leaf, and smoke that were balanced by lighter, subtler impressions of earth, orange zest, tobacco, roasted almond, black walnut, rose, peach, orange blossom, and marigold. The finish of each sip was smooth, malty, nutty, and rather vegetal with some indistinct fruity and floral characteristics.

I tend to greatly enjoy Darjeeling black teas produced exclusively from the clonal AV2 cultivar, but this one was more of a mixed bag. For the most part, it was still a more or less very enjoyable offering, but there were times in which the aroma and flavor components I found to be the roughest and least appealing stood out more to me than I would have liked. As a matter of fact, I absolutely despised the first two cups of this tea that I brewed and ended up sitting the rest of it aside for a couple of days. I found it way more enjoyable after picking it back up, so maybe there was something up with me when I first tried this tea, but even after I resumed going through the remainder of my pouch, the tea remained somewhat inconsistent from cup to cup. Overall, this was a very solid tea with a lot to offer, but it was inconsistent and temperamental. I have definitely encountered several other Rohini black teas that I have found to be more enjoyable.

Prepared western (4 grams) from same pouch as derk. So, Harvest in September 2015, best before September 2018 (only two years behind!)

Ehhm, although I had it in the morning, it seems it is forgettable. My thoughts about this tea are like in the mountain mist.

It was quite thick, velvety mouthfeel as derk said already, but taste… I don’t remember much. It was nice, bit like hay or yellow melons (again borrowing her words), bit drying.

But expected maybe more, maybe I wasn’t just paying much attention, as I was thinking just about the lunch I was about to prepare (Lasagne bolognese), which turned out great! Need to retry this tea.

The vegetal taste I get is peas. Sweet, then peas. Sweet peas, if you like. It’s definitely peas you pick from your parents’ garden off a trellis and eat fresh and bursting right there, but… A lot is going to depend if you like those vegetal notes in tea. It turns out I don’t much.

I now know I love corn and grass notes in green tea, not all vegetal notes. I wouldn’t have known that before this, because none of the greens I’ve tried before were so purely green-veg. It’s not a do again for me, but it’s very different from some other Chinese greens and should be tried.

Brew it cool! It was definitely better well below 80, even. The 70 on the packet is about right.

Finished the house cleaning and squeezed in a nap, and now I am very ready for some afternoon tea while I work on some of my manga scanlation projects! This was randomly selected off my list of 2017 purchases, which I’ve been putting extra emphasis on sipping down.

Brewed western, 195F water, 4g in a 500ml teapot — a lovely little Moriage redware Japanese pot (think “Japanese brown Betty”) that I was gifted from my recently passed grandmother’s estate! There were two of the little pots and they looked nearly identical, without the cups (I found some rice bowls that match that can serve as cups on Etsy, they get a bit hot to the touch but I’m not above using a napkin or tea towel while using them). I’ve put one set in storage and am using the other set for this brew today.

Has a rich, roasty, nutty flavor (roasted chestnut, walnut, others?). I’m also getting a baked bread taste with a hint of cinnamon and raisins. A bit of earthy woodiness, and maybe a subtle plum note that is more prevalent in the aftertaste. Deeply satisfying on an autumn afternoon as the temperatures begin to cool off.

Gosh, this is bland! First steeping has maybe the merest hint of peach. Someone below said ‘peach mineral water’ and that feel right. Second steeping and beyond picked up some of the fruit notes and I got a hint of jasmine. But there isn’t much to this. But it would be a perfect palate cleanser between courses of a meal.

Honey as advertised, a little. Fruity notes. Pleasant but too ethereal for me in a black tea.

SIPDOWN 47; February 17th: Random Acts of Kindness Day (one day late, whoops) Thank you White Antlers for a few cups of this tea. If I had to drink all acts of kindness tea, I would drink so much teas!

I have decided to brew the rest, which was less than 2 grams, gongfu.
While it isn’t a preparation method that suits this tea best, it wasn’t bad either.

Let’s face it, first steeps were amazing, and maybe even a little more than conventional western brewing. But then the lotus flavour was weaker and weaker — much more towards anise. I must say, once it was really overwhelming. But then, puff, it diseappeared and I got only nice green tea base with smooth floral underline.

Yep, prepare it western. It’s better. But this small amount was just right for gaiwan only.

Two teaspoons, around 80°C . Western.

It is, as I said before, kind of floral tea, but somehow mild; not overpowering the base tea which is… well kinda common, but certainly not bad one..

It was kinda anise-like as well today, base was quite bold and I think it is from that. The lotus seems genuine for me and not artificial. I like this tea that much I put a watch on this tea on vendor website. Alistair, I hope you will be able to get some.
I think I have last session left, so I will keep that for gong-fu brewing.

Same pouch as derk who sent it to me and it’s from White Antlers. Thank you a lot both of you!

So, it is harvested in summer 2015, while Best Before date is July 2018. But I believe there is nothing wrong drinking old tea. I had some lotus teas before (one or two, but always a tea bag), so it is unexplored world for me.

I have to agree with derk that tea seen probably better days, but it is still full of aromas, especially I am able to identify aniseed and bit of orchids. Maybe there are different notes, but not sure about my nose today.

I did quite strong tea, 3 teaspoons for 300 ml, and I think two would be suitable as well. Because it is so flavourful. I had coated whole mouth with lotus flavour, very floral. Again some aniseed hits the tongue as well, but that’s lotus probably. The base is quite vegetal, but overall it’s nice, smooth and tasty.

Trying fresh would be lovely experience.

Decided to gongfu my last ball I have received; thank you derk and White Antlers. SIPDOWN 62

Longer rinse; around 10 seconds, and first steep being 20 seconds long.

I have hoped the ball would dissolve; but it is still a chunk of tea — I guess I will need to make several long steeps and then make short ones.
First steep, with parameters above, is very sweet with apricot fruit line, autumn leaf pile… and overall quite weak. That makes sense as the ball is still compact.
Second steep, 30 seconds, spilling the water on the ball directly to dissolve it: worked well! Stronger apricots; kind of punchy or something. Quite sweet, surprising considering the age, easydrinking cup.
Another steep with same parameters, but flavours more prominent, mostly the woodsy and “autumn leaf pile”.
4th steep, 45 seconds
Tends to be more woody, with sweet aftertaste, but the apricot notes are gone.
5th steep, 60 seconds
Nectar sweetness; that’s interesting twist from the woody notes in previous one.
6th steep, 60 seconds
Another sweet notes, but much less prominent.
7th steep, 90 seconds
Goodbye steep. Nonprominent tastes, sweet notes, but without anything else.

Well, this was a fun gongfu session with tasty steeps. Honestly I liked it more grandpa brewed, probably for more robust and bolder flavour, but brewing it this way worked well as well. Certainly I like Jingmai whites, especially if they are a bit aged. I wrote a note for myself for future reference.

Autumn 2016 Harvest, from White Antlers. Thank you!

One ball used for grandpa brewing in 300 ml. It disintegrated nicely.

In taste it is quite sweet with little tangy flavours. Some astringency, more potent when drinking end of the cup, which makes sense as it is steeping for longer time. There are stonefruits, mostly apricot and something like “autumn leaf pile” I think.

I wasn’t much caring about the aromas though, I had my brother with family around, so I was caring that I won’t get tea spilled by my youngest niece :)

Was keeping this as I don’t get on with most oolong. But I discounted their variability. Broke it out to finish a box before the new delivery comes and it’s lovely. Summer meadows early on, dry grasses later steeps.

Update: revisited again now my taste has developed. Also tried rinsing to open up before steeping. It’s even better. More floral hints. Close to a jasmine taste but pure tea.

Thanks, Derk (or maybe White Antlers via Derk), for such a generous sample of this tea! I remember considering it in my last What-Cha order, but went with a more affordable spring pick from Guranse instead. I steeped 4 g of leaf in a 355 ml mug at 190 for 5 and 8 minutes.

The dry aroma is of heady flowers, herbs, muscatel, and orange blossom. Right away, I realize that steeping it at 190F hasn’t entirely curbed its astringency. I get notes of herbs, muscatel, oats, plants, rose, wildflowers, lemon, orange blossom, chilli, and wood. Needless to say, there’s a lot going on and I’m having to guess at some of these flavours. (I never know whether to include only what I’m absolutely sure I taste or what I think the tea reminds me of.) The chilli, woody, and floral notes come out in the aftertaste. The second steep is more floral, with rose, peony, orange blossom, and wildflowers, and the green, herbaceous first flush characteristics are more prominent. There are also tannins and minerals.

This is a complex black tea that is worth revisiting. It certainly lives up to its floral moniker. It also shares that chilli note with What-Cha’s Guranse Spring Hand-Rolled Floral black tea, which is something I haven’t found in other Nepalese offerings.

Courtesy of White Antlers, thank you :) Spring 2016 harvest, two pearls to 16oz grandpa in a mug.

It’s a smooth cup of cocoa-leather with a dash of pipe tobacco. Gentle nectar sweetness. Hints of butterscotch, malt, red fruits, pine and vanilla. Hot cocoa aroma. Everything about this tea sits in the middle. Some call that Just Right.

This was the second of the Japanese black teas I worked my way through last month. At the time I started to work my way through it, I was excited because I had just finished the absolutely stunning Golden Valley Yabukita and expected similarly great things of this tea. Unfortunately, I did not find this one to be nearly as good, but it was still a solidly better-than-average offering.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped 3 grams of loose leaf material in approximately 8 ounces of 194 F water for 5 minutes. I did not rinse the leaf material prior to infusion nor did I attempt any additional infusions.

Prior to infusion, the dry leaf material emitted aromas of baked bread, autumn leaves, raisin, hay, malt, pine, and straw. After infusion, I detected aromas of cinnamon, cream, butter, and roasted almond as well as a slightly amplified malt scent. In the mouth, I picked up flavors of autumn leaves, hay, straw, raisin, cream, butter, baked bread, pine, malt, sawdust, and roasted almond that soon gave way to impressions of oats, roasted peanut, black walnut, umami, plum, red pear, red apple, and green peas that were underscored by touches of cinnamon, lemon zest, and orange zest. Compared to the Golden Valley Yabukita Black Tea, the finish of this offering was pricklier and more astringent with a punchier and more unpredictable energy.

This was an interesting black tea, and there was quite a lot to appreciate about it, but it also was a bit harsh. I do not often get caffeine highs, but this tea left me feeling agitated, jittery, and overloaded for a long time after I finished each drinking session. Even though I enjoyed drinking it and found it to offer a lot of flavors I liked, it was also a bit rough for my liking. In the end, I would not caution others to avoid this tea, but if it comes down to a choice between this tea or the Golden Valley Yabukita, choose the latter.

This was another recent sipdown of mine. I polished off the ridiculous 100g pouch at the start of last week. Going back through all of my tasting notes, I was surprised to discover that this was going to wind up as being the first tea from the Sakhira Estate to receive a review from me. I had long been aware that Sakhira was considered one of the better and more reliable Nepalese tea producers, but for whatever reason, I had just never bothered to explore any of their offerings. That being said, I probably should not have started with this one. It was not a bad tea, but it was kind of standard issue in many ways. I have definitely had better Nepalese black teas.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped 3 grams of loose leaf material in approximately 8 ounces of 185 F water for 5 minutes. I did not rinse the leaf material prior to infusion, and I did not attempt any additional infusions.

Prior to infusion, the dry leaf material produced aromas of pine, hay, straw, basil, anise, and green bell pepper. After infusion, I picked up aromas of apricot, plum, malt, orange zest, baked bread, and almond. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of pine, hay, straw, basil, grass, green bell pepper, watermelon rind, cream, butter, baked bread, malt, apricot, plum, sour cherry, orange zest, lemon rind, almond, green apple, and white grape with occasional hints of anise and a little pear in the aftertaste.

Overall, this was a pretty decent Nepalese first flush black tea. It definitely was not among the best I have ever had, but it was serviceable. I felt that its liquor was a little too pungent and prickly in the mouth for it to be easily enjoyed. It did, however, display solid depth and complexity, and that counts for something with me. Really, this tea was something of a mixed bag, but there was more good than bad. I certainly do not regret trying it.