What-Cha

My last teabox oolong (this one came from the Discovery Teabox, so thanks to Skysamurai for coordinating and all who contributed!), and also my last milk oolong from my cupboard (booooooo!) until I restock one.

My sample was just the right size for about the leaf-to-water ratio I use when I cold brew a litre of oolong, and I have never tried milk oolong that way (though I have done other green oolongs cold brewed, and typically love them that style!) so I figured I’d go for it. 7.5g of leaf (I usually use 8g but eh, close enough!) in about 946ml of water in a mason jar, left to brew in the fridge overnight, and then strained the next morning. I’ve been sipping it out of a cold thermos throughout the hot (too hot!) day.

Refreshing, still with buttered vegetable notes. I’m getting a bit of a fresh cucumber/zuccini note, which is the first time I’ve tasted that in a Jin Xuan… not sure if it happens to be this particular variety and harvest or the cold brew preparation, but it is very pleasant. The florality feels a little more muted to me prepared this way… It’s coming out a bit as a floral sweetness at the back of the throat toward the end of the sip, but not as a strong flavor. It tastes a bit more green or herbaceous… like a very sweet grass rather than blossomy/perfumy. The butter note is still quite present, and on some sips it really lingers on the tongue.

I’ll certainly miss having a milk oolong around, but know it’ll never be too long before another will make its way back into my cupboards… I love the stuff! Thanks for allowing me to sample this one!

I’m loving this matcha. Thank you so much, Derk. I’ve had it both as a latte and the traditional way. 2-3 chashaku scoops, through a sieve. ~2 oz water to make a paste, then whisked another 2 oz. (175°F). A bright green powder, finely ground, full-bodied grassy aroma… And when prepared in a syrup form (koicha) no bitterness, pure umami, very smooth, foamy, silky, light lingering sweetness.

Note: My local USPS isn’t delivering packages anymore even though we have a locker. In fact, they are just sending packages back… So much for buying any tea online for now especially international. I hope all of you are safe and happy.

Essentially nailed it! Who knows what it tasted like. I gulped it back in about two mouthfuls and followed it up with a fruity macaron. Now, off to make myself another bowl because this stuff is addictive.

Spring 2019 Harvest, Winter 2020 Grind

Oh, man. I haven’t whisked a bowl of matcha for over five years and it shows. And I thought I could get away without sifting and winging the portion ratios/whisking motions? Nope. Waaaay too many clumps.

Thankfully, this matcha is a tasty forgiving kind. It’s mellow and grassy (bitter and sweet like dark chocolate), with a banana sweet finish. Today I tried it directly as powder (when it coated my fingers, don’t ask), as a hot whisked cup (strong but smooth), before dumping most of that cup over ice cubs and adding milk (mellow, grassy, gentle, savoury herb and sweet banana finish). It was tasty and flavourful in all forms. Looking forward to drinking this up and, hopefully, treating it with more respect!

Seeing the praise, I made sure to add this tea in one of my recent What-Cha orders. I had no doubt it would be a winner, as What-Cha’s black teas most often are. One of the nice things about this one is that it is bold and complex at the same time. Overall, I seem to get a more woody rather than fruity flavour, as well as more bitter and astringent profile then some of the other reviews would indicate. It could be because it is one year old now, but I doubt it.

The tea has complex aromatics too, including blackberry, menthol, malt, and honey notes emerging from dry leaves; while the wet leaves have a sweet smell reminiscent of roasted pumpkin, unsmoked bacon, and brown sugar.

Taste is dominated by a woody bitterness and cocoa beans flavour. Other notes include those of cumin, eucalyptus, black cherry, and later also plum and cloves in the aftertaste, which has a very good balance of sweet, floral, spicy, and fruity flavours.

The most interesting aspect of the mouthfeel is the combination of brisk astringency Assam varietals are known for with a soft and thick liquor texture.

This wasn’t a favorite. I expected honey and baked cherry but instead got an almost metallic black tea experience.

Check out my full review here: http://www.sororiteasisters.com/2019/04/21/thailand-red-tiger-oolong-tea-what-cha/

Tried, sipped down but won’t re-order I guess.

I don’t mean it is bad tea. It certainly isn’t. But probably I had different thoughts of non-smoky Lapsang Souchong. I had one before, I wonder what company it came from. I don’t really recall, but probably it was White2Tea. Oh, one order so far from them in my life. Should get Waffles again.

But back to this tea: It is nice, mostly malty, baked bread, sweet potatoes notes. Good for breakfast tea, although it is bit drying. Luckily less than last time; but overall, well… it was just very basic tea.

Finally, decied to open this pouch which was still sealed since I bought it in October 2019.

Anyway to the tea:
Aroma is wonderful of baked bread, nuts, pine, malts and just another wonderful notes of black teas.

Brew itself is having wonderful copper colour, clear and shiny.

But taste is dismal. It was quite generic, black tea, with little hints of baked bread and bit too drying.

Summer 2019 harvest.

Plowed through a 25g bag without taking notes. What do I remember? A light, nutty-buttery body that thickened into a creamier mouthfeel when the tea was left to sit in my thermos. Straw, sandalwood, geranium, rose, lemon zest and linens, a bit of a malty-toasty-apricot feeling, green bell peppers. A slight bite balanced the heavier mouthfeel. Cooling/warming camphor mouthfeel extends into chest. Good summer time tea.

Smooth with soft malt body, a bit of chocolate, dill and rose. All supplemented by a bright apricot-orange tone and cooling mouthfeel. It’s a clean Nilgiri without much depth. I’m sure eastkyteaguy will swoop in some day with a lengthy list of flavors and aromas; I keep trying to pay attention but it’s one of those flatter thirst quenchers that goes down quickly. Some days do have more oomph than others.

Spring 2018 harvest

This tea feels like summer in this region of California, maybe an hour north at a friend’s place in Hopland where it’s hotter and drier. Early afternoon, sitting in the shade of a large, gnarled oak, looking out from the mountainside, the remnants of a recent grass fire on the mountain opposite, sun-scorched fragrant wood and crunchy oak leaves lying in the dry grasses at my feet.

A full, slick body with light honeyed pear sweetness carried on the breeze. Almost floral with hints of citrus blossoms. Hops and grapefruit zest, mineral water, hints of muscatel and woody almonds from the vineyards and plantations in the valley below. Aftertaste is smokey-savory, at first paired with florals that later turn fruity. Kind of like grilled pork with a blackened peach glaze.

The tea is a bit drying but leaves a thick, oily coating on the tongue. Pleasant menthol cooling in mouth and chest. Spicy in a woody way. Clean and cleansing. It’s a beautiful tea.

So this is from Kawaii433 but I also received some from derk.  THANK YOU BOTH.  Not sure if Kawaii’s is also from 2017, as derk’s is noted on the sample.  I thought it was time I try it, since there are two separate samples!  I don’t know what I was thinking though, as I just sipped a roasted oolong the other day and they are definitely not the type of tea I want to drink often. Anything with the name “roasted” is all I can taste, which ends up being very one note and disappointing, as I know others can usually taste other flavors in these roasted oolongs.  It’s always a shame!  It is all I can taste: roasted charcoal.  The third steep was especially off putting… shouldn’t have brewed if for four minutes, that’s for sure. The leaves are VERY dark and VERY tightly bundled.  The flavor is smooth anyway, until that third steep.  I think I sadly give up on roasted oolongs.  They just ain’t my thing.  But it’s nice to officially know that at this point.
Steep #1  // 1 3/4 teaspoons for full mug //  rinse //  29 minutes after boiling  // 1 minute steep
Steep #2  // 28 minutes after boiling //  2 minute steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // 4 min
2020 sipdowns:  52 (one sample sipdowned anyway)

Sipdown!

Never uploaded a picture. Whoops!

This was a pretty delicious green tea, although I have a hard time describing it as I seemed to taste different things every time I had it. Last cup was kind of grassy with a hint of citrus.

This was part of my “three tea mystery grab bag” purchase. I will upload a picture here in a day or two.

Mmm… this tea has a satisfying asparagus note, with a citrus-sweet finish that is currently reminding me vaguely of a honey-lemon Halls. There are some lovely nut and vegetal notes that someone with a better palate than me can try to pin down!

Okay, I’m finally back on Steepster to post a review. I doubt I’ll have the time to bang out more than one this evening. This website’s bugs are starting to drive me crazy. This is now the third or fourth time I have tried to post this review. Hopefully this time is the charm. Anyway, this is yet another blast from the past. I think I finished what I had of this tea in either February or March. As Assam black teas go, this one was pretty much exceptional.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped approximately 3 grams of loose tea leaves in 8 ounces of 203 F water for 5 minutes. I did not rinse the leaves prior to steeping, and I did not attempt any additional infusions.

Prior to infusion, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of cedar, prune, raisin, tobacco, and dark chocolate. After infusion, I detected new aromas of malt, cream, honey, and orange zest. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered notes of malt, honey, cream, butter, oats, tobacco, autumn leaves, cedar, caramel, raisin, prune, sorghum molasses, orange zest, pine, and lemon that were chased by hints of candied date, fig, roasted almond, and black cherry. There were even traces of red pear and dark chocolate left at the back of the throat after each swallow. The finish was wonderfully smooth, malty, and balanced with some pleasant fruity touches.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable Assam black tea. It produced a liquor that was very balanced and drinkable, presenting a wonderful and highly complimentary array of aromas and flavors while also offering a good amount of heft and fullness in the mouth. Basically, this tea offered what one would generally expect of a high quality Assam black tea. I doubt it will surprise any experienced Assam drinkers, but it is very enjoyable regardless. This is the sort of tea that doesn’t need to do anything out of the ordinary to be appreciated.

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge Sunday, October 17th: National Mulligan Day Tea #1

additional notes:  This was a fitting tea to try again today.  I KNOW it deserves a better rating from me… my original note called it confusing.  The dry leaf has an intoxicating creamy sweetness to it, but the flavor is entirely different.  It’s fruity, maybe maraschino cherry!  With a drying mouthfeel.  Second steep, I could swear is blueberry and artificial vanilla.  Sweet and various fruits. Later steeps are still drying with a creamed corn flavor. But mostly it seems to me like the lightest of Darjeelings. Maybe since this is a mix of cultivars, that makes it a confusing tea for me. The name of this is lovely though. I will keep editing this note and adding what I find, as I will be steeping this tomorrow – I just wanted to get this posted for Mulligan day. 
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons for a big mug // 34 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // 35 minutes after boiling // 1 min
Steep #3 // 23 minutes after boiling // 2 min
Steep #4 // 20 minutes after boiling // 3 min
Steep #5 // just boiled // 3 min
2021 sipdowns:  134

Thanks so much, derk!  Another confusing oolong for me!  What is wrong with me and oolongs lately. sigh. I will try my best. The name is lovely, and I’m very glad to have another Jun Chiyabari cross my path!  It’s interesting that it is a mix of Japanese and Taiwanese tea cultivars.  If I had to guess, I would say it tastes like a Japanese green… kind of marine like at times, which is not at all what I expect from Jun Chiyabari.  Otherwise, light, buttery, sweet, creamy.  The leaves after the rinse had an amazing fragrance… almost the scent of a Premium Taiwanese Assam which almost makes sense since the leaves are partly from Taiwan.   I really wish the tea had tasted more like the rinsed leaves.  The later rinsed leaves had more of a marine scent.  So maybe I should have went with much shorter steeps.   I will try the remaining leaves soon…
Steep #1  // 2 teaspoons for full mug // 21 minutes after boiling  // rinse // 1 minute steep
Steep #2  // 25 minutes after boiling //  2 minute steep
Steep #3 // 16 minutes after boiling //  1 1/2 min
2020 Sipdowns – 47 (Teavivre – Paris Champs)

Spring 2020 Harvest

This was provided as a sample with my latest order. Thank you, Alistair!

This tea has a gentle yet persistent creamy profile that is more than pleasant. I may have forgot I was drinking this tea and thought I made a Jin Xuan on the second steep. It was early and this tea is very creamy and smooth.

Steep Count: 5

This was part of my “three tea mystery grab bag” purchase, and was definitely the one I was most excited to try after sniffing the leaves (what tea purchaser doesn’t immediately open all of their mailed teas and smell them, eh?). The leaves are also lovely and curled/twisted and black with gold-red highlights ( I took a crappy phone pic for steepster).

The aroma of leaf and steeped liquid is dusty rose, malt and grape, bearing some similarities to Darjeeling.

Tangy-sweet muscatel, stonefruit and floral rose are the most prominent notes. A faint hint of pepper. Malt is also present and incredibly smooth and syrupy – You know how some lagers are like super boring and taste like funky water for most of the mouthful, but then, BAM, you’re smacked with the finish of decadent honey-malt syrupy goodness? It’s like that except you don’t have to wait each mouthful for “payoff”.

Ok, so I enjoyed the few Darjeeling teas I’ve tried but never tend to buy them because I don’t love their tendency for astringency. This tea has all the qualities I loved about my favourite Darjeeling experiences minus that big con. There is some pleasant astringency but nowhere near the level of some of the first steep Darjeeling teas I’ve had.

This tea is just so incredibly smooth and full-bodied and hits all the right notes for me (I’m a rose note person). I don’t know how this would hold up with connoisseurs of Darjeeling or Nepalese teas but it’s more than perfect for my pedestrian tastes. Wish it was available for purchase!

Steep Count: 2

(2019 harvest)

I think it might be time for me to face the fact I can’t pick up on notes like other tea tasters :( I tried though. This is my last tea from the order I got from What-cha last year. Black teas are my favorite of all the tea varieties. This one was OK. I liked it well enough, I don’t pick up on the notes…it just tastes like black tea to me. Get’s pretty astringent quickly if you brew too much too quickly. It was OK..by the time I got the the bottom of the tea I was ready to move onto something different. I wish I could taste all the notes everyone else gets, I’ll keep trying. I really like What-Cha tho, quick shipping and great customer service.

Generally, I find Taiwanese oolongs to be a fairly safe bet. They are rarely flops. For some reason, this tea just doesn’t do it for me though. I don’t know if it’s just this batch or since I haven’t had other ones.

The aromas and flavours are fairly weak, the only distinctive note being an osmanthus scent. The taste is somewhat more sour than I am used to, but otherwise doesn’t really stand out in any way and the same can be said about the mouthfeel. There is a cooling aftertaste with a persisting sourness and quite a strong defocusing cha qi.

I don’t, maybe it’s just me. If my impression changes as I finish my pack, I will update the note.

My cat has a very weird hang-up about going downstairs to eat unless I go with her. She’ll just lurk in my room giving me the evil eye as I try to work on my computer or get downright whiny until I finally take a break and escort her downstairs… once we are both on the bottom floor, she will happily eat. Don’t know why she can’t be a strong, independant woman who can eat by herself, honestly… in any event, since today she was doing her thing, I decided I may as well have a tea break while I was sitting there letting her take her nibbles before I got back to what I was doing, and brewed a small pot of this from a sampler so old I should be ashamed. Doubly so since it is green tea (the packet says it is an Autumn 2017 harvest, cough cough). Ah well, I’m still going to drink it. With everything else going on in the world, I think drinking expired tea is the least of my worries…

It smells surprisingly floral, an aroma I’d expect more from a green oolong than a green tea. I do get a somewhat beany scent from the aroma as well, but it is overpowered by the perfumy florality. The tea is a goldenrod color in the cup, and the flavor is like some of the more floral Bi Luo Chuns I’ve had in the past. I’m getting that vegetal beany/pea sort of flavor I usually taste in a Bi Luo Chun, but I’m also tasting a sweet orchid/lilac flavor that I most often taste in green oolongs. There are also notes of hay and minerals that settle over my tongue towards the end of the sip. I really like it! Neither flavor really overpowers the other, and while they may sound quite uncomplementary, the taste is very pleasant.

This was a sample from Alistair, which is great, because I’ve always overlooked it. Wow. Sweet and fruity and toasty like a baked apple crisp with cinnamon on top. There’s some pear and cardamom in there somewhere. Big fan of this one so far, and I’ve only had it lukewarm a few hours after brewing it western-style. Gotta try this later in a gaiwan.