Yezi Tea

soooo close to being done with this one. This + maple syrup today was a happy time. :)

another backlog from a few days ago. I’m still enjoying this one, so it’s a safe bet that i am still a fan of Yezi. Hopefully i’ll be able to share some love for them in august when i restock a few of my teas.

i’ve been sort of slackadasical the past week days in part because work has been crazy but also because getting the house in order has taken most of my energy between painting and shopping and moving things and cleaning and…and… and. so apologies for the crapp tasting notes as of late. I’m hoping that tomorrow i can spend some time with my tea and get back in to the groove. :) I’m sure things will get back to normal once i get the house in order lol

I love this tea a lot, though today i did NOT add maple syrup as i often do. I just wanted the tea..and it was my happy place today when i found out that a project that was closed has been reopened and hey….look! sill can do that! i need a new job. stat.

nomity nom noms….. this was afternoon tea today since “evening” tea consisted of uh a bunch of alcoholic drinks :) i love this one with just a splash of maple syrup to enhance the smokey factor :)

Final Count: 198 [Fake Cupboard at 123 with the addition of RiverTeas yesterday]

I need to drink my yezi teas more often once i get my cupboard down in size and can rotate through teas more readily. I adore this one with just a splash of maple syrup…it always makes the world go ’round!

i am kind of fried. Things are both going supremely well at work, and at the same time, the crap just keeps getting higher and higher and i can’t seem to dig myself out of things. Finally got a little recognition for the work i’m doing, and then by the afternoon i was drowning again in things. Soooo while i’m still working on my sipdowns and the like, i’m also trying to make sure i have plenty of delicious teas at work to get me through the days. Today i remembered to add a small splash of maple syrup to this one for a tasty first tea today :)

MORNING TEA! i forgot to add a bit of maple today but of course this was still delicious and still ALL MINE! mwahahahahahaha…yeah so i love this tea, and i’m glad i still love it! so there! neener, neener!

nomity. nom nom. backloggin from yesterday. I didn’t get much drunk up, but the teas that i had in the evening were delicious and the perfect accompaniment to boardgames and pizza lol. I love this one with just a splash of maple syrup. it makes everything delicious and wonderful, if you like a bit of smoke in your tea :)

nom nom nom. Had this again today but i forgot to add a splash of maple syrup to really kick things off with this tea. Delicious and just enough smokey goodness to make me happy!

oh man… this is so good. THIS is what i should have started my day with. It’s malty and delicious. I, like the others, wouldn’t call it “scotch-like” but i don’t care…because i love it. love it. now i want more. If the rest of my samples from yezi are anything like this one, then there will be an order after the BBB Box arrives :)

I really should get a mug warmer. I like my tea hot! and this tea is especially good while its hot. But alas, my current cup is tepid. I do all the after dinner chores and I think its safe to make tea. But then one of my seven pets gets into trouble, makes a mess, vomits, it’s always something. If its not the pets then its my husband, asking me to make him tea after I already made mine. Then I have to go to the bathroom. And of course, there will always be some chore that I forgot that I can’t leave undone. Same thing every night. About the only time I get hot tea is in the morning before school when I’m in such a hurry that I sip it carefully while too hot and end up not having time to finish the cup before I have to go.

I finally bought more of this tea. Still as fantastic as I remember. Highly recommended :D

After drinking a cup of tea like this one, I have to wonder why I ever venture into the world of flavored teas. This is pure poetry and nature in a cup. Warm and toasty with intoxicating florals all in perfect balance. This tea is quite different than other dark and floral oolongs. The floral is as strong as the roast. I haven’t ever experienced such perfect balance of flavor. Here’s to hoping that this wasn’t just a one-time perfect brewing. I used exactly 3.6g of tea in a 10oz mug, steeped for 3 minutes. I generally don’t try to do multiple steeping with my teas as I rarely like the ‘layers of flavor’ experience. I like all my flavor notes working together as they do so perfectly in this tea. I wouldn’t change a thing except for possibly a longer steep to satisfy curiosity.

Haha! Found the little box of samples I got from Yezi Tea. I’d put it on the dresser to try but then some papers fell on it and I couldn’t find it yesterday. Today might be an even better day to drink tea though as it’s been raining and a little cold… finally Winter weather is coming. It’s a nice deal when a company will let you try their tea in sample size and for only the price of shipping for sure.

This tea smells yummy, like baked goods. It’s a smooth tea that tastes pretty good. It has some faint chocolate taste, more like dark chocolate than milk and the smokey taste is more detectable as an aftertaste. The chocolate taste comes out more as the tea cooled. Even though the smoky taste isn’t really strong or offensive, I think generally this tea is not one I’d buy more of but the taste is kind of intriguing like maybe I would get a little more…ok, so I’m just indecisive. Thanks to Yezi Tea!

Another oolong sample from Yezi Tea! When I opened up the packet, it smelled sweet and maybe a little nutty and buttery. I’m still pretty new to oolongs and identifying smells/tastes in tea, so this may be confusing.

First steep: Steeped for 45 seconds as recommended. Has a buttery texture. It’s sweet, but not as sweet as I remember Li Shan being. Also tastes a little nutty. There is also a floral taste toward the end. As it cooled down, I started detecting a slight bitter aftertaste.

Second steep: Tastes pretty much the same except a little less buttery in texture. I’m sure there are nuances that I’m missing out on, but to me, it tastes good and that’s all that matters, haha.

Third steep: The water was definitely not hot enough, so I didn’t get the flavors as strongly. Aaand I don’t have time to steep any more, sad.

Overall, I did enjoy this tea. I think I prefer the Li Shan (also Yezi Tea) over this one because this was a little more bitter if I’m remembering correctly. Yay for exploring oolong!

As i said the last time I logged this, I get very little floral from this oolong. It’s buttery and creamy, much like the Dong Ding that I drank from Teavivre this morning. I might like this oolong slightly better, but I can’t say exactly why.

I love Taiwanese oolongs. So smooth and creamy. This one tastes much like the Dong Dings that I have. Perhaps slightly less floral, but that could just be the result of brewing parameters. I used cooler water than I normally do for an oolong. Still an excellent cup of tea for this morning!

Thank you so much yezi tea for the free sample of this tea :)

Thank you Yezi Tea for a free sample of this tea!

This tea tastes very much like Zhen Qu from Butiki. It has the same honey notes that I usually interpret as mushroom flavored. It is a delicate black tea, not the least bit bitter or astringent. This is a good quality tea, but not the type of black tea that I personally favor.

I think it’s been a while since I’ve had a Taiwanese oolong. I’d almost forgotten how delicate they were! Gongfu style brewing with a mason jar, strainer, and mug, since I’m too lazy to pull out my yixing (which I’ve sort of been using for black teas, anyway).

Very light and smooth, with almost no astringency. Has a slightly creamy or buttery mouthfeel. Sort of like velvet? I should probably brush up on my texture descriptors. Sweet, a tiny bit vegetal, also with a slight floral hint. Sort of reminds me of a mix of tieguanyin and jin xuan oolongs, but it’s been a while since I’ve had a tieguanyin so I can’t be certain.

Gosh, I need to get back to drinking more oolongs! But I should probably deal with my exploding tea trunk, first…

(Sample sipdown!)

Striking out in new territory. Never drank green teas. Don’t know why? Maybe the macho thing or the health thing. Delicate things scare me. The closest I come to green teas is via ice cream.

1st steep, the dry leaf smell was of buttery white chocolate and toasted pine nuts. How agreeable. 5g in a glass pitcher with 350ml spring water. Wet leaf aromas are more pronounced especially the pine nut. The flavor is decidedly not grassy as I had imagined. Soft velvety butter rich and again pine nutty.

2nd and 3rd steeps were the same and then the realization that there is nothing to fear about this delicate rich tea and I will be drinking greens any chance I can get. Oh forgot to mention the dancing leaves. When you’re as buzzed as I am now on tea, watching this was like doing Mr Wooly Willy when I was a child, with the bald headed man and the iron shavings you positioned on his head with a magnet wand, …fun.

The aroma of this tea as I opened the 5g sample pack was sooooo inviting, brew me it said. So I did, used the 5g sample in a 1920’s gaiwan 170ml, I received as a gift last night from a good friend who came to dinner. Quick rinse and the 1st steep was just how they prefaced the tea on Yezi’s site. The wet leaves now smelled even more inviting. Subtle smoky whiffs and could that be chocolate as well. Couldn’t wait for the sip. Bitter I must say was the first thing I noticed and was temporarily disappointed until that sweetness finally hit after the tea was gone. Bitter-Sweet.

2nd steep 20 seconds and catastrophe struck. My new antique gaiwan broke as I picked it up. The rim splintered into 3 pieces. I poured the tea anyway. So it got a longer steep, say 50 seconds and wow this was deep. That bitter was more muted and the sweet more pronounced. The flavors of malt, chocolate/cocoa, cigar smoke in a good way.

3rd steep, transferred to a 150 gaiwan for 25 seconds. Aromas are starting to fade but the remembrance is strong. Flavors are also starting to fade but the maltiness is out in front. Should have been paying attention to that 2nd steep and brewed longer.

4th and 5th steep were both 50 seconds and the aromas and flavors are back.

You can go longer with this tea but I think 5 steeps for me is the limit. Over all a nice return to a red tea as I have been drinking TGY at work for the past month. I grew up on Keemun and this brought me back.

I need to give props to Yezi, my order came in 2 days!!, and a nice personal note from Mei Qin Weng including the smiley face only makes this a better experience. The Gao Shan was an extra sample on top of the free ones I chose and a free tea strainer was in the box as well. Can not wait to try the rest. Thanks again Yezi.

Like TastyBrew, I passed this over when doing my free samples because the descriptor ‘smoky’ typically scares me away. But I’m really really glad they included this, because it’s really lovely.

The dry leaf smells kind of cocoa, sweet wood, and plums. It didn’t smell quite like, but was really evocative of an aged Merlot.

I brewed this up western style, with just under 2 teaspoons at 205, for 4 minutes for my 9 oz cup.

The steeped aroma changes into something warmer and sweeter, still a little plummy smelling, but also has a lovely earthiness to it and cocoa. I could sit here and smell this all day. Yum. The taste was naturally sweet, with a wonderful toasted nuttiness and slightly fruity notes that hung somewhere between peach and plum. There’s also a definite cocoa hint in here too that tails the end of the sip. I’m not getting anything I’d call smokey, but definitely roasty toasty and warming.

This is an awesome introduction to Yezi Tea and I can’t wait to try the rest of my samples. I’m pretty sure there’s definitely going to be an order from this.