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Take Togo’s tasting notes (thanks for the swap sample!) and combine it with eastkyteaguy’s praises and quibbles and you have my experience of the 2017 harvest of this tea. I wanted to love this tea for its unique savory, grassy and fruity, well structured and complex profile but I found it lacking in assertiveness in any one flavor and in mouthfeel at times. The bright minerality of this tea is stellar if you’re into that kind of thing like me.

Of the Kenyan teas I’ve tried so far — Silver Needle, Purple Silver Needle, Purple Green and Golden Tips Black — I find they offer a liveliness, whether its citric or fruity, that isn’t necessarily found in their Chinese counterparts. This Purple Silver Needle is like the subtle swells of Lake Superior with a slew of sun-ripened stonefruits bobbing in the ebbs and flows. That’s probably not an accessible comparison for most people interested in this tea, oh well. If you’re a fan of soft, subtle and well rounded teas or are looking for a fruity silver needle without the weight of mustiness, I can definitely recommend this one.

To keep the review the focus since my current life happenings don’t tie into this tea, a bit of an update here at the end: one of my ailments was found out and I’m on a hefty antibiotic regimen. There are a few other things I’m being tested for that could be related or not and I have been referred to a specialist. The issue that’s requiring a specialist is, um, disconcerting. But I’m here and able to actually start my new job next week and luckily Doc didn’t say NO TEA, so I’ll keep the reviews coming. <3

More white tea. I’m using this as a medicinal brew today. It’s been an unfortunate few days. I’ve been battling some kind of infection, migraines, vertigo, seasonal allergies and asthma that caused me to miss my first few days with a new employer. Very embarrassing but they’re accommodating. Hopefully the doctor today can tell me what’s going on. I’m drinking this tea due to its pronounced menthol effect. Red Jade (or Ruby #18) teas usually ooze a cooling sensation from my ears and chest, offering some temporary relief of my ailments.

This tea is a little different every time I drink it, which would be exciting if I were in an excitable mood but I’m not, heh. Today it’s a smooth tonal brew. More tones than distinct aromas and flavors.

Teapot time: 5g, 100mL porcelain, rinse of 10s (drank) followed by short steeps starting at 10s. Steeps forever.

Dry leaf smells herbal-sweet and menthol. After the rinse, the leaf aroma has a dominant wintergreen note with a moderate savory undertone and some hay, autumn leaf and menthol. The liquor aroma starts lightly malty and opens into something more floral, ending the session with tones of florals, lemon, tart berries and sweet vanilla. Taste is nectar sweet, slightly tart, savory and herbal, hay and autumn leaf with a light but long and cooling mentholated finish in the mouth that moves its way through my body, down my throat and into my chest, out my ears. The menthol becomes stronger as the session progresses. Light apricot-melon aftertaste.

I normally get pretty blitzed from this tea (see ashmanra’s review) and other Red Jades but today I’m not feeling it. That’s good. Take it easy, derk.

Swap tea with ashmanra. Thank you :) Keeping my white tea theme rolling now that it’s in the mid-80s here.

The packet was 5g and since I wanted to see how this tea made out gongfu and western, I split it in half: 2.5g for a 60mL gaiwan and 2.5g for a 6oz cup. The dry leaf struck me as strange; it smelled mostly of a jasmine-scented tea, not a typical light floral aroma. I wonder if there was either some product mislabelling or some cross-contam prior to packaging because the packet was sealed tightly. There were also notes of some other flower, hay and a mustiness which is common to Chinese silver needle white teas. The aroma of the rinsed leaf was musty with wet hay and florals and a pungent note much like tea tree oil. I drank the rinse. The tea is difficult to describe. Cantaloupe-ish, lemon sweet-tart, musty, dusty, retronasal florals. Aftertaste was pleasant though short-lived. It took a while to come to me, but I figured it reminded me of a buttery croissant and lychee.

Some other notes that appeared in the gongfu session were nectar, another pungent herbal quality reminiscent of sage, semi-sweet sake, minerals. The liquor aroma became very pronounced with musty jasmine. Tongue-numbing in a way I found unpleasant. The body was thin and watery. Aftertaste moved to oats and cream. By the fourth steep, the liquor lost flavor and grew very drying despite using water near the recommended temp (of note: I believe it was ~165F on my packet vs the 176F in the current product description).

One steep western of 5 minutes was less impressive. Watery-brothy, musty and tart with a strong jasmine finish.

Spring 2018 harvest.

Jinggu teas, we’ve been all miss and no hit until now. The liquor color is beautiful like other silver needle whites. It’s like women’s ‘champagne’ hair dye in a box. This one isn’t too flat in flavor for me but it is very subtle beyond the more pronounced aromas and flavors of linens, lychee?, nectar, minerals, marshmallow and vanilla. Perhaps hints of green apple candy and sugarcane; there’s something green about this tea but I can’t place it exactly. There’s also a nice lemony tartness to the the thin and soft body to keep things interesting. Later steeps move more along the lines of dandelion and hay. It’s really quite refreshing but not a whole lot to keep me engaged.

Oh, and by the way, have you ever smelled a Cabbage Patch Kid? Back in the 80s they had a distinct smell. That’s the taste of this tea to a tee. The color of hair dye and the taste of the smell of dolls. I may not be doing any favors by describing it thusly but if you know the smell, you’ll know what I mean :)

Thanks, Togo.

Addendum 1: The body of the tea really comes out with western steeping. It’s thick and coating followed by an awesome mineral-induced salivation and tongue tingling after the swallow. This tea has a wonderful cleanliness to it. Recommending it on the basis that it offers something different from other silver needles.

Addendum 2: When allowed to cool completely, the flavor reminds me of violet pastilles: that sweet sugar taste with purple florals and very slight bitterness. I also find it to be a body cooling tea versus the warming quality of other silver needles.

Bumping up the rating to 83+ Interesting tea :)

I’ve been drinking this April 2017 harvest western style in the mornings over the course of this week. Very clean, cooked vegetable savory and lemony and packed a heck of a caffeine punch. I usually used 2 tsp for one steep of a minute or two at 205F, then a second steep for as long as it took me to get ready. Not once did I experience any bitterness or astringency preparing the tea this way.

Today, I finally got around to doing a gongfu session and regret not doing so sooner. The dry leaf, now with 2 years of age, has settled into a soy-sauced and lemony vegetable stir-fry with some pepperiness, sweet potato and marshmallow sweetness, rose and spicy wood (agar). In addition to those aromas, warming the leaf brought out some sautéed mushroom. The rinse, which I drank, was piercing and strong and I was able to discern something like ginkgo nuts. I don’t know how to describe that scent.

The taste was incredibly complex, showcasing the various aromas of the leaf with hints of almond, malt and cinnamon. The body was medium, satisfying, full in the throat. Clean minerality. Aftertastes of peach, peach pit, lemon, lychee and cream. Bottom of the cup aroma of toasted marshmallow? Orange-lemon aroma. The tea forcefully maintained these characteristics for 6 steeps, when most black teas would have lost much, if not all, of their steam. With the seventh steep, some orchid came out in the mouth and the tea transitioned into a stronger lemon taste. This tea just did not want to stop. At the end, I was pushing 10+ minute brews and still sipping on something bright with a light tannic bite. I’m amazed that a black tea could produce more than 15 steeps (the only other I’ve had with comparable longevity was the Jin Guazi offered by Old Ways Tea, another Wuyi black).

I wouldn’t say I’ve been wasting the tea with western style brewing, but the strength of the leaf and its flavor complexity blew me away when prepared gongfu. I recall the price being rather high, maybe somewhere less than $0.50/g, but in my opinion, this tea was well worth it and I would gladly buy more if it were restocked.

If I had to introduce somebody to the world of puerh, and this person had sheng-y trepidations, Hidden Song would be first pick. It’s friendly, mild and sweet with some throaty astringency and light bitterness. The warmed/rinsed leaf has an aroma of cooked sweet blackberries, an umami that lies along a meaty-beany spectrum, dusty florals and old books, moderate flat smoke. The fruity aroma drops away in the brew, leaving a viscous soup that tastes like sweet yellow bean paste with hints of those dusty florals and old books, both of which later become dominant. Some mild, well integrated lemony sourness on the sides of the tongue also makes a presence. A tea difficult to screw up.

If you’re brand new to puerh, I’d highly suggest this tea. The lower score is only my personal preference.

I left the lid off the porcelain teapot so I could watch the leaves brew. It’s a beautiful tea. The leaves sink. On first sip, I questioned how often I would want to drink this kind of pungent, heavy Chinese green. Told myself ‘whatever, don’t bother with that thought now’ and continued brewing. As I sit here after the fourth steep, I realize this tea is incredible (well, I thought that after the second steep) and strikes some kind of note within me. It’s balanced. It didn’t upset my stomach. I am tea high. Togo — thanks.

95+

Another new company for me, Yunnan Craft, found via a Steepster member review. I enjoy the no BS communication and approach of the vendor.

This is my first time trying a Liu An heicha, a fermented tea similar to shou puerh. I’m keeping this review short because I’m just really enjoying sipping on this and sharing it with housemate #2, not really taking notes.

Brewed gongfu in a 180mL clay teapot, 205-212F, drank the rinse because there was absolutely no fermentation aroma present in the dry leaf — pure chocolate. Already full of flavor, bright with plenty of cherry and plum, mineral, complemented by a robust backbone of nutty milk chocolate, caramel, graham cracker, nutmeg and wood, faint bamboo. Light coffee-roasted chicory aftertaste. Very aromatic, active in the mouth with tingling and light salivation, smooth and soothing, warming. Later leaves a constricting, tannic throat feel that’s a bit distracting. Housemate #2 took some CBD drops before I handed her a cup and said the flavor of the tea cut right through the CBD. She’s really impressed by it.

This reminds me of a cross between a shou puerh and a medium to heavy roast Wuyi oolong without char notes.

Bought a tin of this finally after reading LuckyMe’s review and made a half gallon cold-brewed for the house. 8 sachets overnight in the fridge made a damn fine refreshing tea that is well-balanced with black tea base, mints (mostly spearmint) and natural watermelon taste. Couldn’t discern the orange peel nor the licorice, meaning the tea doesn’t leave a sickly sweet flavor in the mouth. I suppose the licorice is there to add some thickness to the body. The only thing that gets me is the sweet watermelon candy aroma. It doesn’t quite match the watermelon flavor. But I know some people will love that!

This was my first puerh from Jalam Teas, courtesy of Togo. I performed some cursory browsing of the website. What I gleaned is that this company does a monthly subscription box with one-100g puerh cake. Sale of that specific tea is reserved first for subscription members and later opened to the public. The club costs $19/mo + shipping and handling of CAD $3, USD $5, International $6. Seems like a viable option for sippers wanting to explore the puerh-producing villages at a reasonable and focused pace; however most of the tea offered is young sheng and as evidenced by this tea, it is not something I could immediately drink 100g of in a month. The 100g cake size might not appeal to people looking to store sheng puerh for the long-term.

That said, I found this to be a nice sheng to drink on a warm afternoon. I can see where this tea would be heading in a year but I’m not experienced enough to determine a more distant future. It has the hallmarks of a young sheng that will supposedly store well: the bitterness and astringency come to the forefront after the first 4 to 5 steeps.

Otherwise, it starts off with a very fruity profile with Menghai characteristics, the county in which Hekai is located. Sour moving to sweet plum is the dominant note in aroma and taste for several steeps and it lingers long in the nose. There is also a strong umami and whisper of smoke that present early. It reminds me of a Greek dish called kreas me fasolakia, or beef with green beans, a dish seared then stewed with tomato sauce. That fades out before the astringency and bitterness come in strong. But before their arrival, other tastes move through including yellow pear/skin, minerals and butter. The aftertaste is fruity, quick to arrive and everlong, starting with plums and moving to white grapes, semi-sweet white wine, and buttery apricot. The mouthfeel in the first few steeps is satisfying — it’s almost syrupy and coating yet very buoyant in the mouth… again like wine. Returning sweetness is decent and of course gets stronger as the bitterness comes out.

The understated powerful energy of this tea slowly crept in and damn if I didn’t feel heavy. An intense craving for pizza overtook me, as a strong young sheng commands: “Get some food in that belly!” So I went to Round Table, had a huge salad, a thin crust veggie pizza and a beer then came home to watch Jeopardy. Good way to wind down the work week. Overall, this He Kai Old Tree Sheng is a nice tea with potential and I would like to store a cake for a year before trying again.

Edited to add a song: Foo Fighters — Everlong
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBG7P-K-r1Y