1557 Tasting Notes
An oldie from the stamped bag era.
Had I tasted it blind, I would instantly be able to tell it was a Sun Moon Lake Ruby #18 varietal black tea. That wintergreen, that menthol! Felt absolutely therapeutic one morning last week after waking up with a rattling chest due to the smokey air. Coppery malt, leather, tangy cherry (Trader Joe’s sells dried Montmorency cherries from Michigan; that’s the exact flavor note I’m thinking of here), prune-raisin, and dark wood; warming spicy tone danced with the cooling effect. The tea lacked some of the complexity of a fresh harvest but it has otherwise held up fine all these years. Gotta get some more of this varietal back in my cupboard.
Flavors: Cherry, Dried Fruit, Herbs, Leather, Malt, Menthol, Metallic, Plum, Raisins, Spicy, Tangy
Preparation
June 2018 harvest.
I only had one go at this old sample forwarded my way, so perhaps not a great assessment. It was a nice Assam, more in line with my tippy tastes than some of the malt-heavy leafy picks. It was bright and dark, tangy and vibrant with a cherry-rose theme: tart cherry candy, rosewood and rose florality, only some malt and a hint of chocolate if I went searching. My only quibble was the lack of a grounding bass note. It was kind of zippy?
Flavors: Candy, Cherry, Cherry Wood, Chocolate, Dark Wood, Dried Fruit, Malt, Rose, Tangy
Preparation
“Sencha Origin Unknown”
Today has been a day of data gathering.
Confusion abounds again. It certainly doesn’t look like a Japanese sencha. Maybe it’s Chinese or Taiwanese. It looks dead whatever its provenance. Mixed in are very thin stems all cut to the same length. Closer inspection reveals the stems to be small bunches of pine needles I guess, blanched in their age. The dry leaf smells like sweetgrass and perfume. The aroma once brewed contains the vestiges of fruity jasmine. There isn’t much taste — dry sweetgrass I guess and a whiff of perfume. Certainly no pine so I question the small tufts of needles — it’s some kind of shrub. Almost no bitterness and no astringency. Butter on swallow. Undefined lingering stonefruit aftertaste with a hint of butter.
The tea’s not entirely dead but it shall remain a mystery.
addendum: after sniffing the wet leaf, I’m pretty the tufts are pine.
Preparation
I need to do some of that “mystery bag” cleaning out myself. I found a baggie this weekend of some very ruffly green leaves and I have no idea, for the life of me, where they came from.
I have decided to break my steepster silence specifically to comment on this note. In researching sencha blends, I have discovered that sencha and pine needle blends are, in fact, a thing. I know of at least one Middle Eastern vendor that currently sells blends of black sencha and pine needles. I am not certain that such blends are common, though, as I couldn’t find tons of them floating around on the market. I would say you probably are dealing with some sort of limited edition blend (perhaps even from a vendor that is defunct at this point).
An unmarked tea from White Antlers.
The leaf is flattened and brown. Is there such tea as black Dragon Well?
Dry, it smells like raspberry caramel chocolate. But the leaf shape and delicacy is not like a Da Hong Pao?
It tastes like Houjicha. Light bodied, roasty, caramel, hazelnut and rather mineral with a dry woody, lightly bitter caramel finish. But it just doesn’t look like any Houjicha I’ve had? No stems, all whole leaf.
Stumped but satisfied.
Preparation
Thank you for the info. I looked at both of Verdant’s black dragonwell. This tea matches the listed flavor profiles but the pressed leaf of this one does not resemble either of the two. I assume this is older’n; maybe the processing has changed in recent years.
I drink this sometimes at work since we sell it. I can’t taste the leafy, earthy yerba maté much which is nice since it’s a flavor I don’t much care for. In my opinion it’s perfectly sweetened and the blueberry and elderberry walk the line between jammy and tangy. Probably my favorite of the varieties we carry. Clean and clear energy. A full can makes my left eye twitch, though, and sometimes leaves me too aggressive. But this is worlds beyond any other energy drink out there.
Really, though, I went on a date today at the park. We shared a few cans of Bluephoria. It was a nice afternoon :)
Flavors: Autumn Leaf Pile, Berries, Blueberry, Earth, Sweet, Tangy
Well just make sure they are a tea lover……and have friends that obsess over teas as well. Oh remember we all have that blasted tea budget too…… ;P
Big woody, earthy background with plummy mid and an apricot brightness, aged floral notes. Sweet tastes like caramel and powdered sugar are subdued. Still a touch of vegetal quality. Soft aroma. First steeps are oily and of medium body, lots of mouthwatering. Hint of mineral bitterness emerges in the back after swallow, coming more to the forefront later. Mouth-cooling, some tannic astringency. The aftertaste varies between thinned winter honey and maple butter.
Made it through an entire sample without much of an impression being made. With every session, I found myself taking a long break after the third steep and not feeling compelled to continue. I did persevere, though, and was rewarded with good longevity and a brew that become much more like the thinned honey aftertaste. The low-toned tastes and muscle-relaxing energy were very welcome after a long day, however the tea left my mind clouded rather than cleared.
Flavors: Apricot, Bitter, Butter, Caramel, Cherry, Earth, Flowers, Forest Floor, Maple, Mineral, Mint, Plum, Powdered Sugar, Tannin, Vegetal, Winter Honey, Wood
Preparation
Moonlight white tea with snow chrysanthemum flowers, the orange ones that as of late, I’ve realized can be a polarizing flavor due to pickle perception.
I’m not going to lie about what the dry leaf smells like. It’s stinky — perfume, stale urine and dill. Care to read further? Stewed in my work thermos with water off-boil, the tea is fantastic. Brilliant orange-red with a strong aroma. Aging white tea taste with a hearty melding of the snow chrysanthemum taste. Medicinal, savory, sweet, thick, tannic, tangy and tingly; tangelo, hay, forest floor, Demerara sugar, white florals, pastries, minty cooling, black pepper, ginger and yes, I finally taste the dill pickle, quite strongly actually.
More, please.
Flavors: Black Pepper, Brown Sugar, Citrus, Citrusy, Dill, Floral, Flowers, Forest Floor, Ginger, Hot Hay, Malt, Medicinal, Mineral, Mint, Pastries, Perfume, Sweet, Tangy, Tannin, Thick, Wood
Preparation
I remember when WPT was carrying this. Many folks who purchased complained about the dill smell/taste. I think I tried a sample; the toilet paper-iness of the chrysanthemums and the negative associations I had with them from acupuncture/TCM made this a no drinker for me. So glad it worked for you, derk.
A small amount will be heading your way, Martin.
White Antlers, I can see how this would be jarring to people not expecting such a flavor! The pale yellow chrysanthemum is not something I care for at all, but these orange ones… something soothing about them. Thanks for passing this one on. I did really enjoy it.
Haha, I’m with you Derk – Snow Chrysanthemum is one of my favourite straight herbs, and I adore them in this tea. Didn’t realize how polarizing they were until recently though.
Oops, my fault on the pickle note! Hopefully some people actually like the flavor, now that I have pointed it out. haha
tea-sipper Don’t blame yourself. So many people got that dill note, not just Steepster-ites but folks who reviewed the tea on the WPT site, I’m surprised WPT didn’t rename the tea-maybe Pickle Sonata.
Ros – that’s good that you enjoy it anyway!I think you also noticed the dill before I did anyway. haha
Oh cool, I can see my notices now. Time to catch up on comments.
tea-sipper: annie (Where have you been annie?) also says pickles regarding the buds. And yeah, there’s a whole posse of dill or pickle proclaimers hiding in the 3 pages of reviews here for Moonlight Sonata.
If this were pressed again, I’d buy a cake for sure.
Autumn 2016 harvest
Age is doing these dragon balls well. The white tea delicacy is transforming into a more robust, tonal character. Red fruits, wood and a hint of malt fill out the deeper tones, supporting an otherwise bright, almost tangy-sweet taste with a mix of apricot-melon-honey-straw-oats, minerals and a little floofs of vanilla marshmallow and caramel. Very mild bitterness adds some depth. Good strength to the aroma, decent aftertaste and even some returning sweetness. This tea makes me long for autumn.
I’ve brewed a few of these dragon balls by stewing them in my work thermos with 200F water. A few others I’ve brewed western with water off boil and three flavorful steeps. Robust and woodier when stewed, sweeter with western. Both methods satisfying and caffeinating.
Flavors: Apricot, Caramel, Honey, Malt, Marshmallow, Melon, Mineral, Oats, Red Fruits, Straw, Sweet, Tangy, Tannin, Vanilla, Wood
Preparation
I found it gmathis! It was hiding in a box of chamomile I had taken with me to my work father’s house a few months ago.
I really liked this blend of rooibos, green tea, dandelion leaf and peach/other flavors. The peach flavor is fresh and natural, like biting into fruit not quite ripe. It still has crunch. The star of this blend is definitely the peach but it’s tempered and rounded out by everything else. Leaving the bag in my glass past the recommended 4 minute steep time gave me a smooth and crisp green tea accented by that light woody sweetness of rooibos and a touch of something more grounding from the dandelion leaf.
What a nice no-nonsense teabag. Recommended for those times when you can’t be fussed with anything.
Preparation
A hot cup.
Very lemony taste and sickly sweetness mixed with piney earthy seaweed.
It met its fate with the kitchen sink after a few sips.
Flavors: Artificial, Candy, Earth, Lemon, Pine, Seaweed, Sweet