Featured & Popular Tasting Notes

Yep. Agreed with all the other notes here, this is a standard Assam, albeit a nice one.
Smooth, fruity, and a hint of malty yum. There’s also a lingering dry pucker in the back of my mouth at times. I don’t often find this type of astringency in tea!
Not every sip mind you, and the other ones are rather wet and a tad sour.

On a more personal note… I’ve had some rather strange dreams the last few days. I don’t often remember them and yet these ones have yet to fade. Not sure what to think about that!

This is the same as their house 2010 Bingdao Shou 200g cake, but in a smaller and cheaper waffle brick form.

Really good shou – super clean, sweet, date, dark chocolate, walnut, mineral, all with a really heavy thick texture. This shou still has a bit of green in the leaf too! However, this is a pretty expensive shou, it was $26 CND for this 75gram waffle brick.

Full review on Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/2010-puerh-mini-waffle-brick-shou-treasure-green-tea-company/

Final freebie from the order, thank you :)

October 22, 2021 harvest

I feel surrounded by flowers — lily, lilac, sweet pea, freesia, gardenia, honeysuckle. A very complex, aromatic tea with persistent retronasal action. I did brew this with boiling water as suggested, at least initially, and then dialed it down after the second infusion. The liquor is — I finally get what TDJ refers to as fluid. There’s a bit of weight to it in the mouth but it’s not necessarily thick or oily. It moves around. A little alkaline-umami with a floral bitterness, some drying astringency. In the gripping aftertaste is a fruity, morphing mix of strawberry glaze, sugary peach and vanilla-cream mixed with the heady floral bouquet. Got maybe 7 infusions with long-ish steeping times, last steep produce a pure floral perfume taste-aroma.

The leaf is beautiful. I haven’t seen leaf edges rimmed with oxidation in a while. I like it. And wish I had more to play. I never expected a tea with this strong of a floral bouquet to come out of Japan. Well done!

This is even more baozhong-like than the other oolong I tried — from Sashima, Kanaya-midori cultivar. The cultivar of this one is teased at in the description. It’s probably Qing Xin. Could be Four Seasons, could be Jin Xuan shrug

I purchased this sample at a co-op in San Francisco that derk told me about, back in… 2018, I believe? (I don’t think I’ve even been able to get back out to California, where my best friend lives, since that time…) I drank a cuppa western yesterday morning, but decided to gong fu brew it this morning (What?! Two gong fu sessions this month?!) Just enough leaf left for one more western brew, as well.

Using as my (final!) March sipdown prompt, “a tea with spinach/artichoke notes.”

180ml (mini pot) | 10g | 205F | Rinse/25s/30s/35s/15s/15s/15s

The leaf after the rinse has a strong sour vegetal aroma (an amalgamation of kale, spinach, and basil), and the leaf has expanded so much it fills my tiny pumpkin teapot! The tea on the other hand smells sweet and floral… lilacs, honey, and cream. The flavor tastes a bit perfumy on the first infusion, with a strong sharpness at the end of the sip and a coating, somewhat oily floral left on the tongue. Second steep was the same, leaving me to question if I just haven’t figured out leaf ratios for gong fu correctly since my western cup was smooth smooth smoooooooooth without any sourness or overly-obnoxious floral. Third steep was a bit more mild, but still more astringent than I prefer… the floral, however, had subsided a bit and vegetal notes started to come out, a bit of a spinachy/garden peas note. On the fourth infusion I decided to cut back the infusion time rather than increase it, which helped some, but I still wasn’t a fan of the thickly floral aftertaste.

I finished out the water I’d boiled at six steeps. Perhaps I botched this gong fu session, but I preferred the western cup, which was a very smooth cup with that lovely lilac cream aroma, with a warm garden peas/spinach vegetal note followed by honeyed cream and soft lilacs, and absolutely no sour or astringent notes. Rating is based on the pleasant western brew rather than this lackluster gong fu session. I’m glad I still have enough leaf left to do another western brew cup!

So, to recap. I ordered 17 different Dammann Freres teas, and this is the last one. As of today I have tried them all. Some are absolutely delicious, others are just good. It seems to me that their teas that have several flavors are better than the ones that are just orange black, for example.

In the 10 days or so since I got the order I have picked this tea up and put it down maybe a dozen times. I just couldn’t bring myself to choose it over other things or get excited about it. Now I am wondering WHY?

This is. So. Good. I was brewing it on campus, and started to smell it and it was like a punch to the face. Yummy! Then I tasted it and I don’t know what I expected, maybe plain apple tea? But this tastes like a lightly spiced, buttery, caramel drizzled apple turnover straight out of the oven. So, so good. Definitely one of my favorites from the whole batch.

Alright, here comes the final review of the day. I finished a sample pouch of this tea earlier in the month, probably around the end of the first week or the start of last week. I think I may have built this one up in my head a little too much prior to trying it because it was not what I expected it to be, and as a result, I was disappointed with it at first. I think I was expecting an oolong that would revival an authentic Taiwanese baozhong, but what I got was something that fell between a lightly roasted baozhong, and surprisingly enough, a dancong oolong. In the end, I came around on this tea, but I still doubt I would regularly reach for it over a Taiwanese baozhong or any higher end Guangdong oolong.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a brief rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 7 seconds. This infusion was followed by 14 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of cream, butter, custard, orchid, and orange blossom. After the rinse, I noted aromas of orange zest and pomegranate. The first infusion brought out a subtle nectarine scent. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of cream, butter, roasted almond, orchid, vanilla, and orange zest that were chased by hints of grass. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of roasted almond, pineapple, grass, seaweed, vanilla, and lotus as well as a significantly stronger pomegranate aroma. Custard, pomegranate, and orange blossom notes came out in the mouth alongside stronger impressions of grass and subtle nectarine hints. New mineral, macadamia, watercress, spinach, seaweed, pineapple, honey, and lotus impressions emerged as well. By the end of the session, I was still picking up mineral, roasted almond, cream, and butter notes that were chased by hints of grass, orange zest, and pomegranate.

A fascinating and at times elusive Southeast Asian oolong, I ended up enjoying this tea quite a bit, finding it to be an excellent product. Again, it did not remind me all that much of a traditional Taiwanese baozhong, especially in terms of mouthfeel and the way its aroma and flavor components expressed themselves. In the latter two respects, it reminded me more of a dancong oolong, and this connection was only strengthened by the presence of pomegranate, nectarine, roasted almond, and pungent floral notes as I tend to frequently find those notes in such teas. Overall, however, this was a very enjoyable oolong. It made for a pleasant break from the more traditional teas I tend to regularly drink.

Unfortunately, I’m two for two on underperforming teas from Tao of Tea. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this malty Assam. It’s extremely drinkable; a little sweet, but the “sweet” is about all I’m getting. I wanted whap-you-in-the-face Assam in the bass notes, not tap-you-politely-on-the-shoulder Assam. If you like your breakfast teas on the gentler side, this may be right up your alley.

From my summer order! I thought this sounded quite unique with mango, barley, roasted rice and maca root powder on an oolong base. It sounded both fruity and whatever barley might bring to the table. The description said the maca root powder might taste like butterscotch — which probably enhances the mango flavoring. The flavor is mostly mango! Which is too bad as I wouldn’t mind more of the barley or roasted rice coming across to balance the mango. The brew color in the mug is bright yellow. It could ALMOST taste like stevia, but I think that is the mango flavoring, or maybe even the maca. I’m starting to think that tea makers just find a generic fruity flavor and say “we’ll just call this mango”. I do miss the starchy quality of mango in some mango teas. But this tea could have been worse. It is very thirst quenching and disappears right quick.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 20 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // 10 minutes after boiling // 2 min
Steep #3 // just boiled // many minutes

OMGsrsly was generous enough to send me one of these orbs. Thank you so much.

I’ve been finding that I like sheng better with less leaf than is normally recommended. So yes, I broke this in half.
About a week ago I used one half and did a gongfu session with it. It was nice and light. I didn’t take detailed notes – but it was good. Maybe just a hint bitter with a little grassy – but not excessive.

Today I’ve taken the other half and dumped it into a steeping basket and a Davids perfect mug. I know, I know – but western steep works for me sometimes. This is one of those time. This is really good with short – 15/20 sec. A little creamy, really smooth, just a hint of the sheng mustiness. With this preparation, this is right up there with my favorite shengs.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BAavf_6OE5O/?taken-by=dex3657
https://www.instagram.com/p/BAaxc3XOE8l/?taken-by=dex3657

I really like this. The website description is perfect, on the flowery side but still with a hint of peanut. These floral or fruitier greens are so much up my street! Still has the slightly savoury green feeling but with a much nicer finish from the florals.

Total yum.

This one’s pretty good. It reminds me of Redberry Tonic, but a little more tart. Half a glass in, I told my mom what this blend is called and she agreed that this is similar to an actual Shirley Temple. I wouldn’t know since I haven’t tried one before. It’s refreshing, very red-tasting, kind of like a more exciting red Kool Aid, and doesn’t have any weird aftertaste. I wouldn’t stock up but I wouldn’t mind having it again either.

Cold Brew!

Well, I am officially on a self imposed tea buying hiatus. No more tea or teaware! After that last $380 Camellia Sinensis order and impending costs of repairing/replacing my computer’s hard drive and from Christmas I’m gonna be a pretty broke person. The good news is that I’ve got lots of goodies to look forward to! Right now I’m expecting four different orders:

1. A Tea Pet (A monkey!)
2. Samples from A Quarter to Tea
3. Teas from August Uncommon
4. This massive Camellia Sinensis order

Between all the lovely teas I’ve already got, such as this tea with it’s yummy cranberry notes, and the impending goodies that’s a lot to keep a tea drinker occupied until the new year.

I’ve had a request to start writing tasting notes again. This confuses me, I stopped writing notes because I felt I didn’t have anything interesting to say. There are lots of people here who are more articulate and have a better palate than I do. But as requested, here goes…

Tonight I’m just hanging out at home, watching the hockey game, petting the cat, eating banana bread, drinking this tea.

I normally choose and prefer China black teas, but it’s always nice to break it up with something different. This one is light with the high notes I would expect from a Taiwan black. It’s really fruity – normally I would think grape/wine fruity in this style but these are stone fruit notes. There is also some tannin (?) and a little suck the moisture out of your mouth thing. There is also a little smokiness as it cools. I don’t feel this style will every be my favorite but this was fun to try and I think it’s different enough from a typical Taiwan black to make it interesting.
Thanks Evol for sharing.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BcLnt-4hJGB/?taken-by=dex3657

Thanks to sophistre, I get a chance to try a new Bohea. Yay! I just had Teas Etc’s Bohea this morning, so I can’t help but make comparisons. If I didn’t know better, I would swear they aren’t the same type of tea. This one is much milder (in color, smell and taste) than the Teas Etc Bohea. The smoky flavor – which is rich and thick in the TE version – is mild here, somewhat of an afterthought. The first descriptor that crossed my mind with this one, both when smelling and tasting, was ‘sweet’. Because it is. It’s sweet, soft, gentle and has a hint of smoke in the aftertaste that kind of poofs up my sinuses after a sip.

But that makes it sound like, compared to TE’s Bohea, ToT’s version is lacking. It isn’t. It’s just totally different. TE’s version reminds me of lapsang with the edges smoothed out and no tar. ToT’s version reminds me of TeaSpring’s Tan Yang Te Ji with less oomph and MPD-esque complexity. I have to be in a smoky tea mood to drink TE’s Bohea. This one, being milder, wouldn’t require a smoky mood.

So even though they are the same type of tea, they really are totally different. I could see keeping both in my pantry without feeling I was duplicating teas. I could also see using this one as a tea to ease a newbie into smoky teas. It’s really quite tasty.

The second steep (5min) is a little milder than I hoped for (still tasty though) so I think next time I’ll extend that steep a bit for a touch more flavor.

Well that’s just weird. I often add a splash of caramel and vanilla syrup to my morning green tea matcha latte. It is pretty good. Today I decided to use 1/2 tsp each of Red Leaf Tea’s Caramel matcha and French Vanilla matcha. I love both of them, just not mixed together apparently. It is kind of bitter and the flavors clash. Not sure why I keep thinking I am going to improve on something I already think is perfect. Oh well, its gone already and I don’t have to repeat, but I probably will and that’s just weird.

Sample from an order. Not one I would have thought to grab even though I do love a good green tea when pineapple is involved. This was light and refreshing and thoroughly enjoyable. Rest of this is set aside for variaTEA to enjoy ( also side note it makes me laugh that my iPad autocorrects variaTEA’s name to have the tea in caps ) lol

An Ode to Tea, O Entry.

This tea comes from the Kurihara Tea Farm, but was acquired via Yunomi. I don’t have much experience with Japanese blacks, which is probably why I dropped a 20g sample of this into a very long-ago order. My tastes pretty much never agree with the steeping instructions provided with Japanese teas (which always have water-to-leaf ratios that just aren’t pleasant to me) so I disregarded them and brewed the way I usually make blacks (2.5g per 350ml) though I did drop the water temperature down from my typical 205F to their suggested 195F.

The steeped cup has a smooth, breakfast tea malty/baked bread aroma, with a strong fruity cherry note, and an underlying florality, like a wildflower honey. It’s nice! I’m surprised how fruity this black is! I definitely taste that warm baked bread and malt flavor, but very quickly a sharp floral/fruity taste dominates the cup, tasting mostly of cherries, orange peel, and more subtly, rose. There is a very aromatic feeling left on the tongue, which reminds me of the feeling I get when I drink scented French teas, and a mild drying after the sip. Remarkably smooth prepared this way. I sort of expected this is to be a pretty harsh black and expected I’d be using up the remainder of the packet making lattes, but this is perfect as-is.

Looking forward to sipping this down over the next few days!

I am seriously drowning in tea now. My orders from 52teas and The Simple Leaf both came in today, and now I’m starting to think that investing in a better tea storage solution is completely critical. This wouldn’t be such a disaster if I were capable of ordering just one or two samples, but I’m really not. My counter is a minefield of new tea.

Soooo, anyway!

What can I say about this tea that other people haven’t already said?

Opening the bag, you’re hit with the scent of cocoa powder — the light, fluffy, dusty kind. To me, the aroma was a lot like chocolate milk. Everyone to remark on the leaves themselves is utterly in earnest — they are incredible. Thick, woody, substantial, smooth. They are tea leaves that you could kill a man with. They have heft.

They are also very difficult to estimate by eye, reinforcing for me that a scale is something I’m overdue to invest in.

Steeped, while still very hot the aroma slips occasionally toward something distinctly honey. Honey and cocoa are definitely there…and so is a woody depth that reminds me not just a little bit of Golden Moon’s Imperial Formosa Oolong. You never lose sight of the fact that this is tea, either; what I think of as the quintessential tea flavor is there, but darker, shadowed.

The other note I can identify is one I’ve gone back and forth about adding here for reasons that will become obvious, but it’s just so prevalent that I can’t really see any way to get around it:

Cannabis.

Not fresh. More like…hash. Why yes, I did spend a few years in my youth doing things you’re not technically allowed by our country to do!

Seriously, though, it’s there. In small quantities, and more like the memory of something than the fact of it, but recurrent enough that this note would be incomplete without its mention.

For all that the list of flavors is dark…the tea itself is surprisingly not so, with a very low and subtle sweetness on the tail end that uplifts the oolong-like fullness in the mouth.

A delicious tea, and completey worthy of whatever ranting and raving people have been doing.

PS: Good for a second steep.

Oh what a wonderful cup for the morning. This is some serious yum! I think Mazi said it, I am turning into a fan girl. I am already plotting the next purchase, b/c I mean who could pass up a sweet potato pie keemun? I am drinking this tea straight, which if I had my drothers I would be adding milk and sugar to chai, but those are off limits for now. Just straight it a decent chai. I get some spice, who the heck knows what kind, plus some maple for sweetness. I am not really able to pick out pumpkin in this one, but it is still delicious. The base works for me on this one. Not too strong and not too weak.

EDIT: As it cools I definately was able to pick up more of the pumpkin spice flavor. Also, I am finding 2 tsp for about 8oz of water is the sweet spot for these.

Full day session today with a vendor so i brought a couple teas with me in case all they had was coffee. Good think too! This was rather delicious and malty today – possibly since i steeped it a little longer than normal :)

This was another one of my sipdowns from September, this one coming from around the very end of the month. Not only did this tea end up holding the distinction of being the very worst tea I drank last month, it was also one of the very worst teas I have ever consumed. Nothing about this tea clicked for me.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a brief rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 16 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and 7 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of cedar, pine, straw, hay, cinnamon, and malt. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of fresh yeast rolls, roasted peanut, and honey. The first infusion introduced aromas of roasted walnut, smoke, and leather. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of roasted peanut, straw, malt, hay, cedar, and pine that were complimented by hints of smoke, baked bread, roasted walnut, honey, and sugarcane. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of minerals, nutmeg, cocoa, caramel, toasted marshmallow, sugarcane, and grass. Slightly stronger notes of honey, sugarcane, and roasted walnut came out in the mouth along with impressions of minerals, leather, earth, yeast roll, cinnamon, nutmeg, graham cracker, cocoa, orange zest, toasted marshmallow, grass, butter, and caramel. I also picked up on hints of lemon zest and plum. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized notes of minerals, butter, malt, yeast roll, straw, and roasted peanut that were underscored by hints of hay, smoke, orange zest, caramel, sugarcane, honey, and toasted marshmallow.

This was a very odd, awkward, and unsatisfying Jin Jun Mei. There was a lot going on with it, but none of its aroma or flavor components really came together in any sort of pleasant way for any length of time. The mouthfeel of the tea liquor also struck me as being very harsh and chalky. Overall, there was nothing about this tea that was pleasant or enjoyable. Even though I have a small pouch of the Spring 2018 version of this tea, I now doubt that I will be in any rush to get to it.

Samurai Travelling Tea Box – Tea #9

Not normally a chai person (or a chocolate tea person, for that matter) but T2 is one of those companies that’s not convenient to get ahold of in Canada so I figured I best take the opportunity to try this blend our while I have it…

My initial thought was that I was surprised how little chocolate actually seems to carry through to the flavour! It’s definitely there amidst the murky and muddy liquor but it’s certainly not the flavour focal point of the blend, and I surprisingly found myself wanting more! What did stand out was how rich and intense both of the star anise and clove flavours were. They were complimented by other typical chai spices like cinnamon and ginger, but there two were really the stars of the blend. Coincidentally those are my favourite two chai spices so I was very pleased in that regard; it was a bit of a trade off with the chai delivering and the chocolate not.

The only thing I could really think of was that maybe the general sweetness of the star anise was supposed to lean into the “sweetness” of the chocolate chips? If that was the intention then I think it was a failure though; those flavours are not the same.

Overall… fine.

Yet another swap from Togo, thank you. Autumn 2017 harvest.

The dry leaf isn’t very fragrant. There is a dominant dried sour cherry and prune note with some malt in the background. Wet leaf smell is light with vanilla and wood.

The aroma is very similar to the dry leaf with an elusive note of chocolate-covered raisins.

The taste is fruity and bright with a brisk, woody tone like a Ceylon. The same dried fruits dominate and the chocolate-covered raisin of the aroma is likewise subtle in taste. Hints of rose, too. If brewed heavier, cedar becomes the forward note. Finishes tannic with maltiness and subtle dried apricots and cream. Leaves a dry, salty-sour impression in the mouth.

A nice, brisk daily drinker with dried fruit flavors. Probably good for those that like to add a touch of milk.

[Western: 2tsp, 8oz, 205F, 2 steeps at 4 and ? minutes]

This was yet another recent sipdown of mine. I only had 25 grams of this tea to work through and finished them over the course of two or three days toward the beginning of last week. I know that I have gone a bit crazy with Taiwanese oolongs this month, but I have had quite a few good ones to work through, and this one was yet another winner. I will probably switch to something else the moment I hit one that does not move me in any way, but that may take some time at this rate.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After the rinse, I steeped 6 grams of tea leaves in 4 ounces of 203 F water for 8 seconds. This infusion was followed by 17 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 10 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes, and 15 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of brown sugar, chocolate, burnt toast, golden raisin, pine, and plum. After the rinse, I detected aromas of cherry, roasted almond, vanilla, red apple, and malt. The first infusion introduced aromas of cinnamon and butterscotch. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered notes of brown sugar, cream, vanilla, pine, burnt toast, chocolate, golden raisin, malt, and roasted almond that were chased by hints of red apple, cherry, pear, cinnamon, and hazelnut. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of pear, fig, white grape, nutmeg, blackberry, coffee, and hazelnut. Butterscotch and plum impressions emerged in the mouth, while stronger and more immediately evident cinnamon, red apple, hazelnut, and cherry impressions made themselves known. I also found impressions of minerals, fig, nutmeg, white grape, cream, coffee, and blackberry. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized notes of minerals, pine, vanilla, cream, cinnamon, brown sugar, malt, roasted almond, and burnt toast that were underscored by hints of chocolate, pear, golden raisin, hazelnut, plum, butterscotch, and cherry.

This was one of those oolongs that was easy for me to write off at first because it was just so balanced and drinkable. More patient, focused sipping, however, revealed a simultaneously complex and approachable tea that was truly masterfully crafted. The liquor was both aromatic and flavorful yet lusciously thick and gorgeously textured, and it offered tremendous longevity and sneaky, gently invigorating energy to boot. In the end, there was not much of note for me to criticize about this tea. If you are looking for a high quality GABA oolong, this would be one to consider.