Featured & Popular Tasting Notes

This is a complex and smooth tea that reminds me of aged, lightly oxidized white tea at times. I also like its pleasantly enveloping qi.

In the aroma I detect prunes and cherry wood, while wet leaves give off notes of port wine, fern, honey, and gardenia flowers.

The liquor has a superb oily mouthfeel and introduces a funny constrictive feeling in the back of the mouth. Its taste includes many flavours such as juniper, blue grapes, dandelion flower, burdock, prunes, fallen leaves, and acorn. The aftertaste is long, sticky and sweet with good minerality and herbaceous character.

I’m really not certain if I liked this tea or not. It had definitely aged a fair bit. Very dark colored tea soup and plenty of aged taste. The problem is I don’t know how to describe the aged taste. It had no wet storage taste. It got better as I resteeped it. I guess I might hazard to say notes of hay and tobacco? Don’t know if that is an accurate description. I’m on the fence about this one in general. I have not completely decided that I like aged sheng or not. It’s nice that there were no notes of wet wood in there anyway. Usually White2Tea’s older stuff is wet stored so that is surprising.

I steeped this ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 8.2g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min. The tea was starting to lose some color at ten steeps but I’m sure I could get a few more out of it if I hadn’t already had too much caffeine.

no.5

Now this is a bit more me. really tight rolled greener balls. Interesting aroma, lighter on the roasty, smells more naturally oxidised. Lighter yellow soup with milkyness in there somewhere.. milky thick body, savoury taste. Not getting overwhelming florals on this one, or fruit. But its a nice change from all the more fraggled ones, they seem to be the KFC of the oolong world, whereas this is more like nice italian cuisine, pasta etc..

A bit vegetal.. – Lishan? jin xuan?

TTB

Huh, this is strange. It says cola and I can pick cola flavors out in the finish, but the sip is more savory and almost sage like. I can smell ginger in the cup, but it gets sort of muddled in the sip. This tea is confusing! Not really into it.

I loved this the first time around, but this cup tastes like chamomile. How strange. The spices are barely there too. I must not have gotten a good mix of everything in this scoop. It’s the last of the bag. I’d thought about ordering more when it becomes available. I might still do that, but hopefully a full bag will have more flavor.

LOVE this tea. Seriously, chocolate goodness. I really want more of this. I love the chestnut flavouring – subtle enough to be present but not overpower the chocolate.

GUESS WHO SUBMITTED HER ESSAY!!!!! I’M FREEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! :D

Drank my resteeped cold brew while I was working, and it was way way better. Melon flavour definitely came through much more, and no bitterness. Definitely have to remember to use less leaf next time I cold brew this one.

A sipdown! This is an older tea but it still tastes pretty good. As before but perhaps even more true now – the rose is quite light. Since the oolong base is good, it is better that they didn’t drown it in rose. It may also have been stronger rose flavor years ago when it was fresh.

I miss Tea Ave! I have one more pot’s worth of Osmanthus Oolong and then they are off shelf for me forever, I suppose.

Was intrigued by this tea when I came across W2T’s spring 2023 selections. It was the cheapest of the bunch, and twice as much tea. That alone did not sell me, but the description of this tea being the outcasts of several different tea producers in the Gan Lu region definitely piqued my interest. Of course, I simply could. not. wait. to pop open this bag and see what the tea would turn out like. The dry leaves were a happy variety of fresh green leaves, some small, some a little larger, some flat and oblong, while others were thinly rolled like needles. I even found a teeny little tea seed as I was brewing! The brew was all sweet corn and grassy vegetal flavors. it’s going to be fun teasing out all the flavors as I drink this one down

Additional notes: This is really one of those teas I should have enjoyed at the freshest. This tea is certainly not the same, which I mentioned a few months ago. But I did want to try different parameters: I’ve been having luck with other teas having more flavor peeking out with more leaves, so I used two teaspoons with this steep. A brisk tea to try with two teaspoons, but with the flavor mostly gone, I didn’t feel like I was wasting leaves. I also handpicked the sunflower seeds out of the teaspoons so they didn’t impart more stale flavor than they needed to. The flavor ended up stale anyway, and still not much raspberry. Maybe a tiny bit more than if I used one teaspoon (which was no raspberry flavor at all). So what I once called ‘best raspberry tea’ is now hardly raspberry. I would say the sunflower seeds definitely don’t work, especially for us hoarders, but this tea isn’t THAT old yet. I don’t think the sunflower seeds were an accurate substitute for peanut butter anyway. I WOULD love to see a good flavored peanut butter tea, fake ingredients or not. The original rating was for the ‘raspberry’ aspect, rather than the ‘peanut butter’ aspect. The raspberry was so good I was willing to look over the sunflower seeds. Also, this partly assam base just pairs very well with raspberry.
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons (with sunflower seeds plucked out) // 20 min after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 10 minutes after boiling // 2-3 min

I was lucky enough to have a sample of this tea, and it is a fantastic Darjeeling. Or it is a fantastic first flush in my opinion because it exhibits some characteristics that I’m not used to.

As much as I enjoy Darjeelings, I find myself liking summer, autumn, or second flushes the most, especially if they have some spiciness, muscatel qualities, and the allusive cocoa-chocolate notes. First flushes for me are usually very grassy, almost like a herbal spice such as basil which is why I hesitate with them. Though they exhibit floral qualities like an oolong, they are usually more drying which is why I wait for highly recommended ones to come along before I purchase them.

I took the $39 budget as an opportunity to try this one, and unlike other first flushes, this tea has more of a bready, chocolate quality along with the more herby and spicy tones. Smelling the leaves gives me the impression of basil and butter smothered bread, with a few pieces of chocolate covered raisins waiting in the background to cleanse my palette. The taste produces a similar effect, but with a buttery smooth body of a mildly sweet dark chocolate with a heavy herby and spicy aftertaste for a tea sans astringency. That profile persists, and the tea is even better when you eat a chunk of 70% dark chocolate for company. The first time I tried this I did exactly that, and then finished off my decadent experience with a Tawny Port Wine. Yes, I’m a snob and enjoy the hell out of that fact.

I’m not sure that everyone would find the chocolate qualities, but drinking this tea straight would definitely find a sweet and savory profile dried up by the herb spiced aftertaste. It’s a black tea with a black teas sweet body but a first flushes green profile. I would highly recommend a try of this tea, though I think that people newer to tea might not get the same impressions that I do, and I am not sure how a Darjeeling connoisseur would think of it.

Is this even the same Pinglin Bao Zhong tea that others are writing about? I am currently too lazy to get up and reread the tea pouch. Edit—I did get up and check the tea pouch and yes, that’s all the label says. I can only guess that this newer batch, purchased July 2016, is a totally different creature than those previously written about. Completely different flavour profile.

Totally coconut, which is being lost on me today as I just had another but different coconut oolong yesterday and I had forgotten how coconut this one is. Delicious coconut which is not quite was I was in the mood for, so I will postpone proper reviewing for another time.

Yesterday, I had an early doctor’s appointment in the city, which meant that I was perfectly positioned to wander over to Chinatown and treat myself to dim sum. A large group, about seven or eight, older men were there, old as dirt, really, and it was a delight to watch them hang out, joke, read their papers, eat, torment the servers, and carry on. Although they were speaking in Cantonese, it was clear that they had great affection for each other and had known each other for a long long time. I wonder how often they have their morning breakfasts together. I suspect rituals and camaraderie like this have much to do with their longevity.

Apart from this group, was an older gentlemen having breakfast alone. He had brought his own yixing teapot, teacup, and huge thermos of boiling water for the gazillions cups he drank with his meal. I. was. dying to go over there and ask him what kind of tea he was drinking, but I didn’t: too embarrassed and concerned about the possible communication gap. After his meal, he dumped his mountain of leaves out onto an empty plate: curly, fizzly, dark. I asked one of my favourite trolley people if she knew what kind of tea that was and she suspected it was heung pin, which we later got translated as jasmine. Yeah, maybe she just felt she needed to give me some sort of answer. It doesn’t necessarily tell me anything about the leaf.

Anyway…

So recently discovered that a friend of mine is a tea fan, and she gave me a two bags of this and a bit of unidentified loose green as a way to cheer me up. My pet rabbit was recently discovered by the dorm RAs, and was promptly kicked out, which makes me terrible upset BUT she will take care of him for me till summer. So all is well once again! And now with added tea.

So this is one of first hot oolongs that I’ve had in sometime and it was as delicious as I remember them being. The tartness of the pomegranate melted into the light taste of the oolong. I really like how delicate and light the tea was overall. Downside, kind of bitter and doesn’t re-steep very well. Very pleasant, but may not something I buy with my own money.

Sipdown 10/25-2022

I enjoy green rooibos much more than regular rooibos, and always appreciate when it’s utilized in blends.

This is nice- super sweet, candy lemon.

Thank you, Shae, for this sample. Not sure what the octopus legs are about in the picture. I don’t sense any marine attributes. The wet leaf has some gentle woodsy attributes that are very nice though. Old cabin in the woods, mossy wet logs deep in the forest, and cedar. This is a light black. Not brisk but it does contain a good tap of astringency if you go over the steeping parameters. The flavor is very woody. A slight hint of malt and malt o meal. Old, dry, decaying wood. A bit of resin and varnish in the aftertaste. You could add milk but I don’t think this one is quite strong enough.

I don’t personally prefer this sencha. I just find it too grassy and loud compared to other green teas that blend more smoothly into the background. I steeped this for two minutes as recommended, but it still tastes a bit bitter. This tea smells absolutely amazing. The pineapple flavor is probably the most authentic I’ve ever encountered in a tea – just like biting into a fresh juicy pineapple. I only wish it were paired with a base I enjoyed!

Sipdown (112)!

Finished this one off last night as well; in a timolino. It was reminding me an awful lot of catnip tea – but in a half decent way (I was not a fan of catnip tea). I feel kind of bad I never really wound up using this for any blending, like was intended, but I just wound up liking it a little too much as a straight, herbal blend.

This stuff is the bees knees – I took some tea to sample on holiday in Limousin, France for 2 weeks with no phone signal, let alone internet. And this one was my favourite.

Medium-heavy roast Wuyi goodness. I cannot describe the joy I have had drinking this – the smell & taste & huigans & pure relaxed chi that comes out of the first 5 steeps is something close to heaven. My notes are sparse but it created tasteual colour (yes thats the word) that bordered on magical, for me its the fact there is a Floral-fruity-something in there thats expertly interwoven with the roast that knocks it out of the park.

After that it disappears. Quickly. – and if this was expensive I would be disappointed (later it tastes like really cheap store oolong!)- but its not. Its like 20p/g and this actually added to my impression of it because I dont always want to drink an Oolong you need to dedicate a day or wallet to. So its just a quick sesh of brilliant wuyi.

‘5 steeps in heaven is better than no steeps in heaven’ As they say.

2023 sipdown no. 57

I really came to love this tea once I figured out the best steeping parameters. The orange had a bite to it – a slight bitterness, which I expected with the orange peel pieces in the blend. However, the orange flavour itself was really lovely and truly orange. The orange slightly edged out the bergamot, but the bergamot was still present. The base tea was smooth with a lower temperature and shorter steep. I would definitely add this one to my cupboard again.

Made this with the intent of three warm sips, then ice it down at work…and suddenly I find there is very little left to ice. (Ever do that? Just look down and your cup is mysteriously empty?) Unsweetened, it has a little bit of a bitter edge to the sip—not sure if that’s sloppy steeping or if it’s a natural trait of huckleberries. You sweet people might like a bit of sugar or syrup in this, but otherwise, it’s a natural for summer sipping. Chilled, if you can let it alone that long.

June 14th, 2021 harvest

This was a sample provided by Thés du Japon in my joint buy with Leafhopper. I prepared it according to TDJ’s parameters, which differ from my usual 3g:300mL:3min for many black teas. TDJ recommends half of my typical water volume, so I opted to use a 200mL Taiwanese black clay teapot and eyeball the water level instead of my usual Western-style mason jar brewing. I have 2 different black clay teapots that hadn’t seen much use until I recently got into Japanese teas. They seem to work very well for these teas and I’m happy they’re getting the attention they deserve!

A powerful Japanese black tea, full of lively tannins but with no heaviness that upsets my body. The woody-floral-spicy aroma carries through into the mouth and presents strongly in retro-olfaction but does not linger for more than a few minutes. I think this is due to the tannic and drying, rather than coating, nature of the tea. The full flavor is malty-rosewoody with lesser dark-fruitiness and soft, warm cinnamon; an apple nuance. A fruity and light, buttery finish presents along with the return of the aroma. I accidentally steeped the second infusion for 15 minutes. It came out rather bitter, reminding me of violet candies, while still presenting some weakened characteristics of the first infusion.

The tea calls to mind the profile of What-Cha’s Taiwan Wild ‘Shan Cha’, the main difference between the two residing in the mouthfeel — this one has plenty of structure provided by the tannins, while the Wild ‘Shan Cha’ exhibits the smooth character of many Taiwanese blacks. This is a lovely black tea that I think would appeal to plenty of people , especially those who like to add a touch of milk, but it is not necessarily something I would seek out. For being grown without chemical pesticides or fertilizers, I’m impressed with the result!

bready, smooth tasty tea. heh. A non smoky version of ZSXZ. I haven’t tried this version from Yunnan sourcing, so happy to see it in my box from my tea sister. Enjoyed this one while finishing up the last of the household crap in MUCH nicer, sunny yet cool weather. Here’s hoping fall is here to stay and that the humidity is over!

Final count:115

Brewed this up today in my glass flute brewer. 3 g, 80c. Dry leaf had a bit of a spinach smell but I seem to remember last year’s being a bit fruity. I could be wrong on that because I didn’t write a review last year but I know something was a bit different.

First infusion – 1 min – Fresh cut grass , green beans & fleeting floral notes
Second & third were brewed for same amount of time and both were a little bit stronger than the first infusion. No bitterness in any of the infusions but a bit astringent with a hint of sweetness. It was good but it seemed it was missing something that was in last year’s. I am almost sure last year was a bit fruity.

Last year I bought this tea from both YS and Teavivre and found them pretty similar. I did not buy this tea from Teavivre this year but the price comparision is pretty much the same and it appears they both come from the same place near Huangshan, Anhui.

Overall, I still enjoyed this tea but feel it is just a bit different from last year’s harvest.

Yesterday I was trying to sip down one of the coconut Earl Greys I had in my collection that I had grabbed looking for a “dup” for my beloved “Foggy Coconut” by 52Teas, since I can’t just reorder that whenever I need a restock. My Hawaiian Earl Grey from Tealyra had already gone the way of bad coconut, and then I discovered that my Earl Grey Bella Luna from Adagio had also gone bad. I had a harder time telling with that one because the bergamot was so strong in it, but it had a sour note that kept making me suspicious, so I carefully pulled several slivers out, ate them separately, and… yup. As soon as I realized I removed my review yesterday and trashed the bag. I would never judge a tea based on a soured ingredient. And then I hastily made a cup of this to take to work at the last second after dumping the other cup.

I remember I bought this because my local grocery had it and Roswell liked it so much; they’ve stopped carrying it since and now they only carry Lemon Loaf (and I’m okay with that, since Lemon Loaf is my favorite, I’m sure it was selling way more than the others and they made a decision based on shelf space). This certainly isn’t a bad black tea, it just doesn’t taste particularly strong in butterscotch notes to me; I get a bit of a vanilla note, and a hint of caramel, but it doesn’t read as butterscotch per say, and I think that’s because the strongest flavor is a warm, roasty chicory, with a touch of a cinnamon undertone; it’s pleasant, but rounds it out in a way that doesn’t exactly make me think of a Blondie dessert in any sort of way. So it’s a pleasant bagged black tea, and I like the flavor I’m getting from it, I just don’t particularly think it is emulating what is listed on the box, at least not to my palate.

I only have a few teabags left and am going to finish this one off soon, and admit I’m going to miss this one. I don’t have many bagged black teas I can just pick up at the store that I really enjoy, at least not as much as this one.