Featured & New Tasting Notes

LET IT BE KNOWN that I’m just here to post a note and then I’ll likely disappear again. Hello! Goodbye!

This tea. I’m blaming Dexter for this. But it was a free sample, so I suppose that’s ok.

It smells like cacao shells and pineapple when I sniff it dry. Really chocolatey and fruity. So nice. The most interesting notes are tobacco. So, for example, when you have a really nice pipe tobacco and it smells earthy and rich and fruity. Like that. Not like smoke. Tobacco as a perfume fragrance is never smoke. This is what it evokes. Vanilla and warm woods. Sweet fruits. Cacao shell (similar to chocolate, but not the same).

So good.

Steeped, and sipping it, the pepper comes out. It’s a really nice flavour. Still the vanilla and warm woods and juicy fruit, some cacao shells (but not enough for me right now… I find cacao shells smell more than they tend to taste), delicious black tea.

I’m having it with some milk, which might take down the pepper somewhat.

I really like this tea. I might be considering an order. Which is weird. Because I think I’ve spent $30 on tea in the last 8 months.

The name of this alone warranted the purchase. I do feel like I’ve had this tea ten times before. It’s that classic berry/hibiscus blend, but the hibiscus is on the softer side. I can pick up on the kiwi a bit in the background but no passionfruit, sadly. I wish I could think of specific blends to compare this to, but that’s just it. Because it is so generic and common of a berry flavour, it makes it all the more difficult to think of one. They’re all the same after a while. Know what I mean?

Bayswater definitely had one similar to this. In regards to DAVIDsTEA, it’s like a muted version of Bear Trap. The sample packet was more than enough for me. I can take it or leave it. Another example of a decent, drinkable cold brew that isn’t special enough to restock or keep on hand.

First to review :)

The leaf is moderately condensed and consists of quite a few visible shiny buds. I take in a potent floral and super sweet aroma. The scent is so silky it’s almost creamy. The background yields fresh greens, vegetation, and some lily. A very nice beginning to a tea session. I warmed up my pot and placed some inside. The scent continues in the form of strong floral syrup with underlying of dark wet wood and peat moss. This aroma is amazingly sweet and tasty. I washed the leaves once and prepared for brewing. The taste begins incredibly thick with a full body of sugar syrupy and fresh fruit. The brew subsides into a lime note with candied sweetness underneath. I thought of sour patch kids as this tea moved forward, for it would begin sour and then cover up with sweet juiciness. A nice viscosity appeared in later steeping with brief astringency that would slowly grow. This tea is characterized as sweet yet aggressive. The qi is powerful and strong armed. I was disoriented quickly into the session. I experienced a great deal of head pressure, fuzziness, tongue numbing, and fizzy flying. I also noticed a prominent cooling sensation stuck in my lungs that actually took my breath away. The brew continues to stay sweet and tasteful throughout the session. The steeped leaves filled my room with a sweet pastry scent. I enjoyed this tea, and I was quite short of breath afterwards. A very nicely done tea.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BMO3hoNgdzQ/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

This tea nagged me through the whole process. It seems somewhat familiar (though I’ve never had it before, and it doesn’t seem to be ringing any other tea bells) to me, and I can’t pinpoint where I know it from.
Its driving me bonkers.
From the first sniff of the leaf, to the brewing, to the sipping, to now sitting here writing about it. Its familiar! Its reminiscent of something! WHAT IS IT? Arrgh!
The closest I can come in a creamsicle, but even that’s an imperfect match.
I mean, I generally liked it, but its driving my memory nuts. How do I know you, flavors? Arghhh.

Just tried a sample of this one that I picked up a few months ago. I’m fairly certain I want a cake of it now. The dry leaf smelled a little bit aged, with a slight leather aroma. After a rinse, it was more fruity or floral, with straw and a sweet vanilla aroma. I also got a bit of some kind of spice, maybe cloves…hardly detectable.

For the first 7 or so steeps, this tea had a slight vegetal front, followed by a pretty intense sweet finish, exhibiting flavors of vanilla, milkiness, and slightly floral. Combined with the nice thickness, it reminded me of the mixture which you dip bread in to make french toast – a little bit eggy, like I was drinking cake batter. Sometimes, seemingly at random, as I wasn’t really varying the infusion time in these early steeps, the flavor would be a slight bit woody or barky and drying before the sweet finish came through.

The second part of the session, which I took to nearly 20 steeps, was a little bit less vegetal with sweetness that was less intense. The flavor at the front of the sip was a soft fruitiness, which was followed by a thick sweetness with now a little bit of honey to complement the vanilla notes. I could sometimes pick out apricot from the fruity flavors, but sometimes not. Around steep 8, I felt a bit of qi starting to rise up from my stomach, but that wasn’t a heavy component of this tea for me. The tea continued much the same as this for the remaining steeps – it was a really enjoyable session.

I’m glad I decided to sample this along with W2T’s 2016 lineup. It seems to have a good head start in the aging department, so I could see myself (if funds allow) picking up one cake to drink whenever and one to just stash in the back of my pumidor.

Note: I am very new to pu’er and am mostly writing a review for my own records. My opinion is not that of a seasoned veteran.

Tuo is very dry and crumbly when breaking, lots of dust (maybe I just suck at it?). I got a rinse plus 7 steeps out of it, the last couple steeps being 30s-1m and not giving much flavor. Fishiness and other off flavors were almost completely gone after the rinse. Liquor was very thick and deep red for the first 2-3 steeps. Low-medium astringency. Smooth and easy to drink with not much depth or complexity to the flavor. Didn’t change drastically between steeps and fell off hard around the 6th steep.

At $.06/g, I might re-order this to keep as a daily drinker when I’m not in the mood for anything pungent although it would be nice to get more steeps out of it.

Edit: tried this tea again and I rescind my recommendation. Not that good. After getting a few more ripe teas under my belt, I realized that this one is really not very nice.

Trying another Bitterleaf Sample! This tea is quite sweet. Unfortunately, that was about all it was. The dry leaf smelled like candy, and the flavor lived up to that aroma. The whole session was about the same except for some bitterness in the first few steeps. A light vegetal or greener floral flavor (slightly bitter in first 3-4 steeps) with a sugar sweet finish. It was pleasantly thick for steeps 3-6 or so. I didn’t notice any qi from drinking this one, even on an empty stomach.

I wouldn’t describe this tea as nasty or unpleasant, it’s simply boring. Between Bitterleaf’s two budget cakes this year (The two Year of the Monkey cakes) the smoking monkey Yiwu blows this one completely out of the water.

This one came to me from a work colleague, who wasn’t sure about the “old lady/mothballs” flavour. To me, it smells like turkish delight…

This is a bagged supermarket tea, although it’s a silky pyramid get-up containing pretty sizeable green tea leaves and a decent smattering of dried rose petal fragments. I gave the bag 2.5 minutes in water cooled to around 175 degrees.

To taste, it’s pretty strongly floral – more strongly than I typically enjoy (and yes, I did the scrunchy face). It had a pleasant turkish delight undertone, but the level of flavouring could stand to be taken down a notch or two and it would still be good. Better, in fact, because it wouldn’t be so hopelessly overpowering. The jasmine is strong, the rose stronger, and there’s also a degree of initial bitterness that really makes this one a no-no for me.

If I were to try this one again, I’d give it a very short brew time, maybe around the minute mark. I think that’s the only thing that’d recuse this one for me.

This is in my estimate an average tea. It is not bad, it is not great. I guess what I’m tasting is the quince fruit. I wouldn’t go out of my way to buy this again.

I brewed this one time in a Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 200 degree water for 4 minutes.

I got a sample of this tea from mrmopar as part of a swap in exchange for something he wanted from my stash. His review appears here also, so the reader can keep in mind we are drinking the same cake.

Taking the time to review because I really like this tea. If I can get the money together to buy one at only $74 for 357g, I will. The leaves are still fairly green after six years, but the brew is a dark golden yellow. Not terribly bitter in my book. Floral top notes with vanilla and oak. What’s amazing about this tea is the tongue coating and huigan. This tea coats the entire tongue hard with returning sweetness and balls up in the throat too. Some presence in the stomach. Very strong caffeine. Bit of qi in the back.

12+ steeps and not done yet.

For me this is plenty easy to drink now, but will be even better. I see some char in the strainer but not much, didn’t think this terribly smoky at all. The mouth huigan is just wonderful though, such long lasting enjoyment of vanilla and wood for me. Awesome stuff. I like teas that give unique experiences. It isn’t always about qi or tea drunk, this one just shines for the mouth activity and full flavors. Beautiful tea.

Happy Halloween everyone! Three Halloween themed teas for me today. This one with ACTUAL pumpkin pieces! Witches Brew Chai sweetened with candy corn (they melt very well!) and Davidstea Spiced Pumpkin later. All of these teas go well with pumpkin carving today. :D
On to this tea: It was a MUST try for me, just for actually including pumpkin pieces. But then it is also a matcha genmaicha with vanilla, marshmallow and nutmeg! This blend is like my ideal, perfect blend… however, I wish it had resulted in more flavor than there is. I’ve brewed this one up twice and it sadly tastes more like a plain genmaicha. How?! I must be brewing it wrong. Maybe it’s my tastebuds. I expected it to be cloudier from the matcha, but it results in a very clear cup. Tiny hints of sweetness from the marshmallow and vanilla but somehow I don’t taste any spices or pumpkin. As genmaicha, it’s delicious but this gets a lower score from me by not meeting my expectations. I wish I had loved this one more but I HAD to try it.
Steep #1 // heaping teaspoon for full mug // 30 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // 30 minutes after boiling // 4-5 minute steep

Another very nice tea from Crimson Lotus. The leaves had a grassy and vegetal aroma. This one was pretty forgiving, so I was able to brew it either in a gaiwan or in my Jianshui pot.

The first steep had a hint of spice to it, followed by a crisp vegetal note, like peas or celery.

I didn’t get any spicy notes after the first steep, but the vegetal remained, followed by a fruity, perhaps citrus flavor. It’s a kind of flavor I’ve only encountered in one other puerh, Yunnan Sourcing’s 2013 Wu Liang Ye Sheng. There are differences in the flavor, but when I got that distinct hint of citrus, that’s immediately where my mind went. This flavor profile went on for about seven steeps or so. The citrus sometimes intermingled with a creamy floral note and the occasional hint of caraway. It’s hard to describe the floral flavor – it reminds me of a few things. First is lemongrass, partially I’m sure because that flavor is listed on Crimson Lotus’s website. At times it also made me thing of Elderflower – which has a citric/floral/fruity flavor. Finally, it sort of reminded me of Starfruit, an interesting fruit which I haven’t had in years but with a distinctive and memorable flavor.

The fruity citric flavor dropped off for the most part in the second half of the session, though the floral aspect remained in the finish. The mouthfeel got pretty interesting at this point. I think part of it was the remnant of a slight citric inclination, but it reminded me a bit of pinesol (without all the cleaning chemicals). Like my mouth had been oiled with a citrus flavored furniture cleaner. As weird as that sounds, it was good! This interesting texture dropped off a few steeps later, and the remainder of the session was characterized by smooth and light vegetal and floral notes.

This was a very interesting and tasty tea. The texture wasn’t notable for most of the session, and I also didn’t get any noticeable qi off of this tea. I think this one is more based on flavor and aromatic qualities, which it has in bunches. A fun and interesting tea to drink, but at the same time easy drinking and a forgiving steeper. I don’t think it would have really been possible to make this tea come out bitter.

This is a wonderful yancha! I really enjoyed brewing this tea in my wee lil jianshui. The leaf consists on long sturdy tendrils of blackened leaves with a soft honey aroma with peaches in top. The leaves carry additional scents of orchid, fig, and nice smooth roast. I can already tell I’m going to like it. I warmed up my lil pot and prepared for brewing. Then, I stuffed the pot full and let the leaves warm up. An incredibly sweet and fruity aroma drifted from the lid with a strong scent of burnt sugar, honey, and brief wisps of fresh peaches. I washed the leaves once and prepared for brewing. With yancha, I only get about 1 amazing steeping and 2-3 meh steepings. Accordingly, the first steeping was pure heaven. BTW the steeped leaves give off an explosive aroma of fresh cut flowers and ripe dark fruits. The taste begins with a succulent fruit flavor with a hint of char. The note progresses into a sweet direct peach flavor and crystal honey. This brew has a thick full taste and oily body with an exhale of (you guessed it) peaches and a lasting powdered sugar aftertaste. The qi is electrifying and creates a beautiful flow. I continued to steep those poor leaves over and over in hopes of recreating that first step, but I only received meh steeps (the flavor is decent but the body is missing something). If you decide to continue on this path, the brew will progressively become more and more dry with char notes peeking out. Eventually, my throat gets ached if I drink too much yancha. Anyways, this is still a fantastic tea, and I love my little pot!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BLtNEEzgU7W/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

Dave and Solomons are a mother and son tea blending company, currently selling their indie creations on their Etsy store. I hadn’t come across them before this sample arrived with me, but it’s always nice to discover a new tea company, if a little dangerous for the bank account! Lavender Dream is a fruit and herbal blend, combining the sweet fruitiness of peach with the light floral of lavender.

Read my full review here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2016/10/30/lavender-dream-from-dave-and-solomons-tea/

Ahh, Sunday morning.
Its been a long and busy week! Even yesterday was a day full of mad running around. I have a ton of errands to run today, and go to the gym, but its a much quieter set of events than have been happening for the rest of the week.
So I get to sit, wrapped in my robe, sipping at this tea today.
This has got more cinnamon than I remember from last years version, but I still quite like it. And a pot of it, with a pretty tea cup and saucer, is a very good way to start the day!

Bought this tea recently from Yunomi when they had their sale 35% off. As this is normally about $68 I probably would not have bought it at full price. It is quite good as gyokuros go. It is a mixture of sweet and umami taste. The umami is ever present but not too powerful. This is not in my opinion a really complex tea having really two notes that I picked up. It is good though. Yunomi is currently sold out of this one. They recommend a first steep of 50 degrees centigrade but as my electric kettle doesn’t have any setting that low I just went with 175 degrees Farenheit.

I steeped this three times with 7.4g leaf in a 360ml Kyusu teapot with 175 degree water. I steeped it for 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. The brewed tea was a very light green in color, the leaves were bright green in color. This is easily one of the best gyokuros I have had but I have only tasted a few.

Random grab from the just-take-it basket at work, so I don’t have many details or specs. However, I think this is just plain nothin-but-ginger. Not fall gingerbread, just straight up spice with no sweetening and a lovely hot tingle at the back of the throat.

I’ve been out of town for most of the week – we came back yesterday evening – and I’m just now feeling like i’m starting to get caught up after being gone for several days so I decided to sit down with a cup of tea to relax just a bit.

This is this week’s tea of the week. As I mentioned in the description of this tea, I’m a big fan of Harry Potter so when it became pumpkin season again, I decided I wanted to give a nod to the books that are such a huge part of me.

This blend starts with a blend of Zomba Steamed Green Tea and Thyolo OP1 Green Tea from the Satemwa estate in Malawi. Then I added pumpkin, pineapple and apple as well as some spices. It’s got a nice pumpkin flavor and the apple and pineapple give the pumpkin a lighter, juice-like flavor. The green tea is crisp and smooth. The spices aren’t strong – just enough to add some fall-ish flavor to the cup.

Rather than go on about it – since it is my creation – I thought instead that I’d leave you with a video of a porcupine eating a pumpkin: https://youtu.be/cILZ_cB3_so

Friday night and I finally had time to dedicate to a brewing so I pulled out the Pubertea teas. Heard some talk about this and pulled out the 4g I had left from everyone and knew I had to be careful with the brew.

The leaf has a good rustic look to it and a decent smell. This was one of the cheaper aged shengs surprisingly, but I choose it for what it is to Sunsing and all; it’s also my first Sunsing tea : )

The first brew was a bit murky with some real smokey notes coming through and a little grit. It might be the dust I brewed with, but this tea seemed like it was going to be a journey through the sand. The next few brews still had some rather strong smoke for the age it is, but it is clear that this has been stored more dry than humid as the tasting goes on. Sides of the mouth have decent dryness going on but the aged taste that comes through makes it enjoyable.

Around the 8th steep and I’m getting use to the taste to which each sip comes with a cooling taste at the end as if I ate a warm cucumber… if that makes sense. Still not the best in taste, some depth still there, and slight smoke. No qi, oh well. For what it is: There’s plenty of room for this tea to develop based on how it is stored from here on out. The price isn’t so bad either compared to others, but it really does need some airing and a little humidity to bring it to life and maybe even add some legs to it because I feel as if something is holding this back. The leaf is quite beautiful and I am curious as to what Sunsing’s own Yiwu pressings are like.

I won a sample of this tea before it went on sale from an Instagram contest. It’s the first really high quality Taiwanese oolong I’ve gotten the opportunity to try. The dry leaf smelled green, crisp, and floral. After a rinse with boiling water, I smelled buttery/creamy floral notes with a touch of an herbal aroma in there as well. I drank the rinse off this one and it had a light and crisply sweet vegetal flavor. For the rest of the session, I allowed the water to cool to 190F.

This tea was pretty consistent throughout the session, unlike a lot of the puerh I drink more often. It had a crisp vegetal taste in the front of the sip followed by a sweet floral finish with hints of peach in the finish and aftertaste. I sometimes noted a slight cooling effect in the mouth after a sip.

The real highlight here was the texture. I could have sworn I was drinking whole milk a few times during the session. I could feel it go down my throat and plop down into my stomach. This tea actually made me feel full as I was drinking it. Very satisfying. It also had a very relaxing qi that made my body feel loose and my head a little bit swimmy.

This tea is of a quality and freshness that I likely won’t be able to experience too often, so I’m quite grateful for the opportunity to taste it now. It was a very nice and long session, going around 17 steeps. It just seemed like I could get endless infusions of sweet and thick liquor off these leaves. This tea has had me drinking more Taiwanese oolong the last couple weeks than I have in the months preceding. I wanted to reacclimate my palate to the style of tea before I tried this fine example. Now I’m finding myself getting back into Taiwanese oolong when I had kind of written it off for the last little while. My wallet weeps as my belly cries tears of joy.

Raseru’s post was spot on:
http://steepster.com/rasseru/posts/339536

I really liked this one. It did remind me of a jin xuan a lot.

I really haven’t had many oolongs. Anyone know of other fantastic ones? There’s an overwhelming amount of them, and I frankly don’t know which ones I would like. I can say I’m not big into the floral notes. Everything else—fruity, vegetal, milky, chocolatey, spicey, bread, sweet potato, etc.—are fine.

This is a relatively good brick, but far from spectacular. It was well aged. Early infusions were a dark brown in color. There was an initial taste of tobacco and leather that was moderately strong. This disappeared around the fifth steep. A fruity note did develop but it was weak and I don’t know what fruit. There was also a slight sour note to this tea, not major but there. It also had a strong drying sensation. Overall it wasn’t bad for a cheap semi aged brick. Somewhere around I have the same brick from Yunnan Sourcing. Will have to try it and see if there is a difference.

I steeped this twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 8g leaf and boiling spring water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sex, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min.

Now that my cupboard is trending nicely to where i want it to be, i’m trying to focus on my older teas. I REALLY don’t want to finish this tea as it might be my favourite roasted oolong ever. just wish there was another source of this one because damn it’s tasty!

I think I might finally be done with Ark for good. They had promised that this year Xbox was also getting the Halloween event, not only would I be able to enjoy the spooky atmosphere, I could finally have an army of skeleton dinosaurs and zombie dodos, I was so unbelievably hype. Today with the release of Fear Evolved on PC they announced that nope, sorry, no fun for Xbox, again. I love dinosaurs, I love the concept of Ark, but I am so done with the incompetent development team, the constant broken promises, and the frequent broken game. I know it is in pre-alpha and expect a lot of bugs, but really it is the constant saying they are going to do something and just not doing it, I can only take so much and it seems a lack of Skelesaurs is the straw that broke the Rex’s back. Probably I will try playing again when the game has actually been released, til then, I guess it is just Minecraft for me.

Ok, clearly I need something to cheer my up, and I have just the thing, because I discovered a new favorite tea. Tillerman Tea’s Bai Hao (Oriental Beauty) 2016 is by far the best I have had, and I have had quite a few Bai Hao (or whatever name you wish to give them, it has several) and while many I have enjoyed I frequently feel they fall flat, I love the flavor notes that are present but wish they were more intense or lasted longer, so usually I just end up going for this tea’s cousin Gui Fei. If you put Tillerman Tea’s Bai Hao next to my favorite Gui Fei, chances are I would pick the Bao Hao, and here is the lowdown. First off, that aroma, it is super sweet, notes of apricot, pumpkin, acorn squash, peanuts, carrot cake, and magnolia nectar waft out of the leaves as I bury my face into them. Usually I find Bai Hao to be super autumnal, largely because it blends notes of squash and pumpkin with autumn leaves, this one lacks the autumn leaf note but still captures that autumnal bliss with pumpkin and carrot cake. Yes carrot cake, it is autumnal because it was often my birthday cake and I am an autumn baby. I had such a hard time pulling my nose out of the leaves, I think I could have sniffed them for hours, but I was thirsty and my kettle was ready to do its job.

Into my Bai Hao teapot the leaves go, yes I have a Bai Hao pot because of course I do. The aroma of the steeped leaves is something else! Notes of magnolia, gardenia, and orange blossoms blend with carrot cake, pumpkin, and acorn squash. It is very sweet and aromatic, again I had a hard time pulling my nose away. The aroma of the liquid is amazing, notes of honey, magnolia, pumpkin, acorn squash, caramelized sugar, and just intense sweetness. The magnolia notes are so awesome, I love that flower so much so it is much appreciated.

You know, this tea is almost too good to write about, I don’t feel I can do it justice! The smooth and thick mouthfeel is joined by a sweetness that washes over my mouth. Notes of orange blossom and magnolia start the tasting out, then it moves to a more earthy and rich pumpkin and squash, both drizzled with melted brown sugar. Towards the finish a gentle autumn leaves and golden raisins blend with a delicate lingering floral note. All the notes are intense, and the aftertaste sticks around for a long time, I found myself getting lost in this tea very easily.

Honestly this is one of the hardest teas I have written about, the notes present are not at all hard to identify, they are familiar and very clear, but trying to accurately represent the level of intensity is where the difficulty is. It transcends mere taste and mouthfeel and moves into something more like trying to describe why two pieces of art which are similar can have very different emotional impacts to a person who has seen neither. I want to sit down to a session with this tea and share it with everyone, but since I can’t do that I have to try to convey how good it is with words. This steep increases richness and the notes of orange blossom, peaches, and apricots. Like an exotic dessert of stewed fruits in orange blossom water, reminiscent of Persian food. The notes of squash and pumpkin are still present and wonderful, as is the autumn leaves at the end. Like the first steep the aftertaste takes a while to fade.

I have a confession, Tillerman Teas sent me a generous sized sample, and it is already gone. I got a whopping nine steeps out of this tea, but I loved it so much that when the leaves were done I started over again with a new pile of leaves. Then the next day I pulled my larger bug bitten oolong pot out and brewed up the rest to share with Ben, who absolutely loved it. He totally supported my plan to get 2oz of the stuff after holiday shopping is done and I can go back to indulging in tea shopping! Honestly if I could afford it I would buy the largest amount the store was offering and drink it in enormous quantities. This tea continues getting richer and sweeter until steep seven where the strongest notes are pumpkin and autumn leaves with a gentle sweetness, but even at the end that sweet aftertaste lingers.

Blog and Photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/10/tillerman-tea-bai-hao-oriental-beauty.html