Payton

The dry leaves have a very fruity smell and sweet aroma, bringing to mind dried strawberries. The leaves are silvery and very tippy; they are covered in the white down that often characterizes a well-harvested and gently processed green tea. I infused this at about 85C for 1 minute for the first infusion.

The wet leaves retain a little of the fruit flavor which comes across as a gentle smokiness. In the mouth, the aroma continues to remind me of strawberries. The tea is highly sweet and mouth-filling, like a honeydew melon with a bit of the woodiness of a young sapling.

The second infusion was also at about 85C, for 1.5 minutes. The woody flavor increased here, but not in a bad way. It’s almost like a young sheng puer, carefully brewed: the aromas of cut hay and straw.

I generally eschew scented or flavored tea, with some notable exceptions. A high quality jasmine pearl green is one such that has followed me even into my relative tea snobbery. The aroma is delicate and not overpowering, but still heady and immediately soothing to my body. Both the leaves and the liquor are in constant supply of aromatics, making the second and third cups as pleasurable as the first. Left to linger in the mouth, the light taste of a vegetal and round green leaf appears just under the jasmine scent. The texture has just a hint of dryness to it, as if to remind me that what I’m drinking is still camellia sinensis and not some ambrosia of flowers. The leaf quality is quite good; I see whole two and three leaf sets once the pearls unroll. Decently sized and hearty, I believe this is a Fujian leaf, but I wonder about the cultivar. The leaves are all of a color when wet but before steeping there were definite steaks of silver among the green.

Sweet and minty. Light like a Qi Hong black but with so much more character. So aromatic it tastes like it’s been infused with Indian spices and fresh blossoms. The second and third infusion are still just as potent. At four infusions the flavors begin to mellow and I feel more of the dry back-of-the-throat effect.

A great tea for a rainy afternoon. I’ve been to Pinglin, Taiwan, where this tea is grown. Aroma of sweet pear and caramel. A gentle roast if any. Light and subtle mouth-feel but there’s some real texture in there. The first infusion holds a certain sharpness and crisp green-tea taste, but then it mellows. Rich and mouth-filling if allowed to steep a bit longer on later infusions. I think that this is one of those leaves that would really benefit from a dedicated yixing pot.

Made a light gaiwan tonight, as I don’t want to be up too late: probably half the number of leaves I would usually use.

The liquor is golden and the wet leaves smell incongruously like a Dan Cong tea: a hint of charcoal roasted stone fruit. The taste is light and gentle, just as I had hoped. A touch salty and mouth-coating but without any deep aromas.

Well into the third infusion the deeper flavors begin to appear, but the mouth feel is still subtle and comforting.

Bright and bold but charming and sweet at the same time. The leaves are toasted just to the crispness of a winter day.

Dry leaf: white downy pearls. Just as one would expect.
A great sample I received from Teavivre. I set up a proper tasting with degustation sets for each of the teas. Well, I didn’t do the traditional 6 minutes, but I did my best for the type of tea. Here’s my notes.

Brewing method: 3g, tasting set, 75C for 3 minutes
Aroma: Aroma is straight jasmine. Like holding a flower in your hand.
Infusion: Nearly clear, light green liquor.
Taste: Sweet and bright with a brisk mouthfeel. The jasmine aroma sticks to the roof of the mouth. Slightly drying. A classic Jasmine Pearls tea. Not overpowering, but perhaps more jasmine than I like these days, although I used to be addicted to the style and this is as good a representative of it as I can recall.

A great sample I received from Teavivre. I set up a proper tasting with degustation sets for each of the teas. Well, I didn’t do the traditional 6 minutes, but I did my best for the type of tea. Here’s my notes.

Dry leaf: wiry and thin black with a good amount of gold tips
Brewing method: 3g, tasting set, 85 for 1.5 minutes
Aroma: Aroma of a damp forest: earthy and sweet.
Infusion: Amber-gold liquor.
Taste: Light body, candy sweet, not drying. Very similar to a Bai Mu Dan, actually, although more chocolatey. This is likely due to the fact that they’re both a Fuding, Fujian leaf, possibly the same cultivar?

A great sample I received from Teavivre. I set up a proper tasting with degustation sets for each of the teas. Well, I didn’t do the traditional 6 minutes, but I did my best for the type of tea. Here’s my notes.

Dry leaf: wiry and thin for a golden buds tea which in my experience tend to use larger leaves (perhaps this is a different cultivar than I’m used to). This does not bear to judge the tea, as the leaves are still very uniform and beautiful.
Brewing method: 3g, tasting set, 90 for 1.5 minutes
Aroma: Aroma of cinnamon or bitter chocolate.
Infusion: Orange liquor.
Taste: Drying taste as it hits the roof of the mouth. Not as sweet as the aroma implies, but very rich. The taste of earthy sweetness that accompanies a bitter chocolate.

A great sample I received from Teavivre. I set up a proper tasting with degustation sets for each of the teas. Well, I didn’t do the traditional 6 minutes, but I did my best for the type of tea. Here’s my notes.

Dry leaf: rolled, but not really into balls. Irregular and with various stems. Perhaps this points to hand-rolling?
Brewing method: 3g, tasting set, 90 for 1 minute
Aroma: Very green aroma with a light touch of sweetness.
Infusion: Yellow-gold liquor.
Taste: Very light. Probably could be infused longer to good effect. Taste of spring flowers and grilled zucchini.

I infused this another time with a longer infusion to try and capture more flavor. It was much more bold, but still with a light body. Definitely good, and definitely a spring Oolong. I tend to lean toward winter harvests, myself, so perhaps this is just too young for me. I may let some rest in the packaging for a time to see if it improves (a trick taught to me by some tea friends in Taiwan).

A great sample I received from Teavivre. I set up a proper tasting with degustation sets for each of the teas. Well, I didn’t do the traditional 6 minutes, but I did my best for the type of tea. Here’s my notes.

Dry leaf: very fluffy and downy. Much more so than other White Peonies I’ve tasted recently. Good quality leaf.
Brewing method: 3g, tasting set, 85 C for 1 minute
Aroma: Classic Bai Mu Dan aroma of gently roasted walnuts.
Infusion: Light green-yellow liquor.
Taste: Very sweet and thick. Filling like – don’t take this the wrong way, because it’s really pleasant – white beans. Tastes like Bai Mu Dan should, bringing back memories of my first experiences with the style many years ago when I would drink the tea every morning.

This was the best of all the samples that I received. Definitely worth drinking in the future.

Oh so happy to see this beauty return. After experiencing Bai Hao in Taipei my whole perspective on the tea was shifted to properly honor this unique treasure. Dobra’s new batch does not disappoint. Not quite as sweet as the tea I found at Hua Tai, but with a delicate honey flavor that soothes the mouth and the stomach. The second infusion was much more round, although still with that light touch in the mouth-feel. I suspect that this is a harvest that is best infused for longer than my customary 1.5 minutes. Next time I’ll try starting off at 2 minutes and moving upward from there.

A crisp, sweet black. Flavors of pineapple and rose petals with an aftertaste of brown sugar that names it an Anhui tea. The liquor is brown-gold with a medium body. This is the last of my batch.

The second and third infusions held up quite well for the age of this tea. The third may have been the best at around 3.5 minutes. A rich chocolate flavor on the front of the tongue appeared out of nowhere to light up the finish.

Brewed in a small gaiwan.

Crisp and toasty with a sweetness gently delivered through the aroma. The first infusion offers a floral bouquet and a creaminess reminicent of high mountain Taiwanese oolongs. Further infusions are more subdued, more dry, and lacking the sweet touch, yet still soothe the spirit.

A light, buttery infusion. This is a spring harvest and even in this late month I can taste the new growth, still fresh in this rolled oolong. More energizing than grounding. Golden yellow in the cup. Big leaves (for a spring Ali Shan) in mostly full leaf sets with sawtoothed, red edges. Lots of infusions for this one.

2010 Ya Bao from Dobra Tea. Buttery and very sweet with a banana-like texture and no color to speak of. This is the last of my 2010 batch and the leaves (“buds”, I suppose) were looking a little frayed and tired, but it does not disappoint. The first sip, as usual, is a real shock of beauty that reaches all the way into the mind from the mouth. A perfect beginning to Thanksgiving Tea.

Earthy and comforting as always. No deep flavors here, but an almost limitless number of infusions and the magical stomach-soothing effect of a shou puer is exactly what I want after a heavy meal.

A mild celery sweetness that fills the mouth, but doesn’t blaze SWEET in the back-of-the-mouth like some Gao Shan oolongs (although I’m not really sure of the elevation of this tea). Very green tasting, with an bit of an energizing kick at the end. Dry aftertaste. Honeysuckle aroma in the leaf. Reminds me a lot of green San Lin She or fresh Pinglin Baozhong.

Infused in my light roast Yixing pot.

Simply one of the most remarkable teas I’ve ever tasted. It’s easy to forget why Bai Hao is so well-known when I haven’t had it in a while. I infused this tea in a (rather generic) yixing-style pot, probably about 220ml in size. We were filming the infusions as a ceremony and so the timing was a little rushed at times and overlong at others. Once I even poured the infusion back into the pot and re-poured it to get a pouring shot! Absolutely every time was a meditative experience. The honey-rich flavor jolts you out of your thoughts for just a moment and you remember why life is great.

San Lin She from Ming Tao Xuan in Montreal. This is a light roast with very green leaves in nice sets of three with a few fourth leaves around. Probably a Spring 2011 harvest. The rolled leaves are quite large and expand more than I was expecting. I had to remove some from the pot after the third infusion to allow the rest some room to expand.

The aroma of the leaves is sweet and green. The flavor of the pale yellow liquor is very mellow and soft with hints of the sweetness of lemongrass.

I brewed this in my purple Yixing pot from Maokong, Taiwan which I reserve for light roast Oolongs. I tried various timings, but the results were mostly the same.

Much lighter than it appears. Comforting and soothing in the way of many dark roast oolongs (and dark puer). The roast was probably a little too hot, as the leaves never fully open before breaking, but my friend told me that there are few true hand charcoal roasters left in Taiwan.

Roasted and soothing. The aroma is so sweet it reminds me of sugarcane, but the flavor is sweet woodsmoke and plum. Golden amber in the cup. Not as fruity as other Phoenix Oolongs I’ve tried, but the very long twisted leaves are brimming with flavor nonetheless.

The taste of a fresh fruit salad. Light with the aromas more noticable more in the mouth than the nose. Strawberry and peach sweetness. The mouthfeel of sweet cream. Even though the roast is minor compared to the roasted Bao Zhong I bought, I can definitely remember why I picked this one up as well.

Full bodied and bold with a hint of sharpness that isn’t found in similarly made Chinese greens, still never quite reaching astringency. Flavors of baked carrots and potatoes.