teaddict

The dry leaves in their bag smell vegetal and sweet, and transform from very deep dark green when dry to bright and lighter green of the fresh young leaf when wet afterwards. Pretty.

Infusing 4.5 gram of tea in my 5 oz kyusu (about 150 mL water) with water at 160 degrees, after 30" the first is light and sweet and vegetal; the second (15") is sweet, a bit heavier with some sweet vegetal flavor and a bit of vanilla, a touch of umami but not much (a 30" second infusion was too heavy bodied when I tried that yesterday), and the third infusion (again 30") is more like the second, but the astringency starts to increase a little, but not enough to interfere with my enjoyment of the sweet vegetal flavors.

Delicious.

I think that shorter 2nd infusion allows the elements that have already started to leak from the wet leaves to be recovered without too much more coming out of the leaves (which would result in in an infusion strongly biased towards the umami, too much so for my taste), and then the 3rd infusion, there is not so much rushing out into the water, so an infusion the length of the first works fine.

No notes yet.

Hard to believe I missed rating this one already. It’s simply brilliant. Warm strong Rooibos bass notes, then highlighted by intense, wonderful lemon WOW. The combination of the lemon and the Rooibos is just amazing. It’s got zing to make you sing. I shared it with colleagues at work last week and everyone liked it, and most said WOW. I know what to stuff everyone’s stocking with this year.

It doesn’t get bitter if left to steep for a long time, and you can resteep it a few times before it starts to lose the lemon zing.

Steep about one teaspoon of tea, 5-8 ounces of boiling water, about 3-5 minutes, and enjoy.

I can really think of only two knocks on this tea: one, the little bits of rooibos can escape unless finely strained after brewing; and two, the boiling water infusion means it is hot enough to burn my fingers when I drink it from my handleless cups, if I don’t let it cool long enough.

The notes from Norbu identify this tea as a varietal “usually processed into a mildly fragrant oolong tea”, but what this one reminded me of was an Alishan oolong, but without the oolong—if that makes sense. There is a strongly floral undertone here that reminds me of the Alishan teas, more than a typical mainland green tea. And, like the Alishan teas, this one steeped and steeped—my first brewing was informal (i.e., did not weigh the leaves, sorry), and with enough balls of leaf to lightly cover the bottom of the gaiwan, water 160-170 degrees, my friend and I were able to enjoy probably 8 infusions before we were done, with the first one maybe 15 second and later infusions up to a minute. Sweet, vegetal, occasional hints of astringency, but no bitterness, and that floral/haylike undertone that was so nice, over and over.

This is what I said about the tea when doing a comparative tasting in March:

Used 1.8 grams of tea in small 40 mL gaiwan
Infusions 160°F/71°C-170°F/77°C
30”, 30” (probably too long, with all the bitterness coming out in the 2nd infusion), 30”
Dry Leaves: flat thin small leaves and fragments, some stems, scent of hay, grass
Liquor, 1st infusion: yellow liquor; thicker body; hay, warm, less camphor, but very similar to the Jade Pole (also a Yunnan green tea from Yunnan Sourcing)
Liquor, 2nd infusion: nutty, dark, vegetal, astringent
Liquor, 3rd infusion: sweet, vegetal, bit nutty, but much less astringent
Wet Leaves: more broken pieces, leaves are quite small, yellow-green,and also mostly buds and small leaves

Tonight used a lot of leaf, water about 170 degrees, filled the gaiwan with leaf and steeped enough infusions to fill the quart thermos with nutty warm lightly sweet tea. Mellow and tasty, but not as good a control of the sweet as I sometimes can get with my chinese green teas—under very difficult performance conditions, of course, with the ‘bulk’ brewing.

This is a lightly oxidized greener oolong, less floral and fruity than the greener TGYs and the Alishan oolongs I’ve been drinking, with a spicier note that dominates the middle infusions (reminds me a bit of rou gui, but not as clearly cinnamon as that tea) and something elusive that is not precisely spicy/sweet/fruity/floral but not either smoky/earthy/toasty, something that is both tart and herbaceous and delicious.

I start with water between 190 and 200, and am too lazy to keep reheating the water when at home, so the water cools with later infusions. But I start short and hotter, and go longer as it gets cooler.

I only bought a one-ounce sample of this tea, and I have enjoyed quite a few mostly very small-scale brewings of it. As my tea cabinet runneth over, I won’t be ordering more of this one now, but when I do order again from Jing Tea Shop, some of this will be in the cart.

Today made this one again, still haven’t done it formally with photos and drinking each infusion separately, but I wanted a thermos full of tea, so used enough to stuff my 100mL red clay pot full when then opened, and from that brewed up a quart of tea. It’s been sitting a few hours, and the impression now is sweet, floral, not very earthy. Rather chameleon like vs my first experience with this tea. Delicious however you brew it.

No notes yet.

I bought this tea at the request of a friend who had heard about it and was interested in the purported health benefits of the GABA-rich tea. I thought it sounded intriguing, and I’m always up for an oolong, so I tried it. The dry leaf was brown rather the green I expected from their photo, and when brewed I was a bit disappointed at the relatively thin flavor: I used a quantity that usually is enough to fill my thermos with rich, deep oolong flavor from wuyi, anxi, or taiwanese teas.

I steeped it at 185 degrees, several infusions totaling about 2-3 minutes of infusion time, and combined the infusions to fill my thermos. The result was a brown infusion, with flavor of highly oxidized, almost black tea—no hint of bitterness, but a lightly fruity flavor, without much spice or earthiness.

I have passed it on to my friend after we shared the first infusion, and doubt I’d buy it again. It wasn’t particularly memorable, and I didn’t feel particularly mellow afterwards either.

Addendum: as I was cleaning up last night, I discovered the leaves from this tea were still left in my kamjove, and about 10 hours after the infusion, they were springy, not as soft as typically rehydrated tea leaves, and had a wonderful plum scent—probably more accurately, a very pleasant prune scent—fruity and sweet, and I was regretting giving the entire rest of the bag over to my friend, because it seemed like something with so much good scent must have more flavor potential as tea. Sigh. But if he figures out how to make it yummier, maybe I’ll try a smaller sample again.

Today brewed this as a ‘tea in a hurry’: dumped a few teaspoons into the bottom of a quart thermos, added hot water from the water cooler tap, and went to my meeting. An hour and a half later, it is still delicious: no bitterness, astringency, still just sweet, toasty, delicious.

This is a lovely puerh. The dry tuo smells woods and earth, without being musty. There are some broken leaves and stems, probably inevitable as such a tuo is broken up, but lots of large leaf pieces and some intact leaves visible after brewing. The leaf still smells spicy-sweet and promises more infusions to come.

Infused at 1 gram per ounce in a small yixing pot with boiling water, the first infusions need to be short as it still has some bitterness left that is apparent with careless or overlong infusions. Infused cautiously, 15 seconds at a time, it reveals sweet, smoky, earthy, spicy flavors. The smoky flavors fade fairly quickly, but the spicy sweet remains grounded and earthy for many infusions. I’m at least at 10-12 infusions now, limited more by bladder capacity than by the leaves giving out, and have lengthened the infusions to as long as a minute.

This is a wonderful, brilliant tea. Spicy, fruity, sweet, and with complexity and depth to carry through many infusions.

I have generally given up before the tea has, somewhere around 20 to 25 infusions.

The dry leaves are long, twisted, and open up into reddish green when infused. They don’t smell like much until they hit the prewarmed infusion vessel, and then the scent starts to grow strong and exotic. The spicy scent remains in the leaves after many infusions, promising more goodness to come.

I use about 1 gram of leaf per ounce or 30mL water, use a small yixing or gaiwan, and keep infusing over hours or leave the leaves overnight, do a flash rinse with boiling water, and keep going the next day. Water 185-195 degrees, and infusions that start at about 15 seconds but later extend to a couple of minutes. You do have to watch this one—it is not quite as friendly as the Honey Orchid “commercial” Dan Cong I got at Imen’s recommendation as a ’beginner’s Dan Cong’—this one can get bitter if you abuse it. But if you work with it gently, such a wonderful, wonderful tea.

I am just getting started exploring green teas, and found this one to have umami that overwhelms the honey-sweet that I crave, especially when infused as long and as low as Den’s recommends. I think it will is a great tea for those who are seeking that deeper vegetal flavor. It never gets remotely close to bitterness. It’s just not the tea for me, yet.

My rating reflects my preferred shorter hotter infusion time; because the longer steep is so much less to my preference, I would have to give it a lower rating under those conditions; but people who really crave that deep green vegetal umami, I think the rating would be much higher.

I infused it 5g per 5 oz at 140 for 140 seconds, as recommended, but prefer it 160 degrees for 30 seconds, 4 grams per 5 oz. I have trouble getting a pleasing second infusion because the umami takes over.

I wouldn’t try to treat an illness with this leaf, but the sweet, spicy, delicious brew made from it is certainly cheerful and heartening on a chilly day in winter when your head is stuffy. I tried this on my first trip to Hankook’s store, and I bought several other items so was offered a sample cup of any of their teas. I picked this one because I remembered a reference to a hydrangea tea somewhere in my tea wanderings online, and I was delighted from the first sip. It is very very sweet, but I don’t find it cloying.

I use one or two leaves per 6-8 oz cup of tea, boiling water, and infuse grandpa style, directly in the cup, waiting at least 5 minutes for the first sips. My first sample cup was nearly 16 oz from 2 leaves, and I got another full infusion out of it at home.

It is very very expensive, but a little goes a LONG way. Highly recommended as a treat.

I also once brewed it up with a cinnamon stick too, and that was an exceptionally delicious cup.

This is the tea I ‘grew up’ drinking, starting with Chinese restaurant teas and moving on to this one, which I was taught to revere as special and rare, one my father had learned on from Chinese friends but found hard to get before the 80s. By the time I started to drink it, it was easier to find, but still not something that every chinese market would carry. If I couldn’t find the familiar red tin, I’d go home empty handed rather than buy an unknown tea. A long period when I could not get t from my usual suppliers finally led me to my new local Chinatown, tea shops, and the internet, and this is no longer my favrite tea.

In retrospect I’m very glad that I didn’t find this tea on my first trip to Wing Hop Fung. But I’m glad that I eventually did find it again. It’s inexpensve, reliable, and comforting: a dark roasted toasty oolong with a little sweet, a lot of earthy, a touch of caramel, and when the leaves are treated just right, a bit of spicy too. I have managed to make a harsh bitter cup out of this one a few times, but it takes real effort: boiling water, too much of the dark, tightly curled leaf, and long steeping.

Use teaspoon per mug or 6oz pot, water 185-195, steep 1-2 minutes, and you’ll get another 1-2 steepings from the leaves.

It keeps very well, so it’s a great one To keep around just in case, to introduce newbies gently to the darker side of higher roast teas, and for effortless drinking when you’re to frazzled to break off a piece of puerh or babysit a tempermental green.

I’d rate it about a 65, but can’t Figure out the sliders on the phone.

Cinnamon, spice, peppery, nice. Like this as part of a mix with chamomile and hibiscus, or by itself.

Today opened one of my last packets of this tea, and brewed up a bit gongfu style.

The leaves open up to nearly fill the gaiwan, after starting out as a sparse little layer on the bottom of the cup. The expected sweet and floral start is incredibly intense. Somewhere about 6 or 8 infusions in there are a 2 or 3 in a row that are very spicy, then that fades away again, and it’s back to sweet and floral until the kettle is empty of hot water. Wow.

Can’t wait to try the fall version, but I am trying to be disciplined and finish the spring first. Yet, if I do that, how will I ever compare them properly?

This is a warm, wonderful puerh. Today I have abused it: took a good chunk of beeng, tossed it in a pot, added boiling water and ignored it for a few minutes, and then rinsed the leaves several times without further ‘steeps’, adding all to a thermos for drinking at work. And it is tolerating with with a warm, rich, mildly sweet flavor, some depth to it with caramel notes.

Will do a proper tasting later, but this is the 2nd brewing, neither under the best conditions, and it is a very forgiving tea.

This is a tricky tea: when perfectly brewed, it is delicate, floral, peachy, delightful. Steep too hot or too long and it does get bitter; steep with too much leaf and again there’s risk of bitter; but steep too little, and then it tastes thin and light.

It’s been a long time since I’ve weighed out this tea, which probably explains some of my problems with it, because it is a light, fluffy, irregular tea composed of very different sized pieces.

I ordered a sample of this tea with my first order from Yunnan sourcing. It is quite interesting. There is a lot of body and depth to this one, some bitterness that can be impressive with overlong steeps, but I brew it short, relatively dilute, and get a very nice cup of tea, with marvelous sweetness as I slurp/inhale, balanced by a depth of the later flavors.

About 1 gram per ounce/30mL of near-boiling water, flash rinsed, then 10 second infusions gradually increasing to a minute or more; this is a tea that can give lots of steeps.

Addendum: I have lost count of steeps, but now am certainly past 12, and it is still lovely.
Addendum 2: I finally got to the bottom of it, somewhere around 20 steeps. YUM.

The only hard thing with this tea is breaking up the very highly compressed brick to get chunks to brew. It needs a steady hand and a strong sturdy blade to slip in between the layers and work off pieces of tea.

After that, it’s all smooth. Boiling water flash rinse, then on to infusions, 30 seconds at a time, using a gram or more of leaf per ounce of water, gaiwan or yixing, as you prefer. This is not a tea with any edges that need rounding by the yixing. It is warm, sweet, with toasty caramel notes over a base of gentle earthiness, a perfect puerh for introducing someone nervous about this type of tea, or for those moments when you want something calming and soothing too.

I got mine from Yunnan Sourcing.

This is a rather toasty, mildly sweet green tea, in nice silk teabags (made a mistake when purchasing it, had intended to get loose leaf and didn’t pay enough attention).

I’ve brewed it a couple of times and the sweet green vegetal flavors predominate at first infusion, and the 2nd infusion and 3rd infusions are more toasted, less sweet, still mild and tasty.

I don’t really find it worth the high premium price, but it is a very nice tea, worth checking out if you want to explore Korean teas.

Ten Ren sells ‘Pouchong’ in several grades—1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th. I first encountered it when I bought a green tin simply labelled ‘Pouchong’ at a chinese grocery store, and promptly put it in the back of the cupboard and forgot about it. A few years and a cross-country move later, I opened it and was very pleased by the mellowness of this very green-looking tea. I was quite surprised, when I looked into it later, to realize that it was technically an oolong, because to that point I’d only had some traditional dark roast Ti Kuan Yin and Wuyi Oolongs. I was happy to discover the TenRen store in my local chinatown and bought some of this ‘3rd grade’ pouchong because it seemed about the same price as what I’d bought in the tin.

It is a solid, but not spectacular, lightly oxidized oolong tea, sweet, tasting of hay and warm summer meadows, not strongly floral, and the sweet fades faster than with the handmade BaoZhong I recently tried. But it tolerates a wide variety of steep times and temps and is exceptionally forgiving of rushed or off brewing.

I like it best about 1g of tea per oz water at 195 degrees, infused about 30 seconds to start, and it is quite pleasant through 3-4 steeps, and better than plain water for several more, although the high notes of sweet and floral are gone by then.

A nice traditional roast Wuyi Yancha from Norbu, the spring 2009 harvest.

Brewed this one up several times, water 185-195 degrees, 1-2 grams of leaf per 1 ounce/30mL, infusions at 30-60 seconds apiece, in a small gaiwan. I can infuse it 8-10 times and still enjoy all of them.

It starts spicy/sweet, moves on to more earthy/fruity, and is delightful all the way.

I have too many good oolongs in the cupboard to have room for one more right now, but I’ll keep this in mind for the future. It’s not as strongly spiced as the one Rou Gui I’ve had, but the flavor goes longer than the Rou Gui too.