teaddict

In the middle of another very nice session with this tea—sweet, herbaceous, a hint of umami and mushroom, and hints of bitterness with longer infusions.

It definitely rewards close attention and very short infusions.

Edited to note that I quite at about 20 infusions, little more than sweet water, but still hints of the more complex flavors at the start.

An exceptionally nice session with this tea yesterday, brewed up a thermos full and still the leaves had power for a few more infusions. It was sweet and spicy and there is a new earthiness starting to appear, and the smoky starting flavor is less apparent. And now, the dilemma: continue drinking, or stop and wait a year or three more? I like it so very much as is…..

Today, started with this one hotter, 170 degrees, and very short infusions: it was more aromatic, fruitier, floral, fantastic through the first three infusions of 20-30 seconds apiece. Getting bolder, set for 185 degrees for the fourth: still mmmmmm. Not even a hint of bitter. Starting cooler seems like a good idea, but the heat kept it going nicely for several more infusions, before sweet water was reached about the 7th or 8th infusion.

Just finished a session with the same Huang Shen Mao Feng that was rather unpleasant a few days back. This was a gorgeous brewing start to finish, 6 infusions of mellow sweetness, and the only thing that might have been significantly different was the leaf to water ratio (much less leaf, although I didn’t measure how much). I again used water about 150 degrees, in the same glass teapot, but every infusion was more reminiscent of my favorite An Ji white tea than of the deeper toasty notes I was picking up in the earlier session, and there was zero bitterness. It’s taken a 180 degree turn in my estimation from a tea that I would avoid in the future to one I want to keep on hand always.

Trying a sample of “Premium Milk Oolong” from Dragon Tea House. I was rather overwhelmed when I opened the package by the strong aroma, and the tea was….powerful. Not quite like the sense of drinking perfume from an overdone jasmine tea, but not too dissimilar, either.

I think I will see if one of my colleagues would like the larger package that I bought of this one. Many of them enjoy flavored teas. My taste buds are still ringing.

I’ve been enjoying a terrific session with the last of this sample, brewed up in my newest miniature yixing pot. The pot is small enough to be truly stuffed with the leaves—the lid doesn’t quite seat properly, being held up by the leaves. The tea is spicy, sweet, earthy, never bitter (even when I forgot one infusion for a very long time), just delicious. I am certainly at least 20 infusions into my session, and after the leaves have waited patiently overnight, I expect many more, because I was not having to lengthen the infusions yet—15-30 seconds was still yielding plenty of flavor at the end of last night. I’m not going to drop 700 euros on an entire cake of it, but I can now understand why someone else might.

Huang Shen Mao Feng from Jing Tea Shop

I was very curious about this tea in particular because I’ve very much enjoyed Norbu’s large-leaf green tea from Yunnan also called “Mao Feng”, but I suspected it was quite different from the ‘real thing’, and wanted to see what the original was like.

Medium green, thin twisty leaves

http://www.flickr.com/photos/debunix/5698368316/

5 grams in a 200mL pot with about 150mL of water, 150 degrees

First infusion 30 seconds, warm, sweet, a certain smoky/toasted/grilled vegetable background…..

2nd infusion 20 seconds, pale green liquor, the sweet warm flavor is still there, but the toasted vegetable flavor—not a bitterness, perhaps a touch of astringency in it—is dominant now.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/debunix/5697792635/

Ran out of time, so I added cold water and set the leaves to the refrigerator to try to get one more steeping out of them. But the resulting infusion, a day later, has a strong bitterness underlying a delicious fresh sweet vegetal flavor; I did not finish it. I also forgot to shoot the leaves after infusion, but they were pale minty green, long, thin, rolled almost into little cylinders.

I used a quite moderate tea-to-water ratio, and very cool water with short brewing times, all designed to moderate and minimize any bitterness. This is a tea that sat, sealed from the shop, for some months before I opened it, so it might have lost something re: freshness. Before assuming this just isn’t my cup of green tea, I’ll try it again—it took me nearly a year to ‘get’ Dragon Well, after all.

This is a lovely green tea. I started with a small sample of it, and these were my tasting notes from last fall:

1.9 grams of tea (was aiming for 2.0, but got tired of adding & subtracting little bits) in small gaiwans, about 60-75mL water

And I took photos this time, watching the unfurling infusion by infusion: flash rinse barely started to unfurl anything

Started timidly, 30" at 160 degrees: warm, vegetal, sweet but the infusion is a little too short/dilute

1 minutes at same temp: vegetal flavors of peas, grass, lightly floral background, no hint of bitterness, much better match of infusion time and tea. Used the aroma cup set for this, and it was fun, sweet fresh mown grass odors.

90" third infusion, sweet, vegetal, delicate, love it love it, the best yet

2’ a little hotter, 170 degrees, slight astringency but still mostly vegetal

3’ 180 degrees, and better than the previous, sweet, vegetal, such a nice tea

5’ 190 degrees, and the tea is done: barely more flavor than hot water.

Large lovely leaves are now mostly unfurled, but I couldn’t get them to completely flatten long enough to shoot the picture

Next time, 1 min, 90", 2 min, 3 min, 8 min?

I was lucky enough to get some of the spring version of this tea, and quite sad when I went to reorder it and found it was sold out. This is an entirely worthy successor.

It’s been a while since I drank this tea, but what was memorable was how it was just as good as the spring tea but subtly different, mellower, a bit less sharply spicy and distinctly floral, but a little richer in that flavor that I think of as rich summer hay.

Today I’m just working my way through the ‘cupboard’ realizing how many teas I haven’t logged but have already drunk!

Not quite as rich and lasting as the spring version of tea, but this is a gorgeous tea nonetheless.

I have already drunk all that I had of this tea, and never logged it. So silly that it slipped through without getting the rating it deserved.

Another amazing Ali Shan oolong from Norbu. Very rich, floral, buttery, spicy. Yum.
Full review to come, but today I’m just working my way through the ‘cupboard’ realizing how many teas I haven’t logged but have already drunk!

An excellent sweet, fruity, delicate silver needle tea.

I use a moderate amount of leaf, and let it steep cool and a little longer than most teas, because it’s so mellow there’s no downside to the longer steep.

I’m really enjoying this one in my tiny yixing or late evenings at work. The tea is mellow, floral, a little spicy, and I cannot begin to think how it could have inspired someone to think of duck poop as they prepared or drank it. It’s just too nice a dan cong!

Checking the now fully hydrated leaves (at infusion 8 or 10 or so), it looks like I put in enough leaf to fill the pot halfway when fully expanded. I’ve tried this one with denser packing and that risks a degree of bitterness that I do not enjoy, so I go more dilute for full enjoyment.

Edit to add: I forgot to mention fruity! the late infusions, when it is closing in on ‘sweet water’, still retain a delightful peachiness. If this is duck poop, the duck is laying golden peaches instead of eggs.

Another day, another lovely thermos of Yi Wu. It deserves better, perhaps, than my bulk brewing and drinking, but it is so good even so, and not many other puerhs can touch it for class under abusive conditions. Mmm.

I’m not enjoying this one quite as much as the last time I logged it. There is more bitterness noticeable despite doing very brief infusions, probably because I packed the gaiwan too much. It does settle into a very mellow tea again after the first half dozen infusions, but those first have to be carefully managed. I think this is one to set aside for a good while…

I’ve had some good and some not so good brewings of this tea since I first logged it, and I think the difference is, as always, time and temperature. If I brew it too hot in the early infusions, there is a really unpleasant bitterness that comes out. If I treat it extra delicately, as I did today, starting with water at 150 degrees and moving up to 160 only after 2-3 infusions, it remains beautifully mellow, richly sweet, a little floral and very vegetal, more peas and fat asparagus spears than asparagus tips. It can be an excellent tea for the price, if treated nicely.

Never did finish that previous note, though I did infuse the tea many more times that day.

Last night I had another session with this tea, in a tiny yixing pot, having to let the leaf soften a bit in the first infusion before I could fit the lid on without breaking the leaves. The peachiness kept going until well past the 10th infusion, fruity and floral and delicious.

Opened up a fresh package this morning, and had a lovely series of infusions. I kept the temp low—150-160 degrees for the first three or four infusions, then raised it and enjoyed another four or five more at about 180 degrees. The later infusions were quite light, but then I’m a tea wimp who likes things dilute.

It was nice to remember how sweet and mellow this tea is.

Drank this again a few days ago: the toasty is never bitter or overwhelming, just cozy—roasted corn, not scorched barley—and the sweet almost fruity flavor keeps going for many infusions. An excellent later-in-the-evening tea.

Another wonderful session with this tea yesterday. Steep after steep of delicious sweetness, fruity undertones, and the slightly earthy toastiness that fades gradually in the first half dozen infusions, but the other flavors linger for 12 to 20. So nice.

I’m almost out of this and will definitely pony up for more when it’s gone. it’s tea that just grows on me more and more.

Another very nice session with this tea today. Mellow, delicate, floral, delicious. A good start to the day, with about 6 infusions.

Surprised I didn’t write a tasting note for this one already….I am already almost done with my tiny sample. Tonight, I’m preparing infusions in a very small yixing pot, about 40 mL per infusion, with about 3 grams of tea. It is earthy, sweet, spicy, a little fruity, delicious. It stood up well to a mixed cheese plate, cutting the richness wonderfully. Water is about 205 degrees, infusions from 30" to a minute or so, fairly long right from the start, because this is a tea that can take it, and keep taking it, without getting bitter or unpleasant in any way. I’m now up to about 15 infusions, and suspect I can get in a few more before the flavor gives way entirely to sweet water.

I got a sample of this with an order a while back and was surprised to realized I hadn’t logged it. I think Greg’s description gives a good sense of this tea—nutty and toasty, sweet and grassy, oddly Dragon Well-like. and definitely a potential for bitterness so I keep it cool. Tonight brewing in a medium gaiwan, about 100mL per infusion, with about 3 grams of tea, first infusion at 30 seconds was delicious. Mmm. I generally like my 2nd infusions of green teas to be very short, because the freshly wetted leaves seem primed to let bitter elements out quickly if I don’t, but on this one tonight I was careless, and went more than minute for the second infusion—often a recipe for a wasted infusion. This one was a touch unpleasant at first sip, but a 50% dilution with more hot water and voila, back to the lovely tea I remember. Nice flexible tea.

A previous gongfu session went about 6 infusions before I lost the good tastes and started over with the rest of the sample.

Can’t believe I haven’t added a tasting note for this tea yet. I have been drinking a lot of TGYs, from Anxi and from Taiwan, when I crave a deeply-roasted oolong, but today only DHP would do. Sweet, earthy, fruity, mysterious, perfect. Ahhh.