Four Seasons

Four Seasons pisses me off.

Don’t get me wrong—this isn’t a bad tea. It’s actually quite tasty. But it’s just not that special. It tastes, to me, like an average Tie Guan Yin, but missing the delicious heaviness I associate with TGY. It’s delicious, but no more delicious than some of the other TGYs I’ve tried.

But here’s the biggest kicker for me—you have to use a lot of leaf, and it does not produce that many infusions—certainly not 10-15, unless you’re thinking 2 ounce cups in 2 tablespoons of leaf. This is kind of infuriating, since the whole selling point on the Samovar website is that it lasts forever, so you’re getting a good value even if it’s $25 for a small, half-filled tin. I don’t like being lied to or misled. And there sure as hell aren’t 40 servings in the tin I received. Hell, there aren’t more than 15 teaspoons in there. And this tea requires, at the very least, 1.5 teaspoons for 6 ounces of water.

The tasting note descriptions intrigue me…I’ve done a little research, and I’ve never heard of Four Seasons/Si Jie Chun being described as bread and milk. The description I’ve come upon most is flowers, fruit, honey and pineapple. Hm. I’m tasting less milk or lactose or bakey-bready-ness, and more gardenias and sweet floral perfumes. [And yes, I have tried this at a number of different temperatures, and have gotten mostly the same results. No increase in dairy/lactose/bread at a lower temperature, for me.] I wonder how much of the (omg milk! bread!) love for this can be attributed to the power of suggestion…makes me want to experiment by writing up a tasting note for a random tea that’s like “OMG THIS TASTES LIKE CHERRIES!” and then see if anyone else says the same thing :)

So what do I taste? Gardenias, mostly; honey, certainly; and butter from my cooled down second infusion. The proportions of the flavors changes slightly from infusion to infusion, but the leaves don’t last very long either. Something I’m noticing this time around—it’s pretty bitter. I’m not sure if it’s because my water is too hot, or if I’m oversteeping it. A warning: do not try to brew this with 8 ounces and 1 teaspoon. I’ve brewed other TGYs this way and it’s been fine, but Four Seasons is not like other TGYs :) I ended up with one okay-but-light first infusion, and then almost tasteless 2nd and 3rd infusions. It’s so difficult to rate this one…on the one hand, it’s yummy when you do everything right. On the other hand, it’s extremely expensive and you have to use a lot of it to make a decent cup of tea, plus all the reservations I mentioned above.

I know I’m blaspheming, writing a negative review for a Samovar creation…please don’t hurt me!

Backlogging the epicness of last night with this tea.

Because Four Seasons, lemme tell ya, it’s epic.

I wanted something yummy. Something delicious. Something that has high marks, and that I could get a lot of cups out of. Enter oolong, which is quickly rising to become one of my favorite go-to teas when I want a sustained tea drinking experience.

So Four Seasons. It smells at first pretty non-descript, which I think a lot of oolongs have trouble with. It smells slightly floral, maybe juicy-ish, but mainly vegetal and not very interesting. The leaves are rolled into tiny, irregular pellets.

So I steeped this one up at first with boiling water, at 2 minutes. The smell coming off the cup was amazing. It’s one of those things that you want to breathe in, inhale, surround yourself with, become ONE WITH THAT CUP, cause yeah, it’s delicious. Buttery and full and rich. And the taste was pretty awesome, I have to say. It mainly tasted like flowers with a buttery edge. There were cocoa notes at points, savory end notes, and the hint of some sort of milk protein at the end of every sip. There’s a pretty heavy mouthfeel, which I’m enjoying immensely.

But I have to give it up to the Second Steep (3:00, boiling) which pretty much stole the flavor cake. Man. It smells just as strong, has that rich buttery color, but the taste pretty much throws this one into the OMG WANT MORE AMAZING category. Especially as this one cools. This one tastes lighter, but fuller, if that even makes any sense. The flavors are sugary sweet and overwhelmingly creamy, with milky notes that are in full force. The cooling effect only thickens the mouthfeel and brings the sugared-milk notes into prominence. The floral notes are still there, but they’re not as strong.

Steep Three (3:30, boiling) I probably should have done for longer. This one had a slightly thicker mouthfeel than #2, and was fairly similar to two, but had more of the savory topnotes that were in the first steep. I want to say this one tasted a bit “greener” than the other two.

Steep Four (4:40, boiling) had a much higher savory component, but a lighter flavor overall. There was an almost green bean taste to this one, that crispness you get when they’ve been steamed. But the flavors are pretty much muted, and the smell is a bit disappointing.

Steep Five (6:00, boiling) is where I ended. This one was even more savory than the last, the sugary tastes fading away, and oddly enough, I was getting the taste of fresh baked bread at the end of some of the sips. But this one was definitely not as flavorful as the past ones, so I dumped the leaves.

I really, really want to try this one with less-than-boiling water, as I feel it might be able to sustain those rich milk-buttery notes for a bit longer.

Also, I need to give a shout-out to the leaves because man, are they BEAUTIFUL. This is actually the first time I took leaves out of the pot to inspect and hold. They expand at such an exponential rate and unfurl so beautifully, that your entire pot is just completely stuffed with evergreen goodness. The leaves are all pretty much intact and full, and you can clearly pick out the buds with the leaves still attached. One was so big it took up half my palm (please note: I have tiny hands). But still, really, really awesome. The quality is just written all over this oolong.

So YES, SAMOVAR, YES. You have stolen my heart. Please keep it safe. Because I was in oolong heaven last night!

I’ve just spent the entire day working like a madwoman with steep after steep of this tea! Total of seven :) I have to say, if you must sit in your office all day and work without a break, brewing a multiple steep oolong with your kettle by your side is the way to go.

I rinsed with boiling water, and then did my steeps with 195 degree water throughout.

I thought that the first three steeps were a sort of a floral nutmeg and cinnamon flavor. This tea reminded me so much of a lighter, more floral, less sweet Dragon Ball from Silk Road Teas! Very delicious. I was getting a not quite milky flavor, but a sort of coating that was like milk in my mouth, if that makes any sense?

The fourth and fifth steeps were a bit less cinnamon and nutmeg, and the milky feeling became even more pronounced. By the 6th and 7th steeps I was getting a light and pleasant tea flavor.

I think this is a great tea, and probably would have flipped if I tasted it before the Dragon Balls, but I prefer the Dragon Balls! They have more gusto and sweetness.

For my Friday fun, I briefly considered a themed set of three tasting notes. Not similar teas, just three teas organized thematically. It seems like a fun idea, and I may yet do it so I won’t reveal the theme, not that I would expect a tremendous number of people would either remember it or were familiar with it in the first place as it is rather a niche item. Can you tell that I have limited creative outlets these days?

But I don’t think I have time to do the themed notes and also taste this tea, which I have been waiting to taste for three weeks now. I knew from what others had said about it that it would be pretty special, so I wanted to taste it at a time when I was alone in quiet, which is rarely the case in this house. Today I’m working from home and I’ve just finished most of what was on my plate for today so I’m taking a small break before the last push, and I am taking advantage of the quietness and aloneness to do it.

I am finding that oolongs are probably my favorite kind of tea. I say probably because I really love blacks, too, so it’s a toss up but for this. Oolongs have a rare gift that I truly appreciate and that they may only have in common with pu erhs, in my experience. They can really transport me to another physical, mental and emotional dimension. They’re supremely relaxing to me, and yet they also provide that state of quiet alertness I’ve read so much about. The seem well matched to meditation. I may test that out at some point: drink oolong and then meditate.

This oolong is an oolong’s oolong. It has a whole lot of special going on.

When I opened the sample packet, I noticed immediately that the leaves smelled like flowery butter. Though they are less floral-smelling that those of the Life in Teacup An Xi Tie Guan Yin Grade II modern green style, the floral note they do have is similar. There’s gardenia, and more. Where the LIT had a pure, delicate floral note, these have a stronger one that is, perhaps, boosted by the creaminess of the buttery fragrance.

The leaves range in shades of green from fairly dark, almost forest, to much lighter, and are tightly curled, almost to the point of pearliness. They are fairly small, but substantial-looking.

First steep: 2 min. A light yellow, very slightly green liquor. Intensely floral, intensely dewy, creamy, rich aroma. Silky smooth in the mouth and tastes of flowers and creamy butter, with a fresh green note. It’s like a more intensely flavored, fuller-bodied version of the LIT. A more grown up version of the LIT.

Second steep: 3 min. A darker yellow green. I’m looking for the fresh baked bread, and unbelievably, it is there. The melt-on-your-tongue, white, fluffy innards of a fresh Italian or French bread loaf while it’s still hot, drizzled with sweet butter and consumed outdoors under an arbor on the grounds of a Tuscan villa or in a garden in the suburbs of Paris.

Third steep: 3:30 min. The agony of the leaves leads to having to transfer them into a bigger filter. They’re completely unwound and voluminous. This steep is all about the dairy. It may be milk, it may be butter, it may be cream, it may be all three at the same time or in pairs, but it is all dairy all the time. The LIT is like a baby’s breath and lovely. This is like burying your nose in those soft baby neck skin folds (clean ones!), and lovely as well.

Fourth steep: 4 min. The greenness of the oolong emerges this round. It isn’t what I’d call vegetal, more the greenness of the floral aspect. The taste of the fragrance of fresh flower stems, green but inescapably floral. The dairy has receded, though it is still present. Though I can’t test it, I feel as though my breath probably smells very fresh right now. :-)

Fifth steep: 4:30 min. It’s like the tea is waving goodbye and receding slowly into the distance. The silkiness is tapering off, as is the butteryness. What is left is flowers, like the memory of perfume on a pillow. It’s a graceful taper, but I feel the tea is telling me it’s over until next time.

This was an incredibly wonderful way to refresh on a Friday after a long week. This is something that I must have in my life, at least until I find something that tops it. Along with the LIT, I now have two favorite oolongs. I feel moved to bump up the LIT a bit since I enjoyed it, in its own way, and since there is now, no matter how much it may be clogged with other things, a place reserved for both of these in my cupboard.

Today was the day. I got my Samovar package in the mail. I’d already had my caffeine dose for the day, but it was a rough one, and I couldn’t resist breaking out the adorably tiny teapot (http://www.flickr.com/photos/lauren_pressley/4438902539/ ). When I opened it, I said “this is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.” My husband questioned if that was really true. It’s probably not, but it’s definitely the cutest thing I’ve seen in the past few days.

Four Seasons has been fantastic, too. I’m on steep five, and it has been getting better with each one. The first was quite vegetal, and the second was as well. Things started getting really interesting around the third: more floral and at one point I almost got a mint like quality.

I’m certain I’m not steeping this as well as I could, but it’s working for me at this point. I put 1.5 teaspoons of tea in the tiny teapot, rinsed with boiling water for about 20-30 seconds, then took the set up to the living room so we could watch the pilot episode of The Pacific. So, the first steep wasn’t quite boiling, but it was really close to it, for 3 minutes. I let that cup cool enough to drink, then steeped from the same pot of water for 4. This last steep was 7 minutes, but the water wasn’t really all that hot either.

I am looking forward to lots of experimentation with this one…. but I’m also looking forward to the rest of the Samovar teas… and I still have the Golden Moon sampler to go through… so many teas, so little time!

Turned on Pandora, Spa Suite radio. Nice. Warm the tetsubin. Light the tea light candle.

Measure the leaves, change mind about basket wanting to give leaves more room, get confused about which basket, drop tea all over counter beside salt pig, which for the first time I have ever seen has salt around it on the counter. Sob! Wash leaves, discard the ones closest to salt pig.

Steep. Read reviews and realize you have used too many leaves and for too long. Sob! Drink anyway, not bad, but a ittle astringent. Steep leaves again briefly and add to tetsubin. Burn fingers on lid. Cast iron is very hot. Replace lid. Cast iron is STILL VERY HOT. I refuse to be undone!

The tea had a wonderful floral aroma as I poured the first water on the leaves, and upon steeping smells very vegetal, like something we call tender greens here in the South. With the second short steep added to the pot now the astringency is somewhat abated. Very nice tea. Lovely floral upper note. I shall endeavor to enjoy every sip. It was hard won.

Thank you, Quiltguppy! Today is prep day for school starting and I was determined to enjoy a little peace before I begin!

I’m excited to finally try this tea which has reached a seemingly mythic reputation here on Steepster. Thanks to Cait, I’ve brewed my first pot. I expected to smell spinach or asparagus or new-mown grass. Instead, the first aromas of this lovely delicate amber brew convey a buttered flower-garden. The taste is smooth, butterly, fragrant, and my tea-drinking has taught me to be totally NOT non-plussed about putting flowers in my butter or buttering my garden. Delicious! I need more.

SECOND STEEP: A nice fragrance which is more subtle. It seems as if there’s only 1 stick of butter in this and not an entire pound. I do like creamy and buttery teas and this is excellent. The second steep is a bit more vegetal; I can see that we’ve moved down the flowery garden path to the vegetable garden. I steeped this for two minutes which seems about right for a 2nd steep. I’m still liking this tea and will have to order it someday. But today I got: 4 boxes from Andrews and Dunham, a big box from Upton, some generous samples from Norbu, and an order from Pangea tea which also calls itself the Lavender Tea Company. Not to mention a genuine, old-fashioned letter from a friend.

I’ve had this sample for a while now, but I just checked Samovar’s website and I can’t find this tea … are they just sold out? Anyone know if they’ve discontinued it?

Anyways, This is a very pleasant Oolong. A very strong floral essence to it. It is sweet and flowery. It is creamy, but there is also an astringency to it that seems to cleanse the palate from the creaminess so that it doesn’t overwhelm the palate. Very smooth, very mild. I like it very much.

Yum.

I’ve actually had this one before now and not gotten around to logging it. It’s one of those teas I tend to reach for when I’m frazzled or overcaffeinated or exhausted or the weather is grey and awful and I want to hibernate — and I live in Boston, so this is often — and all of those states usually result in a total lack of interest to write coherently about what I’m drinking. This morning I eagerly took my tin of A&D’s Caravan down from the shelf thinking I’d like to try it, only to discover that the stupid Zojirushi was on 175. Foiled! What could I have at 175 that would…

A-ha.

And so, this tea. It’s a beautiful oolong. Samovar recommends 1-2 tablespoons for 16oz. of water, just shy of boiling. I deviate from this in about every single possible way. 2 tablespoons in 16oz sounds incredibly overpowering — I do two teaspoons in 16oz, and the resulting cup is never watery. One day, when I have a good yixing teapot to devote to this kind of thing and I want to super-saturate myself, I will try two tablespoons…but for now, two teaspoons seems to be more than enough.

I also can’t bring myself to use very hot water on the tea. I’ve thought about trying it several times just to see what would change, but these cups are rather pricey, and I know that I like this cup at 175, so I’ve been uninclined to chance it.

It brews up beautifully…that delicate yellow with the faintest edge of pale green that you get with a ti kuan yin or ali shan. Those are the oolong types that this reminds me of: buttery, a bit floral — gardenias are a good comparison, but this floral is less ‘waxy’ and not quite as cloying as gardenias can get — with quiet undertones of something oolong-nutty as well as a chlorophyl green-ness. What I like most about this tea is that the chlorophyl-ish taste — which they’re pinning as ‘clover’, and I can definitely see that — isn’t an astringent sharpness toward the end of the sip, the way that I’ve experienced with some other similar oolongs. The tail end of this sip seems to round itself off in my mouth, remaining buttery and full-bodied rather than thinning out to threads of super-green vegetal flavor…if that even makes any sense. The mouthfeel is substantial, very heavy and smooth.

Ahhh. So good. It will almost be a shame to obliterate the aftertaste of this tea with a cup of Caravan.

No time to worry about that! Onward and forward into uncharted territories!

Ignore the fallen! (/Harbinger)

*edit: Ha. Note to self: close-tags on steepster interpreted properly. Whoops.

Well, I’ve been playing with this tea a while, trying to get the best out of it. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get much.

The scent of the leaf is great. Milky and floral and oolong-y. I brewed it up to the reccomendations on the web site, and I got a very silky and smooth liquor, but it had a very light flavor – almost not there. When I added a little more leaf, the green and floral was enhanced. (Then I oversteeped it and it got all bitter. Not it’s fault – all mine)

Subsequent steepings have given me a still-silky brew, and a variety of green flavors.

It’s not a bad oolong, but not my favorite.

I don’t typically make green oolongs with anything close to boiling water, but I thought I’d give it a shot since that was what was recommended (I also don’t typically rinse my oolongs because I’m lazy, but again, it was recommended so I gave it a shot). I’m thinking next time I’ll use cooler water since the leaf now smells a little cooked. None of that smell is in the tea, though, so it might be a-okay. The tea smells thick and rich, texture-y with a hint of sweet floral on the end.

The taste is really quite surprising. Well, part of it is. The initial taste is a lot like SeredipiTEA’s Four Season’s Forever Spring which was a good tea but felt a little flat for me. The first half of the sip tastes like that – not the flatness but the same darker green taste. But then as it hits my tongue fully, there is a lighter flavor that gets laid on top of the darker, richer flavor. The light flavor is very faint but sweet. Based on previous oolong experiences, I’m thinking (hoping) that a lower water temp would pull the note out more.

Ultimately, I feel like I’m missing something with this tea. It’s decent but it has a tease to it of being so much more. I’m going to wait to rate it until I try it with cooler water. Because if I can find the parameters that make it sparkle, I think I might love this tea but right now it’s just sort of unexciting for me.

This morning, I decided to try something new. I wanted to get away from the flavored teas having ingested way too many yesterday. So, I took out Samovar’s Four Seasons Oolong. I set it up in the Breville for this morning, which means that I didn’t do a rinse. Boiling/2 min 30 sec.

The scent of the dried leaves is woodsy, but not overwhelmingly so. The aroma, once brewed, is much more floral in nature. It almost has a hint of the milk oolong scent in it as well, buttery. The taste is nice. Floral, definitely. I can taste magnolias, that stiff, slightly bitter taste. The oolong tea is nice. It’s strong enough to discern among the floral notes. I do not taste any fruitiness or butter taste. It’s good, delicious even.

Another day, another oolong. QuiltGuppy showered me in oolongs, which have always been the tea I was most likely to enjoy unflavored, but never had never gotten around to trying some of the really high quality oolongs out there. I feel like I got a mini oolong tasting course from QG, which is awesome!

The dry tea on this one smells vegetal and a little spicy. I looked over the previous tasting notes and chose a semi-consensus brew time and temp for my first cup. The leaves just about completely unfurled in two minutes, which was actually surprising, as It seems like most rolled teas take a second steep to unfurl, at least in my Kati cup (I know, I know, not the best oolong brewing conditions, but I drink tea primarily at work, and I’m not going to be keeping a tetsubin at work). Initially the brewed liquor, a lovely golden yellow color, smelled very much like the dried leaf, but as its cooling way more floral notes are coming out.

This definitely has the complex flavor profile I’m coming to expect from good oolongs. It’s primarily vegetal, but it’s also got sweet floral notes with a hint of nutmeg or other such spices. As it cools, I get a hint of smooth butter, but notably not any bready or milky notes.

The second steep, at 3 minutes, is similar, but this time with a few bready notes. I’ll probably steep this a few more times, but I’m not going to write about them here. In any case, this is a very nice oolong, and I’ll definitely enjoy my sample. It’s probably not on my must-buy list, mostly because I still prefer more strongly-flavored teas, even ones that are all natural (see ATR’s Milk Oolong). Thanks again, QuiltGuppy, for the opportunity to try it!

The leaves are loosely rolled into little lumps – they’re not neat or symmetrical enough to be called pearls. Dry, it smells like a flower garden with a bit of a sweet hay scent. When I poured in the water the scent turned spinach-like at first, but then even more pronounced floral notes slowly snuck in and ambush my nose’s scent receptors.

The first steep (2 min @ 85 degrees celcius) is an odd mixture of spinach and floral flavours that remind me of the Iron Goddess of Mercy I got from the Granville Island Tea Company, though that tea was more of a stronger spinach flavour and less floral. As the tea cooled it got more floral and there’s a nice, smoothly-buttery note at the beginning of each sip. By the end it got almost a bit too floral, to the point where it was like gardenia perfume!

Second steep and I’m a bit surprised at how much those small, rolled-up bits of leaves have expanded – what started as one level teaspoon now pretty much fills up my whole strainer! So don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the usual amount doesn’t look like it’ll be enough.

Looking at other people’s temperature parameters, I uped the steeping temperature to 90 celcius and steeped for 3 minutes. The resulting tea was significantly darker than the first steep. The flavour profile was similar to the first steep with a bit more robustness. The tea seriously does smell like a bunch of garden flowers in a far more authentic way than any other tea I’ve tried.

The third steep (4 min @ 90) lost a good portion of its floral qualities – a good thing since it was a getting a bit too much like drinking perfume. There’s a sort of bakey flavour that appeared in this steep, sort of like a light, white bread.

It’s a nice tea, but in all honesty (plzdon’tkillmeSamovarfans) I’ve had oolongs that I liked better. The floral qualities are very close to being ‘too much’ and, while the third steep was much better, a tea that takes that many steeps for me to like it isn’t doing too hot.

Steep Information:
Amount: 2 tsp
Water: 750ml at 195°F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: 2 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: sweet, toasty
Steeped Tea Smell: vegetal
Flavor: toasty, silky
Body: Light
Aftertaste: nutty
Liquor: Translucent yellow brown

Not as nice as when made in the store.

Resteep:
750ml at 195°F for 2 min 30 seconds
floral, vegetal, sweet, tangy aftertaste

Resteep:
750ml at 195°F for 3 min

I believe the leaves could have gone a few more times, but time to leave work

Rating: 3/4 leaves
Blog: http://amazonv.teatra.de/2013/02/06/samovar-loose-leaf-oolong-tea-four-seasons/

Steamed gardenias. A very light, floral cup. Super delicate. Just a hint of cream and toast.

For a while, I thought that oolongs weren’t [please pardon the pun] my cup of tea. I’d pretty much written them off in my mind as dirty spinach-y cousins of my tea repertoire who did unspeakable things with sheep and so no one talks about them.

I’m not sure why this is. It might be because the first steep of the oolongs I’ve tried tend to be pretty vegetal and I stopped paying attention after that. I probably also wasn’t steeping them in hot enough water or something equally silly, which speaks to how well I read directions sometimes.

Please, do not let what happened to me happened to you. Unless what happens to you is what ENDED up happening to me, because I drank this tea for an entire week.

An entire week. ALL WEEK LONG I DRANK THIS TEA. I woke up, started the day with a little Ryokucha or a matcha shake to prod my brain into waking up, and then I would drink this tea and do physics. Or drink this tea and do calculus. Or drink this tea and program. I would drink it in a box, and I would drink it with a fox. I would drink it in a house, and I would drink it with a mouse. I would drink it here and there and I WOULD DRINK IT EVERYWHERE. I drank this tea until I ran out of it yesterday, though tragically I just put an order through with Samovar so it’ll have to wait until next time.

In the same way that I was shocked when I tried Ryokucha for the first time, I was floored with how different this tea tasted from how I thought tea could ever taste. And my god, people, it EVOLVES [oh dear Zeus, I just had a flashback to my Pokemon playing days]. That isn’t just some shit they spin for the description to get you to buy the stuff. The taste shifts and matures and does all sorts of wonderful things between steeps so that you’re getting new flavors in every cup. And that little bit of magic is why this tea would last me for an entire afternoon, sometimes longer.

Before I get back to the taste, let me tell you first that I’ve heard/seen the phrase “mouth-feel” thrown around a few times as I get acclimated into the tea world, and I always snickered a bit. I mean, it’s water, right? I didn’t fully understand what they were referring to until I really gave this tea a chance. It DOES have texture. It’s…kind of silky, if that makes sense. It feels rich, almost luxurious. Perhaps you are accustomed to paying attention to this aspect of tea, but for someone who’s new to it…I guess you could say I’ve had a tea-piphany.

Samovar’s description of Four Seasons completely nails what is going on in this tea. I don’t always “get” the full array of what I could be experiencing when it comes to tea, but I was pleased to find myself able to pick out flavors from this one. The buttery component of it, especially, was something that surprised me. I bet this would taste sinfully good with a croissant.

In fact, and excuse me while I expose a little MORE geekiosity on you here, this tea is just about exactly what I thought butter beer would taste like.

Yes, I am referring to Harry Potter.

Thank you QuiltGuppy for the sample! The tea leaves smell really yummy as I ready them for my infuser. After I poured the water (and treated my hand after spilling said water on my hand) the aroma got even BETTER! I’m very new to oolongs – meaning I’ve had maybe four. It tastes smooth and earthy if that makes any sense. I’m not sure what it’s supposed to taste like, but I like it all the same!

Alright tiny pot, here we go. 1 level tsp/4oz water. I did rinse the leaves with boiling water, for about 10 seconds, but I’m going under the recommended temp here because the leaves look pretty green and I’m desperately afraid of cooking them.

Steep 1: 2-ish minutes, 195°F
The first steep, hot out of the pot, smells like the most delicious butter I have ever tasted. A little bit cinnamon, a little bit cream. It tastes buttery too, and something else I can’t put my finger on (of course). It’s strikingly like drinking a soft buttered dinnerroll, in any case. There’s a sweet floral aftertaste though, very pleasant. It’ll be fun to see how this one goes.

Steep 2:
2:45, 185°F (I didn’t warm the pot as well this time). The color has been a bright yellow-green for both steeps; still smells very rich and buttery, though the scent fades as the tea cools.

Steep 3:
3:30, 200°F Should I be smelling chocolate in an oolong? I’m getting chocolate more than butter on this one. The color is a deeper yellow this time, probably due to hotter water. The flavor is starting to get a little more vegetal, but only a touch.

Steep 4:
4:30, 195°F Still good color, but the flavor is starting to weaken a bit – I’ll up the steep time more on the next. Definitely getting more vegetal tastes.

Steep 5:
~8 minutes, 205°F Seemed to still have some caffeine in it, which I didn’t expect. A bit bitter, but plenty of flavor left. These leaves probably could have done more, but I am well pleased.

Mmmmm! Thank-you QuiltGuppy for this one!

I have finally had some and it is SO TASTY! I have only sat down with it once, but once is enough to fall in love.

Next time I will pay more attention to details and write it down somewhere so that I can give people a better idea of my experience.