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I bought this tea in my big spring 2022 haul from Bok, and drank it throughout most of the winter and spring. It’s wonderful, but the flavours are too well mixed and the tea too smooth to write a decent review. I wrote this when I was just finishing the bag, then lost it on my hard drive for a couple months, so here goes. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml pot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus some long, uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of honey, brown sugar, stewed cherries, cocoa, and wood. The first steep has notes of honey, stewed cherries, plums, cocoa, faint citrus, brown sugar, narcissus and other flowers, grass, and wood. This tea isn’t punchy like most other Taiwanese hongcha, but is soft and unassuming. A touch of astringency and some pleasant sourness pop up in steep two, along with more cherry, citrus, florals, spices (nutmeg?), and honey. The next couple steeps emphasize cocoa and rye bread notes, with the tea remaining smooth and hard to pin down. Steeps five and six are more woody, malty, drying, and grassy, though they still have a lot of fruit, honey, and florals. The next few steeps have notes of honey, malt, rye bread, wood, minerals, prunes, and grass. The tea stays sweet, smooth, and pleasant until it fades into honey water in the final long steeps.

I was told that this tea was made by someone who kept winning black tea competitions in Taiwan until he eventually retired, and this seems plausible. It doesn’t hit you in the face with bold flavours like some other Taiwanese hongcha (I miss you, Assam and Ruby 18 from What-Cha!), but all the elements are mixed harmoniously and the tea is a pleasure to drink. It doesn’t get bitter, even if it’s forgotten in the pot, and it’s both comfortable and elegant. It didn’t wow me as much as the spring 2022 Baozhong, but it also never disappointed. I missed it when it was gone and I’m ordering another bag this year.

I wrote this note during one of the recent Steepster freezes, and forgot to record which tea it was for. I think this is the one!

I’m happy to see another single-cultivar sencha in this bag of samples! I steeped 5 g of leaf in 150 ml of 140F water for 1 minute, followed by several 20 second steeps.

The dry aroma is of apple, grain, sweetgrass, gentle umami, and veggies. The first steep has a nice, thick body and notes of sweetgrass, spinach, asparagus, apple, and grain. It’s surprisingly easy going for a sencha. The next few steeps give me more apple, grain, asparagus, grass, herbs, and spinach. The fruit fades near the end of the session, but the tea never gets too bitter or harsh.

Unlike many of the Japanese greens I’ve been drinking, this tea has dimensions other than veggies. It’s a nice change of pace, and I wish I’d been able to pay more attention to it during what was apparently a hectic workday.

Wang generously included a 25 g bag of this tea as a free sample in my last big order. I’d nearly ordered it on my own, so needless to say, I was happy to see it. This tea is from spring 2022. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml porcelain pot using boiling water for 55, 45, 55, 65, 75, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus some long, uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of orchid, osmanthus, honeysuckle, coconut, and grass. The first steep has notes of orchid, osmanthus, honeysuckle, freesia, butter, grass, and cream. Like the unscented Alishan, it’s woodsy with a slightly vegetal aftertaste. The second steep really opens up, with coconut, honeydew, more osmanthus, fruit tree blossoms, honeysuckle, gardenia, lemongrass, pine, petrichor, minerals, and grass. The bottom of the cup smells really sweet, a bit like floral honeydew, although the tea itself is not too sweet. I assume this is what osmanthus smells like. The next couple steeps feature coconut, lemongrass, sugar cookies, spinach, and grass, and that distinctive osmanthus flavour. Steeps five and six still have lots of heady osmanthus florals, although the vegetal nature of the Alishan is showing through. I get petrichor and mineral notes along with the spinach and grass. The end of the session is vegetal and persistently floral, with freesia and orchid being noticeable.

I usually think of scented teas as having lower-quality base material, but this one proved me wrong. I liked it even better than their excellent regular Alishan because of the addition of the osmanthus, which made the tea even more floral and fruity. The osmanthus was a wonderful complement to the somewhat vegetal Alishan and truly enhanced the drinking experience. Daylon, some of this will be in your box!

I noticed this tea on the Mountain Stream site and was intrigued, but never got around to ordering it. Thanks, Derk, for the generous sample! I steeped slightly over 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml porcelain pot at 205F for 30, 40, 60, 75, 90, 105, 120, 150, 180, and 240 seconds, plus some uncounted steeps.

The aroma of the loosely rolled dry leaves is of mango, guava, honeysuckle, gardenia, other florals, and spices. The first steep has notes of lilac, honeysuckle, gardenia, cream, mango, guava, orange, marzipan, spinach, grass, and chili. I’ve never had jackfruit, so can’t comment on whether it’s in the tea. I taste what might be camphor near the bottom of the cup. The second steep gives me mouth-watering notes of mango, orange, and tropical fruit, plus clove, chili, honeysuckle, lilac, other florals, camphor, and grass. The tea is a bit perfumey, but in a good way. The next couple steeps are more floral, with cream, camphor, grass, and some astringency. The mango and tropical fruit come out in the aftertaste. Steeps five and six are more grassy, though the mango, marzipan, and florals are still there. The grass, spinach, and kale become more prominent as the session ends, though the creamy mango and tropical fruit make me want to keep going.

I love fruity oolongs, so it’s no surprise that this one is a winner for me. The combination of lush tropical fruit and heady florals is wonderful, even though the tea became more astringent near the end of the session. The spices are something I rarely notice in Taiwanese oolong. It may have some rough edges, but it put a smile on my face while I was drinking it.

After my “interesting” experience with matcha, I’m happy to have picked a more standard green tea from Nio’s generous pile of samples. I steeped 5 g of leaf in a 150 ml porcelain pot using 140F water for 1 minute, plus several 20 second steeps.

The dry aroma is of cantaloupe, nuts, sweet grass, spinach, and umami. The first steep has notes of wheatgrass, spinach, cantaloupe, cream, green beans, and umami. This tea doesn’t punch me in the face like some other green teas, and is more grassy than vegetal. The veggies become more pronounced in the second steep, with more kale and spinach, while the third and fourth steeps return to being buttery, beany, and pleasant with some cantaloupe and floral overtones. Later steeps give me a peachy, grassy aftertaste. The final few steeps are generic veggies and grass, though the bitterness never gets out of hand.

This is a pleasant sencha that I wouldn’t mind revisiting. However, most of these Japanese green teas are kind of vegetal for me.

This is my first time trying matcha! I’m surprised it’s taken me so long, but I’ve never really explored Japanese green tea and I don’t have the right tools. In line with that, I steeped my 2 g sample in a 180 ml mason jar using 160F water.

After extensive shaking, I get a jar full of very green matcha that even has some foam on the top. Taking my first sip is like having a bunch of veggies hit me in the face. I get kale, spinach, asparagus, brussels sprouts, broccoli, and grass. Cameron is right that there’s no sweetness whatever, though I don’t get any hay or mustiness either. The body is thick and creamy, and did I mention very vegetal? There were some clumps at the bottom of the jar, so I must not have shaken it as well as I thought.

I think matcha might be an acquired taste for me.

I received four Dancongs from One River Tea, all of which are on the roasty side for me. I’ve always wanted to try Osmanthus Fragrance, though it seems that most of them, like this one, are heavily roasted. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml porcelain pot using 195F water for 7, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of osmanthus, chrysanthemum, buttered popcorn, peach, and sour roast. The first steep has nice floral, buttery aromas and top notes of orchid and osmanthus, with roast, wood, minerality, and sourness in the background that might get out of hand later. I get a pleasant peachy aftertaste a few minutes after drinking the tea. The next steep also has nice aromas and flavours of butter, osmanthus, peach, grass, honey, zucchini, apricot, and other florals, backed by a prominent roast. The third steep is similarly aromatic, with a lovely stonefruit and floral aftertaste. However, keeping it in the mouth for any longer than necessary is a mistake, as the tea is sour and astringent and reminds me of pencil shavings (more kindly described as woody?). By steep five, the florality is integrating more into the body of the tea, but the roast, wood, and minerality are becoming even stronger. The slightly sour, floral/grassy/buttery aftertaste is still pleasant. The next few steeps still have buttery floral elements, but the roast, minerality, wood, and sourness are taking over and the aftertaste is not as prominent. The tea remains floral to the end, although the bitterness is very pronounced.

This tea is kind of a Jekyll and Hyde. I love the floral, fruity aroma and aftertaste, but the roast overwhelms these flavours in the mouth. I’d say that this tea might become more integrated with time, but it’s from 2021 and I’m not sure how much longer it might take.

After reading others’ descriptions of this tea as very astringent, I decided to take the vendor’s advice and cold brew this fukamushi sencha. I don’t usually do cold brewing, as it doesn’t produce as much tea as hot steeping, but avoiding bitterness and bringing out the fruit were good enough reasons for me. I steeped 5 g of leaf in a 700 ml teapot using cold water for around 4 hours, then resteeped the leaves for over 12 hours.

The dry aroma is of spinach, kale, umami, apple, and papaya. Though the tea is still vegetal, it isn’t as astringent as I suspect it would be hot. I get notes of spinach, kale, grass, umami, beans, butter, apple, and faint papaya. I still wouldn’t describe it as particularly fruity. The tea is smoother than the two hot fukamushi senchas I’ve had, with a thicker body. The longer second steep produced a pleasant grassy, vegetal tea with no fruit and little character, so I think it’s best to cold steep it only once.

I received 50 g of fresh spring 2023 pre-Qingming Bi Luo Chun about a week ago, and got this new-to-me tea as one of my two free samples. This is something I probably never would have tried, so thanks to Teavivre for including it! I steeped around 3 g of leaf in an 85 ml teapot at 176F for 20, 25, 35, 50, 80, 120, and 240 seconds, plus some uncounted steeps. I also steeped the remaining 2 g in around 250 ml of 176F water for 5 minutes, topping up the water as needed.

The dry aroma of these flat, almost uniform leaves is of chestnuts, seaweed, and grass. The first steep has notes of chestnuts, green beans, asparagus, butter, umami, and grass. The next steep adds notes of orange peel and florals, and the tea is slightly drying. The tea is less sweet than Dragonwell and has a starchy quality. The orange disappears in the next couple steeps, and stronger notes of asparagus, chestnut, and green beans emerge. The final steeps are a bit more bitter and add kale and grass to the veggie combo.

Bowl steeped, this tea has notes of chestnut, asparagus, spinach, green pepper, faint florals, seaweed, and grass. There’s some bitterness, but it’s not overwhelming. I get more green beans and grass as the session goes on, and the tea becomes slightly sweeter and more floral. It lasts for several infusions.

This is close to the type of nutty, less abrasive Chinese green tea that I like, though Dragonwell appeals to me a little more because it tends to be sweeter. As usual, bowl steeping provided the more pleasant experience, though the citrus in the gongfu session was a nice surprise. This isn’t something I need to rush out and buy, but I’m glad I got to try it.

Last week’s Steepster freeze felt like a month! I’m glad we can all post tasting notes again, and I have a bit of a backlog.

This is my second fukamushi sencha. I’m using my Finum infuser instead of my other strainer, and I hope it will filter out more of the leaf. I steeped the 5 g sample in a 150 ml teapot using 150F water for 45, 20, 20, 20, and 20 seconds, followed by a few uncounted steeps.

The dry leaves have aromas of spinach, umami, nuts, and tropical fruit. The Finum indeed worked better than my other strainer, and I’m happy to report that no leaf bits made their way into my cup. The first steep has lots of umami, plus spinach, brussels sprouts, butter, asparagus, nuts, and hints of passionfruit (thanks, Cameron!). The second steep has a thick body and is a bit more bitter, but still has pleasant flavours of nuts, asparagus, kale, and passionfruit. Subsequent infusions are quite vegetal and grassy, though not as astringent as the other fukamushi sencha, and the final long steeps have hints of florality.

I enjoyed this more than the previous fukamushi sencha, particularly the passionfruit that appeared near the beginning of the session. The tea is smoother and less aggressively vegetal, which are both qualities I appreciate.