413 Tasting Notes

I was intrigued to see this very old tea in my package from Derk. Thanks for the sample, which may sadly reflect some of the older teas in my own collection. I followed the instructions on Steepster and brewed 2 teaspoons in a 355 ml mug at 185F for 2, 4, 6, and 8 minutes.

Dry, the tea smells like orange blossom and old-lady perfume, with a strong tinge of alcohol. The first steep has some nice flavours of orange, orange blossom, flowers, malt, wood, and spice, though these are unfortunately overwhelmed by perfume and decaying lawn clippings. This tea is like Constant Comment if it became a zombie. I went through three more cups of this tea, which grew maltier and more tannic but never lost that perfumey quality.

I won’t rate this tea due to its age, as I’m sure it would have been much more enjoyable fresh. As is, it’s a warning to drink my Indian and Nepali teas before they taste like something that should have been laid to rest long ago.

Flavors: Alcohol, Cut Grass, Floral, Malt, Orange, Orange Blossom, Perfume, Spices, Tannic, Wood

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 2 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 12 OZ / 355 ML

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86

I decided to give this tea a chance after seeing it described as aromatic and fruity, although I’ve had a black Tie Guan Yin before that I wasn’t too fond of. Of course, Jin Guan Yin is a slightly different varietal, though my expectations were still somewhat similar. I used the instructions given in the Camellia Sinensis Summer Session, an online event held in August that reviewed eight of their teas, as provided by Tea in Spoons:
https://teainspoons.com/2020/10/01/camellia-sinensis-summer-session-08-2020-part-3/
They said to steep 5 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 203F for 30, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 105, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of sourdough bread, dates, tart fruit, and sweet potato. The first two steeps have notes of sweet potato, citrus, dates, sap, caramel, and baked bread. In the next steep, the sweet potato gets even richer, the citrus resolves itself into orange zest, the tannins become more prominent, and flavours of tart rhubarb and sourdough emerge. That sourdough is especially noticeable when exhaling a few minutes after a sip and is kind of entertaining.

In steeps four to six, the sourdough starts competing with the sweet potato, and I get some earth, tannins, and wood. This is slightly disappointing since I liked those sweet potato-heavy initial steeps so much. The final few long steeps reveal mellow sweet potato, combined with tannins, wood, malt, earth, and minerals.

This tea is a lot better than my previous batch of black TGY. I’d recommend it to anyone who loves sweet potato and enjoys a dynamic gongfu session. It’s especially appropriate at the moment since it’s the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. Happy early Thanksgiving to everyone who’s celebrating, and I hope you can connect with family virtually if not in person.

Flavors: Bread, Caramel, Citrus, Dates, Earth, Malt, Mineral, Orange Zest, Pleasantly Sour, Rhubarb, Sap, Sweet Potatoes, Tannin, Tart, Wood

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 0 min, 30 sec 5 g 4 OZ / 120 ML
derk

Happy Thanksgiving to you :)

Leafhopper

Thanks! Spending Thanksgiving alone is a bit weird, although it’s necessary given the situation here in Ontario. I hope others also decide not to risk spreading COVID to their families this weekend so we can all have a good Christmas.

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79

This tea is from my massive Darjeeling haul this summer. I don’t remember ever having a Singbulli second flush, as I think this estate is better known for its first flushes. I steeped around 4 g of leaf in a 355 ml mug at 195F for 5 and 8 minutes.

The dry aroma of these fluffy, generously gold-scattered leaves is of muscatel, autumn leaf pile, and hay. The first steep has notes of sticky muscatel, malt, orange, honey, flowers, autumn leaf pile, wood, hay, and tannins. It’s both gorgeously sweet and grounded by the astringency, which I think makes it a nice weekend morning tea. The second steep is lighter on the muscatel and heavier on the tannins, and adds notes of earth, grass, and minerals.

While this tea didn’t blow me away, it’s a nice second flush Darjeeling that had enough heft to wake me up. I might try steeping it a bit cooler to emphasize those muscatel and orange flavours.

Flavors: Autumn Leaf Pile, Earth, Floral, Grass, Hay, Honey, Malt, Mineral, Muscatel, Orange, Tannin, Wood

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 5 min, 0 sec 4 g 12 OZ / 355 ML

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84

I received this back in 2017 when I was an Eco-Cha Tea Club member. Thank goodness it has some roast on it and can presumably survive a few years in storage! I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

Dry, these tightly rolled nuggets smell like a floral gingersnap. The first steep has notes of sweet pea, orchid, cookie, butter, nutmeg, grass, and light roast, with a floral and grassy aftertaste. The second steep adds nuts (maybe pecans?) and even more florals, though also, sadly, more of that grassy taste. Cookie, honey, mild spices, honeysuckle and sweet pea florals, nuts, and grass persist into the next couple steeps. I find the tea to be smooth and a little viscous. In the fifth steep, herbs and spinach peek through the cookie goodness. The session ends predictably with walnuts, butter, roast, spinach, and grass.

This is a pleasant, though perhaps not extraordinary oolong with some tasty spice cookie notes. (I’m getting those a lot with lightly roasted oolongs lately.) I’ll have no trouble finishing my 75 g package, though I won’t miss it terribly when it’s gone.

Flavors: Butter, Cookie, Floral, Grass, Herbaceous, Honey, Honeysuckle, Nutmeg, Nuts, Orchid, Pecan, Roasted, Spices, Spinach, Vegetal, Walnut

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 6 g 4 OZ / 120 ML

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87

Thanks, Derk (or maybe White Antlers via Derk), for such a generous sample of this tea! I remember considering it in my last What-Cha order, but went with a more affordable spring pick from Guranse instead. I steeped 4 g of leaf in a 355 ml mug at 190 for 5 and 8 minutes.

The dry aroma is of heady flowers, herbs, muscatel, and orange blossom. Right away, I realize that steeping it at 190F hasn’t entirely curbed its astringency. I get notes of herbs, muscatel, oats, plants, rose, wildflowers, lemon, orange blossom, chilli, and wood. Needless to say, there’s a lot going on and I’m having to guess at some of these flavours. (I never know whether to include only what I’m absolutely sure I taste or what I think the tea reminds me of.) The chilli, woody, and floral notes come out in the aftertaste. The second steep is more floral, with rose, peony, orange blossom, and wildflowers, and the green, herbaceous first flush characteristics are more prominent. There are also tannins and minerals.

This is a complex black tea that is worth revisiting. It certainly lives up to its floral moniker. It also shares that chilli note with What-Cha’s Guranse Spring Hand-Rolled Floral black tea, which is something I haven’t found in other Nepalese offerings.

Flavors: Floral, Green, Herbaceous, Lemon, Mineral, Muscatel, Oats, Orange Blossom, Plants, Rose, Spices, Tannin, Wood

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 5 min, 0 sec 4 g 12 OZ / 355 ML
derk

Glad you enjoyed and happy to pass it forward :)

White Antlers

Whomever sent it (me via derk?-dunno), very glad you enjoyed it.

Leafhopper

Thanks, Derk and White Antlers! I’m enjoying these tea samples.

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76

I’ve always meant to order some of TTC’s Gui Fei, but demurred due to mixed reviews. Thanks, Derk, for the generous sample. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml porcelain teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of honey, baked cinnamon bread, and fruit leather. The first steep has notes of honey, baked bread, grass, and stewed fruit. The next adds autumn leaf pile, apricot, raisins, and slight astringency, though the honey is still the star. In steep three, sandalwood, cinnamon, and a bit of roast emerge, and the autumn leaf pile flavour is stronger. The fourth steep is a lott less sweet, with roast, wood, pine, autumn leaf pile, grain, and honey. By the sixth steep, the roast is really asserting itself, accompanied by black tea-like minerals and malt. The session ends with nuts, honey, minerals, and roast.

While this Gui Fei is quirky and enjoyable, as LuckyMe pointed out, it’s more like a Dong Ding than a honey oolong. I might still pick this up, however, because it’s so affordable, but the strong roast detracts from it being truly amazing.

Flavors: Apricot, Astringent, Autumn Leaf Pile, Bread, Cinnamon, Grain, Grass, Honey, Malt, Mineral, Nuts, Pine, Raisins, Roasted, Stewed Fruits, Wood

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 6 g 4 OZ / 120 ML

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86

From my records, I see I bought 50 g of this oolong in early 2015 for $8. If only Dan Congs were still that affordable! Before I got my gongfu equipment, I would dump a few leaves of this tea into my Finum infuser and thought it was tasty. Then I tried gongfuing it and it was a bitter mess, leading to its relegation to the “tea museum” at the back of my cupboard.

Okay, let’s try this again. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml porcelain teapot at 195F for 7, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is faint and is of almond, roast, wood, florals, and peach. The first steep has a pronounced almond note, behind which is hiding tannins, baked peaches, minerals, cream, brown sugar, florals, and wood. The more this is held in the mouth, the more that almond flavour takes over. This isn’t true for the aroma, which is a nice balance among the various flavours. The returning aftertaste is also amazing, with peach, mandarin orange, jasmine floorals, and almonds. The same thing happens in the second steep, with the peach and floral aftertaste being the best part of the experience.

Peach, orange, and apricot appear in the third and fourth steeps, though the almond is by far the strongest flavour. The accompanying bitterness is reminiscent of almond skin. Some grass and grapefruit show up in steep five. By steep seven, the roast, wood, and minerals are becoming more prominent, although the almonds are still going strong and the stonefruit, citrus, and florals are still present in the aroma and aftertaste. The end of the session has notes of spinach, earth, tannins, nuts, wood, and roast, and is quite bitter.

If the floral, citrus, and stonefruit flavours of this tea had made it into the actual sip instead of just the aroma and aftertaste, I’d have rated it in the nineties. As is, the session was kind of frustrating. I’d love to know whether tweaking the brewing parameters could pull these flavours out a little more.

Flavors: Almond, Apricot, Bitter, Brown Sugar, Citrus, Cream, Earth, Floral, Grapefruit, Grass, Jasmine, Mineral, Nutty, Orange, Peach, Roasted, Spinach, Tannin, Wood

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 6 g 4 OZ / 120 ML

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85

Thanks to Derk for the sample! Because it costs more to ship from the U.S. to Canada than it does to ship here from Taiwan or China, I tend to have few teas from American companies in my cupboard. This is my first tea from Totem Tea, and as a Dong Ding-style oolong from Taiwan, it’s sort of in my wheelhouse. I steeped the roughly 6 g in a 120 ml teapot at 205F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of cookies, peach, cinnamon, nuts, and wood. This tea is making me hungry! The first steep has notes of cookie, peach, walnut, anise, grass, orchid, cream, pleasant sourness, and wood. I can tell there’s a roast, but it’s somewhat green for a Dong Ding. The cinnamon and other spices are a bit more apparent in the second steep, as are the orchid florals and that sour note I tasted earlier. The third and fourth steeps continue to be nutty, woody, and floral, with some baked bread undertones. By steep five, notes of minerals, sourness, walnut, and wood become stronger, though there’s still plenty of sweetness and a little spice and florality. The session ends with wood, minerals, and roast.

While I didn’t get all the nuances from this tea that Derk did, I found it to be a slightly offbeat, intriguingly complex Dong Ding. Those cookie and spice notes were lovely, though I wish they’d stuck around a little longer. Thanks for the chance to try this tea from a new-to-me company.

Flavors: Anise, Bread, Cinnamon, Cookie, Cream, Grass, Mineral, Nutty, Orchids, Peach, Pleasantly Sour, Roasted, Spices, Walnut, Wood

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 6 g 4 OZ / 120 ML
White Antlers

For some reason, this makes me wish for a plate of gingersnaps or nutty biscotti to dip into a snifter of tawny port.

Leafhopper

I’m glad my tasting note conveyed this tea accurately! I was craving gingersnaps the entire time I was drinking it.

White Antlers

LOL! I do believe that derk is a super taster and you really created the seasonal cookie (at least here in the U.S.- an old Hallowe’en standby) with your tasting note. : )

Leafhopper

Thanks! I agree that Derk is a super taster and I’m in awe of her palate. I hope to be able to detect all those flavours one day.

derk

You inspired me to make a pot. I do smell floral ginger and charcoal roast in the warm leaf. Supertaster? Idk, I love bitter sheng and stuff like all the bitter greens, ridiculously spicy peppers and Swedish snus tobacco but not coffee or dark chocolate even though I can appreciate them. I feel like my palate just kinda went crazy in my mid 20s. First, I quit smoking cigarettes, then a permanent taco truck showed up in my very whitebread town. Then I moved from Ohio to San Jose and went nuts with my first taste of Vietnamese food. I’ve since moved out of the toddler ‘put all the things in the mouth’ phase.

derk

White Antlers, I can see how you get that craving from Leafhopper’s note!

Leafhopper

Derk, that’s interesting! I also enjoy bitter things, like coffee and IPA. I’m sure putting all the things in the mouth helps with detecting flavours! I like eating different cuisines, but don’t cook much, so might not always know exactly what goes into various dishes.

Leafhopper

I might have to rope my family into doing this. My hunch is that I’m an average taster. How about you?

White Antlers

Oh, I’m a sub-par taster, Leafhopper. One reason I don’t post tea reviews even though I drink lots of it every day is because to me, it tastes like ‘tea,’ ‘good tea,’ ‘stuff I don’t like,’ or ’it’s okay.’ When I was a teenager, I was hit by a car as a pedestrian and as a result, suffered a traumatic brain injury which left me blind in one eye and with no sense of smell in my left nostril among other things. While I do enjoy bitter flavors (not beer),love almost all cuisines and don’t find cilantro ‘soapy,’ a super taster I am NOT.

Leafhopper

I separate tea into those categories, too. I don’t think you need to detect every nuance to enjoy good tea. :)

White Antlers

Nope, you really don’t. While I am not big on analyzing what I eat and drink, reading tasting notes like yours and derk’s gives me tremendous vicarious enjoyment and pleasure. : )

Leafhopper

Thanks! I’m glad you appreciate my notes! Sometimes they’re a shot in the dark, but I do my best. :)

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83

I bought this Wuyi oolong in Tao Tea Leaf’s 50% off sale around Christmas 2015. Since it’s a tea I enjoyed, I’ve naturally been hoarding it for the past five years. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 200F for 7, 10, 12, 16, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of cannabis, oakwood, char, and nuts. The first steep has notes of char, smoke, cannabis, walnuts, almonds, cream, honey, minerals, and oakwood. The woody, nutty notes predominate. I get some baked bread in the second steep, along with tobacco and roast in the aftertaste. Perhaps due to the tea’s age, I don’t detect any flowers or stonefruit. The flavour profile remains constant through the next four steeps, becoming more drying, mineral, and roasty at the end of the session.

Despite its somewhat heavy roast, which I usually find off-putting, this is a fun and enjoyable oolong. I actually like it better than their Da Hong Pao, which I bought at the same time. I wish it had some fruit and florals, but that oakwood flavour makes it unique and oddly compelling.

Flavors: Almond, Bread, Cannabis, Char, Cream, Honey, Mineral, Nutty, Oak, Roasted, Smoke, Tobacco, Walnut

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 6 g 4 OZ / 120 ML

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86
drank Ali Shan by CHA YI Teahouse
413 tasting notes

I sipped down the last of my 25 g of this tea yesterday. I finally got up the nerve to use the clay houhin that Mrmopar sent me a while ago, and much to my surprise and relief, it didn’t break. Maybe I’m not a degenerate teapot murderer after all! This tea was extra floral and cookie-like because I used a larger amount in what I think might be a 100 or 110 ml pot. Sadly, the fruity notes weren’t as evident as they were in a porcelain vessel.

I’m sad to see this tea go and regret not picking up more in the company’s recent sale. (But then, if I restocked all the teas I enjoyed, my cupboard would be even fuller than it is now.)

Thanks again, Mrmopar, for the teapot!

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 8 g 4 OZ / 110 ML
White Antlers

mrmopar is an unsung hero.

Leafhopper

Absolutely!

mrmopar

Welcome and enjoy!

Leafhopper

Thanks again! The pot is easy to handle, though it does get hot if you don’t use the detachable base (which I initially didn’t).

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Bio

Since I discovered Teavana’s Monkey Picked Oolong four years ago, I’ve been fascinated by loose-leaf tea. I’m glad to say that my oolong tastes have evolved, and that I now like nearly every tea that comes from Taiwan, oolong or not, particularly the bug-bitten varieties. I also find myself drinking Yunnan blacks and Darjeelings from time to time, as well as a few other curiosities.

However, while online reviews might make me feel like an expert, I know that I still have some work to do to actually pick up those flavours myself. I hope that by making me describe what I’m tasting, Steepster can improve my appreciation of teas I already enjoy and make me more open to new possibilities (maybe even puerh!).

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