943 Tasting Notes

90

This is the first bihakkōcha I’ve ever had. Its profile is, however, a mixture of quite similar ones. Its aroma lands somewhere between an Anxi and a Taiwan high mountain oolong. It is more creamy and grassy rather than perfumy, with notes of flowers, honey and stewed green vegetables – lovely!

First infusion reminds me of some of the very green Dan Cong Oolongs with its grassy, mineral, and floral taste and a strong underlying bitterness. Second steep has a flowery, sour character with a cooling finish. It does also bring some umami and a marine character reminding one that it is indeed a Japanese tea.

The aftertaste is very long and it blends sweet and sour notes. The mouthfeel is thick and water-like. All in all, I greatly enjoy this tea and I am glad I still have some left with the spring being in full force already here in Innsbruck.

Flavors: Bitter, Cream, Floral, Flowers, Grass, Green, Honey, Marine, Mineral, Sour, Stewed Vegetables, Sweet, Umami

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 0 min, 15 sec 5 g 3 OZ / 100 ML
Skysamurai

O_o never heard of this! Look good though!!!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

83

This is a comforting and balanced tea with hints of greatness. It lasts for a good 12 infusions at 5g in a 100ml gaiwan. Despite being almost 3 years old now, it feels very fresh and zesty.

The aroma is sweet, nutty and comforting with a distinctive cooling floral character, a bit like lilacs. The taste is somehow fresh with being vegetal at all. It has a mild floral sweetness and peatiness. There are also notes of grapevine, citrus, plant roots and limestone. I also like the silky texture and heady qi. The aftertaste is warming and protracted with notes of butter, spices, saffron and nectar.

Flavors: Bittersweet, Butter, Citrusy, Floral, Grapes, Lilac, Limestone, Nectar, Nutty, Peat, Plants, Roots, Saffron, Spices, Sweet

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 0 min, 15 sec 5 g 3 OZ / 100 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

83

Very pleasant tea with sweet aromas of baked fruits, nectar, flowers and wood. The taste is sweet and floral, but also refreshing. There is a woody bitterness and a light metallic character. Later infusions are mineral, almost marine, with a cooling finish. The mouthfeel is buttery and the aftertaste has a very long-lasting sweetness. All in all, a great tea to enjoy casually.

Flavors: Bitter, Floral, Flowers, Fruity, Marine, Metallic, Mineral, Nectar, Sweet, Wood

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 15 sec 7 g 5 OZ / 150 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

92

I have tried to sample a number of aged oolongs recently to expand my horizons. Usually, I find that they don’t offer a sufficient quality/price ratio as compared to most other tea categories. This is the first one that I reordered after trying, which may tell you a bit about my feelings towards it :)

The dry leaf aroma is spicy and nutty with hints of grass and fenugreek seeds, as well as stonefruit pits. When smelling wet leaves, I can imagine biting into an apricot at a grassy meadow after summer rain.

The taste is warming, smooth, and floral. First infusion reminds me of shellfish, summer honey, roasted lemons and popcorn. The second one has even stronger lemon peel flavour. Later I could also taste nettle. The mouthfeel is syrupy and quite thick.

One of the highlights is the pungent and protracted aftertaste with complex florals and nectar flavour. There is also a very interesting mouthfeel after swallowing. It is tempting to describe it as numbing and on the drier side, but in fact it is neither. I feel almost as if my mouth was completely overwhelmed by the sweet florals and therefore sending contradictory signals to the brain.

To top the experince, I have to say that the cha qi is top notch too. It is very grounding and quite chest focused.

Flavors: Apricot, Floral, Grass, Grass Seed, Honey, Lemon, Lemon Zest, Nectar, Petrichor, Popcorn, Shellfish, Smooth, Soil, Stonefruit, Sweet, Thick

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 15 sec 6 g 5 OZ / 150 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

93

I love this Kamairicha, its depth of flavours and energizing qi.

Opening the package greets one with sweet grassy scent with a touch of mussels and butter cookies. Wet leaves then smell of kale, meat and yeast.

The tea has a smooth, colloidal, and creamy mouthfeel that I find to be rather engaging. Taste is crisp, vegetal and mineral with a good umami to it. In the aftertaste, sweetness meets juicy bitterness meets floral sour bite with flavours of sugar peas, clover and fern among others.

Flavors: Biting, Butter, Cookie, Floral, Grassy, Kale, Marine, Meat, Mineral, Peas, Plants, Smooth, Spinach, Sweet, Umami, Vegetal, Yeast

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 0 min, 30 sec 6 g 3 OZ / 100 ML
Martin Bednář

I think this is a place I will visit next time I am in Bratislava.

Togo

You should, they have a lovely tea house!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

85

This tea is a great example of YQH productions. It has a pleasant taste profile which makes it easy to drink, soft mouthfeel, strong huigan and expansive aftertaste. Above all, however, it presents a strong, dreamy qi that is anything but aggressive. It is surely a feel-good kind of tea. Even with heavier brewing parameters, It also lasts for a while, easily surpassing the 200ml/g mark.

In terms of specific notes, there are aromas of whiskey and licorice root. I can’t detect much bitterness or astringency at all. The taste is a little sour and woody with notes of apple and straw among others. In any case, this is certainly not the tea beaming with complexity.

Flavors: Apple, Licorice, Sour, Straw, Sweet, Whiskey, Wood

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 7 g 3 OZ / 100 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

75
drank Fu Zhuan Jin Hua 2016 by Nannuoshan
943 tasting notes

A fairly average Fu Zhuan with a largely woody and nutty character and an intriguing numbing and cooling mouthfeel. In its aromas, it reminds me of candles, wooden cabinets and ant mounds, while the taste bring hints of sawdust, coffee fruitiness, and some sour fermantation notes.

Flavors: Coffee, Forest Floor, Fruity, Nutty, Sawdust, Sour, Vegetal, Wood

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 30 sec 7 g 4 OZ / 120 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

74

Good shou on the savoury side of the spectrum, but it doesn’t offer anything overly special I’d say.

The aroma is has both a marine and fruity character with scents of cherry, wood, and herbs. First infusion is nutty, herbaceous and earthy, while the later ones are brighter and more mineral. Specific flavours include thistles, enoki mushrooms, jostaberries, butter and cranberries.

Maybe the most exciting aspect is the mouthfeel which is oily, colloidal and numbing.

Flavors: Berry, Butter, Cherry, Cranberry, Earth, Fruity, Herbaceous, Marine, Mineral, Mushrooms, Nutty, Thick, Wood

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 30 sec 7 g 5 OZ / 150 ML
Leafhopper

I enjoy your very specific tasting notes! I had to look up what a jostaberry was. :)

Togo

haha, my grandparents used to have a jostaberry bush which I ate from a lot during my childhood :D

ashmanra

Never heard of jostaberry!

mrmopar

I bet a lot of people don’t know paw paws either. Jostas are pretty good.

Togo

Yep, I only found out about paw paws when I saw them at a farmer’s market in Canada – there are some very niche fruits and I’m always interested in trying new ones :)

Martin Bednář

The difference between European and American berries… haven’t heard about paw paws.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

70

After more than 20 years, the tea has a weak aroma and taste with an interesting sweet aftertaste. However, the cha qi is just superb – soothing and meditative, spreading warmth all over my body.

While the aroma is weak, it is also utterly unique and indescribable. The taste is a bit woody and sour – at times it reminds me of butter cookies or cut grass. The aftertaste is crisp, sweet and savoury with notes of plant stems and meat.

The tea liquor has a medium thickness and a creamy mouthfeel inducing a lot of salivation and a cooling sensation in the throat.

Flavors: Butter, Cookie, Cut Grass, Meat, Plant Stems, Savory, Sour, Sweet, Wood

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 30 sec 5 g 4 OZ / 130 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

77

This tea served as a backdrop to some fairly deep emotional experiences today, but I wouldn’t necessarily attribute it to the energy of the tea itself. I just want to mention that the tea, as any good pu-erh should, has the capacity for being a meaningful companion :)

Otherwise, I liked its cooling, numbing and voluminous mouthfeel, as well as the sweet, floral aftertaste with hints of peanuts. The taste is somewhat bitter with interesting salty and umami notes, as well as mild sour touch. There are flavours of spices, wood, butter, vanilla, thyme, seaweed, and honey for instance. The aromas are not particularly distinctive, the leaves smell sweet and mineral to me. One intriguing scent I noted is that of bubblegums.

Flavors: Bitter, Bubblegum, Butter, Floral, Honey, Mineral, Peanut, Salt, Seaweed, Spices, Sweet, Thyme, Umami, Vanilla, Wood

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 15 sec 8 g 5 OZ / 140 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Profile

Bio

Hi, I am a researcher in math, physics and computer science. Apart from teas and mathematics, I enjoy sports and traveling, as well as music of all kinds. Connect at https://rateyourmusic.com/~Togo

I had been drinking Japanese green tea for a while before discovering the world of tea in 2017. I rarely drink blends and generally avoid artificially scented teas. Other than that I try to keep it varied.

My rating description:
100 _ Unforgettable tea, an experience that changes your life.
90 – 100 _ Excellent tea.
80 – 90 _ Very enjoyable, I will buy again.
70 – 80 _ I enjoyed it, but I most likely won’t be buying it again.
60 – 70 _ Decent.
50 – 60 _ Average, forgettable.
40 – 50 _ I didn’t really like the tea, but it is drinkable.
0 – 40 _ I would prefer to avoid the tea.

Location

Innsbruck, Austria

Following These People

Moderator Tools

Mark as Spammer