Mark T. Wendell

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Recent Tasting Notes

70

A smokier version of Keemun tea. A good amount of smokiness to this one, but not nearly as much as a smoky lapsang might have. Not much in the way of the florals or fruitiness I usually enjoy from Keemun teas. Instead, we have very woody and leathery types of flavors. Maybe cedar? Resinous with a touch of bitterness. I’ll stick with the Chinese Keemun teas.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 0 sec 5 g 16 OZ / 473 ML

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75

Lighter Keemun black tea. The vendor describes this brew as having a “dark red color,” but I get more of a medium orange/amber color. Brewing western style, I’d say this one is good for no more than two steeps. Which works good for my purposes. If you want to add milk or sugar to your Keemun, this probably would not be your brew of choice. The dry leaves are not very uniform, with smaller and longer bits and a fair amount of stalky/twiggy-looking stuff included. I’d say this is probably the bare minimum level of quality needed to get a decent Keemun tea.

All that being said, it isn’t too bad. It delivers the signature Keemun flavor profile, with orchid florals, winey darker grape notes, amd some pleasant minerality. Nothing more, nothing less. No dark chocolate notes like you can get with some Keemuns.

Probably a good tea for blending. Could be useful to tone down a harsher black tea or contrast against a lighter darjeeling-style black tea.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 0 sec 5 g 16 OZ / 473 ML

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75

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59

TTB tea! The clove makes the tea seem a little bitter even though I don’t think it has actual bitterness to it. I found this one to be just okay. The flavoring was quite muddled so you couldn’t really tell what it was going for. Maybe a hint of orange? Really not great though.

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90

Purchased both this tea and “Flowery Jasmine Before the Rains” from Mark T Wendell. Both are wonderful teas. The Yin Hao has a mellower take on the jasmine scent I think, with a lovely base tea. The Flowery Jasmine has both the jasmine and the base tea on full blast. I think I prefer the Flowery Jasmine, so I rate this one a bit lower. I am sure there a many who could just as easily favor this one.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 2 min, 0 sec 5 g 16 OZ / 473 ML

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80

Great lower-priced oolong! Has a nice buttery caramel sweetness to it, with orchid notes. The roasted notes are not prominent at all and stay very smooth throughout. The tea is medium-bodied and has some mineral notes as well. Not my favorite, but nice to have it around once in a while.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 2 min, 30 sec 5 g 16 OZ / 473 ML
Keemunlover

Been drinking this tea a bit more frequently lately, and I would add that I’m noticing faint tropical fruit notes with an apricot-like sweetness. Sometimes I greatly enjoy this tea and other times not so much. It seems kind of finicky. Maybe more sensitive to slight differences in brewing technique or maybe it has to do with what I’ve been eating. I don’t know.

ashmanra

I don’t know if I have ever had a tea from Wendell. This one sounds like something we might enjoy so I might wishlist it.

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80

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80

Decent green tea with delicate spring-picked characteristics. But kind of the bare minimum for falling into the category of premium spring green teas. A little sweet, a little nutty, and the barest hint of some florals. Nothing about it really seems to stand out too much for me, and on top of that it feels a little stale; like it is losing its essence. Maybe this was an older lot? I don’t know. The vendor does not give dates of production. You can definitely find better teas at a lesser price.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 0 sec 5 g 16 OZ / 473 ML
Keemunlover

Does have a bit of a buttery quality to it, and lasts for two or three steeps western style.

Keemunlover

After drinking this one quite a few times, I’ve noticed it is far more drying than most of my other teas. Which is honestly a little annoying sometimes. On the plus side, though, on the back end of this drying effect I notice a pleasant bouquet of florals which can be quite strong. Finnicky, though. The florals really come out sometimes and other times not so much. I’ll bump my score up another 5 points for this uniqueness.

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85

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85

A really nice green tea. Maybe a little bit too nice to become a favorite of mine. It has a nectar-like sweetness, but doesn’t feel quite as thick as some other sweet green teas I have been impressed with. Light pleasant floral-fruity osmanthus notes and a whisper of nuttiness, but so far lacking in any interesting quirks or twists to win me over. I’ll keep trying with this one. I’ve often changed my mind on a tea after a few brews.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 0 sec 5 g 16 OZ / 473 ML
Keemunlover

Well, had a Chritsmas-time bout with Covid in our family, and now I no longer have a sense of smell. Greatly impact my ability to appreciate/taste tea. All my teas are more or less the same for the time being. Boo! Glad I did not yet place the big Yunnan Sourcing order I was planning on making! Might wait a little while on that one and hopefully my senses will return.

Keemunlover

Still drinking a lot of this tea, though, and I guess it does the trick under these circumstances.

ashmanra

I lost my sense of taste and smell last year around this time with Covid. I did my own version of olfactory retraining, just getting out some essential oils like lavender, peppermint, and orange that have very different scents, sniffing them deeply, and imagining the scent as I remembered it. My daughter and I both did this and both recovered our senses of taste and smell quickly. Ashman did not and took longer, but he also had a much worse case that we did.

ashmanra

I hope you can fully enjoy your teas and food very soon!

Keemunlover

Thanks, Ashmanra! I’ve been sticking my nose in the various spice jars here at home and also taking sniffs of my jasmine tea to try and retrain my nose. I do seem to get faint whiffs of things, so hopefully it won’t be long in coming back.

Keemunlover

Been drinking a lot of this one lately while I wait for my Yunnan Sourcing order to arrive, and it is growing on me. I’m noticing that this tea reminds me of persimmon! Bumping up my rating a little bit.

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90

I like this! It is nice and relatively sweet with some Yunnan “funk.” Notes of what I might consider a typical delicate spring green tea are there, with the addition of some hay-like grassy notes which tend towards richer grain/bread tones. I suppose these same characteristics might have been described by the vendor as “beany,” and I could see that. I am not at all sure if this was a spring-picked tea, though. 2nd steep is okay, but clearly dropping off. I am not noticing any floral elements yet, but will continue to experiment with this one.

Preparation
165 °F / 73 °C 2 min, 0 sec 5 g 16 OZ / 473 ML
Keemunlover

I’ve noticed that 175 degrees is probably a bit too hot for this tea, so I’d recommend brewing in the 160 – 170 range for best results.

Keemunlover

Bumped up my rating on this one from an 85 to a 90. I’ve really come to enjoy this one even more after a few sessions with it. Just make sure not to brew too hot or for too long. Second and even third steeps are enjoyable. Brew around 165 – 170 for 2 minutes on first steep. Nice that Mark T Wendell offers this tea, as not too many US vendors seem to offer Yunnan green tea.

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90

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85

This tea makes a pretty good cup. Strong orchid aroma typical of many oolongs, but over a very light almost green tea base with some nuttiness. No mistaking that we are in oolong territory, though, as there is the minerality characteristic of oolong tea. Kind of a creaminess/slight sweetness present, and I get something reminiscent of tapioca pudding in the brew. Leaves a leafy, herbal, aftertaste, kind of like parsley.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 2 min, 0 sec 5 g 16 OZ / 473 ML

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90

This is a really nice basic roasted oolong. Great value for the price, and I could see this being a staple tea. Roasted flavor up front, but not offensive. Caramelized sweetness, orchid florals, and a touch of oak round out a tea which has perhaps a black plum fruitiness at its core. A great combination!

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 2 min, 0 sec 5 g 16 OZ / 473 ML

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78
drank Decaf. Earl Grey by Mark T. Wendell
2171 tasting notes

This would definitely benefit from an extra teaspoon of tea. It’s weaker than I would like. I know it’s delicious though because when I steeped it stronger for my smoothie it was perfect with some milk and honey added. I think that might be the key here.

Flavors: Bergamot

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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78
drank Decaf. Earl Grey by Mark T. Wendell
2171 tasting notes

Mastress Alita’s Monthly Sipdown Challenge
June 2022 → A tea smoothie

I’ve been excited to try this decaf Earl Grey, so I found a recipe using EG in a smoothie for today’s sipdown prompt.

https://www.rhubarbarians.com/earl-grey-tea-blackberry-smoothie/

Of course I had to try it before mixing it into the smoothie and it’s just really good. I don’t think I would have been able to tell it’s decaf honestly. It holds up really well to milk and honey, both of which I added before mixing with the blackberries, which doesn’t seem to be the case for other decaf black teas. Of course, to be fair, this was steeped up really strong for the recipe. The smoothie itself was alright, not anything incredibly special, but I do really like this EG.

Flavors: Bergamot

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 4 OZ / 118 ML

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73
drank Pomegranate Green by Mark T. Wendell
125 tasting notes

Looks like a light green tea, smells fruity of pomegranate. Smooth, good for a change, though in general I prefer black teas and find green teas sort of weak.

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML

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70
drank Raspberry Black by Mark T. Wendell
125 tasting notes

cut leaf black, fairly smooth. Raspberry always seems to sound better than it delivers. It foes have raspberry overtones, but it’s nothing like a fresh red raspberry, unfortunately. Not bad for a flavorful change, but not a daily tea either (at least for me). Again, I steep light and no cream or sugar.

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 1 min, 45 sec 1 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML

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77

Light, Fruity, Definitely Tropical.
A nice tea when you want something that is only minimally tea-tasting. Sometimes you just ant something different.

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 2 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML

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73
drank Hu-Kwa by Mark T. Wendell
125 tasting notes

I thought this was a Lapsang “blend”, but after having a few cups, it’s really “just” lapsang souchong. It’s a good one, I still think Upton’s Lapsang is slightly better.

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 2 min, 15 sec 1 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML

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75
drank China Jasmine by Mark T. Wendell
125 tasting notes

fairly light, very flavorful; reminds me of Harney & Sons “Paris” in its floral notes.
Very light colored steep, no real bitterness. Nice variety.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 30 sec 1 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML

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75

Smooth, very much the same sense of oolong as from the twinings I just drank, but smoother and more flavorful. A nice change of pace, a very nice oolong.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 15 sec 1 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML

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75
drank organic ceylon by Mark T. Wendell
125 tasting notes

No notes yet. Add one?

Preparation
2 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML

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87

Excellent, light, golden tea. Smooth flavor, only challenge since it’s a full-leaf tea is in getting it into the tea ball!

Preparation
3 min, 45 sec 1 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML

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