Tea Dealers

It is important in our journey in discovering flavors to try whatever we can (within reason) to expand our palate.

Dry Aroma: Wall paper paste. Dry wall paste? Slightly fruity and woody.
Wet Aroma: Oh man. It is changing all over the place! First stewed veggies, then barley, now a chlorinated pool. I used to be a swim instructor so I kind of like that smell…
Steeping Aroma: Stewed veggies.
Flavor: It… hmm… Kind of like a very clean wheat wheat bread. Like an uncooked hojicha.
Smooth mouthfeel.

This past weekend, we went to New York. Straight into the madness. My cousin got married last year and decided to hold a reception this year. Before the festivities began on the first day, I took my husband on a journey around Manhattan to find tea stores. This was the last of four shops. The quietest. Unlike the other shops, there was no one inside but us. They only sold tea and teaware, no drinks or food. While I found the tea to be expensive, I realized that that is the price of being a tenant in NY. The shop is a sterile white, with most of the tea being sold on one wall and the rest being devoted to teaware. Tea Dealers was one of the companies I interviewed, and you can read that here: https://teatiff.com/2024/05/24/tea-dealers/

Dry Leaf Appearance: Dark chocolate. Dusty. Tightly twisted. Medium-sized leaf.
Aroma: Also dark chocolate. A bit of dried prune and fig.
Flavor: Earthy with notes of dry woods. Roasted (and slightly candied nuts). Dark Chocolate.
Wet leaf: This is very unique. It doesn’t smell like other black teas. It has a squash, like pureed squash note (maybe more to baby food squash note and not soup).

Gongfu!

About a week ago I spent an evening hanging out with Marika and those we mostly just ate pizza and other junk-y fast foods and shot the shit we did, of course, have to make time for a little bit of tea.

This was something from her collection that another tea friend had recently shared with her, and it was a very good Bao Zhong. The dry leaf aroma smelled incredibly of fresh lilacs, and the taste was even better. Smooth and light to medium bodied with so much fragrant floral notes overtop a clean, crisp grassy green base. Very round and coating on the palate with a lingering aftertaste that doubled down on the lilac while introducing an elderflower-like element too.

How is this a green tea? Amazing. Roasted cocoa with some almost grain-like notes. This was a gift from 29b Teahouse for a tea-tasting event they had several years ago. Upon opening the bag, I saw that these were actual sachets rather than loose tea, but that’s OK. I’m spending these autumn mornings plopping a sachet in my tea bowl and surveying the beautiful foliage while I sip. It’s delicious! They say you can get 4-5 steeps out of it, but after 3 my tastebuds are done. So good!

It’s difficult to categorize this tea in any category but by its level of oxidation, the tea definitely resembles a black tea. The astringency like with black teas is not even apparent in this tea which is what I love about it. It’s smooth, it covers the tongue, and has an interesting deep finish in the back of the throat. It’s also a tea from Korea which is what even surprised me more. I was told at a tea meet up that this was Korea’s attempt at creating pu’er but alas the failure became a beautiful accident.