TheTea

This was a gift from my dear derk.

I love oolongs but I have had some disappointments choosing them myself, especially with some TGY that gave me high hopes, and then were just…okay. But every now and then I have a tea that makes me wonder why I ever drink anything but oolongs. This is one of those.

This is a bug-bitten oolong, and as smooth as the day is long in midsummer. A swirl of layered aromas arrested my attention when I poured this up. Baby powder! One of my favorite tea scents – prominent in my fave Wen Shan Bao Zhong and a few other teas, and I suppose it is more accurate to call it magnolia and light jasmine. That was the first scent that rose up and I was able to tease out and identify. A little mineral, and just brisk enough to have with food where the briskness is undetectable but simply clears the palate for the tea, but after snacking is done, there it is, the tingle on the tongue. Not astringent, not sour or bitter. Perhaps this is the grapefruit and pomelo the seller mentions, but it isn’t as bitter as some grapefruit can be and I have never had a pomelo.

There are some floral notes that I would liken to incense, and I was unsure if it was the tea or was indeed my incense or oils, because I was cleaning today and have had lavender, sandalwood, and jasmine scents out and about. The scents in the tea are more of the bitter-floral that I love, such as you find in neroli, but far, far more gentle and subtle.

This is brilliant, and if I wasn’t full to busting I would have more right now, but since I can’t, I am saving these leaves on a plate to dry and enjoy again tomorrow.

Here’s a complex Dan Cong with a superb cha qi, it is heady and quite meditative. Apart from that, I also love its bitterness leyers and the funky mouthfeel.

At first, it smells of baked fruit, but after the rinse I find many other notes. It is a sweet, spicy aroma with hints of flowers, mochi, brick houses, incense and kohlrabi.

The first infusion is somewhat simple and particularly comforting. It has a strong mineral presence, a soft mouthfeel and an ever-changing aftertaste. Second steep further underscores the mineral and comforting character. It is more sweet and sour, with notes of rosemary, caramel, and rose water. The aftertaste is very cooling and floral with a hint of licorice.

Third steep is more pungent. It brings a numbing spicy mouthfeel reminiscent of sichuan pepper, as well as flavours of fish broth and tree bark. Next I find also an earthiness and especially bitterness of beetroots, but also sweeter notes of persimmon and sugar beet.

Towards the end of the session, the bitter-sweet character becomes more dominant. There are notes of baked apples, oats, and lilac among many others.

2021 harvest

A very approachable red tea with complex aroma and taste. Needs a longer first steep to awaken the leaf when made in a small teapot. Also good steeped western. Rich osmanthus in the nose; luscious tropical fruit flavors mixed with cacao-cocoa, malt and cedar; tenacious aftertaste. Energy flows throughout the body and pushes outward.

This tea has many similarities to my favorite Yunnan wild red tea https://steepster.com/teas/the-essence-of-tea/100896-2022-spring-da-xue-shan-wild-red-tea but it’s not as potent or pungent and is maybe a little flatter in taste. It does have that sweet and comforting cocoa and sweet potato presence of Fengqing red teas, though. Woodier than the Da Xue Shan.

2021 harvest

A Ruby 18 with heft. The mouthfeel of this tea sets it apart from other Ruby 18s I’ve had. Thick and fluffy with a big character of dark, varnished wood and some savory malted barley. Restrained tones complement the bold, woody flavor; black cherry rounds out the bottom and Ruby 18 wintergreen mintiness comes through in the top. Mild honeyed malt aftertaste. Tannins are prominent after swallowing, leaving the mouth very dry, but with that sensation comes a penetrating calm felt deep within my body that causes my eyelids to droop in warm intoxication.

This tea is quite the contrast to the cheekier and fruitier character of other Ruby 18 reds out there. Those are easier for me to appreciate with lighter body and bolder cherry and wintergreen character. But this is pleasant in its own way. The tea has power over me, rather than me having power over the tea. It feels nice to drink on a wet December morning, squishing around the backyard while taking care of my tea plants.

Above was gongfu preparation, with multiple short steeps (15 to 25 seconds) to mitigate the tannins. Would recommend this way over western.

If I make a purchase from a vendor that carries a Mi Xiang black tea, chances are good it’ll end up in my cart. It was an extra draw that this one is from Shan Lin Xi. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of honey, raisins, dates, pastry, malt, and wood. The first steep has notes of honey, raisins, dates, plums, pine, pastry, malt, and wood. As expected, the honey is the dominant presence, especially in the aftertaste. The next steep leans more toward plum and nectarine, and is quite sweet with a bit of a drying finish. Steeps three and four have hints of cinnamon, though that might be the honey, fruit, and pastry notes playing tricks on me. Steeps five and six introduce grass, cream, florals (orchid?), and more of that piny/sappy quality typical of SLX and bug-bitten teas. In the next two steeps, the fruit starts to fade and the malt, wood, and grass get stronger. There’s a touch of astringency in the finish, though this is still a very soft tea overall. The final steeps lean into tannins, raisins, malt, grass, and wood.

This is a nice Mi Xiang that is quite similar to others of its kind. I liked the stonefruit, though it could have lasted longer. The pine and florality indeed remind me of Shan Lin Xi. I would definitely consider buying more of this tea, though I’d be equally happy with the ones from Camellia Sinensis or Cha Yi, which are easier to find and possibly cheaper.

This is a really nice tea, although not very complex. The aroma is sweet and floral with notes of custard, honeysuckle, and, above all, fern and fiddleheads.

The taste is crisp and green, but at the same time sweet and warming, which is not the most common combination. It is a touch grassy, but not too much.

I really like this black tea, its complexity adds a nice layer to the woody menthol profile that I look for when reaching for a Ruby 18 tea.

The dry leaf aroma is minty and meaty at first, then in a preheated gaiwan I get various notes such as white asparagus, cannabis, and gasoline. Surprisingly, the smell is also a little grassy and floral. Once the leaves are wet, their aroma reminds me of eucalyptus, wild honey, durian, and cookies.

The taste is mineral and sweet, and mentholy. There are notes of cinnamon, tree bark, nectarine. When brewed stronger, it can get astringent and woody. The latter half of the session is marked also by increased bitterness and a spicy finish. The aftertaste is a bit numbing and definitely long-lasting. It is somewhat sour relative to the tea taste and has a whiskey undertone to it.

One of the more interesting TheTea’s 2021 sheng selection. This tea shines in its complex residual fragrance, whether it is in the cup or in the long aftertaste. Additionally, I also like its airy, albeit somewhat unfocussed energy. As it is not very rushy for a fresh sheng, it can work well for meditations.

The aroma in the pot is really good too – sweet and forest like with a touch of gasoline. In the empty cup, it is sweet, nutty and flowery. There, I could further detect notes of pear pastries as well as sunflower and fenugreek seeds.

The taste is pungent, quite vegetal and bitter, with really nice huigan. While earlier steeps have more grainy flavour, later ones are sweeter with notes of yeast and sunflowers. The liquor has a coating and somewhat watery texture, and a mineral, cooling feel to it.

This is an overall very strong tea, not necessarily one to serve to strangers. It has a complex aroma, bitter flavour profile with a fragrant aftertaste and a punching, heady cha qi. I would recommend quite short infusions generally, the tea can then also last for a pretty long time.

The aromas remind me of blackberry, winter honey, pine sap, and sawdust. It is a meaty and sweet, foresty scent. Wet leaf bouquet is more like beeswax and cocoa.

The taste is bitter and woody with a good astringency. There are flavours of honey, curry leaves, baked aubergine to be found, while the aftertaste is quite folwery. Texture-wise, I find the tea soft and colloidal with a coating finish. Also, the piercing bitterness can be felt almost as much as a mouthfeel than as a taste.

Having some western cups before heading out for the evening. Really nice mix of sandalwood, nuttiness, passionfruit, pomelo, honey and plumeria. Second steep expresses a lot of pear rather than passionfruit. Best Gui Fei style oolong I’ve had and it comes from my favorite high mountain, Shan Lin Xi. The Gui Fei oolong I’ve had before have been too much for me, whether it be nutty-roasty, honeysweet, citrusy or tannic. This one is simply delicious. It is very fragrant and has a lingering aftertaste.

Perfect for late summer late afternoon.

This Liu Bao has a great taste and clean liquor, but it is lacking in terms of texture I’d say.

The aroma is elegant, earthy, and nutty, slightly marine with hints of bog vegetation. The tea tastes savoury and earthy at first with a strong medicinal presence and flavours of tamarind and fish skin. The aftertaste starts off cleansing, cooling, and bitter like anise. Additional notes include soy sauce, nuts, molasses. Soon it transforms into a sweet finish that lasts for quite a long time.

This tea smells somewhat like a dark roast, I expect it will benefit from further resting. The aromas are surely coming through though – with notes of rhubarb pie, blackberries and other forest fruits, cherry wood, and muscovado sugar.

The taste is sweet and woody with a distinct black currant flavour, and followed by a savoury and lightly sour aftertaste that also bring a bitterness akin to burnt bread crust. There is also a pleasant slick mouthfeel present throughout the whole session.

3 years is no time at all to a tea well made and well stored. I had a modest-sized 2019 harvest from Leafhopper that I decided to split between 2 western brews instead of one gongfu session.

I don’t know anything about this leaf since the The Tea doesn’t have a description on their site for it right now. But I am convinced my sample of the 2019 harvest was of the TTES #8 cultivar and not a ‘wild’ tea because both western sessions I had of this tea screamed at me: https://steepster.com/derk/posts/398397 In my sense-memory, an undeniable deadringer. Same year and everything. Leafhopper, I see you’ve had What-Cha’s tea, too. How do the two compare for you?

Anyway, awesome tea! Not often I’m blown away by western preparations of tea, nonetheless those distractedly brewed at work and with water cooler hot water. I have mad respect for this leaf. It has everything I want from a high-powered black tea while managing to be wonderfully refined in taste and possessing great structure. Malty and savory in a way that doesn’t bog me down thanks to the bright citrus and fruity berry tones combined with the full, smooth body, cooling finish and both light astringency and sweetness (that was a mouthful) —

Hot damn! This tea sings.

I sometimes find Yi Wu sheng to lack a bit of depth, or bitterness; but this one has both. The taste profile is indeed quite floral and mineral with an elegant bitterness and spiciness, as one would hope for. There are also some sour notes, and a sweet grassy aftertaste that reminds me of sencha a bit. While the flavours are common for a tea from this area, there isn’t nearly as much of the honey sweetness that one may be expecting. I don’t really mind that. The main hesitation I have about it has to do with the mouthfeel that is not the smoothest or the thickest. I really like the cooling and cleansing sensation after drinking though.

This sheng is somewhat average in many respects. The one thing I will remember about it is its pungency and bitterness with a cooling floral fragrance in the finish and aftertaste. I suppose it may be a decent option for long-term aging.

The mouthfeel of the medium bodied liquor is airy and creamy. Besides being quite bitter, the tea also has a persistent underlying sweetness that gets intensified as the huigan steps in. The taste is quite mineral and grassy with some grainy notes early on and a bready flavour in the second half of the session.

Thank you for this one Leafhopper!

Session parameters: 15 sec rinse with 3 oz, 5 oz here on out or less, then 20 sec, 10, 25, 35, 45, and then I went into more western parameters in the minutes. Brews were super forgiving, and pushing the tea got more rounded flavor.

It’s pretty unique, and there were more Tie Guan Yin characteristics in it. Tasting it blind, earlier steeps were nutty, but very heavy in orchid and woody florals. Early steeps were extremely light leaning in a floral watercress profile with not bitterness, only slight lettucy profiles and maybe cucumber. There is also something subdued about it that almost makes me think mineral, as in mineral water that’s light. Sometimes, there is a little bit of pithiness. Otherwise, I couldn’t quite pin down the sweeter note. It leaned towards water chestnut personally on the surface, maybe grapefruit or apricot territory if I’d describe any fruit. Watercress and orchid for sure in the early steeps, more pronounced oolong floral soup in the later ones with a hint of fruitiness, definitely fresh lettuce or spinach and growing green bitterness sneaking in. Not prominent, however.

Reading the other notes from leafhopper and TheTea, I can kinda see some of the other qualities like the almond and blood orange, but it’s too vaguely citrusy rather than a full citrus fro me.

Either way, I liked this tea a lot because it was unique and a greener one. Apart of me wonders if there was a light roast to preserve it in some way. I liked what it could do anyway.

This is a complex and smooth tea that reminds me of aged, lightly oxidized white tea at times. I also like its pleasantly enveloping qi.

In the aroma I detect prunes and cherry wood, while wet leaves give off notes of port wine, fern, honey, and gardenia flowers.

The liquor has a superb oily mouthfeel and introduces a funny constrictive feeling in the back of the mouth. Its taste includes many flavours such as juniper, blue grapes, dandelion flower, burdock, prunes, fallen leaves, and acorn. The aftertaste is long, sticky and sweet with good minerality and herbaceous character.

Roasted Version, same year:
I’m feeling lame-I do not feel like importing another tea right now, because I know I will for a bunch of other teas soon, so I’m reviewing here.

I tried the roasted version of this tea a few nights ago and loved it. It was oddly smoother than the unroasted one, and heavy on the grapefruit and mineral. I’d even write honey, passionfruit, floral, rose, salt, mineral, rock sugar, and rocks.

The roast didn’t show up until I rebrewed it the third and fourth times, and complimented the fruity notes perfectly. Later notes were a little bit more pithy too, but it lacked some of the astringency of the unroasted version. It eventually got more thin and roasty too with more pith.

Another Leafhopper tea, used for the heat of the summer solstice this morning. Following a sweet theme of tea today, this one distinctly reminded me of peach or lychee soft candies or maltose. They’re almost like gummies, but covered in powdered sugar. I am getting that heavily here after each 5 sec flash steep of the sample in my Manual Gaiwan, roughly 4 oz at the beginning and 5 later on. It’s a little grassy and has a lot of similarities to an Bai Hao, but so much smoother. There’s barely a hint of autumn leaves, and instead, there was a slight hint of the grassiness that disappears after the second steep, and only reappears after steep 7, where I stopped.

I was very happy with this one, even if it felt short lived by short steeps. Loved the flavor punch and insanely 3d, juicy texture.

Thanks Leafhopper. Now that I have a short break between summer school and now, I’m plowing through my teas. The samples from the swap make it easier to mentally organize what to go through. I still need to try derk’s mystery tea too.

This one was good and similar to the later season I have. It’s in a Dong Ding style, and it was the best after steep two. Buttery, nutty, vegetal with a little bit of the “violet roast” note that I’ve gotten from this processing before in steep four. First steep is orchid, nutty, a little bit salty, a little bit sweet under a forward charcaol foreground. Later steeps are more floral and vegetal and a hovering oatmeal cookie note. I used shorter steeps under 20, and minute steeps for later steep six at about 4 minutes.

I enjoyed this one, and I think it did well for being a little bit older.

What a beautiful tea. It has a bright and pungent profile, a mix of floral and fruity notes with decent bitterness. I also really like its light and airy mouthfeel with a distinct presence and the grounding qi.

Aromas are pleasant and mostly range from apricots to stewed green vegetables. In the empty cup, I can also smell flowers and bubblegum.

Flavours then include apple leaves and juice, parsley, fresh grain/oats, and lemon ester. The aftertaste is expansive with a sweet and sour character. It presents more of a bright fruity sweetness rather than honey-like as is common for sheng.

Very elegant and comfortable tea with no rough edges to it. However, it is also lacking a bit of “spacial sauce” to be truly spectacular imo.

Leaves have a floral aroma mixed with notes of cookies and caramel, which transforms into a more herbaceous, earthy and fruity one during the session. It reminds me of root vegetables such as celery and of pear.

The taste is woody and mineral with a significant floral sweetness. There are notes of wet rocks, slightly unripe pears, bread, as we as a fenugreek-like bitterness. The mouthfeel is cooling and numbing, while the aftertaste mostly floral and also a little drying.

I’ve tried this twice, and I hesitated on whether to get more than 30 grams because it’s up my alley, or staving off because shipping prices and my need to go through my oolongs…which I inevitably will. Quickly. No doubt. Don’t speak.

I know what you’re thinking, and I don’t need no reasons, don’t tell me ‘cause oolong. Anyway, my memories, well this tea is inviting, though price is altogether mighty frightening. As I sip, the tea is pretty close to TheTea’s description:
" Fruity and milky, made from Jin Xuan bush with zero astringency typical for many high mountain oolongs.

Here you will find: grassy freshness, almonds, strawberries, yogurt, cream and notes of white flowers (lilly of the valley, lilly). And something fresh and vivid you can literally name: mountain breeze."

It’s got the trademark milky smoothness of a jin xuan, and it’s very fresh like a Maofeng or Baicha, maybe even a Cuifeng, but of course, smooth as only an oolong can be. The florals weren’t surprising, but the fruitiness was. Aroma has a stronger sweetness than the actual tea, but the tea has a weird creamy strawberry yogurt aftertaste that’s refreshing. I get it both gong fu and western, though I still think I need to crack the tea.

The lily of the valley, cream, and grass are the most prominent, yet the strawberry brushes the aftertaste. Aroma is more pronounced gong fu, but flavor has been more rounded western in longer steeps. Despite all of that, the tea has been pretty forgiving of my mistakes.

I’ve done this too many times, but I’m going to come back to it even though I’ve shoved enough purple prose into the review. I’m sold on it being a tea I like and something for people looking for a cleaner quality Jin Xuan or greener style tea. It’s more grassy than spinachy having more freshness than most of the straight Jin Xuans I’ve had, and I like it actually has more forward fruitiness instead of “hints” of fruit. I was exaggerating a little on price because it’s not the most expensive tea they have by any means, but it’s a step up from the usual price of a Jin Xuan deserving of more discriminating buyers.

I’m procrastinating new teas for one’s I’ve neglected. This one has faded a little, but not much. The few times I’ve had it gong fu were good, and it’s solid western, though a hare too strong depending on how much tea I have. Pineapple malt and a whiff of smoke can describe the overall flavor again, although it’s not a smoked itself. They are just in hints.

I am not sure why I haven’t finished this one. I keep putting it off even though it’s one of my better quality teas with fruity qualities. I think it might be the caffeine content since this one gives me headaches. I don’t know if it’s tea drunkenness of what. Again, it’s ironic because this has a profile I love in my black teas. My drawer’s nearly refilled again, and I’ve mostly drank my blended blacks and Laoshans instead of my pure blacks. I’ve had a few new really good ones, but not a lot of one’s I’ve repeated. I’d rate this one in the 90s, but my mood has it in the 80s. Then again, I have a few green oolongs that haven’t been satisfying me either. Don’t know what my deal is.