West China Tea Company

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Recent Tasting Notes

Backlog March 26, 2025

Aroma: Dark chocolate, sweet potato, nutty (pecans? walnuts?), & hops.

Texture: Oily at first but thinned out after the third infusion.

Tasting Notes: This is an example of a perfect red tea for the tea beginner. There’s plenty of complexity to test the palate for the long-time and newer tea heads! It’s smooth, never bitter, and seems to have the ability to take higher water temps. I added, “notes of sweet potato casserole without marshmallows, but add some pecans soaked in pine needle sauce (lol).”

Flavors: Pecan, Pine, Sweet Potatoes

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75

Aroma: IPA, citrus, hops, & nutty

Color: Lightly orange

Tasting Notes: There was a hint of roasted notes toward the start of the session, which died down after the second or third infusion. The lingering aftertaste stole the show with notes of cooked peaches and Juicy Fruit gum. This is one of those teas that West China Tea offers that knock it out of the park.

Flavors: Fruity, Peach

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68

After starting the tea with my usual quick rinse, I knew that this one needed a long steep (10-minutes long). Bam! Flavors were bursting to life on the palate – there were notes of plums, citrus, sour lemon peel, roasted apple, & a sweetened delight.

Flavors: Apple, Citrus, Fruity, Lemon, Sweet

gmathis

That sounds like one cup full of happy.

MadHatterTeaReview

It was a good session, but unfortunately, had enough to try it the one time. :)

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55

I finally started working through my backlogged teas from West China Tea’s subscription. This tea session was a subpar experience. I noted recently that West China Tea is a solid company for anyone getting into gongfu’ing tea (yes, they have some teas that rock my world, too). They have palate friendly teas and can help bring the experience to the table!

Aroma: Dian Hong smell (malty, but lacking the sweetness) & unsweetened cocoa

Color: Red

Tasting Notes: Malty, astringent, & a little bitterness. The session lasted 5-6 infusions and was over. I enjoyed steeps 3-4 the most. 1-2 was allowing the tea to open; 5-6 were slightly less flavorful.

Flavors: Malt

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50

I nearly lost my mind checking the price of this herbal tea ($85 USD for 100g). Yikes! It was overall a light flavor profile. I had enough material from the subscription to brew this twice. Once, I gongfu’d the leaf, and it was a muted tea experience. There was very little flavor. Second, I let the tea sit in boiling water + refrigerated 24-hours. The notes below are from the later of the two sessions.

Aroma: Yeast, bread dough (raw, unbaked), & pine.

Texture: Thick

Tasting Notes: Not very strong, but there are hints of pine nuts, white bread, oats, & flour.

Flavors: Bread Dough, Oats, Pine

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68

Aroma: Floral, honey-esq, & black pepper

Texture: Oily

Color: Borderline clear with a yellowish tint.

Tasting Notes: Sweetens with each infusion; pineapple & refreshing.

Additional Notes: Sadly, this tea only made it to 5 infusions before the flavor completely vanished.

Flavors: Honey, Pineapple, Sweet

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31

Tasted a bit too much like a chlorinated pool for me. Other notes include autumn leaves, at least a fall mood like maple and brown leaves.

Flavors: Autumn Leaf Pile, Black Pepper, Chemical, Maple Syrup

Preparation
Boiling 1 min, 30 sec 7 g 7 OZ / 200 ML

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87

White teas are typically not my favorite. However, this one has a pleasant mouthfeel and does not become astringent if you follow the steeping instructions closely and do very short steeps. I first had this in-person at their teahouse before buying 50g later during one of their sales. Smooth, even buttery, and fairly floral/sweet… like a berry. The wet leaves smell strongly like a jam! Note that steep time says 15s but I did about 6s.

Flavors: Berries, Buttery, Floral, Jam

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 7 g 7 OZ / 220 ML

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89

This tea coats your entire mouth and teeth with its acidic and piercing citrus flavor. Oily texture and truly unique. Do long steeps for a full experience.

Flavors: Acidic, Citrus

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 8 min or more 7 g 5 OZ / 147 ML

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79

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79

Sweet, fragrant taste similar to raisins or figs. Does not grow bitter easily.

Flavors: Fig, Raisins, Sweet

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 7 g 5 OZ / 150 ML

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50

I had this during work last Friday, so I made minimal notes during the session.

“Has a lightly aged, earthy, and mineral flavor. The cup isn’t producing much flavor/texture, and the tea completely faded after the 6th infusion. Not very strong and didn’t last long.”

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45

Backlog

The tea took a while to open up and produce any flavor (3 infusions). Around the 4th and 5th steeps, the tea began to gain texture/flavor—very lightly—yet there was more than prior infusions. I noted that this tea might have been a better loose leaf tea, for the flavor jumps through between 6 & 7, but is completely gone after the 8th infusion. I longed steeped the 9th with near-boiling water, but the flavor was no more.

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Backlog

1st and 2nd Infusion (20 sec.): Light flavor & heavy texture.
3rd and 4th Infusion (45 sec.): Florals, mildly sweet, & lighter texture.
5th and 6th Infusion (1 min.): Mouth puckering, floral, & incense
7th and 8th Infusion (2 min): Astringent, green peppers, bitter florals, & malty.

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Backlog

Gongfu’d

Dry Leaf: Trichomes flung out of the bag into my face. If you’re prone to sneeze, this is the tea for you! While I was able to get close to the tea leaves, despite the dust, they had a delightful vegetal aroma (garden greens/soil).

1st Steep: Broccoli, buttery, & viscous mouthfeel.

2nd Steep: Bitter, collard greens, Brussel sprouts, & butter mixed vegetables.

3rd steep: The same as the second infusion, but a little more bitterness.

4th steep: Progressively more bitter.

The notes end there, but I added, “Stopped at the 8th steep. Not much change to the leaf, with the exception of losing most of the bitterness at the 7th infusion, and all flavor at 8th infusion.”

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55

This was amongst another club month (August?). I’ve had a few puerh stuffed oranges before, which had been extremely flavorful and intense. Unfortunately, this tea wasn’t as intense as I was hoping it to be. The orange peel was quite nice, but the tea flavor was subtle and lacking. I broke the material up after 4 infusions, but I wasn’t able to draw much flavor from the tea/orange peel after 6 infusions.

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68

We are having some work done today on our ceiling (in short, I set my foot through it last month), so my typical spot for tea is occupied. I’ve been spending my morning in the “Retro Room” in the basement, watching VHS, reading, and playing through Lagoon on the SNES. I’ve decided to take pause and catch up on my tea sip downs, reviews, and catch up reading everyone’s recent logs. :)

This is the current tea I’m topping off from one of the club months. While my feelings on these clubs seem to be that the teas are random and lack any direction as to why they were selected, there are some bits of tea that fall into the mix that are a pleasant experience. This isn’t the absolute best sheng I’ve experienced, however, there are subtle notes of vanilla, sticky rice/rice cakes, and coconut.

Mastress Alita

Ha, I also have a room in my house that I call the “Retro Room” (spare bedroom in a condo where I live alone, so it has an old CRT TV hooked up to a VCR and SNES, a bookcase of all my geeky anime/manga stuff, and a giant net of anime/video game plushies on the wall).

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55

Dry Leaf: Pepper, bay leaf, tomato.
Wet Leaf: Melon, spice cabinet (mixed spices such as Italian seasoning).

Notes: The tea start with a slight bitter and astringency in the cup. Eventually, the tea was opening a bit more, allowing the tea to offer a subtle sweetness to the session, and forming a perfume floral note in the aftertaste. Toward the 5th infusion, the bitterness returned to the cup and remained until steep # 7, where the session had concluded. Unfortunately, not the best white tea.

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70

Sip down

This was one of those teas that stumped me because it was different to other white teas I’ve
tried. It had a peppery/spice rack aroma to the leaf, and peppery note to the flavor. It lasted 7 infusions with each session. Quite pleasant and unique!

Flavors: Pepper, Spices

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Backlog

Sweet caramel, graham cracker-esq, and thick mouthfeel.

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70

Sip down
I topped this off yesterday before heading to the Canton, Ohio “Italian Festival” for much of the afternoon/early evening. TGY was the first tea that brought me out of my soda daze. I realized that tea could taste of something more than the occasional bland Lipton or overly sweetened Arizona’s Arnold Palmer (which I admit, there are cravings for it once or twice each year).

This session was packed with florals and soothing, gentle tasting notes that I didn’t get too deep into. I wanted a moment to drink tea while I spent time reading Rumi’s Essential Poetry and journaling. I noted that it was a “refreshingly sweet and floral” tea, perfect for the warm day ahead. If I had more, I’d probably make it iced for future sessions. This is the perfect tea to cold brew or grandpa style in a thermos. It was refreshing and still reminds me that tea can be far better than non-tea drinkers give credit to the beverage.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C9DbIxRuHeG/?img_index=1

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Backlog: 14 May 2024

This was from either March’s or April’s monthly tea club. I didn’t make many notes on the packet nor audio recorded the session. This may have been an impromptu session before heading into the office, so it’s likely I never really put much thought into it. I get into the zone on office days.

I only noted the following: Bitter florals and cotton mouthfeel.

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