What-Cha

Another from my what-cha order! Trying to balance between the 1023012938109382 samples i ordered from them and the swaps that i’ve recently picked up, in an effort to drink up SOME things before my other teas arrive. I added all the teas from missB in to my cupboard and was at 151 – so effectively double what it was at the end of december lol

This is a tasty offering from What-cha. It’s malty, sweet and delicious! Even cold it still offers up a really nice brew! I’m a fan and would consider reordering in the future.

mmm this was another from yesterday – the overnight caught up with me and i ended up passing out before i got around to finishing my tea posting haha. I don’t recall much about this besides the fact that it was sweet and reminded me of a darjeeling. I’ll do better next time i have it :)

Much good. Wow cocoa.

A big mug of this tonight. Apparently December is going to be use all the teaware month. :)

https://www.harney.com/iittala-tanssi-mug.html

Wow. What I get from this is a whole heaping mouthful of cocoa and some fruit. Mainly cocoa though. Like Sil noted, maybe something that might read as smoke hovering around. I like these a lot.

Used 2 pearls in a 6 oz pot. Let steep as I sipped. I think 3-4 minutes was the range where the pearls were fully opened and I started to get more than a lightly flavored hot water. :) Went up through about 7 minutes and while it cooled off, it didn’t turn bitter.

not crazy about this one…but then i didn’t expect to be. there’s a slight bitterness to this cup and floral notes in the background. this is more fruity than muscat tasting… it’s sort of like apricot? i guess? sort of that vague fruity note that i get sometimes…never comes across as a specific for me. overall…“meh”

This one is a little creamy..sort of a unique taste in my opinion as i’m not sure i’ve had any yunnan dian hong that have had this sort of a profile to them. very smooth brew…a little malty but not too much….some hints of a sweetness in the background…but mostly a sort of creamy taste… interesting!

this is the sort of keemun i don’t love. This is a fruity, plum sort of keemun. For me, this results in a weird after taste drinking this. I’m glad i compared it against what-cha’s other offering since if this one was the one i’d tried, i don’t know that i’d have ever risked the other one. If you like fruity sorts of teas…this would be a keemun for you. It’s just not for me!

Another sample from my what-cha order. This keemun says “caramel aroma and taste” I’m not sure i’m getting that unless i think really hard about it. Most people would probably find this one to be on the smokey side, though not extremely so. This is the sort of keemun that i add maple syrup to! However, this has a nice smooth body to it, and i’m enjoying it today. I’d be curious to compare this one to teavivre’s offering but sadly my cupboard is all out of that currently heh

A great everyday-any time black tea. Smooth, beautiful color. Good hot or cold!

Wishing I had a box of Goldfish crackers to go with my Fish Hook tea. Ohh, I saw where M&Ms has rereleased Crispy M&Ms. I loved those. Dang it. Now I’m snack hungry. I blame What-Cha! ha.

The leaf on this is tiny and battleship gray and yes, it kind of looks like a fish hook. OK, this tea was steeped one (ONE!) minute. To look at the lovely lightly yellow liquor, you would expect a lovely quiet cup. Then you take a sip and the bite grabs you, shakes you out of your inattentiveness, and shouts, “PAY ATTENTION TO ME!” Well, that’s what I heard anyway. I’m not sure it is astringent as I don’t notice much dryness at all. I just think it is the good clean bitter that I love in a green tea.

The taste, now that I’m paying attention is kind of grassy and kind of corn like. I think it is kind of sweet, but as a sweeteneraholic trying to leave the monkey behind, it is hard for me to say for sure.

The second cup had less bite, more cheek tingle, and still only a little dryness. The grassiness was predominate with corn following behind. The sip ends with a mineral note and fleeting floral notes.

My kind of green. Now to find some munchies.

So, my first blog update from the library, what an adventure! As expected, not a fan of their keyboard, and I cannot alter the screen brightness, so we have to hope my photos look better on other people’s computers, but hey, no complaining because I am hooked into the system again! Thanks to my new phone I have been able to keep somewhat connected to all my tea friends, but not being able to write has been so hard, it is my passion!

So it is Wednesday, that means it is time for a tea from What-Cha, specifically a purple green tea, yes, we are taking another look at the Anthocyanin heavy tea leaves, unlike the White version I tried last time, this one is green. Though really, I am very tempted to call these purple varietal Drow Teas, but I have a serious thing for dark elves, any chance to reference them I get, I take. Kenya Steamed Purple Varietal Green Tea, from the Mount Kenya region of Kenya does not look at all like a green tea, in fact if you showed this to me without any context I would probably guess it is a black or a very heavily oxidized oolong. After sniffing it though, you can tell it is a green, with strong notes of stir fried veggies and a hint of nuttiness, this is a savory green. It starts out with a distinct note of artichoke, then transitions into cooked spinach, stir fried bok choy, and mushrooms. The finish is toasted sesame with just a tiny hint of sweetness. Teas with these notes tend to make me hungry, so fair warning if you are susceptible to the oh so tantalizing savory.

So, into the gaiwan it goes! I know, technically brewing a Kenyan tea in a gaiwan might not be correct, but since the tradition of tea in Kenya was brought by Western tea drinkers, I can improvise. Plus, I was in the mood to have tea in my gaiwan, specifically my tall and slender one. Anyway, the aroma of the rather dark leaves (you can see hints of gray, purple, and just a tiny bit of green depending on light) has switched from savory to sweet, with notes of cooked plums and sesame seeds with a distinct grilled fruit aroma. You know, a blend of smoke and cooked peaches, a smell very evocative of summer. The liquid, it reminds me of fruit leather, a blend of cherries, peaches, plums, and grapes. Super yummy! There is also a hint of sesame at the finish giving it a hint of nuttiness.

Holy moly, this tea is legit purple! I honestly was not expecting that after the white tea was so pale, but nope this tea is purple, so cool! The taste of the first steep can honestly be summed up as a fruit explosion, seriously intense notes of apricots, plums, and cherries, it is super sweet and juicy. The initial fruit bomb fades to sweet sesame and a tiny hint of sweetgrass at the finish. I really found it neat that breathing out rather than in while sipping this tea made the taste of the fruit even more intense.

Hello sesame seeds and apricots! The aroma of the second steep is a pretty even mix of toasted sesame seeds and fruit, with blended notes of apricots and plums, it is like a crustless fruit pie. Somehow the second steep managed to be even sweeter than the previous one, the fruit explosion is now joined by really intense wildflower honey and hay. At the finish there is a distinct smoky fruit finish that lingers for a while, more teas need to have smoky fruit notes, because it is so evocative of eating grilled fruit while camping.

So, I am the library and I have my headphones on and I am totally rocking out to Thrift Shop, everyone is giving me funny looks…this is why I like to blog alone! Thought I would share that with you all, a little bit of my writing process…yes there is almost always music and me dancing in my chair. Ok, this tea is still sweet and the purple is still strong, I used to have hair that exact same color, how fun! The aroma is all cooked fruit this time, no nutty notes, just strong fruit. The taste starts out super fruity and sweet and is joined at the front with smoky notes and hay. This tea was so sweet and fun, yum!!

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/01/what-cha-kenya-steamed-purple-varietal.html

This is delicious. Strong honey flavour, with a hint of cinnamon. Sweet and grassy, a touch of astringency. Fragrance of honey and sweet corn. Wonderful.

I used seven cannon balls, since several of them were quite small, and steeped for just over 3 min.

What an interesting tea.

The dry leaf is fluffy and silvery green, and has a very delicate smell of hay. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear this was a white tea.

Steeped for 3min in 96C water, it yields a very pale coloured liquor with a light body. The steeped leaf is pale yellow green and smells faintly peachy. The flavour is likewise delicate, with notes of peach and grape. There are also the flavours that make this unmistakably a Darjeeling, though those become less distinct as the cup cools.

While this was tasty, I did feel like I wanted a bit more complexity and flavour from the brew. Perhaps a bit more leaf next time, as the flavours that were there were excellent.

One of the Darjeelings I have enjoyed the most as of late, and a very interesting black tea.

Backlog:

A delightful purple Oolong.

A lighter texture than typical Oolong teas, this doesn’t have that buttery mouthfeel that you might experience from a greener type of Oolong. It doesn’t feel or taste creamy.

It tastes strongly of fruit! A slight sugary type of taste to it. There is a moderate astringency. Later infusions focused on plum notes and sugar cane. Keep on steeping this tea, because you’ll be rewarded with later infusions that are very smooth, less astringent, and even slightly creamy.

A really nice Oolong. Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/11/24/kenya-hand-rolled-purple-varietal-oolong-tea-from-what-cha-tea/

I would for sure agree with the description on this one – smooth with gentle sweet citrus tones. It’s not citrus like BLERGAMOT…but it’s got that note in it while still being a really smooth tasty cup. I think i like this one better than the old lady georgia tea from what-cha :)

sooo many teas in my cupboard and that number is just climbing haha hard to believe that i was at 75 in december….and in the nearish future i may be damn near pushing 200 lol it’s ok though since a lot of them are smaller sizes that i can sip down in a couple of cups. PLus it gives me incentive over the year to really stop buying teas to get down to 50 by the end of the year haha.

this is is a really nice tea and one that i’d consider getting again if the price point was compareable to other malty sort of teas that i like. A nice find from what-cha!

mmmm i am a fan of this one from what-cha. This is malty and full of cocoa notes and really makes me happy. I’m greatful to the larger-samples sizes that will let me have another cup of this before sharing the other little bit with terri :)

Cold steeped yesterdays leaves overnight. The resulting tea tasted about the same as it did hot. Very refreshing and an excellent cold tea. Even after a long steep over night the leaves were still somewhat furled, so I put them back in the fridge to see if I could get any more from them. We shall see tomorrow.

I was really excited when this tea came out around October, but it’s been sitting in my untrieds box for months.

The dry leaf is wound into oblong shapes that make me think of cocoons. They’re irregular in size, and not tightly wound like most pearl tea. The smell is hay with an intense freshly cut grass note.

I steeped five pearls in 80C water for 4 minutes. The liquor has a medium gold colour and a faint smell. Taste, this has some sweet, hay like notes at the front of the sip, but then quickly develops a cool, juicy vegetal flavour, akin to cucumbers and iceberg lettuce, with a hint of zucchini.

I’m drinking this hot, but my mouth really wants to try this cold – the cool veggie notes just seem like they would be so well suited to an iced tea.

The pearls have barely started to unwind. Rather than hot steep another cup of this, I think I will throw them into the fridge to do a cold brew overnight, and we shall see what the results are.

Very tasty, and I think my favourite of the Malawi teas I’ve tried from What-cha.

With so many What-cha tasting notes popping up on my dashboard, I’ve been feeling inspired to gt through more of my untrieds from my last order.

I haven’t often felt in the mood for a green tea lately, but my water temperature was pretty much just right when I went to make a cup, and this was at the top of my bin. I’m glad it was.

The steeping directions recommend 1-2tsp, but the leaf is very fluffy and hard to measure with a spoon, so I pulled 2.2g out of the bag, which worked out to a bit over a teaspoon if the leaves were made to fit into the spoon. Steeped in 80C water for 3 minutes.

This is a delicious green tea, with notes of honey, corn, umami, peas, and lots of sweetness. Good medium body and smooth mouthfeel. The soup was rather rich at 3 minutes and might have been getting into bitter or astringent territory with any more time.

Delicious. That cup disappeared rather quickly.

Excellent cup. Malty, light and delicious.

One week till we move, so my giant pile of tea has been moved into a box (well, soon to be two boxes – one medium moving box cannot contain it all.) So for the next week I’ll probably just be grabbing whatever is near the top to drink.

This is such a surprising white tea. The dry leaf is twisted, ranges from dark to pale green and powdered with the same kind of dust you see with a lot of golden tips black teas. It smells and tastes very malty! The opening of the sip is all malt and sweet potato, very similar to a lot of black teas, but with a certain lightness (but no lack of flavour) that makes it different. The finish is very long and is malty but with a floral and tangy note to it.

I made this cup earlier and then had to run out the door, so I’m drinking this cold. It’s lovely, but I’ll have to try it hot one of these times too.

Edit: Resteeped my leaves from earlier – still lots of flavour in them – malt, sweet potato and a touch of floral. So tasty, so not what I expect from a white.

And woah! 90% of the way through this cup I suddenly have this really intense sweet taste in the back of my throat. I haven’t had anything but this tea in hours so I don’t think it’s something else.

Edit again: OMG! I just licked off the spoon I used to sample this tea earlier, and the dry tea residue is intensely sweet and tastes exactly like maple syrup!! WHAT?! Amazing! I’m going to have to experiment with this, because I have never encountered maple flavour like this in a tea before. It was like licking syrup off a spoon, it was that intense.

This is the first tea I’ve tried from several that I bought from What Cha. The shipping was fast, it was packaged well and I received the order with no problems. A handwritten note and a sample tea was included with the order. This Kenya Premium White tea is beautiful! On opening the sealed bag the smell was wonderful. The bag has the water temperature and steeping instructions which I find very helpful in getting the best cup of tea possible. This tea had no bitterness or astringency. I don’t really go into “taste like baked bread, carmel, fruity etc.” I just know that its a really beautiful, calming tea that I was able to resteep several times with it tasting wonderful each cup. My husband and daughter who aren’t big tea drinkers had some and said “this is our favorite of all the teas you have right now!” That is saying a lot! I have not had many white teas in my cupboard but this tea will now be a staple for myself and to serve friends and family!

Description here says smooth with a lingering wood taste. I have to say it certainly smells like wood, but it’s flavoured wood? lol it’s got a smooth flavour to it….it’s not like a really heavy puerh…but it is NOT for the faint of heart. I am a fan!