What-Cha

These long, luscious leaves steeped up light and sweet. The scent in the cup reminds me of homemade pumpkin bread. A little bread in the flavor as well; a little malt; a little brown sugar. Not a strong Assam, but an extremely pleasant one.

Husband put up the little canopy tent we use in the summer to shelter cats, plants, and glider. I sat underneath it with this cup and watched it rain this morning. Delicious. Thank you, derk.

I received this sample as a gift from Derk, thank you!

It’s a rainy morning here so a darker oolong just sounded right. The aroma is an amalgamation of roasty, earthy, and nutty notes… like nuts harvested from wet, metallic ground. Also a hint of nutmeg aroma on the nose.

It tastes as it smells. Rain-soaked earth, walnuts, a hint of spice. The roast is pleasant, giving it a mild char aftertaste without tasting like chewing on charcoal ash. There are some undertones of very dark, bittersweet chocolate. I don’t get the fruity notes that so many others have noted — maybe a hint of apple sweetness beneath the roast, nuts, and earth? — but perhaps that is due to my heathen Western brewing preference over gong fu.

The warm roastiness and metallic earth really do make this a nice accompaniment for a drizzly morning. Thanks for sharing, Derk!

Sipdown!

Finished up this tea in the gaiwan this past Sunday, it was very pleasant way to spend a day. After filling my gaiwan, there were a few crumbs at the bottom of the bag – definitely not enough for a full session, or even a small one. So I tossed those leftover bits in my ever growing Everything Jar. Gonna wait a little longer and toss a couple more teas in there before I give it a test steep. Cannot wait for whatever zombie brew it’ll produce hehe.

As I steeped this tea while doing my silly little tasks, I found it to be very soothing to watch the tea deepen in it’s golden color as the brews progressed. It gave me a warm honey flavor throughout with notes of dry prairie grass and a touch of vanilla.

Had this with friends recently, I received this tea from another friend, so I’m considering this a friendship tea lol. I gongfu’d it on a majorly rainy day, and it kept us happy and warm while we chatted the afternoon away.

This tea is very reminiscent of Nepalese white teas that I’ve had before. Soft hay, malted milk balls, a little bit of an overripe stonefruit tossed in there. A friend even mistook it for a black tea! I always enjoy unconventional tea growing regions/methods, and this is a fun one to try the next time you’re making a What Cha dream cart.

All ass, all the time. Straight from the horse’s butt.

This special style of tea is the clearest example of active fermentation funk I’ve ever experienced.

Still have enough left from beerandbeancurd to sample again and give a more appropriate review if I feel up to it.

See:
https://steepster.com/teas/what-cha/69369-2015-bancha-goishicha-dark-tea
https://steepster.com/teas/yunomi/51643-furyu-bancha-goishicha

February Sipdown Prompt – your most unusual tea

When you first become a serious tea drinker, lots of things seem unusual. After over a decade of exploring tea, not a lot seems unusual. I mean, even if we haven’t tried bug poop tea we have heard of it, so this is tame by comparison.

I consider this to be an unusual tea because I had only had rice scented puerh before this, and several different brands of it. I didn’t even stop to think they might make other teas with the herb that lends the starchy, rice water aroma.

I have made note of this one before, but I want to add that the leaves are absolutely gigantic after steeping. I want to save a few for demonstration next time I am recruiting someone into loose leaf tea drinking from bags, “Here we have dust and fannings from the grocery and HERE – pulls out a virtual paleolithic specimen – we have a fine oolong!”

Beerandbeancurd generously sent me this tea! Thank you!

I have had quite a few sticky rice puerh teas but I don’t think I have ever had a sticky rice oolong. Today’s lunch was a big bowl of broccoli with hollandaise sauce, broccoli shared with Sam but not hollandaise.

It took me a few minutes to pick a tea to go with it. Digestive pain woke me at 3 because I drank a ridiculously large malted milkshake after supper, so I was trying to make a healthy and safe choice. I toyed with this one, sniffed the dry tea, felt guilty about depriving Ashman of the chance to try it and put it back, felt the pouch and realized there was enough for one small session for me today and plenty left over to share with him. So here we go.

As expected, leaves expanded mightily. This really really tastes like rice, which I was hoping for since lunch was veggie oriented. Nice pairing. I felt that the rice and oolong flavors were pretty equal but expected steep two to differ wildly with rice flavor subdued.

Not so, I think both flavors were overall the same in steeps two and three.

The oolong is not terribly roasty but also not super green and floral. A little nutty. I think it is a good choice to blend with the rice flavor, which I was surprised to find out years ago is an herb that just…smells exactly like cooked rice.

Thank you, beerandbeancurd!

I had found myself taking a bit of a break from high mountain oolongs, for whatever reason, but reached for this sample for a lazy morning outside. I did pick up What-Cha’s regular (ie. non-light-roasted) Shan Lin Xi a couple months ago, and have continually put off making notes on it — I’ve sadly found myself just a little disappointed each time I drink it.

This little lovely, though… all the perfect butter and florals and mouthfeel. Alistair’s note includes balsam, and I’d agree there, too. It doesn’t look much different from the unroasted upon visual inspection — but what a treat and education, to be so surprised by what a tiny bit of roast can do to elevate these little green nugs.

Thank you, derk!

I have tried this tea up, down, and sideways: gong fu, western, grandpa. Little steeps, big steeps, stew steeps. One steep, two steep, red steep, blue steep.

Everyone’s notes are so lovely and romantic and all I taste is paper bag.

Sipdown. I liked this. I don’t have any notes for you, but I would purchase it again.

I’ve had this a few times now, and I’ve found myself just a little disappointed each time. Mouthfeel, florals, creaminess all just feel a bit middling to me. A sort of teasing-at-grass-emptiness along for the ride. A riddle.

More than drinkable… might take this to work for some grandpas.

A sipdown! (M: 3, Y: 49)
Well, last 4 grams were still good and I still have to agree with my previous note.

It’s really floral, with lovely notes of hyacinths and lilies of the valley. Creamy and lightly butter notes. Sweetness noted last time transfered a bit into vegetal notes, but still very nice.

The mouthfeel is nice and long. Great for daily drinking.

Western steeping. One big teaspoon (worth about two normal ones), almost boiling water and…
Oh dear this is floral. Though it is 2020 harvest, but I opened it a few weeks ago; and yes, it is indeed still very floral. Vacuum sealing does the magic. Thanks White Antlers who bought this to me back then and Alistair chose it.

While it is very floral, it has got another amazing quality if steeped right. The creamy and buttery sweetness and amazing mouthfeel.

I am trying to focus what those florals are. CrowKettle says lilacs, but I am not that sure. Hycinth, also mentioned there, seems better. Lily of the valley for me is there too.

Wikipedia says: “In the “language of flowers”, the lily of the valley signifies the return of happiness." Well, that’s lovely! And somehow true today.

I will keep trying this tea and if I found something new and amazing, be sure that I will mention that in new tasting note. Because oolongs have a lot to offer to me and almost never a dud.

Bright grass, vegetals, and nuttiness. Many others have described this tea so thoroughly and beautifully — I just let myself enjoy it. The leaves are so flat and slickery that I think I spilled and poofed more of them onto the counter than I ever have during preparation. Like trying to contain glitter. Large glitter.

The only echo I wanted to make was of derk’s note that the wet leaves smelled like leeks and beef… I was all ready to assume that was a niche-nose note, but I opened up my pot and I’ll be damned… that curiously empty smell of unseasoned, boiled cow muscle with a little not-quite-onion-yep-that’s-definitely-leeks ghosting in. I didn’t get this scent or flavor anywhere else but from the wet leaf. Nice pin, derk!

Roasted this in the oven today, using the parameters linked below, and stopped at “light roasted.” Tastes much more roasty than the light-roast version that What-Cha already offers — and with less gorgeousness happening — but I have another 50g to fiddle with.

That said: it’s better. And I expect it might rest and get better-better. No caramel or other sweet notes, but some nice rounding that it was otherwise missing.

Fun experiment.

https://ineedcoffee.com/home-roasting-oolong-tea/

Okay. I thought I’d brew this up after my session with the lightly roasted version earlier today and try to put some words around how it misses the mark that the light roast hits so well (for me).

The wispy green/jade/vegetal/grassy notes seem to tamp out the floral/butter/cream roundedness that the light-roasted version blossoms into so beautifully. Every steep sort of tastes muted and watery, like an anticipatory rinse that never quite arrives at Second Steep Magic™. I am tempted to experiment with wok-kissing this at home… those notes are in there, I’m sure of it, but need the lid taken off.

Like petting a cat through a duvet.