1705 Tasting Notes
Thank you so much Jeff!
Well, this was one woody herbal that tasted a lot like an oolong. Honey, floral, and anise are damn right. Hyacinth and honeysuckle popped in my brain, but I could be wrong. Still, this was a mega sweet herbal that so much like a green oolong. The sweetness did remind me of stevia a little bit, but not too much. This is especially nice for a type one diabetic who has some cravings.
Thank you so much hawkband1! I’ve always wanted to try Joseph Wesley, but I’ve never had the courage to buy from them. And I agree with you on this one. It was very oily for an oolong. The dry leaf reminded me of a tropical candle. I did a western brew of half the package for the first time losing track of the minutes. It turned out pretty nice, emphasis on the green and florals. Buttery and thick with a little bit of sweetness like a honey or cinnamon sugar butter. Surprisingly crisp both in the first steep and later steeps. Very grassy, but very refreshing. Light color, heavy body. Nice sweetness on the roof of my mouth even after drinking. Yielded five solid brews western. The last one had a distinct vanilla and grassy taste.
Again, thank you so much!
Damn, that smoke is powerful. I see why you double packaged it hakwband1.
Holy sh#t it’s going to be hard not to use flowery language for this tea. I got so many things from this cup. Smoke, yes. Earth, yes. Sweet for a black tea, yes. It was like I was finding a fire among snow covered pine trees. Brewing it up with hot water, the smell reminded of burning sandalwood or dragons blood. Sometimes, it made me think of maple glazed bacon. Tasting it after a minute of brewing, it is smokey and again sweeter than other black teas I’ve had. It makes me think of resin and pine.
Steep two, damn, same thing.
I’ve had Lapsang once before, but that was a long time ago. I am surprised with how much I am digging the crap out of this. I’m not sure I would drink it everyday, but you bet your hind end I will drink it on a cold day and I will save some of it for the next season of Sherlock.
Most excellent review. “It is not really difficult to construct a series of inferences, each dependent upon its predecessor and each simple in itself. After doing so, one may produce a startling effect.”
Glad you like it! I like that it’s balanced and not all smoke. Great review!
It really is balanced. I might need to get myself some more eventually.:)
And BigDaddy, Adventure of the Dancing Men, nice. I thought it was maybe from Hound of the Baskervilles because it was similar to another quote about inductive reasoning, but I admit I had to double check. :)
Hot brew! And…the smell was little bit off putting because it reminded me of a blueberry flavored Flintstone Vitamin, but the taste was actually pretty nice. It did not defer too much from the cold brew with the exception of the blueberry being a little bit sweeter. Some florals were there, but they were more white tea florals than oolong florals. I don’t know if other people would get the florals, however. I tasted some thicker oolong texture, but that was it from that tea for me. More like drinking dew than anything else. I do miss the Peach Dong Ding a little bit, though.
Tumbler test! And…it did quite well.
Here’s what I did: 13 oz in my 16 oz tea tumbler and used some hot water. The tumbler was getting a little bit too hot, so after a little over 4 minutes, I poured 7 oz into a cup and kept the rest in the bottle. I was surprised to find that the florals were actually emphasized in both the bottle and what was poured out of the bottle. The milky texture was still there, but the florals were accented-albeit lighlty. Still no astringency or bitterness.
Another round-and I have no idea how long I soaked this batch, and the results were also pretty nice. It was a little more vegetal, but still milky. After a few more minutes, the florals returned and the brew was lighter and mildly sweet. It absorbed a little bit of the previously flavored oolong in that bit, but no means bad.
So this confirms I could probably drink this going from class to class. I actually liked how this tea brewed more in the tumbler than in a tea pot. I should have figured given how light this tea is and my experience with some similar teas. I do confess that I might be bad and add a little bit of vanilla beans to a small batch so that I can maybe accent the florals and milky mouth feel. Here’s to experimenting!
This sampler bag has lasted me quite a while. Balanced, malty, and smooth earl grey with a great feel on the tongue. I got some cocoa personally, but that was my imagination looking for it. It actually became a little creamy when the cup chilled from the cold weather sneaking inside. I would recommend a light cold brew of this then.
This Earl Grey is actually one of my favorites because of its balance and simplicity. Guess having little astringency goes far for me. I’d still recommend it for Earl Grey lovers.
Now to consider if another What-Cha order is a wise idea. Wise for getting a few exquisite teas I want to try and more jade oolongs on the spectrum, but not wise if I want to venture too much further this month.
I vote yes for more What-Cha. Alistair is such a talented tea curator. So I say one more What-Cha order and then explore something else in your following purchase.
Why I go to him so often. What-Cha, Berylleb, and Andrew are my personal top vendors. I was able to spend less money on tea last semester because I did it bulk from Alistair. Then December came round and I went through oolong freakout. Here’s the list I’m thinking of from What-Cha:
China Fujian Tong Mu Wild Lapsang Souchong Black Tea
Weight:
10g / 0.35oz
Taiwan Li Shan Oolong Tea
Weight:
50g / 1.76oz
India Darjeeling 2nd Flush Rohini Golden Buds Black Tea
Weight:
50g / 1.76oz
Weight:
10g / 0.35oz
Thailand #17 ‘Ruan Zhi’ High Mountain Oolong Tea
Weight:
10g / 0.35oz
Vietnam #12.5 High Mountain Oolong Tea
Weight:
10g / 0.35oz
Taiwan Jade Oolong Tea
Weight:
10g / 0.35oz
All teas I definitely want to try and have a supply of. The Lapsang and Korean blacks are expensive, but delicacies that are great in 10 gram samples.
Hugo Tea also had a Chai blend that looked good for tumblering, and me for winter. They use a Chinese black base that is more up my alley, naturally sweet enough that hawkband1 recommended that base. Plus keeping the ingredients simple to the chinese black, pepper, ginger, cinnamon, and vanilla seems like a smart idea for a balanced blend. https://www.hugotea.com/collections/organic-tea/products/grey-line-black-tea
I do want to try LP’s Mordor and Western Wild Eventually, but I’m going to wait to see what else he releases. Lauren’s On Wisconsin is great too because it’s good for tumblering, has no veggie taste, and is good for short steeps. The flavoring can give me a little bit of an upset stomach though which is why I hesitate. I also hesitate because it is about the same price as a good Alishan…which I’m about equal for in terms of what I like.
So, there you have it. Too much desire lol.
And too many wordy responses. I’ve been trying to fix my verbosity anyway. Totally failing.
We love your verbosity. Don’t change a thing. :)
Is the Lapsang a smoky one? I tend to order half or more mostly known ones and then a few wild cards. Or if I am feeling adventurous, a lot more wild cards. I’ve been putting off a What-Cha order for a while. Too many teas. Not enough money and December and November were heavy duty shopping months.
Damn. I was planning on having an oolong day and now it is 4 pm and I am into the chocolates.
Them cravings. :) Yes, Lapsang’s are usually smokey. The one on his list was an unsmoked version.
Did you read my long response to the teacher questions? :)
Trying to locate it now.
I do want to teach American high school and middle school students, but my long term future goal is to be a community college professor. I’m up to teaching abroad if the opportunity arises and compensates well with my diabetes, but I think there is a larger need in this country.
Styles of teaching were more focused on in strategies of classroom management (think Jone’s Model) and our individual personalities in the class. We really focused more on the baselines of the best teacher, one that has fully developed senses of logos, ethos, and pathos. As in: a teacher who know’s their shit, is ethical, and has a quality that makes them human and connectable (i.e. personability). My professor totally appropriated them from Aristotle and we go back and forth nudging that fact in class. We mentioned “oh, he’s totally a lecturer” but did not categorize said teachers. We just started with personalities at work using the DISC test and the Big Five traits psyche test. DISC is Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness. Dominance is taking control of situations, arguments, etc, Influence is sociability, Steadiness is akin to harmony, and Conscientiousness perfectionism, logic, rules, facts, and so on. I ranked highest with Conscientiousness and Steadiness,a healthy fourth belonging to dominance, and a minimum to influence. I was not really a huge fan of the test because it was to binary. The categories at least had nuance. The Big Five, I think you might have heard of. Here’s my blog which gives you a good idea about the class. There’s a few things I need to clean up, but here it is. https://daylonthomas.edublogs.org/
Our class did not connect critical thinking with students with challenges explicitly (more implicit), but rather we were provided examples of how we would modify a curriculum or lesson for such a student. I’ve had the same question myself, and as a class we are still trying to answer it into this semester. I think that’s the question for a true teacher, really.
As for what we did do, lesson differentiation, or differentiating lessons enough to address different styles of learning was emphasized, and as for students with linguistic and some cognitive challenges, we were taught to simplify and not cookie cutter our lessons. We were encouraged to use concise and direct language with English Language Learners, and to use multiple forms of media outside of lecture and reading. I thought it was kinda ironic how often a lot of us referred back to primary source document reading, essay writing, debate, and lecture most of all for teaching, but we have another semester and a whole internship to go. Media literacy was a huge topic especially with the election ever present in our heads and in our classrooms-we approached by comparing and contrasting Eisenhower’s “I like Ike” to “Make America Great Again”, for example. It is also a primary source lesson, technically. No essay required. It was concocted by my class mate, but it was a stellar conversation.
The rest of the course was more focused on dealing with social studies and history content itself. The course assumes that if you teach history and the other social studies properly, then you will provide an intellectual environment to foster critical thinking. By encouraging your students to realize the limits of time, record, sourcing, and perspective, they should understand that history is a reconstructed story told with a purpose, a specific paradigm, and an intended audience. The same goes for maps which portray specific ideas, political campaigns, advertisements, legal arguments, etc.
Thank for this, Daylon. Some years ago, my department did the DISC test as whole day of professional development with a qualified DISC leader. I had thought the whole thing was rather hokey, like a glorified astrological profile applied to the workplace. That was until we each had our personality profiles and people in the department arranged themselves by type in each of the four corners of the room. Each group was remarkably alike in terms of how they approached things and interacted w people etc. It was cool to see it in people you knew and worked with. My group of introverts was the smallest among them, but comparatively, those within it were the least flakey.
Of course, that is from my perspective.
_ I think that’s the question for a true teacher, really._
I am a true teacher and that will be a perpetual struggle.
That does sound like a stellar conversation.
Media literacy is huge. So many don’t understand the difference btwn advertising and truth and persuasion and bias. Basic research skills such as hunting up the source of news and recognizing intent.
What were you’re DISC results, the Conscientious one dominant lol? And Yay! ANOTHER TEACHER! I keep on telling everyone that there are A LOT of teachers on this website and that just double confirms it. I was thinking about calling myself Mr. T-moreso like our beloved drink. Nevermind my last name is Thomas.
I have no idea. I have the paperwork around somewhere. If it surfaces, I’ll let you know.
“Goddamnitt Daylon, another oolong?”
“Not quite, it’s from the same varietal-
“Bullshit. This smells and tastes like an oolong.” My mother then smiled with her sly green eyes in confidence.
I responded with my own confidence. I knew what she was talking about. It tasted more like the higher oxidized varietal it is known for than any common green tea. I kept that in mind when I responded. “It’s a Jin Xuan, mom, which is really common for milk flavored oolong. This one is a green tea, so it’s really a baby oolong.”
My mom continued to smile. She chuckled with a quiet glee. “It’okay Daylon. This one is actually good. It reminds me of the ice cream from the Hale Koa.”
“The co-co-the green tea ice cream?”
“Yeah, that one.” She took another sip and left me the rest.
To think I haven’t opened this in over a year, and to think a green GABA tea would strike such a conversation. My mom is by no means inexperienced with tea, though she is picky with her greens and oolongs. This one is a good exception to the norm. Much of what I said in the Spring 2015 version is the same for this tea. It is lemony, grassy, thick and mildly creamy in texture, floral, tart, and sour at least for me. And the GABA did have its focusing effect. I definitely prefer the GABA Oolong, but I am not heartbroken for sending it off, nor am I regretful for keeping this one handy.
I personally would not reach for it despite its impressive quality. In order for the GABA’s to have any effect, I’ve noticed that waiting preserves its effects on me personally. So I would drink it often, but once a week rather than 3 days in that same week or everyday.
Sipdown.
I enjoyed this tea while I had the sample. Cherry roasted tea against wicked below zero winds. I need to focus on non-attachment. Better yet, balanced attachment. It applies to people and to tea, but I will focus on tea, a thing.
I want more tea and I don’t. I want jade oolongs but I don’t want to spend a lot more money on more tea. I ordered 50 grams of a Da Yu Ling for $20 on discount, but I desire more jade oolong, but I don’t know if I want a flavored or an unflavored. I want to get some chai for my tumbler, but I do not want a lot more black tea. But I would like more Darjeeling. I want to order more tea from What-Cha, but I also want to order from Hugo Tea, Liquid Proust, Beautiful Taiwan Tea Co., and Quarter to Tea. But I want to cut down on my caffeine to help with my attempts to hide my anxiety. Stimulants pumping blood into your forehead and brain does not exactly help one be cool and collected.
Oh well. I’ll give myself a break about it. TMI
Daylon, are you a Gemini?
Aries Sun Libra Rising Scorpio Moon
People always guess the air signs for me. How deep do you go with astrology?
I do have a Mercury Retrograde in my first house if that’s what you’re getting for the Gemini.
I was guessing air. Hence, the Gemini. Possibly signs of Libra too, but that didn’t seem like a good fit.
Too mercurial lol. My writing voice is slightly different from my speaking voice. I’m a lot more gentile and nervous in person, unless you already imagined that.
Yes, the mercurial aspect comes across. :)
I’m super glad you enjoyed it. It’s not a tea you drink on its own for a full session. I love to use it as a finish to long tea sessions and for celebrations! It is a little “stevia-ey” but the differential is enough for me to enjoy it. I also find it has a slight numbing warmness to my lips, it’s a fun tea especially to share.