1666 Tasting Notes
Bought this for I think $5.99 buy one, get one free at Sprouts.
Another TCM herbal tea I’m using to support my unruly cycle. Drank several days prior to that time of the month and for the first few days. It produces a concentrated, oily yellow brew that could be used as a dye. Tastes densely of celery which I don’t like to eat, however I find myself sipping the warm tea with ease. Mildly sweet. Feels nourishing.
Flavors: Celery, Oily, Roots
Picked this up at the Korean market for $6.99. Seems expensive.
Detox is a touchy term in the already touchy world of wellness which is full of arbitrary claims. So why did I buy this?
The past few years has seen me landing pretty dang squarely in Middle Age. A few years’ worth of going crazy due to hormonal fluctuations has led me into trying different things to relieve symptoms. Naturally, with my affinity for many things Chinese, I’ve wandered into TCM. It’s a vast subject and rife with contradictions to my education in the sciences but I have nevertheless been drawn in. A lot of it makes sense within my limited understanding of Chinese culture.
All I can say is this herbal tea is very tasty and seems to relieve, via mild diuresis, some of the water retention I experience. It does feel cleansing in a sense. I like the way I feel after drinking a concentrated cup (2 bags to 8-10oz) first thing in the morning and/or later in the evening on an empty stomach. It’s not something I want everyday, but I do reach for it several times per week. The taste is definitely in line with dandelion and various roots with a soft cassia balance (there must not be much in there as it is often overpowering). Besides those, there is a whole mix of herbs in this blend.
Flavors: Burdock, Cinnamon, Dandelion, Mineral, Roots
Captain’s Backlog 3 May 2025
Spring 2023 harvest
Made a better bowl tea than gongfu. Dong Dingy but not nutty, thankfully. Mid-toned mellow sweet roast, rich florals settled yet heady, bamboo shoot in a bed of squeaky young grass. Very clean. Would try again. It looks to be machine-harvested; not the prettiest unfurled leaf.
$6.87 / 15g
Flavors: Balanced, Bamboo, Caramelized Sugar, Clean, Creamy, Floral, Grass, Mineral, Rich, Roasty, Sweet
Captain’s Backlog 3 May 2025
What a doozy. Knocked me out cold for a 2-hour nap after only 2 pours. Whisper of smoke. Sandpaper tongue. Very drying; not a pleasant feeling when combined with dried-up mucous membranes from allergy medication.
Back into the crock.
$60 for a 200g cake in 2025. I think it was $18 or something when I bought it 9 years ago?
Flavors: Bitter Melon, Brown Sugar, Dandelion, Drying, Hot Hay, Peat, Sand, Smoke, Sweet, Warm Grass, Thick
Spring 2024 harvest
Same as it ever was, and that’s a good thing! Complex or comforting, you get to choose. Grainy, sparkling, mineral and sweet with notes of orange blossom, jasmine, ginger, hay, wheat, sweet potatoes, chocolate, tobacco and light vanilla cream. I do appreciate this more gongfu (which is not usually the case for Yunnan dianhong) as I have a tendency to oversteep it western, bringing out oaky tannins.
Thanks for the sample, Whispering Pines :)
Flavors: Chocolate, Cream, Ginger, Grain, Hay, Jasmine, Mineral, Oak, Orange Blossom, Sweet, Sweet Potatoes, Tannin, Tobacco, Vanilla, Wheat
What a delight! Sophisticated and vibrant, fresh and refined. I’ve been drinking this at work so haven’t really had the time to dive into the intricacies of what is a supple, floral and gently buttery green tea, but its qualities meld seamlessly with the delicately sweet rose petals, the soft Ceylon cinnamon and the sunny-spicy Manuka honey.
For some reason, I feel like the green tea could’ve been grown where I live in northern California rather than in New Zealand. ashmanra is right, the tea has a high energy, and to me, feels very natural, very ‘blue’.
I hope to come back with a more nuanced look into the green tea used in this blend, but if I don’t, know that Lady Gatsby rates exceptionally high with me and is very much recommended for lovers of a naturally perfumed tea.
Why I didn’t multiple cake this 7542 replica when I saw it in years past on other vendors websites, or most recently on Liquid Proust’s…
Oh well. At least I know what well aged, humidish-stored puerh tastes and feels like. This brews rich and does great with less leaf and moderate steeps in a 200mL duanni pot. Taste and energy are strong enough that only 2-3 pours leaves me satisfied. This current pot is on day 3!
Flavors: Betel Nut, Bread Dough, Camphor, Dark Wood, Forest Floor, Overripe Cherries, Petrichor, Rich, Round, Smooth, Spicy, Tobacco, White Pepper
Preparation
Day 3?? That is awesome!
Wow! Yours seems very similar to my 2002 7542 replica which I coincidentally reviewed a week ago, so we may have some esp going on! And your cake wrapper is virtually identical to mine, with the same exact characters, just in a very slightly different font (mine is squished a bit). But the flavor descriptions are spot-on, and when I pulled the cake out just now to check, I got another good hit of that camphor aroma! Yeah, this is among my better sheng cakes, and I sure don’t regret $79 I spent on it. When you write “pot is on day 3” do you mean the leaf has been soaking all that while? Or you just added more hot water to the remaining wet leaf? Or the infusion has just been standing?
…forgot to paste the link: http://steepster.com/teas/beautiful-taiwan-tea-company/76558
Please, Essence of Tea, please tell me you can ship from Malaysia. You released so much of your old Malaysian-stored catalog!
Backlog of a long-ago-purchased-sample sipdown. This tea now feels like a distant dream. Oh I found the envelope with some notes written on the back:
easy to drink
very sweet, hint of smoke, foresty, light sparkling sweetness, very mineral, honey, cotton candy, cantaloupe, nutmeg, wintergreen
becoming balanced bitter/astringent
floral, perfume
I do remember Yunyun had a certain depth and mellow complexity, a vibrant, watery, fluid energy that pulled me back and eddied me forward, an aftertaste that settled in for the ride.
Currently
$18 / 25g
$120 / 200g
And there goes a lone quail, darting past me into the understory of a coast live oak, whose branches touch the ground and gather many animals into its safe haven. Happy Easter.
Listen: https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/239147841
Hearing mention of a celery tea makes me really miss those savory vegetable infusions that Numi used to make!