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Just copying this from Random Steepings since I have positive identifcation by mrmopar.
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Getting blasted on some shou from mrmopar. Labeled 2013 Hai Lang Hao Bulang Brick shou. Is it this: https://steepster.com/teas/hai-lang-hao-yunnan-sourcing/56059-2013-hai-lang-hao-bu-lang-old-tree-brick-ripe ? If so, I’ll transfer it over tomorrow and update after I brew this tea out.

It’s a brick, so the material is compact. I’m drinking alone with 10g in a 190mL teapot. Combine those two with this being a strong leaf — I can’t finish tonight but I do feel like making a note. I feel chest-forward. Lots of caffeine!

Dry leaf is sweet and earthy with vanilla, caramel, leather and a red berry undertone. Warmed is earth, leather, a bit of smoked meat and baked bread. A twenty second rinse brings out old books/paper again with earth and leather and the smell of baked bread in the distance. After the first steep, the steam coming from the pot has a very pungent quality almost like vinegar such that I instinctively twitch my nose and turn away. I feel silly and keep going back for more of that tangy twinge.

Smooth, mineral beginnings with the baked bread, leather and earth of the leaf and some cheesy nutritional yeast fermentation taste left behind from the rinse. Like I said, brick tea. Light clenching in the throat, warming and cooling, a bit oily. I wrote for a while after the first steep.

Second steep is clean, much darker since the material is finally opening up. I notice some wet basement, vanilla and caramel in the aroma. Same tastes but camphor dominates when the tea is still hot. It loses that quality as it cools. Tangy aftertaste with brown sugar-caramel returning sweetness. I moved from writing to getting lost in NPR Music Tiny (Ass) Desk Concerts for an hour.

Music pairing: Lizzo — NPR Music Tiny (Ass) Desk Concert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFiLdByWIDY
Watched her on Saturday Night Live last night.

Third steep is the same length as the second, 30-some seconds until the pot pours empty. The taste moves into a dominant starchy, potato-like taste and old wood with the earth and leather moving underneath. Returning sweetness develops into dates. This tea sits a bit raw in my stomach so I warmed up some soup. I read for another hour before deciding I should call it quits with tea tonight.

Book pairing: The Message Devotional Bible

And this is where I end for the evening. So far, recommended.
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Update: Long-lasting, powerful shou that needs to be tamed with several shorter steepings early then pushed hard as soon the liquor begins to lighten. This tea was nothing out of the ordinary to me taste-wise but it was smooth, and at times oily in its delivery with no bitterness or astringency. More of a savory, leather/earth/tobacco/mineral profile with no fruitiness or sweetness. The returning sweetness became really pronounced with date sugar.

I was able to get 10 longer gongfu-timed infusions from the material, not including the 20s rinse and another 20s rinse to wake up the leaves the following day. Overall, I’d say try this for standard yet clean, powerful Bulang material. As of Dec 2019, this is $0.17 USD/g when purchased as the 2kg brick.

Getting blasted on some shou from mrmopar. Labeled 2013 Hai Lang Hao Bulang Brick shou. Is it this: https://steepster.com/teas/hai-lang-hao-yunnan-sourcing/56059-2013-hai-lang-hao-bu-lang-old-tree-brick-ripe ? If so, I’ll transfer it over tomorrow and update after I brew this tea out.

It’s a brick, so the material is compact. I’m drinking alone with 10g in a 190mL teapot. Combine those two with this being a strong leaf — I can’t finish tonight but I do feel like making a note. I feel chest-forward. Lots of caffeine!

Dry leaf is sweet and earthy with vanilla, caramel, leather and a red berry undertone. Warmed is earth, leather, a bit of smoked meat and baked bread. A twenty second rinse brings out old books/paper again with earth and leather and the smell of baked bread in the distance. After the first steep, the steam coming from the pot has a very pungent quality almost like vinegar such that I instinctively twitch my nose and turn away. I feel silly and keep going back for more of that tangy twinge.

Smooth, mineral beginnings with the baked bread, leather and earth of the leaf and some cheesy nutritional yeast fermentation taste left behind from the rinse. Like I said, brick tea. Light clenching in the throat, warming and cooling, a bit oily. I wrote for a while after the first steep.

Second steep is clean, much darker since the material is finally opening up. I notice some wet basement, vanilla and caramel in the aroma. Same tastes but camphor dominates when the tea is still hot. It loses that quality as it cools. Tangy aftertaste with brown sugar-caramel returning sweetness. I moved from writing to getting lost in NPR Music Tiny (Ass) Desk Concerts for an hour.

Music pairing: Lizzo — NPR Music Tiny (Ass) Desk Concert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFiLdByWIDY
Watched her on Saturday Night Live last night.

Third steep is the same length as the second, 30-some seconds until the pot pours empty. The taste moves into a dominant starchy, potato-like taste and old wood with the earth and leather moving underneath. Returning sweetness develops into dates. This tea sits a bit raw in my stomach so I warmed up some soup. I read for another hour before deciding I should call it quits with tea tonight.

Book pairing: The Message Devotional Bible

And this is where I end for the evening. So far, recommended.

It’s been a while. I honestly forgot what shou tastes like.

I had only 2 steeps last night and was up for hours, packing up tea samples and writing letters, granted I used the whole 9g freebie Mandala sent in a 190mL clay pot. Longish steeps with this pot, which has a 10-12s pour. Finished the session this morning with 7 infusions total.

Dry leaf has notes of chocolate, leather, peat, a hint of smoke and tangy black current.
Aromas coming from warmed and rinsed leaf are of baked bread and the piquant, nose-tickling scents of fermenting sourdough and fruit. Compared to the warm and rinsed leaf aromas, which I found intriguing and pleasant, the tea is exceptionally smooth. Medium to light bodied, clean and initially cooling. Mostly tastes of minerals and damp basement (but not musty) in the beginning. Returning sweetness takes a bit to show. As the steeps lighten, I can pull notes of baked bread, leather, lightly sweet earth and a hint of camphor which is much more evident in the chest than in taste. The liquor develops a short-lived spicy, warming bite in the throat. Aroma transitions from the clean damp basement smell to light vanilla and cocoa.

Overall, this is a satisfying, easy-drinking clean brew that lies more along the savory line than sweet. It is relaxing as many good shou tend to be but it also possesses a smooth caffeine buzz for me. Another quality shou from Mandala, thanks!

Song pairing: Townes Van Zandt — Nothin’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF_3w_gXing

Moving through all the samples I picked up from my aunt’s during Thanksgiving. I generally take one of each of her bagged teas I haven’t yet tried. Bagged teas are good lull teas; lately I’ve been feeling too lazy to assume the student role with quality loose leaf. Looking forward to the moment I come to my senses and plunge into the puerh crocks. With time.

Big news (rolls eyes): this is pretty much indistinguishable from any other Yogi brand chai-type bag. It’s pretty fresh and warming, though. Turmeric forward for sure but I can surprisingly taste everything else like ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper and clove. The initial sips have that weird licorice sweetness, definitely not overplayed. It assimilates seamlessly a few more sips in and contributes a decent body.

But again, with Yogi teas, I usually find at least one part of the name to be missing. This time it’s honey. It ghosted. Come on.

Overall fine, nothing special but can’t recommend it because well, in my opinion, once you’ve had one Yogi, you’ve had them all.

Satisfying spin on chamomile. What I like about this is the delicate peppery herbaceous aroma and taste. It mingles really well with the balanced chamomile, apple and spices. Really light with a simple sweetness.

Totally fine black chai, if not one of the best bagged chai I’ve had. On the stronger end.

Big clove aroma with cinnamon. Kind of brisk, malty and smokey with a woody dryness but the tea isn’t astringent. It does have an bitter undercurrent, though. Good balance between tea taste and spices with major notes of cardamom, clove and cinnamon, star anise to a lesser extent. I wonder if all that overrode the ginger (second ingredient) cuz I got nothing. No black pepper either besides maybe in warmth. How would it do simmered in milk? That’s what I wanna know but I don’t want to buy a box to find out.

I find this tisane to be interesting. I used to grow and hunt mushrooms but not for medicinal purposes. This bled contains reishi fruitbody and extracts and lion’s mane extract. If you’re interested in the medicinal uses of these two fungi, I’d suggest researching them. I know one of my coworkers forages reishi to make into a tisane for his wife who has cancer.

Made a cup of this last night and of course I fell asleep before it even cooled. This morning I sipped the 8-hour brew, cold. It had a good spearmint and floral aroma. The taste was totally fine, nothing like the burnt dirt flavor of Choice Organic Teas’ Reishi Matcha. In fact, it tasted very clean. Herbaceous (from the tulsi?) but not stewy, mellow spearmint and peppermint, distinct rose and lavender florals. I couldn’t pick out the chamomile which is the first ingredient. Overall, a more than decent tisane when sat overnight that, even if you’re not looking for the medicinal benefits of mushrooms, I could recommend for its relaxing profile. It seems like it would have a pleasant taste when drank warm.

Dark, sweet aroma with orchid but no sweetness in taste. Instead the taste is rather thin and herbaceous, dirt-mineral with orchid and roasted almond. Still some lingering char/roast notes that fade away a few infusions in. Undercurrent of alkaline bitterness.
An indistinguishable fruity aftertaste presents early, something like strawberry-apricot-orange-pineapple mixed with cream. That transitions to a clearly defined sweet white peach. The liquor develops a thick viscosity when the tastes start fading into grass and orange zest.

This session left me wanting something different. The dry leaf shows that this is low oxidized and medium roasted which really isn’t my favorite presentation for Wuyi oolong. This Qilan had aftertaste in spades but seemed unbalanced overall. I’ll have to revisit this tea soon, if only to hasten its departure from my cupboard :P

Really digging the peppermint lately between a gnarly cold, carb-heavy catered lunches at work since Thanksgiving and nostalgia for the cold and snowy winters we don’t experience in this region of California. Today was the first day at this job that my tea thermos contained a caffeine-free brew. Dudes, today was awesome with a thermos full of hot peppermint juice. This tisane held up for 6 hours without developing any muted or off flavors. Crisp, mentholated, herbaceous soothing peppermint.

My nighttime cups which I’ve been brewing at boiling and letting steep for much longer than the recommended 4 to 6 minutes have turned up only a light stewed herb quality.

Celestial Seasonings Peppermint has the menthol power of two leaves and a bud’s peppermint, the pure peppermint flavor of Traditional Medicinals’ and the herbaceous, stewy quality of bulk bin leaf. This one isn’t particularly sweet to me but it’s been a damn fine cup.

The antidote to today’s reuben sandwich.

I have this thing with peppermint where I found that I like dried loose-leaf prepared best when steeped at 175F for only a minute or two. But I went ahead and followed package directions for this teabag: boiling, covered, 10-15 minutes. As soon as I poured water over the bag, the brew turned a pretty green. When I took the lid off 15 minutes later, it was brown. I feared for muddy peppermint.

Instead, it was good, clean fun :) Can’t go wrong with that.

As far as peppermint teabags go, I still prefer Two Leaves and a Bud brand because it’s serious menthol. I can never find it in stores here, though. Since Traditional Medicinals is located just down the road, I’ll be supporting them even if they do source their leaf from afar. Sprouts was out of stock of this today so I get to compare Celestial Seasonings next.