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Additional note with a different preparation — this time stewed in my thermos instead of gongfu.

The good news is I still adore this tea when it has been stewing for several hours in water initially boiling. I vaguely remember reading on Tea Urchin’s website some reviewer mentioning a mucous-like consistency. I definitely picked up on that when the leaf was stewed vs my normal gongfu prep. It wasn’t off-putting at all but it did take me by surprise. The tea was bold with flavor and aroma and had a nice milky caramel sweetness to it with substantial bitterness. The florality of the tea really came out with this method. Subdued in comparison to the main flavors and the texture but waved a nice hello. I was in good spirits and a smiling fool sipping on this tea throughout the work day.

Big, fuzzy undersided leaf with fatty stems.

[5g, 20oz, 212F, sipped on for 6 hours]

I’ve had this before, pretty sure it was Fall 2017 harvest but I don’t think I mentioned it in my last note. I bought 25g of the Fall 2018 harvest with my last Mountain Stream Teas order.

The two harvest years are notably different. I’ll stay away from comparing the two since I didn’t take great notes for either tea.

I will say this didn’t catch my attention gongfu. It was heavier in brassy tones than I was expecting. Nice lingering retronasal florals. Performed well with boiling water and lower temperatures alike. I’d rate it 79. Daily drinker material.

What this tea does do well is stewing in my thermos at 190F for a few hours. The creamy floral aromas come to the forefront. The vegetal characteristics become a smooth undertone, mingling with a moderate brown sugar and sugarcane sweetness. Medium-bodied. Relaxed, heady floral energy and a perfect amount of caffeine for me with the chosen ratios. 2017 rating was 84. For 2018, I’d also say 84 based on my stewing method but I probably won’t buy the Fall Pick again.

Here we are. Seems my new pattern is to review a few teas on Mondays, so howdy :)

Scroll down to TEATIME if you don’t care for life happenings.

I’ve been dog/housesitting for a coworker (so many acquaintances have been or will be going to Hawaii this summer, lucky ducks!). I didn’t take my kettle or teaware over to the house so recent mornings have involved drinking canned Guayakí yerba maté, or gasp! a K-Cup of coffee the other day. I came home this morning for a few sessions because I’m going through tea withdrawal.

The infection I’d had from March to June resurfaced last week, though since I knew what it was, I was able to get into the doctor for antibiotics the same day the infection kicked in severely. We’re euthanizing Housemate #1’s old, gay tomcat this evening at home. Housemate #2 is moving out in a month so the atmosphere will be very calm as autumn approaches, a setting enjoyable for hopefully increased gongfu sessions. Strange week. Despite all this, I feel a delightful yearning. Maybe it’s because I am okay, confident and rolling with the happenings.
TEATIME

Received as a sample from Togo. This swap package is never-ending.

5g, 100mL porcelain pot, 200F, rinse, medium length gongfu steep times starting at 20s. I didn’t keep track, maybe 8 infusions.

Dry leaf was small, uniform pebbles with scents of sweet almond and sugar cookie with vegetal, creamy and floral qualities. Warming the leaf opened up the aromas, with additions of pine, anise, gardenia, vanilla, cream, garden peas and a light, tangy high note.

The aroma was delicate and pleasing, floral, cookie, anise. The first thing I noticed was the body of the tea, thick and oily with substantial minerality leading to quick salivation. Like the aroma, the tastes were delicate. If the tea had not had such a pronounced mouthfeel, I would’ve felt this a dud. But the body had me wanting to swirl the tea around in my mouth and in that process, I was able to appreciate the subtlety of flavors. Pine, fresh and dry grass, butter, gardenia on the breeze, a golden apple and lemon mineral water brightness, fleeting hints of custard and spinach, and a few notes I’ve rarely if ever gotten in a high mountain oolong — wet rocks and fresh fungus on the forest floor. They unexpectedly fit the tea well.

The finish was cooling and complex with a throaty bite for the first few steeps and the aftertaste was distinctly green/golden apple skins. Spent leaf revealed pretty much all 3-leaves and a bud, very thin, yet it really expanded in my pot. The energy was CCC — calm, cool and collected.

Simply, a pleasant, perhaps understated tea. Delicate and subtle, never overbearingly green or floral, nor necessarily sweet. I feel like this is a Shanlinxi done right.

Song pairing: David Byrne and Brian Eno — Strange Overtones
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L7IdUqaZxo
Been grooving to David Byrne and Talking Heads for a while.

Pardon me, I’m tea buzzed. Short note.

Tastes like sipping on toffee loaded with chopped dry-roasted almonds. Nice florality and pervasive fresh grassiness and plant stems. Osmanthus is subtle and puts a smile on my face. Bitterness and minerality keep it from becoming cloyingly sweet. Yes.

Longer gongfu steep times and no rinse because I didn’t want to wash away the osmanthus scenting.

A simple, light and refreshing daily drinker kind of oolong.

Spring 2017 harvest. Leaf aromas of generic fruitiness, red fruit, perfume, wood, brown sugar, osmanthus, light pine. Substantial liquor aroma. Tastes of dry grass, osmanthus, light fruitiness, clean minerality with citrus zest tingling. Buttery osmanthus and perfumey aftertaste that later becomes evident on the sip. Fairly smooth with some astringency. Maybe a bit old being Spring 2017 harvest; given another year, this would probably devolve into a perfume bomb, so drink fresh! Pretty red-brown oxidized single leaf mixed with green.

Thanks, Togo!

[5g, 100mL porcelain pot, 10s rinse followed by 7 steeps starting at 10s]

My old coworker who now works for Juniper Ridge contacted me again for more work, this time harvesting some other tree or shrub near Grass Valley, CA. This project involves schlepping all the chainsawing gear up a mountain and camping for several days at a time instead of staying in a hotel and working on flat ground like the last few trips. But I can’t go because I love my new job and my days off are incompatible with their camping trips. So if anybody in the San Francisco Bay Area or Grass Valley/Nevada City/Tahoe region has the cojones to attempt this kind of work, send me a message — pleasefixsteepster oot gmail doot coom. They’re chill people.

Yerba Santa is a highly resinous evergreen shrub with long, toothed-lobed leaves and white- to lavender-colored flowers, indigenous to Oregon south to Mexico. I’ve only come across it in one location here in the Bay Area while doing restoration work. While eradicating an invasive grass, I’d toe my way around the yerba santa plants, trying not to disturb them too heavily but I’d always emerge at the end of the day with a sticky pair of work pants, more fragrant with this plant’s sap than with my own sweat. I love the resinous smell, so I’d admittedly wear my work pants for as long as possible before having to wash them :P

The aroma of this tea is difficult to describe and since I’m intimately familiar with the plant, it of course smells like yerba santa. Very resinous, sappy, medicinal. The taste is the same but also quite bittersweet at the same time, with the sweetness seeming similar to stevia for me. The finish is tart and drying with a lingering light bitterness. Immensely body cooling, more like balsam or pine than menthol. As far as medicinal claims, it’s supposed to be good for relieving the symptoms of lower respiratory ailments and allergies and bladder issues as a diuretic. I’m not testing whether this is true but if you follow herbal medicine, maybe give this one a try.

I get it.

Boozy chocolate, cigar/pipe tobacco, smooth sweet pineapple and light peppery spice.

But if ever there was a tea to vehemently reinforce my preference for unflavored teas, this is it. A spectacular and sultry, rich naturally flavored black tea for a certain crowd; for me, notsomuch.

Cha-cha ;)

Oh my glob. I had 4g of April 2019 harvest stewing in my thermos all morning. Incredible. I moaned during lunch, 6 hours after pouring hot water over the leaves. A coworker asked me if I needed a room. So Thick. So Spicy. Sweet and Fruity. Bought 25g so I’ll be coming back with details but I had to pop in to say

Daaaaaang.

This has been my daily morning black tea for over a week and I’ve almost depleted the 25g bag. This tea has bright flavors to wake up the taste buds, bringing some alertness to my groggy mornings but the caffeine content seems to be on the lower end, so I find myself brewing an additional tea to take to work with me in the thermos.

Brewed western exclusively following What-Cha’s parameters of 2tsp per cup (8
oz), 200-205F, 4 minutes and I do a second steep for however long it takes me to get around to straining it, 6 minutes or more.

Strongish sour dried cherry at the forefront followed by some maltiness but nothing intense, whole wheat cereal flakes, cedar, cherry wood, prunes, both muted cream and butter, hints of cacao, sweet-tart. The butter and cream are deeper in the finish than while sipping. I get the feeling this tea is a bit more complex than my morning palate can discern. Second steep can get sandpapery astringent if brewed way too long, like 20 minutes. Otherwise, it’s a smooth, slightly drying tea and stacking both steeps in my thermos seems to take care of that astringency if I’m taking too long to get ready.

This tea is autumn and sweaters and maybe some old man and old woman. Good for these cool and foggy, coastal California pre-dawn summer hours. A lot like the Georgia ‘Phoenix’ Black Tea offered by What-Cha but much less astringent and red-fruitier in tone.

Curious concept, a GABA oolong cake.

Dry leaf aromas of violet (strongest), red grapes, brown sugar. Warmed and rinsed leaf present baked bread, buttery grape jelly, violet, baked cherries and berries, fresh blueberry, orchid, brown toast, wood.

Brewed 3 ways:

1) Gongfu. Zee best. 5g, 100mL porcelain teapot, 200F, great longevity.

Thick and oily, coats the whole mouth. Tasted like cinnamon raisin brown toast, highly mineral plus salivation, tangy, ridiculously smooth. Consistent in character until the end. Later turns nutty and woody, a bit salty with a light bite in the throat. Liquor develops a neat purple hue. Very content energy. Rating: 87

2) Grandpa. I like. 2g, 8oz, 200F, 5! top-offs.

Thick, full-bodied, roasty-toasty, floral grape, raisin, wood, sweet lemon tartness, still lots of salivation. Leads into dried fruit flavors of sour cherries and berries. Rating 85.

3) Thermos. Basically stewed about 9 hours. 2.5g, 20oz, 200F.

Tastes like a highly mineral shou. Toasty, thick, salty-umami, sometimes strong notes of rye. Not bad. Rating 77.

Average: 83

Maybe worth buying a small cake for Sheetz und Kegels. I mean, I haven’t seen a GABA cake around. This is an opportunity to see how it holds up over the long term. What’s the purpose? Ease of storage like a shou cake? It’s already highly oxidized and there aren’t strong roast notes so I doubt it would transform much. Would make an excellent fall/winter tea.

Song pairing, I’m going to refrain from linking but it’s Milli Vanilli — Girl You Know It’s True
Lord, why.