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From Leafhopper’s Tea Museum. The last sample of this tea that she sent was I think a different harvest and at the time only 1 year past the best before date. This sealed sample’s best before date was just shy of 4 years ago.

Effectively dead tea. About the only life left was the very sweet caramel aroma from the roast, none of that warm, roasted chestnutty goodness of Long Jing. Even though the steeped leaf looked like it was a good pick, the sickly buff color with no hint of green was testament enough to not bother with brewing the rest of the sample.

I wouldn’t normally leave a note for such an experience but it might be useful information for somebody out there. Drink this tea within a few years of harvest! Other Chinese greens can hold their life longer than this one.

No hard feelings, Leafhopper. This is just a data point.

A family friend from Texas landed unexpectedly at our house last night for an impromptu weekend visit. After nerding out about tea with King Weird for a bit last night, I put together a care package for him of Japanese greens (and many other teas!) which is what prompted this note.

April 28, 2021 harvest

Very intense when brewed with TDJ’s parameters. The amino acid content made my stomach turn, so with this session, I dialed back the first infusion time to 1 minute. Much better, still intense but kinder to my constitution.

Nutty-sweet and starchy white sweet potato scent of the dry leaf with a sheer, creamy overlay; soft, clean note of boiled spinach. Something elusive, like a combination of marzipan, some kind of fruit and cinnamon. It’s a mystery to me, but it’s there and very well hidden.

The liquor is very low-pitched and seafood umami/sweet-driven. Alkaline, brothy and moderately thick (but not oily) with a dominant taste of soft, sweet seafood and edamame, bitterness of dark green kale. Some cashew nuttiness, a sharper umami note of white bean paste that’s more in the nose than mouth, and a quiet, undefinable fruit undertone. The ultra-green chlorophyllic wheatgrass note of shaded green teas expresses itself greater with each subsequent infusion.

Really difficult tea to understand and take in. The bitterness isn’t well integrated and always pulls me out of the moment. Gyokuro’s charm continues to evade me. I can say that I did enjoy another of TDJ’s gyokuro from Asahina more: https://steepster.com/teas/thes-du-japon/98109-gyokuro-from-asahina-saemidori-cultivar

Maybe I’ll try this one ice-brewed.

Finished off this tea today. Wanted to note that it has changed since opening the bag 3 months ago — not for better nor necessarily for worse but I certainly appreciated the pop of unique flavor with the first session. Also, its astringency can be a challenge to balance depending on preparation and type of vessel used. For me, the best results showed with shorter steeps in a clay pot, especially so when the tea was at its freshest. Brewed western in a ceramic cup, the body and fruity taste weren’t as pronounced and the tea was more astringent; in a glass cup proved to be the most astringent.

I’d recommend this only to sippers comfortable with experimenting and those that once they open a bag are dedicated to finishing it before opening another.

I’ve been coming home for lunch lately and getting as many small pots worth of sheng pu’er in as I can before heading back to work. Not rushing of course. And it’s doing great things for my mood.

This wild Yiwu sheng has certainly changed since last sipped a few summers ago during the throes of Covid social insanity: https://steepster.com/derk/posts/408020

The tea has that unique wild tea taste that I feel I can never put words to. Something like leafy medicine, or maybe yerba maté – high alkaloid content. Long-lasting bitterness moreso in feeling than in taste. This tea has more oomph than some wild sheng and less than others, sitting closer to those with a deeper, more powerful sensation.

Most of the characteristics are still present. The signature-to-me Yiwu date-caramel-honeylike sweetness in aroma and on the sip has gotten deeper but this is not among the sweeter Yiwu teas. Early astringency isn’t bothersome and gives way to light oiliness later. Again, both a clear mind and a comfortable yet energizing feeling that is different from the effects of caffeine alone. My mood was lightened and concentration noticeably sharpened for the second half of the work day.

Where the flavor (and leaf aroma) has made a marked change is in the development of a deepened fruitiness that spans the low to high tones along with some teenage tang. Passionfruit, bright red raspberry, orange and apricot grace the taste. The spicy leaf-and-bark impression is still present, balanced by that mossy airiness. Something I didn’t pick up on last time was cooling eucalyptus. One thing that caught me was that the dry leaf now smells like a specific chocolate bar I sometimes enjoy — Passion Fruit in Ruby Chocolate by Chocolove. The ruby chocolate tastes to me like a combination of a white chocolate and a milk chocolate that lacks strong lactose flavor; throw in a hint of berry fruitiness.

What has mostly disappeared is the initial creamy mouthfeel (which I would hope returns given more aging) and the strong drying quality (which I hope has mostly phased out). The floral quality is also aging out.

I didn’t take any notes today, recalling this entirely from memory. Given the amount I’ve written, I’d say this tea made a very favorable impression. I’ll consider buying a cake when I finally make a damn dent in all my sheng samples :P A handful of years ago, wild teas would almost always leave me reeling from intensity. Seems like I’ve finally grown into that energy <3

Happy to report this green tea has retained its signature character despite being 1.5 years old. Very little has changed or is missing from my first sit-down with it.

It feels like a combination of Anhui yellow tea, various Zhejiang green teas and ethereal, slightly herbaceous Fujian silver needles.

I can’t say anything about this sheng pu’er has changed much since my last note nearly a year ago https://steepster.com/derk/posts/415982 but it made for a very enjoyable session after lunch today.

While it still has plenty of youthful astringency, there’s a great balance of sweetness (brown rice syrup), bitterness minerality, florality, returning sweetness and cooling huigan. The mouthfeel and initial thick, oily texture seal the deal. Most importantly, this tea is CLEAN and elicits a calming, muscle-relaxing body feeling even with a full belly.

Going to up my rating as this session left a favorable impression. Not sure how this sheng will hold up in the long haul in my climate. It might be better off subjected to more humid storage. Both Tea Urchin and Matu have likened this to an Yiwu tea; I can agree based on the rich sweetness.

Still an excellent sheng in comparison to 2 years ago. It has retained many of its quality characteristics. Along with the liquor color that has changed into a bright and clear orange, the most noticeable transformation is of the sweetness to something fruitier like a cross between melon and dates. Very nice tea that gives me the speedy Jingmai energy that’s normally overbearing but it’s useful for this post-lunch session. It possesses a subtle, gripping depth of feeling that tempers the usual Jingmai jitters.

From Leafhopper, purchased from Tea Forum member Bok – thank you!

The dry leaf has the most natural creamy and sugary sweet aroma I’ve ever smelled in a high mountain oolong. It reminds me of a touch of pineapple blended with coconut cream. The floral aroma mixes very well displaying fleshy notes of tuberose and magnolia and a more airy orchid.

Warming the leaf brings out more of a sweet vegetal, nutty character with spinach, creamed corn and macadamia with a good dose of nutmeg and a hint of kale.

Both the taste and aroma are delicate yet entirely intoxicating. Instant calm. Grass, tuberose, pineapple, palm sugar (those Vietnamese pucks), coconut, macadamia, ginger lily, nutmeg, cream, an overall slight umami quality. Very smooth with both balanced acidity and astringency that leave the mouth watering. The tea goes down with ease, finishing minty cool and buttery clean. Soul-warming.

The leaf has good longevity and with my hand, seems to express itself with numerous peaks and valleys. It’s not a very forward tea and needs some coaxing to maintain an even display of character. Even though the warm fruity, nutty and spicy tropical aromas and tastes would appeal to many, this is a leaf that might be best appreciated by tea enthusiasts with perceptive palates. I would love to see what others think of it, though!

March 2021 harvest

First brews from a bag freshly opened had a sugarcane-sweet nose and tastewise, a combination of flowers, tropical fruit and gentle grassy-spinachy character. Refined sweetness and brisk astringency in a moderately viscous and buoyant liquor. A pleasure to drink prepared in a mason jar with water-dispenser hot water at work. This tea produced three fully flavored and textured steeps of forgetful mind timing. It helped to allay my nerves during a frantic and frazzled work day. So far, my biggest issue with this tea is the rather drying quality.

If Tea Masters calls this an everyday baozhong (which I agree with), I can’t imagine Stéphane’s next step up. At $3.50 for 25g, I consider this a deal but there are much better baozhong out there. Let’s see how I can connect with this leaf in a more relaxed setting.

For the tea nerds, this #2028 “is produced from a cultivar that was developed at the same time as Jinxuan (code #2027) and Tsui Yu (code #2029). However, even though this cultivar was never officially released by Taiwan Tea Research and Extension Station, farmers have continued to use it in their plantations.”

I’m glad to have received this baozhong as a freebie (a 25g freebie!) as it’s not a tea I would have added to my cart, so thank you very much!

3 years is no time at all to a tea well made and well stored. I had a modest-sized 2019 harvest from Leafhopper that I decided to split between 2 western brews instead of one gongfu session.

I don’t know anything about this leaf since the The Tea doesn’t have a description on their site for it right now. But I am convinced my sample of the 2019 harvest was of the TTES #8 cultivar and not a ‘wild’ tea because both western sessions I had of this tea screamed at me: https://steepster.com/derk/posts/398397 In my sense-memory, an undeniable deadringer. Same year and everything. Leafhopper, I see you’ve had What-Cha’s tea, too. How do the two compare for you?

Anyway, awesome tea! Not often I’m blown away by western preparations of tea, nonetheless those distractedly brewed at work and with water cooler hot water. I have mad respect for this leaf. It has everything I want from a high-powered black tea while managing to be wonderfully refined in taste and possessing great structure. Malty and savory in a way that doesn’t bog me down thanks to the bright citrus and fruity berry tones combined with the full, smooth body, cooling finish and both light astringency and sweetness (that was a mouthful) —

Hot damn! This tea sings.