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Argh, I was really looking forward to the Alishan and magnolia oolong I cold brewed overnight for my morning commute the other day but forgot it on the kitchen counter. It was a hot day and I was craving something fresh and chilled. So on the way to work, I took a quick detour to the Japanese dollar store which carries a variety of different bottled teas.

I picked this up as it was a brand I hadn’t seen before and the color was actually green instead of the amber, oxidized color found in most bottled green teas. The writing on the bottle was nearly all in Japanese save for the nutritional label but thanks to Google Lens I was able to decipher some of it.

Apparently this is a green tea with matcha and there was also a mention of lemon. Upon tasting, it’s definitely a straight green tea. It’s similar to Ito-En and Pokka bottled/canned teas, but cleaner tasting and more fresh. There’s an avocado like richness and a citrusy finish (perhaps that’s what the lemon in the translation refers to?). Very balanced without any bitterness. If there’s matcha in it, it must be a small amount because it’s not cloudy and doesn’t have any chalkiness. It tastes like a good Sencha that I would brew at home.

A little pricier than the other bottled green teas you’ll find on the grocery shelf but the quality in evident.

Backlog.

Had this one a while ago at work and jotted down a few sparse notes. It’s quite similar in appearance and taste to the other Obubu teas I’ve sampled. Long, unbroken dark green leaves that share many flavor characteristics with Chinese greens. Aromas of autumn leaves and boy choy. Very light in color and taste. Flavor is mostly green bean and sautéed veggies. Doesn’t have much of the grass and umami typically found in Japanese greens.

Thanks for the sample Cameron. I’m just about done with all of the Obubu senchas and looking forward to trying the houjicha samples next.

This one reminded me of Hi-Chew melon candy from the Asian grocery store. It has that artificial melon smell and flavor mingled with honeydew. As it cools, the artificial candy flavor fades somewhat but an overripe melon taste appears in the finish which I found cloying.

Lupicia usually does flavored tea well but this one wasn’t quite up to par. I still have an ounce of this tea left plus another ounce of Melon White tea so I need to find a way to make this flavor work. Going to give cold brewing a try and maybe blend it with other flavors to smooth out the somewhat intense melon-y taste.

Wow, can’t believe it’s been 2 months since I’ve posted here. That’s got to be my longest stretch ever. Part of it is life getting hectic over the past several weeks and another part is due to inertia and losing a bit of interest in Steepster. I’m still drinking tea and all but these days log my sessions in the MyTeaPal app. It’s so much easier to jot down and organize tasting notes this way than manually writing everything down in OneNote and then transferring to Steepster through a browser later.

I have to say this app is everything I had hoped Steepster would one day become. Despite the recent improvements, the site still feels stuck in 2011. I had DMed with the app creator on Instagram a while back about the possibility to linking MyTeaPal to Steepster. I guess it wasn’t technically feasible since MyTeaPal recently launched their own social network that allows tasting notes to be published and shared. It’ll be interesting to see how it grows over time and whether it can rival Steepster’s repository of tea reviews. I really hope that Adagio can take the site in a similar direction because outside of core users, it feels like Steepster is slipping into oblivion.

Anyhoo, I’ve mostly been sipping down the teas in my collection for the past couple of months to clear the cupboard for new spring teas. Amongst them, was this Dragonwell that had been sitting in cold storage for many months. Long jing is one of the greens that tends to do well in the fridge.

There was quite a bit of broken leaf but that could have due to how it was stored. Regardless, it still had a fresh aroma of chestnut, snap pea, and crisp vegetables. I used to grandpa steep it when it was fresh but it doesn’t do so well anymore when steeped this way. It’s strong with a flavor that leans savory and sometimes borders on astringent. However at this stage of the tea’s lifecycle, gongfu is where it’s at. It transforms the tea into a thick, delicious sweet dew with notes of pea, cucumber, and flowers. It fades rather quickly though to a stewed green bean taste.

Overall, I’m pleased with how well this tea has held up given the Covid related shipping delay last year and how long its sat in my fridge. My Chinese greens from Teavivre are again delayed this year (43 days and counting…grrr) but hey, at least I can be assured that my dragonwell tea won’t suffer as much from the loss of freshness.

This Kabuse Sencha was the best tea from my Floating Leaves order. Kind of ironic that a tea shop specializing in Taiwanese oolong sells a low profile green tea that outshines some of their more high end teas. I picked this one up not only to meet the free shipping threshold but also because I enjoyed the Obubu Tea Farms sample of Kabuse Sencha that Cameron gave me recently. I have no idea whether this is sourced from the same tea farm as Obubu but both are sublime teas.

The leaves are dark green and shaped like pine needles. Not quite as pristine as Obubu’s but still handsome. At least by sencha standards anyway. The leaves emit a deep, sweet grassy aroma that changes to a marine like dashi scent upon being heated. Clear, yellowish green liquor. Wet leaves have a slightly marine aroma as well but it’s more oceanic, like fresh caught steamed whitefish.

First infusion is fresh, crisp, and invigorating. Bright, balanced umami with notes of sea shells and snap pea. Second infusion is similar. Smoother and more buttery with light grass and seaweed notes. Flavor drops a bit over the next two steeps. More savory this time with a slight marine finish and a bit more astringency.

Instagram photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CMari68APv9/

Backlog.

This was a good tea but seemed to suffer from a loss of freshness. Partly a result of Covid related shipping delays and partly due to sitting in cold storage for several months. I feel like delicate greens such as first flushes don’t hold up to refrigeration as well as dragonwells and sencha.

At standard green tea temperature (170 – 175 F) the tea has an odd note of overly ripe pear and banana. Upon bumping up the temperature, it went away and the familiar Laoshan flavors of soybean, fennel, and green lettuce appeared with an underlay of nuttiness.

Not terribly complex and as mentioned had lost some freshness yet still a pleasant drinking experience.

Backlog.

Another FLT oolong that I wanted to like but didn’t quite work for me. It had some nice floral elements for sure, but was affected by an underlying stale taste. A frustratingly common issue with green oolongs, unfortunately. I really wish all vendors packed their tea in oxygen free packaging like Taiwan Tea Crafts to avoid this problem.

Back to the tea at hand. I gongfued this for 6 infusions. It starts somewhat disappointingly with a stale vegetal taste mixed in with flowers and an unusual chamomile note. The second steep though is clearer with more distinct flowery notes of daffodils and honeysuckle rounded out with hints of vanilla and cream. The next two steeps present a thick, lingering flower nectar, the intensity of which reminds me of lily of the valley. The flavor peters out over the final couple of steeps yet retains a candy like sweetness and the odd chamomile note from the initial steep returned.

All in all, this was the best oolong from my Floating Leaves order although that’s not saying much since all of them were lacking. That’s not a reflection on the vendor though. I’ve had good tea from Floating Leaves before. I suspect it has more to do with the quality of last winter’s harvest.

My second Floating Leaves Baozhong. Between this and the Farmer’s Choice, this was the better of the two but not by a whole lot.

Dry leaves have a slightly staleish aroma of grass and turnips. When steeped, it changes to egg yolk and buttered lilacs. The tea starts off with a soupy, brothy flavor mingled with lilac and violets. Second steep is clearer with more sweetness and water lily like florals. The next steep is similar but with a thicker body. Eventually, it flattens a bit and settles into a floral-grassy flavor.

This tea lacks the thick mouthfeel and depth of better Baozhongs but is still serviceable.

Backlog. This was a free sample that came with my Floating Leaves order. I only managed a couple of sessions with it but the flavor didn’t leave any notable impression.

The tea has the aroma of taro, coconut, grass, and subtle flowers. The brewed tea tasted of steamed vegetables with faint, murky florals. There were a few fruit and citrus hints here and there along the way but overall just a little bland and undistinguished. The description notes that due to weather, the Winter harvest this year lacked intensity which I can affirm.

Another unique tea from Cameron’s Obubu Tea Farm’s collection. I’ve always been curious to try tencha, the precursor to matcha, but it’s not an easy tea to find.

The familiar smell of matcha, those deep vegetal and umami notes, greet you upon opening the pouch. The leaf looks like a typical sencha although it has more broken leaves and small particle than other Obubu teas. The steeped tea tastes indeed like matcha. Soft peat moss earthiness, umami, and assertive notes of broccoli and spinach. It tastes like a thin matcha but without the intensity and chalkiness. As someone who finds straight matcha too aggressive, I appreciated the lighter, more delicate flavor of this tencha.

Thanks Cameron for once again expanding my experience!