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This is the kind of tea for when you’re in the mood for something soft and delicate. I would say that’s true for pretty much all of the long feng xia teas I’ve tried.

The taste of this tea is crisp and fresh, with subtle floral and vegetal notes that have to be gently coaxed out. It doesn’t play well with very hot water. Instead, green tea like temperatures (180 – 185 F) are necessary in order to bring out its delicate character.

It starts off light and sweet. A pale yellow liquor that tastes like early morning dew on grass. Notes of lily of the valley appear as it cools. The color becomes greener with subsequent steeps. The body grows fuller and the tea bursts with a buttery floral taste. I detected notes of hyacinth, daffodil, and gardenia. After a few more steeps the tea mellows out a bit as it shifts to a fruity-vegetal taste.

I steeped 4g of this tea in my 110ml purple clay teapot using 180-190 F temperature water. The tea was steeped 7 times following a rinse for 30s/45s/1m/90s/2m/3m/4m.

Tried a sample of this at TJ’s the other day and was really impressed by it. The mint and watermelon taste natural and well balanced with the black tea base. I had it iced and unsweetened and could totally see myself sipping this during the summer months. Reminded me of one of my favorite summer salads: watermelon, mint, and feta…yum!

Over the years as my teaware collection has grown, my teapots, gaiwans, and shibos have gotten smaller in size. When I look back at it, I’m astonished at how early on in my tea journey a 10oz teapot was considered petite and today I have no interest in anything larger than 150ml. These days I reach for my 120ml shibo or 80ml gaiwan for most teas. There are a few reasons for my teaware shrinking: gongfu brewing, limiting caffeine intake, and stretching my pricier teas.

This mini kyusu is the most recent addition to my cupboard and at 65ml is the smallest tea vessel that I own. Teaware House started selling them a few years ago and since then I’ve seen them popping up everywhere online. They are mass produced in China (where else?) and come in an assortment of colors. I bought mine for $14 shipped from AliExpress. I chose the white ruyao as its glazed inside and can be used with any tea.

In person, the kyusu is super tiny and almost looks like a toy. But in the hand it feels solid and has a nice weight for such a small teapot. There are 7 medium sized holes inside near the spout that seldom get blocked. It is suitable for all but fine leaf teas such as Japanese greens. I’ve brewed Chinese green tea, blacks, and oolongs without issue. The pour rate is reasonably fast but during the pour it has a tendency to drip a little if overfilled or tipped over too quickly. To use properly, grip the little handle in between your index and middle fingers and use your thumb to hold down the lid as you angle the teapot just so. Same as my 150ml clay Japanese kyusu, but this one isn’t quite as comfortable to hold due to the small size. It also takes a bit more effort to clean because you can only fit one finger inside. While this teapot performs well, I find myself reaching for my $5 Yunnan Sourcing 80ml gaiwan more often. I’ve found that when it comes to <100ml teapots, the handleless ones (gaiwans And shibos) feel more ergonmical in the hands than teapots.

All nitpicking aside, this is a very functional teapot and a tremendous value for the price. The size is perfect for one person and the biggest benefit for me is cutting back on caffeine while still being able to do proper gongfu. And less caffeine isn’t just about insomnia. By not blowing through my daily caffeine allowance in one go, it gives me an opportunity to have more than one kind of tea during the day.

I picked up a bottle of this at Mitsuwa today instead of my usual Ito-En Golden Oolong and Green Tea. I’m surprised at how much I liked it because I usually don’t care for hojicha and roasted teas in general. This is a roasty tea for sure, but not aggressively so. It’s really smooth and gentle with a nutty flavor and a soft, faint oily finish. It’s very warming (even chilled) and comforting like genmaicha. The taste is similar to a roasted oolong and reminded me of Golden Oolong except this one is darker and doesn’t have the floral-cinnamon notes.

For a bottled tea, this was outstanding and probably the best hojicha I’ve ever had. Its miles above your standard grocery store bottled tea, although that’s generally true for most Ito-en teas. This would be a great summer drink and makes me want to branch out from my standard green teas to explore hojicha.

Found myself at DavidsTea today after what felt like ages. Feeling thirsty and wanting something less sugary than the usual fare at the mall food court, decided to get a cup of this iced. For some reason, this reminded me of Mountain Dew but without the sugar. It was citrusy, with heavier pineapple than mango and tropical fruitiness in the background. The tea was sweetened but just barely so. Enough to bring out its natural sweetness without tasting sugary.

For an herbal, this was really tasty and worked perfectly in iced tea. I’m curious as to what it would taste like hot and unsweetened. I’d also like to see how it does blended with a straight tea. I may revisit this one once my Murchie’s Mango Green Tea runs out.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a Four Seasons Tea. I remember it being my first introduction to Taiwanese oolongs years ago. But I’ve had little reason to revisit it since then because as the saying goes, once you go high mountain you never go back. Or something like that. Anyways, this one came to me in my Tea from Taiwan sampler pack.

This is a flowery tea through and through. The smell of the dry leaves is like a sweet floral bouquet. Following a rinse, notes of hyacinth, kettle corn, and fresh spring vegetation appear. The first steep is light-bodied with a green tea like taste and mellow oolong sweetness. The second steep is thicker and has a honeysuckle finish that hangs on to the back of the tongue. Third steep brings a more complex floral taste with hyacinth notes. The flavor drops off by the fourth steep, but the tea still gives a good sweetness mingled with a little astringency.

The biggest difference I noticed between this and the more expensive high mountain oolongs is the texture. While it has decent flavor, it lacks the fullness, body, and viscosity of better Taiwanese teas. It also doesn’t last very long, peaking by the 3rd steep. But I can’t be mad at it though this is a budget oolong after all.

In short, this is a serviceable jade oolong with a pleasant yet simple flavor. It was fun revisiting an old favorite but I wouldn’t go out of my way to buy it since there are so many better Taiwanese teas out there.

Spring 2018 harvest.

This is a tea that I just could not get to taste right no matter how much I tried. Tried gongfu, grandpa, and western steeping and all I got was a very pale, tasteless liquor.

Although this is classified as a green tea, it looks and smells like an oolong with its balled up leaves and rich, buttery aroma. In a heated vessel, it emits a sweet, pastry-like aroma which turns to toasted nuts when the leaf is introduced to hot water.

The flavor though is a different story. The brewed tea is colorless and nearly tasteless with a vague vegetal flavor. It feels like drinking hot water. Upping the water temperature and steep times made it taste like russet potato skins. Unlike other GABA teas I’ve had, it doesn’t produce any feelings of calm or relaxation.

However cold brewing was the saving grace for this one and prevented me from throwing it out. When steeped overnight in the fridge, it transforms into a different tea – sweeter, more robust, with a fruity freshness. There’s a chestnut like nuttiness and sweet potato in the finish.

Tea from Taiwan is a company that I’ve known about for a while but passed over many times until a couple of weeks ago when I was out of new options for Taiwanese oolongs and this generic named vendor was the only one left. They had a sale on samples and I bought two sampler packs. The Feng Fu sampler which contains teas from the typical high mountain regions of Taiwan (Long Feng Xia, Ali Shan, Shan Lin Xi, etc) and the Da Yu Ling and Hua Gang sampler, consisting of these two super premium teas.

Hua Gang from the description is a tea grown in the Li Shan mountain range. I don’t know if that technically makes it a Li Shan but I used Li Shan tea as a comparison point. The dark green leaves were rolled into large nuggets and had a sweet orchid aroma. When dropped into a heated gaiwan, the aroma becomes buttery and sweet corn like. Following a rinse, the leaves turned emerald green and delicious aromas of vanilla, custard, and flowers wafted out.

The tea began light and fresh with notes of sweet pea and lily of the valley. The body became thicker and the florals more prominent starting with the second brew. I picked up notes of lilac, honeysuckle, citrus, and green apple along the way. There were a few times when grassiness and a slight astringency crept in but overall, pleasant floral tones and a lingering sweetness dominated throughout the 6 or so steeps.

My sample was 7g so I only managed 2 sessions with this tea. The first time, I brewed it following my usual method for oolongs: water temperature starting at 190 F, gradually increased to boiling and steep times of 50s, 40s, 50s, 1m, 70s, 90s, 2m, and 3m. The tea however peaked a little early. The next time, I steeped according to the instructions on their website which recommend cooler water temperatures (185 – 195 F) and steep times of 30s, 45s, 1:30, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes. This brought out a lot more of those lovely floral top notes but also a touch of astringency, nothing off-putting though. Decent endurance however I received fewer infusions from it than other similar gaoshans.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a good green oolong and really enjoyed this sample. After my Taiwan Sourcing disaster, I was worried about how this order would turn out. Thankfully, this one had been sealed properly in oxygen-free packaging and tasted very fresh.

This was a really nice dan cong. Smooth, syrupy, and with interesting flavor characteristics that evolved throughout the steeps.

The dry leaf had potent aromas of plums, wildflower honey, and rocks. Following a rinse, these turned into camphor, eucalyptus, and toasted nuts. The tea started off roasty with a touch of honey. The roast soon faded and gave way to a maple like syrupy flavor and hint of cinnamon. More spice came in later, specifically nutmeg and cardamom. The body thickened and there was an orchid note in the finish and later on hints of eucalyptus/mint. Towards the end, the mouthfeel became quite drying though the tea itself remained nice and smooth.

Dan congs can be challenging to brew but this one was unfussy and extremely forgiving to brew times and temperatures. I enjoyed its balanced taste and mellow sweetness. My sample was nearly 2 years old so I can only imagine how good it must have been at its peak.

Bleh, really wanted to like this tea but I could barely stomach it. I don’t know what Goji leaf is supposed to taste like – goji berries are the only goji food I’ve ever had – but this smelled and tasted like overcooked vegetables. I didn’t get any of the honey, biscuit, or fruity notes that Verdant described. My significant other though liked it better and remarked that it tasted like cauliflower to her. I guess it comes down to individual taste preferences, but this one has a weird vegetal taste that doesn’t jive with me.