74 Tasting Notes

72
drank Candy Cane Crush by DAVIDsTEA
74 tasting notes

So I had this from my holiday tea sampler for the very first time and was looking forward to trying it. There was a similar blend from Teavana years ago I think. Smells great, tastes great, indeed reminiscent of whatever blend that was. But oooof, the stomach ache I have now is a bit much from just tea. After looking at the ingredients which admittedly I should’ve done before, white chocolate is the second one listed after the tea itself which means there’s quite a bit of it in there. Drat. I’ll take a lactase pill next time.

Flavors: Butter, Creamy, Peppermint, Smooth, Sugar, Sweet, White Chocolate

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 30 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

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85

Was excited for this one, I mean it’s a great name—duck shit! I read about brewing dan cong oolong and there seem to be two ways of doing it based on an article from Verdant Tea: Guangdong-style brewing and Wuyi-style. I opted for the former and steeled myself for the allegedly intense, bitter flavors. I filled the gaiwan to the top with leaves (~10g), quickly washed it with boiling water, then steeped for 30s + 5s for 5-6 infusions. Hmmm. It’s very possible I messed up with this approach because the bitterness was maybe too forward, to the detriment of other flavors. Perhaps a shorter initial brewing time, or perhaps a little less than boiling water would help. I will say, with the amount of bitterness I tasted I expected more astringency to accompany it, but there was only a little, mostly on the second infusion, and it wasn’t unpleasant. The floral notes and natural sweetness came out more after that. I’ll try the other style next time, then maybe come back to this and experiment some more. I would appreciate some guidance with this one!

Flavors: Astringent, Bitter, Char, Floral, Honey, Mineral, Peach, Wood

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 30 sec 10 g 3 OZ / 100 ML

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40
drank African Solstice by Tea Forte
74 tasting notes

Sipdown #2! Glad to finish this one off. I loved this blend as part of a sampler I got waaaay back in college, so I got a tin of it a little while later. Definitely got a worse batch of it as this time it felt way too fruity, artificial, and kinda thin. The sample on the other hand was creamier, earthier, and rich with that vanilla rooibos flavor I’m usually so in love with.

Flavors: Artificial, Blueberry, Fruity, Rooibos, Rose, Sweet, Tart

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 4 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML

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90

Brewed some gong fu and brewed some cold overnight. Still love it! Not much different from my last session, but found that it does taste more herbaceous the more it’s steeped, not because of an increased temperature.

As for the cold brew, it’s delicious. The dill flavor I was looking for? It’s all here. Very refreshing to have this morning.

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 0 min, 15 sec

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85

I brought the rest of my sample to my parent’s house a neighborhood over, wanting to spread the joy of this tea but also to have something to warm up to after shoveling snow for three hours. It wasn’t a great session unfortunately. My parents aren’t really the patient type and wouldn’t even sit down for my improvised gong fu set up, which dampened my enthusiasm. I brought my kyusu over, found a tea towel, two glass espresso cups, a shot glass, and a measuring cup as a pitcher. It was a pitiful yet amusing sight. The tea itself was just as fine as last time. My dad said it tasted like an ashtray but nicer. Didn’t quite get tea drunk but I did take a heavy nap afterward. Oh well.

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 10 g 200 OZ / 5914 ML

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70

I have a backlog of tasting notes to catch up on, so here’s the first. This was an enjoyable gong fu session with my partner. Always a delight to share tea with someone else, especially when they’re eager to try something new. I was a bit surprised that she seemed to enjoy the tea more than me considering she’s the type of person to add sweetener to everything, and well, there’s none of that here. I found it nice enough but it lacked that depth in flavor I was hoping to find. The flavors didn’t quite evolve in a significant way either, though after some time the tea became reminiscent of green beans, kind of melding a lot of the notes together which made me “get it” more. Recently I’ve found those moments are nice, when you’re sipping and all of a sudden you have that a-ha moment and learn to appreciate it.

Flavors: Drying, Fennel, Green Beans, Mineral, Nutty, Soybean, Spinach, Vegetal

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 0 min, 15 sec 6 g 7 OZ / 200 ML

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100

Just had this cold brewed (despite it being freezing cold here and right before a snowstorm hits!). This is so tasty I might rate it 100. Every flavor I loved from my gong fu preparation is present here, and the honey notes are more pronounced. Also getting a hint of marzipan. This is going to be a regular of mine for sure.

Flavors: Chocolate, Honey, Malt, Marzipan, Sweet, Toasty

Preparation
12 g 24 OZ / 709 ML
Courtney

I so rarely think to cold brew black tea! Hopefully the snowstorm passes through quickly!

Mastress Alita

I always have a coldbrew (or two) in the fridge, despite the weather!

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85

Received as a free sample from Yunnan Sourcing. My dive into gong fu tea has led to me experiencing a phenomenon new to me known as “tea drunk.” I felt it first when I tried the tie guan yin last week. Kind of a high, invigorating yet serene. I didn’t attribute it to tea at the time but feeling it again this evening led me to do some research. Apparently it’s possible the combination of caffeine and L-theanine is producing this effect? Exciting. And from my understanding, this is different from cha qi? Anyway, I quite enjoyed this sample. Smoky, earthy, and woodsy at first, later fruity, kind of plummy almost? Steeped around 15 times.

Flavors: Clay, Fruity, Plum, Smoke, Smooth, Wet Earth, Wet Wood, Wood

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 30 sec 6 g 3 OZ / 100 ML
derk

Puerh can produce such a range of body and mind feelings if your constitution is receptive. Some people can’t feel these things, though, which doesn’t speak any lesser of a person or of a tea. My first tea drunk feeling was with a Formosa oolong!

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87

I’m not feeling so hot today. Pandemic blues? Feeling a surge of hormones and stress and energy for seemingly no reason and I needed something to ground me. This tea helped a little. Instead of not knowing what to do with myself, I’m now dancing to dabke music in my room, so let’s call that a success! Anyway, this tea is comfort food.

Flavors: Cream, Orchid, Sweet

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 4 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

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drank After Dinner Mint by DAVIDsTEA
74 tasting notes

Argh, licorice! I need to stop giving it a chance. Listen, I love teas that help settle the stomach. And I’m happy that this tea still does that. But the licorice aftertaste… [shudder]. The flavors are nice enough as I’m sipping, it’s the lingering taste that makes the experience as a whole unpleasant. I’m just not sure why the licorice is needed here (does anyone even actively like licorice?). Anyway, I will continue to drink straight fennel or mint tea for now.

Flavors: Fennel, Licorice, Mint

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 30 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
Roswell Strange

Ironically, the licorice root is included because it’s actually used as an herbal remedy for upset stomachs, indigestion, and heartburn ;)

Mateusz

Blergh, good to know! Hopefully it’s not the only ingredient in this tea solving my tummy trouble :|

Cameron B.

I like licorice things in general, but I agree that licorice root can be very unpleasant if it’s too strong. It has a very cloying quality to me.

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Profile

Bio

Hello! My name is Mateusz, or Mat for short. Started brewing gong fu style in January 2021. This is mostly for logging purposes; don’t expect fancy reviews as I’m not great at picking up every note and hint and I’m not too picky anyway.

Happy to exchange tea samples! I haven’t been great at updating my cupboard but feel free to ask about the teas that I log on here.

Location

New York, NY

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