Featured & New Tasting Notes

Stolen from the box I have half-ready for Sil.

Tastes more like a black tea than a white.

Steeped 1 minute at 195F.

It’s really good, but I’m still not really into tea, so I won’t keep it. It just smelled good, so I wanted a cup today.

This tea comes in small 2g sachets. Directions are to steep 4 minutes at 90C (194F) in one cup. Hard to say if one cup is 8oz, rather doubtful., probably less is better. I used 208F slightly hotter water and brewed for 2 minutes.

Flavor is malty and sweet, rather like a Yunnan black but nowhere near the strength. Adding milk somewhat kills the delicate profile. I only ordered 50g or 25 tea bags for $9.99 and wish I’d ordered the 500g, but then this is really pricey for tea bags. Not exactly economical if you drink two a day. So it’s back to English tea bags, this is carrying me over until my box from England arrives. I’m trying to stay off coffee in the a.m., but I need milk in tea to buffer my a.m. Meds. The good news is, haven’t had a cup of coffee since mid-December of last year.

Still, have to recommend these as a step up from regular tea bags. Wish I was a tiny Japanese woman using an equally tiny tea cup. I’d feel so elegant and Zen instead, but have to accept I wake up Slavic rolling with a heavy mug. Japan all the way in the afternoon though.

1996 Cnnp “green mark te ji” ripe puerh cake review

Ru Yao dragon teapot gongfucha

Dry leaves: slightly musty
https://www.instagram.com/p/BE1FGJKp43W/
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2x 15s rinses

Wet leaves: slight earth/fermentation smell, Old books and autumn leaves. Light musty smell
https://www.instagram.com/p/BE1JQRoJ40u/

Light steep: I taste smell; light —> earth/fermentation, old books.
Slight -→ autumn leaves.
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Medium steep: I taste/smell;
medium —> earth/fermentation, old books, autumn leaves. Light -→ camphor.

Heavy steep: I taste/smell; medium to strong —> earth/fermentation, old books, autumn leaves. Medium -→ camphor.

All in all this is an extremely tasty tea! The aroma, the flavour, the qi! I rate this a 100!

Backlog

I had this on Thursday in the afternoon. I didn’t have much time to write about it, but I did record a message on the phone, reviewing the tea. There wasn’t much that I said about the tea, expect that it tasted like “old fruit that was sitting out too long; however, there’s an odd sweetness to this tea.” The “old fruit” flavor remained as an aftertaste that was almost unsettling. I usually like Zhena’s Gypsy teas, but this wasn’t one of them that I had enjoyed.

Buttery and salty and oolong, but who stole the caramel? I am adding a teaspoon of honey to see if I can coax the caramel back. Yes, yes, better, but still not that sexy dripping luscious caramel of my imagination.

The second steep is super buttery too, maybe even more so than the first. A bit more vegetal with the slightest echo of salt. Delicious.

That said, the name of this tea is a lot to live up to. Perhaps I would be enjoying this tea so much more if my imagination were not as vivid.

Thanks, Sil. I’ve been looking forward to trying this one.

sadly the flavour on this one has faded. It’s not nearly as amazing as it was when i first picked it up – so the shelf like on it is probably ideally between 1-9 months. That being said, it’s still delicious but i’d rate this at about a 78 versus the original 90 in terms of intensity of the taste. I’m going to add some to the GCTTB so that others can try it before it totally wanes – just be aware that it’s a shadow of what it once was. I just have too much to be able to finish it all on my own in a fast manner heh.

I got a sample teabag of this with an order. Used my regular teabag cup, but the teabag has only 2g of tea, less than a usual teabag so admittedly I may have steeped in too much water. The tea has a slightly marine seaweed odor on the first steep, not unpleasant. I get slight flavor of black tea, but otherwise the color of the brew looked normal with almost no taste. Maybe the sample is old, I don’t know.

I did buy an order of black tea bags of another type from Yunomi, along with some loose leaf too. Will compare to see how those are. But otherwise, I prefer a tannin bite when I drink black tea, that savory sharpness.

This kind of a non-tea post. I’ve said before I love this stuff. Last night I was mostly sipping memories. The end of this box is over a year old and it shows. I think. It took two bags. I normally just use one. I could barely taste the orange. Now I say I think this is showing its age because it may be me. I am using Flonase along with an inhaled steroid. I’ve noticed lately I am having problems pulling out and and separating tastes. Yesterday, I also had an herbal tea that to me was mint and ginger – except there isn’t any of either in the mix. I am barely functioning with the meds, hate to think I may have to stop blogging because I am not sure what I’m tasting. Hopefully, my senses straighten up on their own soon.

Funny non-tea related story – Tuesday night I was at praise band practice when it began to lightening with torrential rain and wind. It made some of them real nervous to where practice became almost impossible. After it slacked off and without the singers realizing it, they wanted to sing “I’ll Praise You In The Storm”. Then one asked for “Til The Storm Passes By”. I kept quiet until one of our singers blasted into “Wade In The Water”. I lost it and rolled on the floor laughing. I had to explain it to them as they were totally unconscious of what they were doing.

Anyway, Sugar Cookie – I still have a sealed unopened box. I intend to break into it soon.

I am enjoying this twisted green tea this morning. It is very delicate, vegetal , and light. Perfect for a spring morning. There’s a bit of green bean in there and a faint chestnut. As I take a sip it’s followed by a light sweetness too. I really like it but it’s not my favourite type of green tea. I prefer ones that have a bit more greenness, umami, deeper & sweeter chestnut. However, I would soon get bored with all my greens if they were all alike. This one is definitely different.

So the cold I thought I’d got rid of came back for a second swipe, and this time it’s a fair bit worse than it was originally. Yesterday I had a conference at work between 11.30 and 4.45 (with only a 10 minute tea break and no lunch), so I drank virtually nothing all day and unsurprisingly felt like crap when I got home. After a shower, which made me feel at least 1/4 human again, I made up a cup of this one. On its own it restored another 50% – the rest won’t come back until I finally shake this off.

I don’t usually drink my “better” teas when I’m sick because often there’s just no point. I found that I could taste this, though, maybe because the chocolate and fruit notes are so strong, or because it’s so thickly malty. Either way, it was A-MA-ZING. I’ve gone into the specific taste of this one a couple of times before (once very recently) so I won’t do it again here. The point of this note is purely to say “I drank this one and it rocked” and the fact that I felt better as a result is just a happy bonus.

Six different type of gui fei and all of them were bad… until I tried this. Crisp taste with a lingering toasted honey note.

Wonderful tea, but it’s the only one of the seven I tried that I can say was good… is gui fei bad or is this just amazing?

Finally writing about this despite being over 2/3 done with my pouch. I’ll say right away that while it’s good, it’s not super amazeballs ZOMG best EVAR like WOWZA. It’s indeed majorly chocolatey and nutty, but hazelnut rather than chestnut, which is unsurprising seeing that this actually has hazelnuts in the dry leaf. The cocoa husks, I’d say, play an important part in enhancing the chocolate notes in here.

I prefer this black rather than with milk, which seems to drown out the gourmand, desserty vibe this tea has, and oddly makes the chocolate note waxier and more artificial? Highly strange. You’d think it would just make it like milk chocolate, but no.

For a fraction of the price, I’d rather have Bayswater’s nutty/chocolatey teas: Divine Temptation, Creme Brûlée, and Chocolate Macchiato. Would I ever pass up a cup of this? Of course not, it’s delicious. Would I have problems finishing this? No way, it’s definitely enjoyable. But I won’t be crying in my sauerkraut once it’s gone either.

Haven’t had this one forever.

Today was a day of medical tests and sitting around waiting from ridiculous o’clock onwards. I still feel like I have sand and grit in my eyes from lack of sleep (and probably fluorescent lighting making things worse). The moral of the story is that hospitals are to be avoided, if at all possible.

I treated myself to that rare espresso latte after lunch, so when I got home, it was all about low or no-caffeine. This was the choice. In my memory, this tea is ever so much better than what landed in my cup today. I didn’t add anything to it, perhaps that’s the problem.

I won’t change my rating though, because I am holding firm to being an optimist and I suspect this tea can still be glorious with the right moment and the right touch. And yay, so lovely that the sun is still shining so brilliantly so late in the day.

Well, today I’ve finally had a moment to sit and drink tea; to contemplate my life. The last couple of weeks of college are nearly complete (4 classes left until I complete my Education major, and then can continue onward for another year, to become a certified middle-grades History/English teacher!), my wife’s car is on the verge of falling apart, we’re waiting for our caseworker to get a hold of us to set a date for the home study, and we’re eager to have our children out of the terrible foster system—and into a loving home—where Mom & Dad will give them the best that we can give them….

Okay, that was sentimental….

Anyway, I’m currently drinking my third cup of Liquid Proust’s ‘A Dark Kitchen Sink.’ As of late, I’ve been wanting to eat everything candy and/or ice cream. However, I need to resist the temptation, and just pluck from the cupboard, these types of tea that I purposely have for these stressed induced situations. Fortunately, this was in there—and what a treat! If I were to close my eyes at this moment, I could say that you’ve watered ice cream down (particularly a Turtle sundae) by a whole lot, and reduced it to a simple drink; to which I’d say,

“My, oh my, what a fine treat! Is this hot watered down ice cream?”

Then I’d hear, “No you dope, it’s simply the best damn dessert tea that you’ve ever had.”

Alright, there’s a huge nutty flavor which comes from the whole pecans within the tea. There is definitely a nice black tea flavor after the third steep that jumps out a little (from the description, I’m assuming that’s from the Golden Pu-erh needles); which gives it the sweet cocoa note. The honey gives it a nice caramel note, too. I mean, I could list the ingredients that I try, but when I go about reviewing a tea that way, I get sidetracked, and then my review turns to mush.

I will just say that this is GREAT, remarkable, extraordinary, amazing, astonishing, astounding, sensational, stunning, incredible, and unbelievable! Buy it. Try it! Drink it! It’s liquid ice cream! What could be better?

P.S. Today’s tea soundtrack comes from the Japanese instrumental rock band, MONO, “Hymn to the Immortal Wind.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbnhjsDI_ho

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEtV9Q8g-zd/?taken-by=s.g_sanders1

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https://www.instagram.com/p/BEtbjtMA-xP/?taken-by=s.g_sanders1

farewell my delicious friend. While i haven’t had time to really write about the things i’m drinking, i am making a conscious effort to make note when something leaves my cupboard or it’s a brand new tea that i’m trying. I think this officially means i have no verdant teas in my cupboard beyond a couple puerhs. eep!

The Trails of LBZ, Case 4 of 6
(Liquid Proust search for his favorite laser beam zensheng)

I was told this one is a blend and not pure LBZ, but that’s fine :)

First brew was ‘eh’, but I was drinking this for kick/effect. A little smokey in taste which I didn’t expect, but it seems that the tea lost that taste as it opened up. A little more of the storage taste came out with some more depth.

At about the eighth steep I knew this was going to be a more milder tea than the others that I had tried. Some feels to it, little in the head and more around the upper body. Quite enjoyable, but nothing compared to the first LBZ I drank during my trials which about rendered me unable to walk and thinking didn’t occur for awhile.

Most noticeable in regards to taste of aged and storage though.

From Dark Matter 2016

Brewed in a gaiwan. Just under boiling water.
This smelled amazing like tobacco and dark chocolate. And unfurls into whole crinkled leaves. But I let the first steep go too long (30 sec?) and ended up with just char and tobacco. This might date me but getting through that first steep made me keep thinking about that “kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray” ad (or was it a poster?). Later steeps continued with the tobacco, did no one else get this? I’ve never smoked as I’m super repelled by the taste and smell but I grew up around smokers and this taste very much reminds me of cigarettes. At some later steep this flavor fades to the background and becomes pleasant. It also starts becoming floral and has an inorganic earth finish. So a bit of a rough start for me but worth it for the later steeps. Not sure how many I got, I started to let it go 10-15 min infusions at the end while cooking dinner.

Next time I’m definitely using less tea or being stricter about keeping my initial steeping times short. Maybe even rinsing this?

This is super melon tasting and sweet! This green rooibos tea tastes just like those green melon asian candies. It also makes a great iced tea.

However, the melon is strong and overpowers the green rooibos base. The good thing is this rooibos isn’t watery, but this tea is pretty much like drinking melon juice. I like it, but I can see if not appealing for some people.

Full review on Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/golden-honeydew-rooibos-lupicia-tea-review/

This is a queued tasting note.

So, I woke up Sunday morning to get ready for work and I had the biggest craving for lychee. I can’t even express how amazing it felt to not only have one lychee tea in my cupboard but two to pick from! Options, motherfuckers!

So this was my commute tea on Sunday: it was brilliant! The bright, juicy lychee top note satisfied that lychee craving in every possible way and the black base tea underneath is phenomenal as well. It’s natural, sweet and smooth honey, malt and cocoa notes are both a stunning contrast to the juicy, floral lychee but also a wonderful compliment. You’re matching not only the intense rich flavour of the lychee but the intense rich flavour of the black tea. Mmmm!

my birthday gift came in the mail today. today is my birthday! i had some of this tea.

two words: just lovely

expect a review and pics of this tea this week or next week.

expect reviews/pics on the other teas too

This tea is not bad, also by no means incredible. I did like it in the end even if it started badly. It started out with notes of tobacco and leather. This slowly transformed into something nicer over a period of many steeps. By the twelfth steep I was getting a sweet note that slightly reminded me of prunes. A little bit of sour sweetness if it could be described as such. I think this is a tea that is really just changing. It had a very dark color to the tea liquid. It was aging. It seemed in the middle of the aging process. I don’t have room for this in my pumidor so it will have to be dry stored in the New York humidity. We have hot humid summers and dryer the rest of the year. We will see if this tea improves. It’s not exactly bad tea, there is just a lot of room for improvement.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 120ml gaiwan with 9.4g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. I am neither going to recommend this tea nor am I going to not recommend this tea. Some people will like it, some will not. The notes of leather and tobacco did turn into something more pleasant. My best description for this new note is a slightly sour sweet taste of prunes. By this I do not mean the tea had a noticeable sour note, just a slight taste.

Additional notes: Sad sipdown of the last sample of this treasure in my tea collection. It was so good while Teavivre sold it. I love the light honey notes on the already sweet, mildly roasted oolong. I’ll be enjoying it on this gloomy day while packaging up teas to go to the post office on Wednesday. :D I have teas for sale on page 13 of the ‘official sale’ thread if anyone wants to check that out for any last minute orders.

My weekend was excellent, even though my sleep schedule is totally off now! I enjoyed fighting games and worked on painting, who can ask for more? Sadly though, my happiness is at an end, sort of. The basement has a hellish flooding problem, so there is going to be a lot of noise and a lot of mess this week, with the warning ‘anyone with lung problems shouldn’t be here.’ Bah. So I am going to spend a lot of time outside, meaning no painting, though I am going to hopefully spend a lot of time at the zoo.

Today I am looking at Tealyra’s Da Hong Pao Superfine, specifically it is a Ban Yan Da Hong Pao (because if it was Zheng Yan it would cost a small fortune) see the term Ban Yan comes from Ban Yan Cha, or semi-rock tea (as contrasted with Yan Cha) meaning it is grown outside of the Wuyi National Scenic Area. It is still a Wuyi ‘Yancha’ in style and spirit, but being grown outside of this rather fancy region means us mere mortals can afford it. Good for people who want to drink Da Hong Pao everyday and not as a special treat. So how do these long twisty leaves smell? Like a Da Hong Pao, strong notes of char and tobacco with undertones of cocoa and lots of loam. It smells like the remnants of a campfire on an autumn’s day, a campfire where someone was smoking a pipe and eating s’mores and the air still holds both of those memories.

Time to use ye’ol Yancha pot, and the aroma of the tea leaves is still fairly char heavy, giving the tea a sharpness. There are also notes of loam and black walnuts with a finish of wet limestone. Not terribly nuanced but certainly very strong. The liquid for the first steep has mellowed out a bit on the char, smelling like wet coals and molasses with an accompaniment of walnut shells and a very faint creamy candy note, not unlike molasses candies…something which I am craving suddenly.

The first steep is surprisingly mellow, it starts with a loamy mineral note, like wet limestone and damp autumn leaves after a rain and then bursts into molasses and scotch. The finish is loamy and gently sweet but does not linger long. It was a good first steep but very mild for a yancha, which is usually balls to the walls from the first sip.

For the aroma of the second steep, there are notes of sweet molasses and chocolate with wet limestone and a nice burst of wet coals at the finish. It is stronger than the first steep, but sadly has lost the walnut shell notes. The taste reminds me of strong dark chocolate, just a touch sweet and nicely bitter with a coal and mineral finish. Often when these rock teas have a strong coal and dark chocolate flavor it reminds me of the burnt edge of a s’more you let catch on fire. Tasty but burnt chocolate!

The third steep’s aroma is faint by comparison, just notes of wet leaves and wet coal with a ghost of molasses. The aroma made promises of faintness that the taste fulfilled, this tea has given up the ghost. All that is left is the ghost of burnt chocolate and mineral, like rainwater more than wet limestone. If you want a tea that lingers for a while I say look elsewhere, but if you want a nice char heavy DHP for a fairly cheap price then this one works and fulfills that craving if you are running low on the higher end stuff.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/04/tealyra-da-hong-pao-superfine-tea-review.html

Sipdown! I’ve had a reasonably bad cold since Thursday evening, so I’ve mostly been drinking comforting teas that I’m familiar with. There’s no point trying something new when I can’t taste it, after all. I’ve enjoyed this one, both with and without milk. It’s super smooth, with prominent chai spices and delicious creamy vanilla caramel. I’ll miss this one.

1 tsp, 2.5 minutes, boiling water. No additions.