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“[I DID NOT FOLLOW THE BREWING INSTRUCTIONS] I’m making this at work, looking for fancy teas that can be used as everyday teas. Eighteen was one of the less expensive offerings at Song Tea so I...” Read full tasting note
“Wonderful black from Song Tea. I had no reservations about the quality as I had been lucky enough to sit for a tea tasting at the shop that went on for about 2 hours – a really lovely experience....” Read full tasting note
“Gosh, I keep changing my mind about this tea. Today I brewed it with a lighter hand as I remembered it could get pretty bitter. I brewed it in my new 160ml 脂白 (“white as fat”) gaiwan...” Read full tasting note
Eighteen, aka Red Jade, is a hybrid of a Taiwanese wild cultivar and a Burmese large leaf Assamica. Harvested in late spring from a garden at 700m above sea level in the scenic Sun Moon Lake region. Notes of cinnamon, maraschino cherry and mint.
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[I DID NOT FOLLOW THE BREWING INSTRUCTIONS]
I’m making this at work, looking for fancy teas that can be used as everyday teas. Eighteen was one of the less expensive offerings at Song Tea so I thought I’d give it a whirl. At work, I have a 1 liter tea pot with a fairly sizable basket for the leaves to sit in and an electric kettle with good temperature control.
Since the instructions called for a greater quantity of tea leaves than I wanted to use every day, I decided to see what it was like with 1.5 teaspoons per cup of water. As you might expect, the tea came out rather weak using a one-minute brew time.Once I kicked up the time to five minutes, it produced a rather tasty tea.
I have not yet tried this tea using the brew instructions. I’d expect that it would be an even better tea.
Wonderful black from Song Tea. I had no reservations about the quality as I had been lucky enough to sit for a tea tasting at the shop that went on for about 2 hours – a really lovely experience. These people are serious about tea.
Unfortunately, yet another tea that I should have been brewing way earlier. This is why I don’t want to buy any more tea for now – I have so much that some really excellent teas end up languishing in my cupboard for way too long.Brewed this up according to vendor instructions, using my small gaiwan (~100 ml, ~3 g), 1.5 minutes for first and second infusions, then 2 minutes for the third. Keeping in mind this tea is probably way past it’s prime, there was no bitterness at the 1.5 min brew time, but started to get a bit too tannic at 2 min.
According to the vendor notes, there should be cinnamon, cherry and mint notes. I’m getting cherry for sure, and a tiny bit of mint, but no cinnamon, which is fine with me. Getting warm caramel sweetness instead, which is heavenly. Again, this tea is already over 3 yrs old (!), so no telling what it would have been like had I opened it much sooner, and since I didn’t taste this one at the shop, I’ll guess I will never know! Still, very happy with it, it’s warm and comforting, which is exactly what I need right now.
Flavors: Caramel, Cherry, Mint
Update: After brewing this western style (I know, I know), for just one infusion, I decided to take the brewed leaves and cold brew them for some iced tea. First of all, Eighteen is great even without brewing it gongfu. And more importantly, those leftover leaves made a heavenly iced tea! I mean, the sweetness and honey was awesome. So enjoyable and I can feel pretty good about using up those leaves differently. I don’t think cold brewing from the start is a good idea – you need to kind of get the leaves going with a hot infusion first – but what an amazing iced tea it makes doing it this way.
Gosh, I keep changing my mind about this tea. Today I brewed it with a lighter hand as I remembered it could get pretty bitter. I brewed it in my new 160ml 脂白 (“white as fat”) gaiwan set––beautiful design, misleading name?––and it blew my mind, tasting like sophisticated caramel with woody and cherry tones, very little bitterness.
Not sure if the thickness of the gaiwan (it got really scalding hot sometimes) had anything to do with it, but I will try it in the same gaiwan again and see if I get consistent results.
1st infusion: 202˚F, 0:55
2nd infusion: 203˚F, 1:25
3rd infusion: 204˚F, 2:00
“Eighteen” is not easy to brew, better to take a lighter hand than the recommended brewing parameters but when it’s done right gosh this tea is ambrosial and I would absolutely buy this again from Song (and maybe try its older brother, Twenty-One).
Rating: 85
Flavors: Caramel, Cherry, Dark Chocolate, Wood
