16 Tasting Notes

82

This might be the best smelling tea I have. The dry leaves are just incredibly vibrant. I have the new and improved formula which supposedly has more vanilla. Sniffing the leaves from the bag is just down right gluttonous.

Doctor told me to do dark chocolate in moderation, otherwise this would be my go to cup of tea before bedtime every night. It just has this warm, soothing comforting, down home feel. Think back to your childhood and drinking hot cocoa on a cold day. But now you add in the complexity of the vanilla and of course Rooibos. Rooibos thins out the brew so it’s not heavy at all, but you still get a mouthful of delicious chocolate and vanilla base.

I add a little bit of milk and a heaping teaspoon of honey and it’s just spot on.

Delicious. Wish I didn’t have this damn A Fib keeping me from it.

Flavors: Chocolate, Vanilla

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec 6 g 8 OZ / 236 ML

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84

To think this tea is available on clearance is just crazy. Ridiculous price.

Taste: Sweet cream, slight tang of a really good fatty butter. Some floral in the flavor. Just delicious as an everyday go to Oolong. Highly recommend for anyone wanting to try Oolong. Like most Oolongs, leaves are forgiving too. You can steep hot (200) or warm (185). I find hotter worked better on this tea especially as infusions went on.

Smell: Initial infusions are very floral. My nose isn’t that great yet, but I’d say gardenia/orchid like. Later infusions turn more to heavy cream scent.

Flavors: Butter, Cream, Floral, Sweet

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 0 min, 45 sec 4 g 100 OZ / 2957 ML

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82

If you like Jasmine, then you’ll love this tea. I’ve experimented with a few different brands, and so far this has the best Jasmine flavor.

It took me 3 or 4 times to get it how I like it. I didn’t like it Gaiwan style. It just loses the flavor too soon and the base tea isn’t strong enough on its own.

The best way for me was to brew in pot, lower temp like 170ish, and go about 3.5-4 minutes. If you go a little more on the leaves, you can probably come down to 3 minutes, and then get a nice 2nd steep out of it.

Very nice tea, quality leaves, great price.

Flavors: Jasmine, Sweet

Preparation
170 °F / 76 °C 3 min, 30 sec 5 g 16 OZ / 473 ML
SimpliciTEA

I really appreciate you including your results of trying different brewing methods. Silly, but being new to using gaiwans, and assuming using them gongfu style is ALWAYS better than than Western style, I was shocked to read your notes. Then I realized how simplistic my view of steeping was. Duh?!

weegeebee1

thanks. So many factors in the flavor, I mean these are very delicate things. Temp to me is most important. You can blast out the flavor too hot, or not extract enough too low. Then length of time. Lastly amount of tea. Really a science and there are no general rules. Each tea is different. And yes. I love my gaiwan, but it’s not for everything.

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77

This is a great every day drinker. Very nice leaves, lots of stems if you like that. I’m noticing that with the 2 or 3 teas I’ve tried so far from Tea from Taiwan.

The dry leaves have a kind of buttered popcorn smell to me with a little bit of a floral background.

I’m getting some sweet corn taste in the liquor, real nice pale yellow color. I get about 6 or 7 solid steeps Gaiwan style.

Nothing spectacular overall, but very solid all around and great deal for the price.

Flavors: Floral, Popcorn, Sweet

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 0 min, 30 sec 4 g 3 OZ / 100 ML

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92

Another great tea from Mountain Tea.

The leaves are just gorgeous. I was totally expecting nutty goodness, but I don’t recall having a roasted TieGuanYin with such a floral perfume background as well. I would be happy just smelling the leaves from each infusion.

The liquor comes out a solid yellow, tinge of green. Great flavors, very complex, changing with each infusion. I got a solid 10 steeps in gaiwan and even though contemplated doing another couple.

Sweet, nutty, floral, little bitty tartness, just delicious. Very high quality.

Flavors: Caramel, Floral, Nutty, Toasty

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 0 min, 45 sec 4 g 3 OZ / 100 ML

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90

I’m really in love with this tea. If you weren’t told it was an oolong, you would never guess. It kind of reminds me of a Yunnan Gold/Red.

If you brew hotter and longer, you get more spice. But I brewed about 185 in gaiwan, short steeps. Then I slowly increased time and temp with every 4 or 5 steeps.

The liquor is just gorgeous, especially once the leaves open up. The scent of the wet leaves is just intoxicating. Get a lot of prune, malt, honey, and hint of spice, like a cinnamon.

Flavor is great, really rich and luxurious. There’s a sweetness to it, but little kick of spice as well. It peaked for me about steep 4 or 5 in 100ml gaiwan. But I still got about 12 solid steeps from it. After the 5th or so, it becomes more one note, sometimes more honey, sometimes more spice.

Just a great tea. Real high quality leaves. Very happy, and great price. I’ve paid a lot more for much less.

Flavors: Cinnamon, Dried Fruit, Honey, Malt

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 0 min, 30 sec 4 g 3 OZ / 100 ML

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Profile

Bio

My Rating Scale:

95-100 Nirvana. Reserving this for once I try many more teas. This is sort of like your last meal (tea) before the electric chair kind of category.

90-94 Just awesome. I’d be happy if I had nothing but this to drink for the rest of my life.

85-89 Excellent. Very top notch stuff. Solid anchor in the cupboard and a staple in the rotation of what I drink.

80-84 Very good. Glad I drank it, probably will drink it again.

75-79 Good. Has something “good” about it making it interesting, but maybe isn’t as well rounded or is missing something to make it better. Something I wouldn’t be disappointed to drink, but nothing I’d go back to if I have something better.

70-74 OK. I’m not spitting it out or dumping the pot, but kind of unhappy about spending some of my limited daily caffeine intake on this and would prefer something else.

Not rating anything below 70. At that point, it’s not worth drinking and definitely not worth taking the time to describe it.

Location

Woodland Hills, Ca.

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