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This is your generic aged ripe puer. The smell is of earth, wet rotten wood and mushrooms. Some transitory fishiness, which is surprising given the age of the cake. The taste is typical for the aged shou but it is not complex and the aftertaste does not linger.

Nothing bad to say but nothing good either. The main pros are that it is cheap and comes in convenient 100 g cakes. I will relegate it to my office to sip it absent-mindedly while concentrating on work.

I like reds with snow chrysanthemum: I find those two flavors to mix well. My standard here is Ying Shan Hong from Yunnan Sourcing, which is vibrant, bold, well-defined but at the same time soothing and relaxing.

This cake tasted a bit different: the red came out very mild and chrysanthemums tasted muted as well, with some medicinal undertones. Also, a pronounced sweetness. The flavor profile is not complex but blends well. Not much of an aftertaste, though. The overall impression is of content mellowness and relaxation: it is well-suited for a late-evening relaxation in an overstuffed armchair after a hard day.

I think this cake is getting a bit old – Ying Shan Hong was much more to my liking.

This is a tea with a pleasant and distinct taste, both as a dry and wet leaf: warm hay, spices, old books, berries. Very enjoyable.

However, the taste disappointed me. First, it is very weak, even for a white tea. Second, it is meh: some sweetness, faint hay and fall leaves and a lot of rather unpleasant flavor of wet paper. Maybe it is too young yet, but in any case I found older years of this same tea being way more interesting and satisfying.

First, when I just discovered smoky Lapsang Souchong I was madly in love with it: because it was so different, strong, with such a distinct personality – I like assertive teas. Then gradually I began to lose my interest when it became clear that smoky Lapsang manufacturers often use second-grade teas as a base and the smokiness itself frequently comes from the cost-cutting, industrial scale smoking process that completely overpowers the base with some very generic and uninteresting smokiness. And once I even encountered the unmistakable acridity of the liquid smoke!

So, I approached this sample bag from Teavivre with weariness and low expectations. But this tea restored my faith in smoky Lapsangs: they are a great, distinct kind of tea – when done right. This tea has an absolutely fantastic smokiness. The fragrant is incredibly rich and real; you can close your eyes and almost hear the cracking of the pine branches and needles in the campfire. I usually spend a minute or two just inhaling the aroma before taking a first sip.

The taste is very piny and smoky, with a good deal of complexity. It also feels very authentic and not mass-produced at all. A looong piny aftertaste. The tea itself is not shining through – it is by no means a lightly smoked Lapsang – but it does add some sweetness, which becomes more pronounced with subsequent steeps. And this tea can produce several of them without substantively changing its character.

This is not a tea for everyone. It is barely borderline a tea at all. But it is very “real” and can easily command one’s attention: I actually was late for a work meeting because I just HAD to finish this cup.

P.S. I ranked it so highly since I consider it to be a great representation of the class and not because it reveals the complexity of the tea itself and calls for the exploration with a gaiwan and a stop watch. The tea itself is moderately broken and probably not the best: it is all about smoke and pine.

This is a tea without any flaws and any strengths. It looks good, it smells good, it has a large amount of golden tips. The taste is a very typical for a Dian Hong: bitter-sweet chocolate, malt, honey. Mild. Some moderately long chocolaty aftertaste.

No one will be disappointed by drinking it but nobody will get excited either: this tea is super generic and lacks any character. It’s inexpensive and thus potentially can be designated as a daily drinker Dian Hong, but I want more personality even in my daily drinkers.

My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined. This was one of my favorite Yunnans after I tried it for the first time about 7 months ago: rich smell, deep and distinct malty, ashy and chocolaty taste…

I reordered another 100g of it – supposedly, the same harvest. There is no smell whatsoever and only the faintest, sickly sugary taste. Even after I crammed in 3 times as many leaves as I usually do the tea was almost tasteless and undrinkable. The generic Lipton bags are way better.

I don’t know how it had happened. Maybe it’s because they stored it into some horrible conditions? Maybe it is a harvest from, like, 4 years ago? I had to throw out all the remaining 90g – and this is the first for me. If anyone thinks about buying the 2018 Spring harvest of it consider yourself warned.

It is a perfect tea to sip slowly while doing some work on the computer or reading a book: it does not distract but adds some background depth and color to whatever you are doing. It is a humble tea that will not try to make a big splash and become the center of attention but instead is deeply content to be friendly, useful and quietly helpful.

A free sample sachet that has been sitting at the bottom of may tea cupboard for probably close to a year. It’s first time I tried a verbena/mint combination and I like it quite a bit. The mint often comes a bit flat and one-dimensional and in this case verbena adds to it a peak of pleasant piercing bitterness. The mint in this mix comes off as fresh, powerful and “three-dimensional”, with a good aftertatse.

I liked this blend quite a bit. It is well-balanced and does not taste lifeless, weak or processed as too many herbal teas that I tried. A solid non-caffeine tea.

First I thought that this was a version of the well-reviewed Teavivre’s Organic Nonpareil Dragon Well but this is a totally different tea despite the tea leaves looking remarkably similar. It is from Sichuan. I had it both gongfu and western with equally satisfying results.

The leaves are pretty and have a nice aroma similar to dragon wells. The taste reminded me of dragonwells as well, with grass, asparagus, spinach, broccoli and butter. Also, some faint sweetness and spiciness. Way to often green teas feel to weak and understated to me but this one had a strong bitter-sour note that blended well with the rest of the flavors and was quite welcome. This note lingered and transformed into the grass, spicy and pleasantly bitter aftertaste.

It is a complex and bold (for a green) tea. The complexity fades somewhat during the gongfu session but it remains enjoyable for multiple steepings nevertheless. Actually, it becomes intiguingly savory and sweet. This is probably the best green I tried so far but it’s on the pricey side with $0.40 per gram, so I guess the high quality should be expected. Also, it is 10 months old by now, which leaves the possibility of it is being fantastic when the leaves are just picked.

I am still making my way through the white teas and did not find my niche. Most of them feel promising and enticing but lack the heft and robustness that I appreciate so much in Fujians, Yunnans and puerhs. But that is not true for this powerful white and that’s why I liked it quite a bit.

I had it both western and gaiwan and it IS well-suited for gong fu: it lasts multiple infusions and has enough complexity and changeability through them. The best part is its smell: both dry leaf, wet leaf and in the cup. It is distinct and complex, with different strands fitting well together. There is honey, caramel, bread, sugar, roast, raisins, green wood, hay…

The taste follows the nose with sweetness of different kinds, malt, sourness and bitterness… And a nice lingering complex aftertaste to boot. The best part is that this taste/aftertaste is constantly changing and evolving, creating a lot of space for exploration and experimentation.

Solid and satisfying.