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To my knowledge, this is the last of my Yunnan Sourcing teas from 2015. I opened it a few months ago and have been surprised by its inconsistency. In some sessions I get dark chocolate with a hint of raspberry, while in others I get stewed fruit and malt. For this review, I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 7, 10, 13, 17, 20, 25, 30, 40, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The first couple steeps have notes of malt, tannins, minerals, and creamy raspberry. My initial impression is of a generic Chinese tea, but it’s mellower and a bit fruitier. The fruit really comes through in the next few rounds, resembling raspberries and other tart berries. There’s also some roasted barley. After the fifth steep, the berries recede and malt, roasted barley, honey, tannins, and leather take over. The session fades into minerals, vegetables, tannins, and malt.

As other reviewers have mentioned, this tea might not have been great when young but has improved with age. The unusual raspberry and mellow flavours make it interesting, although I would have preferred some chocolate in the mix. I’m down to my last few sessions with this, and I can’t help wondering if I’ll miss all my old teas now that they’re almost gone.

I’ve been trying to sip down old teas, which I define as anything bought before 2017. This sort of qualifies, as it’s a 2016 harvest bought in the spring of the next year. Anyway, I remember reading good things about it and resolving to try it, then “archiving” it in my cupboard. I steeped 6 g of tea in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 7, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

In the bag, the wiry dark leaves smell like floral sweet potato, and I could have spent several minutes just inhaling the aroma. The first steep has notes of candied sweet potato, malt, wood, caramel, flowers, and tart berries, with a long, sweet potato aftertaste. In short, it’s fantastic. The second steep even has that starchiness associated with sweet potatoes. The fruity element is kind of like cranberries, though it isn’t assertive enough to overwhelm the sweet potato flavours.

The cranberry/sweet-potato combo continues in the next few infusions. The tea stays consistent, which in this instance is a good thing. It has a lovely, silky mouthfeel and very little astringency. Can you tell I like this tea? The final few steeps are less floral, more malty, and a little drying.

If you like sweet potatoes at all—and I didn’t think I was such a fan until I drank this tea—do yourself a favour and pick it up. I found it hard to identify other notes amid the overwhelming fruity and sweet potato goodness, but this isn’t much of a complaint. I’m beginning to think that black Dan Congs are one of my favourite tea types.

Inspired by a recommendation from Liquid Proust, I bought six teas from this company, which I’d never heard of, for Christmas. Even though I’ve tried only two of them, it’s safe to say I made a good decision. Following the instructions on the website, I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 212F for 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry leaf smells floral, nutty, grassy, and faintly citrusy. I was wary of steeping it in boiling water, but this tea can apparently take it. I get notes of grass and sweet citrus, followed by lighter notes of nuts, orchids, and cream. Even hitting it with boiling water, there’s no astringency. The citrus becomes kind of like a mandarin orange in the second steep and a slight bitterness emerges. The citrus morphs into grapefruit in the third steep, and I get vegetal hints that remind me of spinach. Swishing it around in the mouth reveals the roasted almond in the description. I can kind of see how the body can be described as oily, though I’m not very good at detecting such things.

I let the fourth steep cool and it’s vegetal and bitter with some nutty undertones; it’s probably best to drink this tea hot. As the session winds down through the next five steeps, the tea loses the citrus but retains the floral, creamy, vegetal, and grassy flavours.

I usually find Alishan oolongs to be all about the florals, but this one had refreshingly diverse flavours. (The citrus was a particularly nice touch.) The brewing method let me see how the flavours evolved, although I could have extended the steeps farther apart near the end of the session. It was well worth the $16 I paid for 50 grams.

I could have sworn I wrote a review for this tea about a year ago, but either I’m wrong or I miscategorized it. I’m working through the last of a 50 g pouch I bought in the spring of 2015. This is a tea that grows on you, with slightly weird flavours you have to get used to. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry leaf has the tangy grape smell of purple Sour Patch Kids. The first steep has notes of red and green grapes, blueberries, flowers, sage, and eucalyptus. The taste is a lot less tangy and sour than the smell, but it’s still a strange combination for me. The second steep is much the same, although the sweetness really comes out when the tea is allowed to cool.

In the third steep, a fuzzy grape skin note emerges in the mouth, and the tea seems to become even sweeter. The sweet, fruity, and herbaceous character continues for the next few rounds. By steep six, it’s lost most of its oomph and is taking on woody and vegetal qualities, which predominate during the last couple steeps.

I won’t have any trouble finishing this tea, but it’s something I wouldn’t normally reach for. It’ll be fun to compare it to the other purple tea I picked up from Yunnan Sourcing in 2017.

I haven’t been reviewing lately because I’ve been sipping down old teas, although I still don’t seem to have made a dent in my stash. This is the penultimate session of a spring 2018 Dong Ding, which I bought as part of a Taiwanese tea sampler. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The first steep has notes of toasted grain, honey, and mild char, while the second adds cooked pineapple, rock sugar, and roast. While I wouldn’t describe this tea as astringent, the body is drying, with little of the fruit I noticed in the 2017 version. In the next couple steeps, the cornhusk note from 2017 emerges and the honey, char, and toasted grains still predominate. There’s already a faint grassy aftertaste.

As the session moves along, the roast becomes more prominent, the tea gets a nutty quality, and the fruit disappears. By steep ten, it’s mostly roast and minerals.

This is a comforting, easy-drinking Dong Ding that keeps missing being great by a hair. Last year it was fruity but too smoky and astringent, while this year it was smoother but not as interesting. However, it’s interesting to see how the same tea can differ so widely across harvests, and I won’t be surprised to find the 2019 version in my cart once I can justify buying tea again.

Happy new year! I hope 2019 will be a better year for everyone.

I bought this as part of a Taiwanese tea sampler in 2018. To my knowledge, it’s the first time Camellia Sinensis has carried this varietal. I steeped around 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 40, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds. Annoyingly, there’s about 2.5 g of tea left in the bag, which I’ll subsequently try to Western steep in my ridiculously huge mug.

The dry leaves smell like honey and heady flowers, and the liquor backs this up. The first four steeps have notes of honey, lilac, honeysuckle, spinach, and grass. A balsam note comes in on steep three, and the balance among the spinach, honey, and florals is good. By the fifth steep, the honey starts to diminish and the tea gets more vegetal. It lasts for a good eight steeps.

This is a pleasant, if not a very memorable, oolong with decent staying power. I’d definitely recommend it for the price.

Maybe because of my recent Camellia Sinensis order or maybe because it’s winter, I’ve gotten back into Darjeelings. I plumbed the depths of my stash to find some teas from Lochan, which are unfortunately now two years old. (Why did I need so much tea again?) I steeped about 1.5 teaspoons of leaf in a 355 ml mug at 200F for 3.5 and 5 minutes.

This was an interesting one! Possibly because of the name, I got notes of autumn leaf pile, malt, muscatel, prunes, and hay. I also suspected that the tea was lightly smoked, which is highly unusual for a Darjeeling. This led me to Geoffrey Norman’s post on Steep Stories that states that gently smoking their teas is Niroula’s signature; incidentally, it also provides an interesting history of the tea garden. The second cup was less fruity but still good, and the smoke remained gentle and unobtrusive.

While this wouldn’t jump immediately to mind when I think of Darjeeling, I’m glad I added it to my already overblown tea stash and will have no trouble finishing it.

Since I read on TDB that Zhu Lu is one of the most sought-after Alishan oolongs, I’ve wanted to try it, and Fong Mong is among the few online vendors that carry it. I was therefore really happy to get a free sample. I steeped 6 g in a 120 ml teapot at 190F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

These small, tightly rolled nuggets have a vaguely floral aroma. The first steep is a surprise! It tastes like a floral apple pie, with baked apple, spice, light florals, cream, honey, veggies, and a drying aftertaste. The next two steeps have a thicker body and continue with the apple theme—maybe apple custard. There are more vegetal and floral notes, especially as the tea cools.

By the fourth steep, the fruit starts to subside and the tea becomes a creamy, floral oolong with spinach and apple hints. The steeps remain vaguely sweet and floral until the end of the session, though the vegetal and spinach notes gradually predominate.

This is well rounded and complex for an Alishan oolong and the apple and spices were a pleasant surprise. I now understand why teas from this area are so highly recommended.

From the product description, it appears that Fong Mong has developed this tea varietal independently of the TRES, and I’m kind of impressed. Thanks to the company for providing a sample. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 190F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

In the teapot, the large, loosely rolled green nuggets smell faintly floral. (From the consistency of the spent leaf sets, I can believe that this is a hand-picked tea.) The first steep has the beany, vegetal notes of green tea along with the milky, floral qualities associated with Jin Xuan. It also tastes kind of starchy, maybe because of the beans. This is a wonderfully soft tea with no astringency. Notes of kale, cream, and maybe gardenia show up in the next couple steeps. By steep six, the tea starts becoming more vegetal, though it’s still very pleasant.

Although I gravitate toward fruitier, less vegetal oolongs, this is a unique and easy-going varietal that would appeal to green tea drinkers. I love trying “experimental” teas from Taiwan and am glad I got to sample this one.

I wrote a previous tasting note on the 2017 spring harvest of this Shan Lin Xi, and this one is for 2018. Every year, I get some of this tea, and every year, I run out of it too soon. I need to cave and buy a larger amount. I steeped my last remaining 6 g in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

In the teapot, I get aromas of cherry, wheatgrass, flowers, and honey; it smells softer and more nuanced than the 2017 version. Because it has all the tea bits from the bottom of the bag, the first steep is more astringent than usual, with notes of flowers, honey, cream, grass, and faint cherry. From the second steep, stronger cherry, balsam, and tropical fruit (maybe papaya?) emerge. Like its 2017 counterpart, this tea ends too soon, with the fruitiness and florals disappearing into vegetal obscurity by steep seven or so.

This Shan Lin Xi is a favourite and is great for mindless sipping. Last spring’s harvest had a more distinctive cherry profile, and while I appreciate this year’s honey and florals, that fruitiness is what makes me return year after year. The only thing that’s preventing me from giving this tea a higher rating is how quickly it ends.