Matu Send Message

Very hard to make this one bitter. Very gentle flavors, but could still feel the power of this tea.

Not a bad tea imo. The leaves are decently small, but I’ve had smaller in Xiaguan tuos before. Certainly was astringent and bitter, but I didn’t get any smokiness off of this. And the bitterness wasn’t unpleasant to me. It faded in later steeps and was replaced by a nice hay type of flavor, though not particularly sweet.

Pleasantly surprised by how good this tea was. Kind of ordered it as an afterthought, but may be my favorite from the order. Had deep/dark fruit notes, reminiscent of cherries or maybe dates or something. Also a grassy taste which becomes more prominent as you steep this tea out. The fruit flavor is quite apparent in the aroma as well. The fruit is not super sweet, so it doesn’t come off as being like cough syrup or Kool-Aid.

The aroma of the dry leaves was mostly vegetal, maybe a little herbal. Once they were wet, the roast was the main smell. The flavor of this tea was herbal and had a very noticeable menthol-cooling effect in the mouth, at least for the first five or so steeps. The flavor was also vegetal, moreso towards the end of the tea. The body was not particularly notable. The leaves seemed pretty beat-up upon inspection, though I didn’t look at them too closely. A tasty tea, and the first I’ve had with such a noticeable cooling effect. Looking forward to sessioning this tea some more.

A wonderful tea. So far I’ve been quite impressed with my Discover Vietnam set from What-Cha. This one did have a notable dark chocolate aroma, which translated to a pleasant cocoa flavor in the tea itself. It wasn’t particularly sweet. The chocolate tasted more like those bars which are 90% cocoa or whatever. The sweetness of this tea seemed to come from the thick maltiness which was behind the chocolate. In some steeps I also got some nice earthy notes. The tea brewed up a beautiful clear and red liquor. A nice treat of a tea, especially if you like dark chocolate.

Finished my sample of this tea off. Used a bit more leaf this time, closer to 4-5g in a 100 mL Gaiwan. Super grassy, and quite bitter, though I really liked the bitterness. I would not go higher than 175F, as it would probably get unpleasant then. Strong grassy/hay flavors throughout, which acquired a bit of a dry sweetness in late steeps. Definitely a go-to for those who enjoy grassy teas.

My first raw Puerh, so not sure how accurate what I’m picking up is. The leaves appear to be pretty chopped up in this one. Early steeps are powerfully bitter, with some fruity flavors underneath. In the first steep, I picked up a pretty distinct spiciness, which lingered in the mouth for a while after I finished drinking it. This was mostly gone by the second steep. As I went on sessioning this tea, the bitterness slowly dropped off to a rounder sweetness, with fruity undertones throughout. The liquor was thick and soupy after the first steep and until the last couple. Also detect some woody flavors, and what may have been a tobacco flavor many talk about, though I don’t know that I actually know what tobacco tastes like. An interesting and fun tea to drink, and I look forward to getting to know raw puerh more.

Session #2, I used boiling water, and it helped bring out the flavor from this tea a bit more than the 203F water I used last time. It was interesting how the flavor behaved in the mouth. The tip is a bit of an astringent bite, but as it passes over your tongue, this quickly dissipates, leaving a slightly sweet malty flavor. Astringency was not mouth puckering, but after a whole session, did leave the mouth a bit dry. Again, very easy drinking and pleasant, better with boiled water than 203F in my opinion :)

Just tried this for the first time, and it’s my first “Golden Monkey” Tea. I was surprised by the complexity of this tea when brewed gongfu style. The first 3 or so steeps tasted of cocoa with fruit undertones. Around the 4th steep, the cocoa dropped off, and slightly tropical fruit flavors took the stage, with a pleasant malt finish. Later steeps (~6-8) had a light fruity sweetness, almost like bananas. The last couple steeps, which were kind of pushing the tea, yielded weak, sorta floral flavors. The body was strong through around 7 or 8 steeps, after which it dropped off to a more watery consistency.