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I bought 100g of the Spring 2015 harvest. This tea smells almost unrecognisable from its sample––such a strong fruity smell that I suspected they had mistakenly shipped me the Flavoured version of this tea.

I get strong notes of passionfruit, pineapple and milky peach from the dry leaf scent.

When brewed, I get the same buttery, floral sweet liquor that I got from the sample but with an intense fruity milk flavour, perhaps I just didn’t recognise it when I tried the sample. No metallic or bitter undertone like Tie Guan Yin. This is a great tea to pair with desserts.

Rinse to open up the rolled balls, then infuse for 10s, 20s, 30s, etc. I brewed at 196˚F but this tea can take up to boiling water iirc.

To be fair, I think this Spring 2015 is a really excellent Lapsang Souchong. No bitterness when brewed at 195˚F for 15 seconds. It smells and tastes like a really fine whiskey, with strong woody and smoky notes and would be great for a snowy winter’s night by the fire.

But I’m just not a whiskey person or a Lapsang Souchong person. This tea has no sweetness or fruit or florals or any other flavours I like, just the overpowering woody smoke scent. The only way I can see myself drinking this regularly is as a pairing with savoury foods, e.g. with a gourmet cheese platter, or with a meat entree. Or even try adding milk to it. Will update after trying those.

Spring 2016

My rule of thumb these days is to always rinse any rolled ball oolongs. Brewed at 200˚F in my 80ml gaiwan.

1st infusion: (15s)
Really pale fawn-coloured liquor. Much lighter than the first time I brewed this tea, it tastes delicate, a lightly roasted version of the buttery green Tie Guan Yin and nowhere near a dark roasted Wuyi oolong. Heavenly.

2nd infusion: (20s)
Liquor is now a pale yellow tinged with brown. Perfect balance between the buttery and the roasty minerally oolongs I love. Easily a new favourite. Need to buy more!

3rd infusion: (35s)
Slightly overbrewed but still good. Colour is paler than 2nd infusion. Still tastes buttery

I got 6 infusions out of it before it got too light.

Rating: 92

Very fresh, subtle taste. Has that light, savoury, slightly chestnutty, fresh spring vegetal flavour similar to Bi Luo Chun but less intense (perhaps because this is fresher? I’ve never tasted a fresh harvest of Bi Luo Chun).

The leaves are cute little snow pea pods that float on the water (unfortunately they don’t point downwards in my little 80ml gaiwan like I’ve heard they should). A couple of brown stalk tops in there but overall very high-quality whole leaves.

I could infuse it 4 times at 175 – 177˚F before the leaves lost their flavour.

Rating: 82, only because I prefer the taste of sweeter and buttery teas

This review is for the Spring 2015 harvest. Love the insane aroma of these leaves, so malty and sweet, with a fruity-caramel-sweetness of candied haw fruit (the kind they sell candy-coated on skewers in China). Dry leaf is delicate thin rolled threads, unfurls to full leaves when wet. Brewed in my 75ml gaiwan.

1st infusion: (20s, 206˚F)
Probably 10 – 15s would have been better. Coppery orange liquor, delicious sweet caramel corn aroma, tasted bitter from overbrewing.

2nd infusion: (20s, 208˚F)
Fragrance still delicious, but still tastes bitter. Maybe needs to be brewed at 195˚F.

3rd infusion: (20s, 195˚F)
Much better, bitterness is gone. This tea is meant to be brewed around 195.

I tested brewing this tea at 205˚F, 200˚F, 195˚F, and 190˚F.

Verdict: The sweet spot is probably around 193-194˚F.

I love the smell of this dry leaf––so intense and delicious, that toasty chestnut flavour you associate with Dragon Wells, along with some brown sugar. It has that heavenly 冲天 quality aroma that I think Chinese people associate with really primo tea.

After doing some research, this Bao Hong Tea（宝洪茶）is apparently also called Yi Liang Dragon Well（宜良龙井）.

1st infusion: (15s)
Pale yellow liquor, as expected of a Chinese green. The tea smells so similar to a good Dragon Well, but the taste is sadly more bland. But it is a good round thick mouthfeel, with juicy almost fruity aftertaste.

2nd infusion: (30s)
The wet leaf has some seriously complex aroma going on that I don’t even feel equipped to try to analyse right now. Maybe roasted plum and golden raisin? The tea smells and tastes like Dragon Well, except with a stronger fruit note and lacking that crisp edge that I recall 龙井 has.

Verdict: Overall a beautiful, interesting green for people who love Dragon Well but want to try a variant. I’m drinking the March 2016 harvest in the first week of April, pretty much as fresh and splendid as a green tea gets. Note: It’s possible I underleafed, will try this again with the ridiculous 5g they tell me to per 100ml.

Rating: 87

This is obviously a greener version of the Light Roast Premium Tie Guan Yin also offered by Yunnan Sourcing. Light, floral, buttery, more similar to a Jin Xuan oolong but with a metallic undertone. I am drinking the Autumn 2015 harvest and I have to say the Autumn 2015 Light Roast Premium Tieguanyin was more interesting and flavourful.

Brewed at 203˚F in my little 90ml gaiwan. I might have under-leafed, will brew again with more tea next time.

Brewed this Western-style, 6g in about 14oz of 205˚F water in a glass teapot (my only Western pot) for about 5 minutes to take to work in a Thermos.

It’s quite nice, I taste bitter and fruity dark chocolate notes, but it’s not very smooth. I might try lowering the temperature next time to 200 or 195.

Spring 2015 harvest. Despite this tea being almost a year old, the dry leaf smells incredibly sweet and fragrant. Maybe not a pure, subtle, “fresh” aroma but still delightfully intense.

Apr 11: Brewed this Western-style, in a 16oz teapot for 3:00, 179˚F and it turned out pretty luscious, with full nutty sweet toasty flavour, maybe very slightly on the edge of burnt. They recommended 185˚F but I might lower it to 177˚or so next time. Unfortunately I was stupid and needed to insulate the pot base with more than a tea towel, so my solid wood dining table now has a round white burn print on it ໒( •́ ∧ •̀ )७
Any suggestions on removing this burn stain would be appreciated. I might try wiping it down with olive oil…

To be continued…