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Forgot to review this tea ever since I got my precision temperature kettle. Brewed at 203˚F as recommended.

1st infusion: (1:00)
Wet leaves give off a strong delicious scent of brown sugar along with the richer cherry notes. The taste is quite bitter like silky cacao chocolate with some spice, but I remember the sweetness comes out in the later infusions.

2nd infusion: (1:30)
Still bitter chocolate, but smoother.

3rd infusion: (1:50)
Sweet and smooth, can taste the slight maraschino cherry notes.

Rating: 77

I have this 旅行茶具 set in plain white. Just wanted a link to this so that I can remember the capacities of each item.

Teacups: 20ml
Pitcher: 100ml
Gaiwan: 75ml

Would be more useful if it came with say, only 3 or 4 cups and the capacities of the gaiwan and cha hai were bigger. But the fact that everything fits in a 14×8×7.5cm travel case is nice.

Sample from Lupicia. As far as scented teas go, this is pretty lovely. Subtle berry flavours, not artificial candy-tasting, on a smooth green base. Nice for a sweeter change from my jasmine green. I would consider trying this or some other Lupicia tea bags for the office when I can’t brew loose-leaf.

After a few weeks of obsessing over the 2014 I tried at a restaurant, I finally caved and bought the 2015 Heritage Golden Buddha from Red Blossom without even tasting it first. Brewed 3.5g in my 150ml gaiwan at 200˚F.

Dry leaves smell so creamy and dark roasted. The wet leaves look gorgeous, such a dark rich green with almost a metallic lustre. I may be in lust with this tea.

Rinsed for 1 second.

1st infusion: (1:00)
The lid smells like flourless dark chocolate cake––not sweet like confectionery but rich and substantial. Just heavenly. Liquor tastes balanced and round, with a slight nutty, toasted bread and caramel flavour. I’m not tasting anything as doughy or buttery as pie crust or graham cracker but it’s still lovely.

2nd infusion: (1:30)
Leaves beginning to smell a bit plummy and more vegetal. Liquor has dark chocolate notes on top of that smooth base of toast, and the finish is really sweet on the tongue this time. This cultivar seems to have extracted all the best parts of Wuyi yancha without the hard, minerally taste. I need to keep buying this.

3rd infusion: (2:00)
Mellower flavour but still has subtle chocolate and nutty notes and good body.

4th infusion: (2:40)
Even mellower, a little thin now. Would love to try this tea in an Yixing teapot.

5th: (3:45)
Yeah this did not work. It’s basically hot water.

Update: Realised I hadn’t de-scaled my kettle after about a month of use, wondering if this might have contributed to the mineral / metallic taste. Keep having #waterissues with this tea unfortunately. Would love to try another sample in future.

1st infusion: (25s)
Light, floral, buttery, beautiful. Although, I have to note that something roastier and less sweet would have paired better with my sweet waffle breakfast. Not the tea’s fault of course!

2nd infusion: (35s)
Actually tastes really light, not as flavourful as the last time. There’s also a thin metallic note that I don’t like very much (the 铁 in 铁观音?).

3rd infusion: (45s)
Fuller than the 2nd infusion actually. Lingering but thin buttery and floral notes.

4th infusion: (65s)
Steeped for longer than recommended to get more flavour. Of course, then it ended up tasting slightly astringent. Don’t think I can do a 5th steeping.

This tea is meant to be brewed at 190-193˚F. More fruity, richer notes like cherry and dark chocolate come out along with the roasty flavour. Still many broken pieces of leaf inside but at least the tea tastes good. Big improvement over my last tasting!

This actually looks, smells, and tastes pretty similar to Dachi’s Honeysuckle Oolong, even though that one is from Taiwan’s Ali Mountain and this Bai Hao is apparently from Xin Zhu County, Taiwan, China… wait a minute. Haha. They have the same twisted leaves that have several broken bits in it (though this one has more broken bits, the Dachi has better quality leaves). They both have the cocoa notes with a fruity, sweet finish on the tongue. The Honeysuckle Oolong is best brewed at 194˚F, this one best at 190˚F. I reckon they’re from pretty similar terroir and processed in similar ways. Now I’m craving a less sweet tea :)

176˚F in my 5oz gaiwan. I don’t often crave jasmine-scented teas, but if I did I would definitely drink this one.

1st infusion: (40s)
The dry fragrance of the jasmine blends seamlessly with the Silver Needle’s haylike fragrance. Much more complex than any jasmine green tea I’ve had (though I want to try Teavivre’s Dragon Pearls too).

3rd infusion: (80s)
Flavour mellowing out, but still lovely.

4th infusion: (120s)
Woops the 4th infusion was supposed to brew for only 100s but even at 120, it’s not bitter or astringent. Beautiful and flavourful.

Update: Realised I hadn’t de-scaled my kettle after about a month of use, wondering if this might have contributed to the mineral / metallic taste. Will try again in the future with good water.

1st & 2nd infusions:
Maybe a bit too roasty for me. In the 2nd infusion I smelled notes of cream and burnt sugar, but no hint of sweetness in its austere taste at all. This tastes to me like that Ito En bottled chilled Golden Oolong.

4th infusion:
I’m getting a bit nauseous / headachey. My partner pointed out that this tea tastes a bit soapy. It’s probably not entirely the tea’s fault, but this is just not a good experience for me today. I might try the 2016 harvest at some point to give it another shot.

Brewed at 203˚F.

As with all my DAVIDsTEA teas, I rinsed this for about 10 seconds before actually steeping since I don’t like all the artificial flavouring. The leaves smell exactly like white chocolate to me and there are barely any white tea leaves in it––mostly mulberries and coconut pieces.

After steeping for about 5:00, this was surprisingly good. Definitely my favourite of the 4 DAVIDsTEAs I bought in my first and last purchase from them.

Note: Next time, try brewing at 190˚F.

Leaves in the bag come with lots of broken little bits, like you would expect to see in a white peony but not in a high-grade oolong. I’m using 5g in a 5oz gaiwan. They suggest 5g in a teapot Western-style, at boiling for 2 – 3 min.

1st infusion: (212˚F, 40s)
Bitter, perhaps I steeped too long? Tastes minerally like a Wuyi rock oolong and has the same deep copper colour. Not what I expected from an “Oriental Beauty” tea. Those are produced in Taiwan, whereas this one is from China so I suppose it’s not going to be the best Dong Fang Mei Ren experience.

2nd infusion: (212˚F, 45s)
Still has that roasty minerally flavour, but lighter and I can taste a bit of underlying fruity flavour bordering on sweetness.

3rd infusion: (212˚F, 55s)
Flat, dull, astringent

UPDATE: Their website says to use less-than-boiling water so I’m going to try a second batch. 5g, 205˚F.

1st infusion: (205˚F, 30s)
Leaves smell burnt. Liquor does not taste burnt, but minerally, roasty and a bit astringent and flat. Still can’t get over the amount of broken bits of leaf that flow into the cup.

2nd infusion: (206˚F, 45s)
I’m running out of ways to say roasty, bitter chocolate, mineral and dull.

Verdict:
It’s not the worst, especially for fans of Wuyi rock oolongs, but it’s not Eastern / Oriental Beauty, certainly not Premium anything, and at $14 for 50g on Ebay, this tea was a total ripoff. Can get much better teas elsewhere like Teavivre and my local tea shops for the same price or cheaper. Guess the fact that Ebay doesn’t have customer reviews should have been a red flag for me.