359 Tasting Notes
I experienced lots of tea excitement this week end so tonight, I need to go to an old friend of mine.
It saddens me to see that this type of oolong isn’t more popular on here. It’s pretty spectacular to me. I’ve reviewed it more than once, so tonight I’m just gonna reiterate how precious it is.
It’s aged and roasted, so you must expect something that doesn’t taste like your average tea. Very sweet, charcoal notes and caramel, a true liquid crème brûlée.
The brew has a certain bite to it, it kind of tastes like mocha and black rich coffee. It keeps changing and evolving at every steep, a real chameleon!
If you like to get out of your comfort zone and try something different, go for this or 1991 Da Ye Aged Oolong. They are both superb aged oolong and give you a run for your money, they steep forever…
This is my Terri Tea of the day.
Jin Jun Mei…not only do I like to pronounce its name, (i could drive you nuts by repeating it over and over again with my renown Asian accent ) but I also love it in my cup.
This smells like chocolate and smoke. It’s very “Keemuny” (yes, I invent words all the time, sorry linguistic purists!)
It’s malty and full bodied. It’s sweet and roasty, thick molassy texture in the mount. No astringency whatsoever.
It’s strong and smooth at the same time, totally my kind of guy ;-)
Thanks Terri Harplady for sharing such a good quality tea with me :-)
I like it a lot too..that reminds me its time to place a YS order…
Yay! I knew you’d love this one! :)
This morning, I’m having a kid’s breakfast. I’m hungry cause instead of eating dinner last night, I got drunk…Tea drunk that is. With giggles and all the fun that comes with it.
So I’m making “oeuf dans le trou”. (Egg in a hole???) Don’t know if other people have that dish in the world, but I’m guessing yes cause I found this pic:
https://jillcastle.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/img_5046.jpg
That’s exactly how I do mine, with a thick whole grain slice of bread and a big omega-3 egg.
When we were kids, It was a fiesta when my mom cooked them…
I dip the little bred circle from the hole in my egg yolk. So much yum, so much fun!
And what best tea to pair with it than by beloved Ailaoshan Black?
The sweet salted caramel notes chase away the eggy aftertaste in my mount, it’s almost like having eggs with maple syrup.
Then on it’s own it’s like having a little dessert. Malt with dark chocolate, sweet dried fruits…
I’ve written it all in previous notes.
This tea hugs me in the morning, and I can only hug back :-)
LOL, I can certainly use the help!
BTW, I think this may be the longest tea posting comments thingy ever! :)
I tend to forget I have this in the cupboard…well I just drank the last 7g of it so now it’s gone…
This is the roasted type, bolder in flavour with so many different notes and nuances, it’s not possible to identify them all in one session.
I don’t drink it often enough, too bad cause it is worth the attention. It smells like roasted chestnut and coffee, but strangely, the first thing I get in the first steep is a strong floral mouthfeel.
Then, it’s a party in the mouth. I mean fourth of july with fireworks kind of party. Baked goods, spicy nutmeg, peach, apricot, charcoal. It’s complex but so easy to drink.
Someone else suggested coconut to me from another Big Red Robe tea. As much as I want to get coconut, it’s just missing in action in this one. Too bad, I do love me some coconut!
On the fifth steep I just let it cool.
It’s juicy and very refreshing on this very hot summer night. It gets winey, like a bright citrusy and oaky white wine.
I really like this and would definitely consider replenish my cupboard with some Da Hong Pao soon.
Another great tea from Teavivre!
I have a small collection of BBRs that I need to get back to drinking. I really do love them, so roasts, so nuanced, so tasty!
best yancha is lao cong shui xian
Oolong rocks my world. Especially TGY. But I’m critical when it comes to it cause I have tried many and lots of them just taste generic to me. Not bad, but nothing overly special. Since I now have a well garnished selection of my favourites that I keep at all time, I don’t seek them as much as I used to, I’m pretty satisfied with what I have.
When I read that Whispering Pines were roasting their own TGI, it got me really curious to try the first batch.
I’m having it in the gaiwan.
This is not heavily roasted, but just enough to bring out those sweet caramel notes.
And boy, are they present. I get dark caramel, sweet corn and light mineral notes. At the first steep, the wet leaves smell like slightly burnt kernels and roasted coffee.
Another thing that really got me to try it was the “caramelized bananas” mentioned in the description. I mean come on. Pretty hard to resist that one.
And you know what? Don’t underestimate the power of suggestion cause it really worked, I definitely got that, but wouldn’t have come up with it on my own!
It looses some of its “roastiness” at the fourth steep, that’s when peachy fruity notes and a nice floral mouthfeel emerge. As it cools, I get a light camphor minty finish, and it really lingers.
Me like.
All I’m really saying is this TGY lot no. 1 is wicked good. More please.
I took a trip to India, Sri Lanka, Morocco, and Spain, all in one afternoon…went to the spice boutique and smelled some of the most tantalizing and unusual blends. I’m almost as addicted to spices as I am to tea!
Among a bunch of stuff I just couldn’t say no to, I bought my favourite cinnamon sticks, highest grade available from Sri Lanka.
The first time I tried it, I felt like I’d never really tasted cinnamon before. It has nothing to do with the stuff you find in grocery stores. It’s sweeter, more refined and sophisticated.
Every now and then, I like to add a stick in shou pu’erh.
This is how I’ve been drinking Noble Mark this afternoon. I stir the stick in my cup and leave it in as I drink. The flavours are just phenomenal.
Cinnamon is like a pu’erh enhancer. It pairs so nicely with its earthiness and its natural cocoa feel.
Having said that, Noble Mark is absolutely fabulous on its own, and doesn’t need anything added to it. It is smooth, with brothy and savoury mushroom notes, chocolaty and silky. It has non of those leathery or marine notes sometimes found in shou.
I just love it, another big Mandala winner!
Yes, that’s the email I’ve used, it’s in my sent box. I just sent it again using my gmail account instead, maybe they go to your junk mail?
@TeaFairy – YES try it with the Black Beauty, it is well, a thing of Beauty
And Garret – a lot of people have sampled some of your loose pu-ers recently in the unflavored TTB I started – so I bet your sale will do great.
Tea of the night.
This tea is a lullaby…
It’s comforting, soothing, enveloping, warming, reassuring.
This tea feels like the rain…
It’s calming, cleansing, refreshing, quenching, rejuvenating.
Fresh Michigan pine needles, paired with jasmine green. Brilliant.
Pure and crystalline, this infusion renders a light floral breeze and an almost indescribable fresh evergreen taste. It just sits there on your tongue long after you’ve swallowed. It might be a little more piney and resinous than the previous time I had it, which is fine by me, I love that taste! But it remains very delicate and sophisticated.
I had only a sample before, but now that I have a brand new supply, we’ll be spending a lot more time together…This is a unique handcrafted product, and I’m pleased to say it now has a place of choice in my cupboard.
Cavocorax, I’ll message you :)
And yes, to answer your question, I harvest on the first of each month. Usually there’s about 10 ounces available, but I’m trying to make that a pound in the future.
I could do a special harvest for anyone that wants 4 ounces or more though :)
Fun fact.
In French, the pronunciation of Shou is the same as “chou” which means primarily….cabbage. I know, nothing glorious in that.
The cute part is that “chou” is also being used to signify our affection to someone we love. We’ll say “mon chou” the same way we’ll say in English, “my love” or “my darling”. Also, doubling the word and make it “chouchou” means “a favourite”.
So it is not a lie to say that this shou is my “chou” and a new “chouchou” of mine ;-)
Having just received both Mandala and Whispering Pines orders, all you’ll read from me in the upcoming week end will be reviews of their teas. A good tea week end in perspective, wouln’t you say?
This is a newcomer for me, never tried it before. I’m surprised to see only one review on Steepster.
Temple Stairs…What a name, just loving it! I’m ready to feel the elevation :-)
It’s really soft and smooth, not bold at all.
Not as rich and chocolaty as Special Dark, and that’s ok, not necessarily seeking richness after a meal.
I find notes of mushroom, cocoa and dark sugar. This is not your heavily earthy shou pu’erh, I would recommend it to anyone thinking pu’erh is scary. Cause this cup is not scary at all, it just wants to comfort you and be your “chouchou”!
So happy I went for a few ounces of this just based on description, totally worth it!
Here: http://shopmandalatea.com/sale-items.html
Jamie just decided to do all loose leaf ripe pu’er at 50% off through 7/2! He’s nuts but he’s the online guy, so I just do what he tells me :) I hope you are all having a great day. Spread the word, if you’d like. I’m going to announce it on promotion page now, too.
Seriously, Garret? You’re killing me here! I am on tea buying probation! My boyfriend regularly threatens to send me to Teahab!
But I just can’t pass up a 50% off deal. I’m placing an order for this one now. Thanks for the great discount! LOL!
So…Steepster people. MzPriss and I have been chosen to preview this new creation before its official debut. Yesterday, I received the precious sample and drank it right away.
Beware, I have a lot to say, sorry for the long review, just couldn’t make it a short one!
I will not pretend I have the English skills to describe this tea the way Brenden did so masterfully in his own beautiful “Tolkien-esque” way…
But after reading it, I can tell you that I get what this brand new concoction is all about.
See, I live in a mountainous forestial environment.
Some days, I feel like Alice in Wonderland.
I get inspired by my forest every day….walking by a tall and majestic oak tree, bouncing on spongy velvety mossy grounds, getting intoxicated by the pungent and resinous scent of evergreens, listening to the chant of dazzling birds, secretly meeting with wonderful critters, having mystic encounters with strange and never seen before mushrooms, floating my way through ponds and wetlands, following the curves of sinuous rivers…
Beautiful nature canvases, begging for respect and attention. To experience it all, it is only required to look, smell and listen.
That will be my approach with this tea…
The look:
Stunning. Dark ebony curls and golden ribbons, they intertwine like enamoured lovers. Tea can be such a beautiful thing…Here’s a pic:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/laafeevertee/14514171475/lightbox/
The smell:
Enticing. But not as overly vanilla as I expected. It took me a while to figure out what the dry scent reminded me of…I finally did put my finger on it. I have a Vietnamese Lotus scented tea, and I compared it. Lotus blossoms! In tea, they have a natural floral vanilla scent to them. It’sa very distinctive fragrance, a little earthy and mossy.
Once brewed, the aroma took over the kitchen. Pics right here…but sorry, no 3D olfactory effects!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/laafeevertee/14534509223/lightbox/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/laafeevertee/14491254566/lightbox/
The listen:
That’s the tasting part. This tea embodies someone’s love and respect for his surroundings. That “speaks” to me so I tried to be attentive to fully grasp all its subtleties. To tell you the truth, all I felt like doing when I drank it was to close my eyes, relax and enjoy instead of taking notes…and that’s totally what I did, at least for the first steep. (Lazy reviewer!!)
I initially thought this was going to be Golden Orchid on steroids!!! But it’s quite the opposite. It’s more subdued. In fact, it doesn’t even seem like any vanilla was added to the blend. It feels as if the leaves came from a mysterious and unknown vanilla tea tree variety, an old tree that would have been watered with vanilla scented water for centuries. That’s how natural this is, Camellia Sinensis in all its glory!
I am biased and partial. I already love the two base teas creating this little marvel: Ailaoshan Black and Imperial Grade Dian Hong . How could I NOT like this?
The union of the two create some amazing notes. The first steep was like liquid silk in my mouth, all vanilla and smooth salted caramel. I also got that lotus note.
The other steeps brought more complexity. The mix of the two black teas produced some kind of chocolaty dried cherry notes, so yum. I didn’t get Morels per say as in the description (my favourite mushroom BTW) but a damp yeasty earthiness might be my own perception on the “mushroom” notes. I also got woody and piney notes in the later steeps.
This tea is very potent, I was skeptical that it could yield as many brews as Brenden suggested. But I respected the Master’s instructions and it worked. 5 good steeps and not one weak cup! Well actually, that’s not true. It did get a little weak the first time around. But the sample was big enough for me to have it twice. The second time around, I used less water and it worked better for me. So when I get this baby home, I’ll be using 1 tbsp per cup instead of the recommended 1/2 tbsp. having said that, do try it the way it is meant to be, I’m a heavy steeper :-)
In conclusion, believe the hype people, Brenden is the Tea Whiz of the Woods!
Thank you so much for the wonderful opportunity to try this new beloved blend of yours :-)
Wonderful tasting note. Much more eloquent than any of my ramblings.
Do believe the Hype!!! Brenden Makes Great Teas!
This was a great review!!
Oh boy, do I have some fond memories of this one… Definitely need to reorder sometime soon if it is still available.
Been awhile since I had this one. I probably should have included some I my recent order…
I know right? I’ve been siping two litres of water on this so far…and it’s still giving, getting sweeter and sweeter.
I just ordered some because of this note.
Haha! Hope you like it. I call it my caramel charcoal tea :-)
It sounds so yummy.
I almost place an order on Friday night…… The logical side of me got the better of it. Soon enough.
I wish I had a logical side when it comes to tea. It would come in so handy.
Oh yes, more logic for me please ;-)
Do you think logic takes Visa? What do reckon shipping is on it?
Lol, wonder if Logic sells on ebay…
Nods. Much better deal on ebay