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This is a darker oolong — the leaves are a dark, chocolate brown for the most part. They’re of medium length and a little twisty. In the tin, they have a roasty, sharp smell.

Gaiwan, rinse, 195F, 15 secs + 5 cumulatively for later steeps. I did four because I am pressed for time.

The color is really pretty — coppery amber and clear. The tea smells just slightly roasty toasty. That’s not the dominant aroma, though. Mostly what I smell is honey.

And that’s mostly what I taste as well, through all steeps. There’s a hint of roastiness but no smoke, and the sharp note smooths out in the steeping.

I had expected peaches, apricots, stonefruits, but got honey. I’ll take it.

Plus the name is awesome!

I now have whatever it is the BF has. Thanks, dude. I guess you missed that day in preschool when they taught everyone to cough into the crook of their elbow. (He really did cough right in my face! Nasty!)

So maybe I’m not tasting as well today as I should. I did manage to sleep pretty well — didn’t wake up to cough or anything. But if history teaches me anything its that coughs linger with me. I expect at some point I’ll have to put in a request for cough syrup with codeine. Ugh.

But in any case, this has a mild, grassy smell in the tin. Very different from yesterday’s goddess. No toast at all.

Gaiwain. 195F, rinse, 15 seconds, +5 through 4 steeps. I would have done more but I have an appointment this morning at 11 and I want to get through some other teas first.

The tea is a medium yellow and clear, and it smells a little milky, a little sweet, a little like flowers. It tastes just like it smells.

This is what I typically think of when I think if tieguanyins, and it’s a good representative of its type. Very drinkable, just not necessarily unique or transporting. It could get there with a bit more of a distinct floral aroma and smell. Maybe it will be different when I am not sick.

Throughout my pu erh adventures of late, I’ve been hoping to find a sheng that was transporting, one I could write rapturously about. But none of the ones I’ve tasted have reached that level. They’ve all been good, just not rapturously good.

Enter this tea.

I knew something unique was about to happen when I sniffed the dry leaves and smelled Snickerdoodle.

I rinsed just over 2.5g in the gaiwan and let it sit for a while, then steeped at boiling for 5/5/7/7/10/10/20/30/40/60

The first couple of steeps were interesting, but not rapturously so. The first was a pale yellow (the color got more intense though didn’t change hue with subsequent steeps) and had a sort of medicinal smell, which I gather is what people refer to as camphor. Fortunately, it did not taste medicinal. It tasted slightly sweet, slightly nutty, and slightly vegetal, but mostly what I noticed was the smooth, soft mouthfeel.

The second steep had a savory-brothy smell and tasted smooth and vegetal.

The third steep is where it went rapturous. All of a sudden, a suggestion of coffee. And then toffee.

And then a sideways step on the fourth steep to melon. Honeydew.

Then back to coffee, toffee and — cocoa! Where it remained through all the remaining steeps.

Very delicious, very bizarre — it’s hard for me to wrap my mind around how a tea that is this light in color can have these confectionery flavors. But it did.

And that’s why it’s rapturous. Of course, it was a limited edition and once it is gone, it is gone.

Figures.

Sipdown no. 1 of 2019! (no.489 total). A sample.

I couldn’t let myself get past today without a sipdown. That would have sent the entirely wrong message after I accepted the sipdown challenge!

I looked around at my samples and honestly, it being already past 1:30 and there being sheng to taste, I couldn’t bring myself to drink anything else today. So I did the next best thing. I tossed the rest of this into a pitcher to find out what it would be like as a cold brew since it was hardly a favorite hot. I didn’t have enough tea to make an entire pitcher, so I added in some Golden Moon Pu erh.

I am expecting mud patty shake, but hoping to be surprised. There may be another note on this if there’s anything worth reporting.

One of these nests weighs over 5g, so I cut one in half and stuck it in the gaiwan. Rinsed, and steeped at boiling for 10/10/20/30/40/60/120/240/300/360

The nest didn’t have a particularly distinctive smell when dry — not fishy, a little sweet. After steeping it made a cherry wood color liquor that got darker with the first few steeps and then, rather abruptly, started to fade until it was a slightly coppery light yellow for the last few steeps.

This is pretty much what happened with the flavor, too. It had a nice intensity to it for the first few steeps, then faded away like it dropped off a cliff. I probably could have stopped at 5 or 6, but I soldiered on. The lighter intensity had its own flavor, but compared to the deeper intensity, it was a bit wan.

I remember as a kid going to the zoo with my mom. Whenever we got the the camel enclosure she’d tell me not to get too close because the camels would “spit tobacco” at you. Now, since camels probably don’t put just a pinch between their cheek and gum, I understood this to be metaphor.

Perhaps because of this association in my mind, though, my taste buds immediately went to tobacco for the dominant taste in this. But it was more than that; it was the scented tobacco my dad used to smoke in his pipe that always had some sort of alcohol flavor name. I’m thinking rum, here.

But all that goes away by steep 6 or so. I’d rate it higher if it had more staying power.

It was bound to happen. I found a sample of this, opened, and so I went to see how I’d rated it figuring if it was rated lower than my other black tea samples I’d sip it down to start off the new year with less tea.

But no note. I must have tried it and not written a note about it. Bah.

In the packet, the smell is your basic spiced tea — cinnamon, clove, some orange. After steeping, that’s pretty much the same aroma that comes from the tea, which is a medium orange brown and cloudy.

To that, add in the flavor a bit of vanilla and just the slightest hint of almond. The only thing I don’t taste that is listed in the ingredients is the cardamom, which is probably just as well because that would head it too far down the chai road.

I don’t know whether I liked this when I first had it, but I definitely liked it this time. The tea base is mild and carries the flavors well.

It’s like a deeper, richer version of Constant Comment.

Yum.

The package says the finish is reminiscent of baked grain and dates. Hmmm.

It does have rather more toastiness to the dry leaf aroma than I expected from a greener oolong, and yeah, it’s a little grain like. Like toasted bread.

Gaiwain. 195F, rinse, 15 seconds plus 5 for each additional steep.

The tea has a hint of toasted rice in the aroma but mostly the smell is reassuringly floral and slightly buttery, which is more like what I expected. The tea is golden yellow, a sort of medium hue.

And there, in the aroma of the last steep (I found this interesting enough to go through 6), it is. Dates! Otherwise not a lot of change from steep to steep, but the consistency is also reassuring.

It’s a little different from other tieguanyins. I get the feeling it may be less green than some others. Though it did an amazing job of unrolling in the gaiwan. It easily doubled in volume and the wet leaves smelled sweeter to me than the usual “wet leaf” smell.

I liked this more than I expected to. I think of Rishi as a serviceable brand that is consistently good but not necessarily spectacular except for a few outliers like the chai. This is one of those outliers.

Last oolong sample to taste and write an initial note about! (At least, I’m pretty sure it is.)

And by the way, happy new year! I hope 2019 is less stressful than 2018 was. I don’t know if I can take another year of waking up, feeling compelled to check the news to see what awful thing has happened next, and then starting the day anxious.

Anyway, this has a very fruity smell in the packet. Like way more fruity than any other oolong I can remember that wasn’t flavored. Which is a big plus. Also the typical roasty toasty aroma.

Rinse, 195F for 15 sec in the gaiwan. I did more than the usual 4 steeps (I did 6) adding 5 seconds to each steep.

I did more than the usual steeps because this was a really unique tea, at least to my taste buds. The fruitiness persists in the aroma and flavor of the steeped tea. I do get the honey and lychee flavors. Like a roasted lychee, though I have never had that. It’s pretty remarkably true to its description.

I’m not sure what they mean by “rich liquor.” Mine was very pale in the initial steeps and got darker, but never more than a champagne color. Which in and of itself is odd for a darker oolong, in my experience.

A really lovely sugary/floral smell hit my nose with the last sip and coated the empty cup.

I seem to have collected Tuo-Cha from a number of different companies, so I’ll be talking about them a fair amount between now and when I finish writing notes about everything in the cupboard.

These came in a packet with a ziplock closure for after it is opened. There are a number of individually wrapped nests inside. They smell just slightly fishy, a little leathery, and even have a chocolate note.

I weighed one. It was about 3.3g, which is about .8g more than I’d usually put into the gaiwan if I were measuring sheng (which this isn’t). I usually just put shu in until it covers the bottom with a nice layer, but because this is a nest I couldn’t do that.

I rinsed, and the nest completely fell apart after the rinse. I then steeped 10/10/20/30/40/60/120/240/300/360

The first few steeps made a very, very dark brown, coffee colored liquor that was basically opaque. The primary note was of mushroom, no fishiness, and the tea had a sweet smoothness to it that was very welcome after my earlier tasting (Canton Vietnamese Pu Erh, which tasted like dirt through 10 steeps).

By steep four, the color became amber, and from then on it faded with each steep until it was a very light amber at the last. I was kind of suprised by the rather dramatic drop off in color. I haven’t really seen that before.

The tea continued to be smooth and sweet, even as it became a lighter and less intense version of itself. As it faded, it became a bit more leathery.

Smoother and mellower than I recall the Rishi being and in general seems a good representative of its type.

Today’s pu erh sample, never before opened.

OK, this is going to be really short, because even though I did the whole thing, gaiwan, rinse, 10/10/20/30/40/60/120/240/300/360 I came away with a single impression of this tea.

Here are my notes transcribed:

Dry leaf smells more like dirt than any other pu erh I can remember having.

Steep 1: dark amber liquor, smells and tastes very much like dirt, earth, loam, with some sweetness
Steep 2: still dirt
Steep 3: still dirt
Steep 4: still dirt
Steep 5: still dirt
Steep 6: still dirt
Steep 7: lighter colored, still dirt but maybe less? Or I’m getting used to it.
Steep 8: finally not tasting like dirt as much but some vague sweetness
Steep 9: same as 8
Steep 10: same as 9

So yeah, maybe there’s some moss in there, to be charitable.

I never thought I’d say dirt is not an unpleasant taste, but it’s not unpleasant.

It is just earthier than appeals to me.