__Morgana__ Send Message

One of the last white teas I haven’t written a note about.

In the packet, the little pearls smell sweet and bready, like sweet rolls — not the sugary pastry kind, but the hot, soft, fluffy with dinner kind.

I made the decision to totally ignore the temperature guidance from The Tea Table, because I knew that if I went that cool I was likely to get no color, no aroma, and no flavor. That’s always my experience with white teas.

So I went hotter, to the white tea setting on the Breville. I went with my custom steep time (4 minutes), a little longer than the Breville setting . I got a pale yellow, clear tea, that had a slightly smoky sweet bread aroma.

I have to say, this is one of the more enjoyable white teas I can remember tasting and I’m devastated that The Tea Table no longer has it showing as available on its web site.

This tea has flavor when made hot — I don’t have to relegate it to cold brew to actually get any flavor out of it. And the flavor is mild, sweet, bready, slightly smoky, and has no hint of dead plant or the musty undercurrent that many white teas seem to have.

Lovely.

I got this as a sample a long time ago and never opened it. Now it is part of my continuing pu-erh adventures.

The leaves in the packet smell earthier than those of the other shengs I’ve had recently. A little roasted, slightly smoky even.

I used boiling water, rinsed and let the leaves sit for 15+ minutes before steeping in the gaiwan at 5/5/7/7/10/10/20/30/40/60

It’s pretty late in the day for me to be having caffeine, so I’m feeling a little internal pressure to finish up the day’s tasting. I’m also feeling as though by the steep note taking isn’t really necessary for the reasons I mentioned in the Bana Orchid Charm note, namely that I’m not noticing a lot of change from steep to steep. I had expected more in general, but that’s not what I’m tending to get. Maybe I’m doing something wrong?

This tea starts pale yellow and becomes golden in color with later steeps, similar to the others I’ve tasted recently. Its aroma and flavor are subtly different — rounder somehow, richer. Not so much linen/flax as sweet tobacco and cocoa. Duskier but still smooth.

Middle steeps made me think of pralines — sugary-nutty.

Another general note. I expected the shengs I have to taste more different from each other than they do, but so far they’ve all been very similar. I might like one a little better than another but really, it feels like splitting hairs.

Maybe my palate isn’t developed enough yet.

The continuing adventures of the pu-erh n00b, in which the orchid theme from today’s oolong also continues.

The dry leaf of this one also smells like sour tree as did the Bana sheng of yesterday, but with a dusky, low note as well.

The package says to use lower heat for this one, so I went with 195F in the gaiwan for 5/5/7/7/10/10/20/30/40/60

I think when I started trying sheng in earnest, I expected something different. Mostly, I expected that the tea would undergo significant, transformative changes from steep to steep. What I’m finding is that hasn’t been the case. There are subtle changes in some instances, but I’ve been surprised at the consistency in flavor between steeps.

This one started out with a very light liquor — I’d call it white with a yellow tinge. Not white in the sense of white tea white, where it is pretty much the color of water, but something that gives off a definite sense of the color white. The color gets more yellow and a little darker with subsequent steeps. Around the third steep, I noticed a pinkish tinge.

The flavor is similar to that of the other Bana shengs I’ve had recently in that it makes me think of flax, but with a subtle difference in that it has a more floral quality and is a little sweeter. The tea has a soft, energizing mouthfeel.

The second steep brought out a nutty note, cashew perhaps. With more steeps, the flax aspect dissipated and the floral aspect became more prominent as the tea became generally milder, though on the fifth steep a weird step back toward sour came in, and in the seventh, a sugary, brown sugar note came out.

I wonder whether this would be more or less interesting with hotter water?

In any case, I enjoyed it, maybe just a tad more than the other shengs I’ve had from Bana. rating accordingly.

The leaves have a grassy green smell in the tin, with a sweet floral note and just a hint of a sharp spicy note.

Gaiwan, 195F. Rinse, 15 seconds +5 for each subsequent steep.

The tea has a very pale yellow liquor. It smells fresh, with a single floral note. The description says lilac, and while I ‘m not sure I have a mental map of lilac’s aroma, I have no reason to think this isn’t that. In the first steep, there’s a light, milk note.

Later steeps continue to have the lilac note, but starting with the second steep through several more, the milky note becomes buttery. By the third steep, the leaves have greatly expanded and leave a sugary, nectar/floral scent in the cup when the tea is gone.

Something about this tea made me want to keep steeping it beyond my typical four steeps for note-writing purposes. I took this through an additional three steeps with breakfast.

That’s a really good sign, and my rating reflects it.

A never opened sample of this appears to be my last oolong sample from Upton. I have a few more from Canton, but in terms of the first-tasting-first-note project, I’m in good shape with oolong samples. I should be able to finish tasting them during this holiday break.

This tea is very pretty, festive-looking even. It has dark to medium brown leaves with flashy silver tips. Definitely extra fancy. The leaves smell pungent, toasted, slightly minerally and otherwise like a typical dark oolong.

Gaiwan, rinse, 195F, 15 seconds +5 afterwards through four steeps.

After steeping, the tea is pale yellow and clear, though it darkens with subsequent steeps to more of a golden color.

The aroma has notes of grape, raisin, peach, and peach pit. It has a suggestion of sharpness, but that turns out to be an illusion. The flavor is surprisingly smooth.

And it’s largely consistent from steep to steep, though the second steep definitely had a roasted peach and peach pit flavor front and center.

A very nice dark oolong.

Adventures in pu-erh part sheng.

I bought this a while ago in a 50g packet (not a brick). The tea in the packet has an interesting smell I can only describe as “sour tree.”

I put about 2.7g into the gaiwan, rinsed with boiling water and let sit for 15+ minutes.

Then I steeped at boiling for: 5/5/7/7/10/10/20/30/40/60

The color, for the most part, was a medium gold and clear, though it darkened a little with later steeps.

The aroma and flavor were difficult for me to describe. As with a prior sheng, I kept thinking about linen and cloth. Flax, I guess. Maybe flax seed? Or some other sort of seed. Sunflower?

There’s a little bit of leatheriness, but not in the same way as with shu.

The first steep was surprisingly sweet as well as sour. In subsequent steeps, the sour went away (or I got used to it) and a cooling note came out. Camphor? Menthol? Eucalyptus? This topped out around steep 6.

I also got a bit of fruitiness that reminded me of the last sheng in the early steeps. Pineapple maybe.

Later steeps had a notes of tree sap/resin.

I found it surprisingly similar to the Norbu I had last week, the bamboo one. But without the bamboo. Rating it the same.

Adventures in pu-erh part next. I opened up this sample today. I’m surprised I couldn’t find an entry for it? A lot of others of the former ATR pu-erhs do have entries. I hope I didn’t accidentally create a duplicate.

First, I want to say that it’s not all that easy to taste tea for note-writing purposes while also trying to execute your MCLE requirements. I thought it might be a good combo since MCLE lectures tend to be a bit dry, but it’s kind of hard to pay attention to both at once.

In any case, I tried this in the gaiwan at boiling after a rinse: 10, 10, 20, 30, 40, 60, 120, 240, 300, 360.

The leaves (since there’s no picture) are variegated in color, from brown to dark green to light brown with golden tips. They’re short, and not particularly full. Dry, they smell like earth and mushrooms. They’re fishy, but only very slightly and that goes away when they’re rinsed.

The first few steeps make a tea that is dark almost to the point of being opaque and brown-red in color. The tea’s color lightens noticeably with repeated steeps after the first few. By the fifth steep, the color is closer to mahogany. By the last, it’s a dark amber.

The tea is smooth through all the steeps, and has a quality that makes it come across as rich even when it is fading. The first few steeps have smells and tastes of leather, mushroom, molasses, and a slight mocha note.

By around steep four, the flavor becomes more woody and less sweet (though it is still somewhat sweet — and the sweetness really pops at the four minute steep before becoming subdued through the remainder).

Other than as mentioned, the tea is pretty consistent in its smoothness and flavor. It was enjoyable even as it started to fade.

I like it the best of the ATR shus I’ve had recently, though not nearly as much as the Life in Teacup.

Strange. I had written an entire not on this and it got eaten.

Anyway, there’s some important news. I’ve now written an initial note about all the green teas in my cupboard!

I thought I had another tin. At least, my cupboard said I did. It may still show up, but I’ve looked twice and can’t find it. So I am declaring victory.

What I didn’t expect was this sample. I forgot I had it. It was in the back of a bunch of pu-erh samples. I must have gotten it when I bought a yixing from Yunnan Sourcing.

In any case, it’s a pretty green tea with dark green, curly leaves and some silver tips. In the packet, it smells like hay.

After steeping it is a clear, pale yellow and smells a bit nutty. It also has a vegetal note that is a bit like roasted asparagus.

It’s not a sweet, juicy, vegetal — but it is really delicious. It’s the sort of thing I’d enjoy drinking at work.

A never opened sample. In the packet, it looks like your typical green oolong, rolled into balls. It has a mild floral, green smell.

Gaiwan, 195F, rinse, 15 seconds + 5 for subsequent steeps.

The color starts a rather pale green and becomes a darker yellow over subsequent steeps.

The aroma is quite floral (gardenias? orchids?) and only very slightly buttery.

The tea has a crisp, fresh feel in the mouth. It’s fairly astringent, and has a bit of a bitter note in the finish and aftertaste, though it isn’t unpleasantly bitter. There is not much butter in the flavor, though it gets a bit more buttery around the second steep.

By the end of four steeps, the leaves have almost doubled in volume and completely unfurled.

It’s a refreshing tea, rather than a comforting one — if that makes sense.

It is mild and unobjectionable. I like it, though have to be in the mood for a tea like this. Most of the time when I am looking for a green oolong, I’m looking for the comforting kind — buttery, warm, sweet.

Steeping this slightly hotter than usual in the gaiwan starting after a rinse at 15 sec and increasing in 5 second increments.

My cleaning people unplugged the Zo, so it took a while to get water heated this morning and it went all the way up to 205F. On its way back down now at 200F but I didn’t want to wait until it cooled down to 195F as I have to go get a haircut later.

This is unlike a lot of other Tieguanyins I’ve had lately. First, it doesn’t smell at all buttery or milky, and it’s only just slightly floral in the tin. Mostly it smells grassy-green.

The color starts pale yellow on the first steep and deepens to a clear medium gold on subsequent steeps.

The tea has a roasty aroma that on subsequent steeps has a brown sugary quality. In the earlier steeps it had some mineral aspects. But then it might be because I keep thinking iron, iron, iron….

The flavor hits the tongue in a way that announces complexity. It’s not buttery, not milky, not terribly floral. It has a taste all its own. I don’t really get the pine that others have mentioned. I sometimes do get pine from tea, but I can only get it here if I throw my mind out of focus and stretch.

I do get something that by the third steep I’ve identified as a salty but not salty quality. It seems salty, but it isn’t. This is probably because of its roasty-toastyness.

It holds up well through four steeps, and shows no signs of quitting. If I didn’t have to move on because of today’s schedule, I’d love to sit with it longer.

This is a lovely, tasty tea. As it’s type goes, I tend to prefer the more buttery and floral and less toasty greens. But it’s a great change of pace.