Eco-Cha Artisan Teas

Backlog:

Looks like an Oolong. Even the name made me think that this was an Oolong (until I got to the “black tea” part!)

This brews to a lighter color than a typical black tea. It’s more like a golden amber color rather than a chocolate-y color or coppery or red color. There is a slightly earthy and woodsy aroma to the liquid, with sweet notes of fruit and flower.

This is really deliciously sweet. Vanilla notes! Minty tones reveal themselves as the tea begins to cool slightly. The minty flavor is especially noticeable when I slurp the tea. Notes of flower, fruit and wood are also present.

A delightfully complex cuppa. Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/11/22/shan-lin-xi-high-mountain-black-tea-eco-cha/

So 1/2 of December’s Steepster box is still sitting in my cupboard. I have not written a single review on them. Every tea in that box just hit me wrong. This months box, January 2014, is rocking my world so far. Okay so this is only my second tea from the box but so far so good.

This tea is thinner bodied. When I sip I get a bread/potato taste followed by a sweet cool (minty ?) taste. I don’t pick out as much cinnamon as I have tasted in other teas from Taiwan, but I do get a sweet spice taste at the end of the sip. I really like this tea.

EDIT: My second cup of this was a completely different aninmal from the first. I don’t know if I steeped it differently or what, but I dumped out the second cup. It was so bitter. I didn’t get any of the nice qualities I enjoyed from the first packet. Yikes!

I didn’t read the description on this tea before trying it, so I was impressed with myself for being able to tell the style (lightly oxidized rolled oolong) just from smelling the dry leaf after tearing the packet open, before looking :D

Brewed, it smells very much like a Tie Guan yin, floral and creamy and sweet, but the flavor is more buttery, reminiscent of Samovar’s Four Seasons (also a lightly-oxidized Taiwanese oolong, that one is actually cultivated from a Tie Guan Yin varietal). I’m also getting a bit of vegetal green flavor on the front now, on my 3rd steep, though the back-end and aftertaste are still very floral. Think water lilies.

This is lovely, I was going to say it’s a bit weak, but the 3rd steep actually has a lot of character – maybe my 2nd was just a bit short. I’m still planning to do the other sample gong-fu style, for comparison’s sake.

1 sample pack, 8oz water, 3 steeps so far

Wow this was one of my favorite teas so far that Steepster has done. Minty, cinnamon sweetness. Loved it!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want more, I did 10 sec steeps and it kept going and going.

ahhhh time for an afternoon oolong. i JUST got this in the mail, totes ordered it after the steepster january sample (way to sell, guys!) – it is just as good as remembered. i think i’m in love with oolongs, and this might just be fighting for top spot against the comparable Tea at Sea high mountain oolong (theirs is indonesian, however). piney fresh damp mountain woods, right after a rain. cannot say enough how amazing this stuff is!

oh yum. this is a nice oolong – not too floral, but just floral enough. the underlying vegetation is, as someone else mentioned, reminding me of a pine forest – specifically the pine forest i grew up in, just after the rain. very lush experience, this tea.

once again, in my top 5 black teas, this is such a wonderful brew! just yum.

had two steepings of this this morning, was wonderful – a black tea that doesn’t make me want to add milk and/or sugar! yay! better notes next time.

Not a big fan of this tea. I did not sense the notes of “cinnamon, clove, and mint” that were promised. Instead, I smelled, and tasted, an overwhelming flavor of spinach. Unfortunately, I’m not a fan of spinach either. No better luck on the second tasting either. I hope the other teas I received in this month’s shipment are better.

This is an interesting black tea. Today the first thing I noticed about it was a minty freshness, that made my mouth feel a little like toothpaste. It is also a tart & tangy cup. I had planned to go with a gongfu preparation, but I’m just not in the mood to mess with that today. Tony & I have been watching Hitchcock. We spent all of breakfast time talking about how much we both love Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I’m not sure how we got on that topic, but we both agreed that he is an amazing actor. Then a few minutes ago Tony got on FB & discovered that he died this morning. At first I thought it was one of those scams, but sadly, it is true. The bright & wonderful future we had imagined for that actor, gone. What a bummer (;_;)

This tea is tangy, spicy, & good, & my first review stands.
3min/5min
Sipdown #2 for the day, # 7 for my Extravaganza.

I tend to enjoy black teas from the Sun Moon Lake area, in part due to their stone-fruit qualities.
I started this session off by preheating my cup, & then letting the leaf warm up in there for a few breaths. It was worth it! The aroma of the warmed leaf was beautiful, rich, & fruity apricot!
Otherwise I followed the suggested steeping parameters. It’s an interesting cup of tea, spicy, tart, & a little on the astringent side. There is a faint minty fresh sensation. The re-steep was even tangier like dried apricot, slightly bitter like clove, & a little sour like rye bread. Not a tea I’d probably keep in my collection, but an interesting one to try. I’ll probably go with gongfu parameters next time.

We’ve been drinking tea & watching ‘Captain Phillips’.
I’ve been sharing steepings of this, & the previous oolong with Tony. The 4 Seasons was much more floral, this one is sweet, creamy, & starchy in comparison. Tony likes this one better, he described it as, “More flavorful”. I’ve enjoyed them both. :)

I drank this yesterday evening, so I’m piecing this together from my notes (written on the envelope the tea was in).

The dry aroma of the leaf brought creamy tapioca pudding to mind, & with the first sip I saw the color of butterscotch (not the taste). Where do these images come from & why? Who knows, but I do enjoy being like this, so onward…

I brewed this one in glass, so I could watch the nuggets bloom & then dreamily unroll themselves like sacred scrolls. Most of the leaf tips are red-tinged.

The texture was buttery, sweet, a little starchy.
It made me think of a dessert I used to enjoy often: sticky rice topped with mango & drizzled with coconut milk. Again, it doesn’t really taste like it, although the fruitiness was a little like under-ripe mango, slightly tart. Subsequent steepings brought out more florals.

Origin: Nantou, Taiwan
Leaf Appearance: Rolled brownish green balls with scents of butter cookie
Method: Western style – one cup – 200F 2.5 minutes
Liquor: Floral scent
Flavor: Bitter, floral

I’m not going to follow Eco-Cha’s directions anymore and lower the temp on their teas so they don’t turn out bitter

The dry leaves are tightly rolled into a ball with stem so they look like tiny crabapples. They have the distinctive oolong scent with a hint of pineapple and a tiny bit of strawberry blossom.
The wet leaves unfurl into little green branches with 3 leaves and stay a pretty deep green.
The liquor is a beautiful clear forest green color. I love this color bc I also love green tea and its beauty. The wet leaves smell like flowers and cooked lentils. The liquor has those same notes.
I am very excited to try this tea.
The flavors are very floral. I took my cup outside in the garden to listen to the birds. The aroma and flavor is nasturtium and a hint of pineapple. I am catching a bit of astringency in the end.
This is a very cleansing tea. Could be a great one served after a dessert at the end of a meal.

**My second steeping, I added way less water. I feel that I might have added a touch too much water with the first one. Now the liquor is a deep golden color and the liquor has a very distinctive pine essence. There is astringency and it is very cleansing. Very interesting and expands my knowledge of oolongs because I have never tasted one like this!!

From the Steepster Select Box, January 2014

I am glad that the Steepster Select club gives us a couple servings of the same tea to try because I think I gave this one too much water the first time by accident and didn’t get to experience it correctly.
Today was much different and I really got some great notes from this and upped my rating as a result.
The dry leaves have a nutty, creamy aroma and it is great to brew this tea in a vessel that allows you to watch the tiny little " crabapples" open up. As it brews, the floral aromas awaken and give off a creamy, flowery, fruit candy scent.
The liquor has a beautiful golden jewel color and the flavor tastes like pineapple cream cake with creamy flower notes. Very Hawaiian in essences. This is very beautiful tea!!!

I generally prefer lighter less astringent teas, but this one is interesting enough and complex enough that I’m definitely glad I tried it.

Reading the reviews from my fellow Steepster members teabird, Lee, and Jace Lion Repshire really added to my enjoyment of this tea.

In addition to the wonderful honey flavors that are abundant and obvious in this gorgeous red tea, I also enjoyed the complex dried apricot, malt, tamarind, and dark wheat bread flavors.

BrewTEAlly Sweet’s description of the cinnamon flavors helped to identify those bitter flavors that other reviews did not detect, as well as the mint tea mouthfeel.

I probably won’t seek this tea out again, but I certainly am happy to have experienced it.

The dry leaves have the scent of Cream of Wheat cereal and they are thin, blackish-grey and twisted.
The liquor is a clear red-clay color and the wet leaves have turned that color too. I get the scent of persimmon, hay, barley, hops.
The flavors!!! This tea really has unique flavors!!!!! I had to close my eyes to get all the tastes that were coming thru. I caught tamarind and sweet potato first.
This really is a complex tea because the flavors change with each sip!!! It’s like a tea trip and my taste buds are trip pin’!!!!!
As it cools, I catch persimmon , butternut squash, and pumpkin. Very fall flavors and there is a slight astringency too.
Chefs and wine tasters would dig this tea,,,,I used to do lots of wine tasting and I never caught this many flavors from wine!!!!!!!
This tea is very intriguing and Far Out!!!!
This is why I bought the Steepster Select Club. Thank you Eco Cha and Steepster!!!

From the Steepster Select Box, January 2014

This red tea is deep, dark, and rich, and the red liquor it creates is definitely alluring. I’ll come right out and say that I am usually more drawn to lighter, fresher tasting teas than to dark highly oxidized ones, so keep that in mind while reading my review.

The scent really captivated me from the start. There’s a heavy aroma of malt and a fruity sweetness that to me most resembles dried apricot. I brewed this Gongfu Cha style, with the first infusion yielding a very up-front taste of cinnamon backed by flavors of dried apricot and date, finishing really malty and astringent. Definitely a dry finish to this tea. By second steeping, the cinnamon taste had nearly disappeared and was replaced by a very evident minty quality like unsweetened wintergreen, still underscored by the apricot. By the third brew, the flavor was similar to the second but sweeter and mellower overall and rather than gradually changing throughout a sip the flavors all blended together at once and I could taste them all throughout the sip.

I believe I may have overbrewed this tea. I used 203F/95C water and put 2.5g of leaf per 100ml of water into my porcelain gaiwan. Steeped for 3 minutes like the package suggests. I’m noticing in Eco-Cha’s notes also posted here they recommend much less time for the Gongfu method, which is making me wonder if the strong astringency at the end of a sip is because I brewed this tea too strong. I will say that the flavors didn’t seem overpowering at all until the aftertaste, and the brew color looked correct, so maybe this tea just has a naturally astringent finish.

I’m trying to remain neutral in my review because I’m not too into heavy bold red/black teas like this one. The complex flavor really impressed me at first, but I felt myself waning in enthusiasm as I drank more simply because the brew was a bit overpowering to me in its dry, malty finish.

UPDATE:
Some more experimenting took place ! I went with 2g leaf per 100ml water and steep 3 minutes at 203F/95C, add 1 minute for each steeping after. This combo results in an orange liquor, not quite the deep red-orange that is so beautiful, but the flavor has a wonderful balance between the dark and light, letting those spicy notes come through with the fruity tones and that hint of mintyness. There’s little astringency to the finish this way, though it still finishes a bit dry. I feel this tea had very enjoyable qualities when brewed this way. It’s still not entirely my tastes, but I could see other tea drinkers really enjoying it.

Backlog:

I am so impressed by Eco-Cha. Their packaging is gorgeous, and their teas are superb. This Dong Ding has a delicious “coffee” like flavor to it. Delicious, toasty, chestnut-y, sweet. I got quite a few infusions out of this one too … and each delivered a lovely flavor.

The first cup (infusions 1 and 2) gave me a hint of raisin-y sweetness that I really enjoyed, plus the aforementioned coffee and chestnut flavors.

The second cup was a stronger raisin note, which made this cup taste even sweeter than the first. Still nutty, toasty, smoky and warm tasting.

The third cup became a little softer in taste and texture but was still very flavorful.

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/11/15/dong-ding-oolong-tea-eco-cha/

Brewed up a cup of this according to the instructions on the packet. Used 14 oz of water to the packet of oolong and added a little less than a teaspoon of sugar because unsweetened oolongs of any type make me do the shudder and face and I hate that and I’d rather taste the actual tea than just BITTER because I am super oversensitive to bitter.

Waiting for this to cool a little while I clear my palate from the muffin I ate earlier and another cup of the Razzleberry Iced Tea from Frank. Still good. The cup is still too hot to hold so I think I have enough time to finish my glass.

The tea for this first steep (2 minutes) is very much green oolong. I don’t have great oolong tastebuds so that’s all I’m going to get until I taste it I think. There’s a certain suggestion of forests and if I breathe the aroma in deeply several times, I get a sharp spice note in the back of my throat.

Tasted warm, this is a very nice delicate green oolong. I get more flavour along the back of my tongue and aftertaste than I do upfront. It tastes pretty floral, though I couldn’t tell you what flower. I don’t have a lot of experience with flowered teas except when they overwhelm me or there are a lot of them in the blend.

This tea suffers from my lack of absolute love and experience with oolong. If the next few steepings change anything, I’ll be sure to update this note.

ETA: Second steep brings out even more floral and even a bit of fruit. This has gotten a bit too floral for me so that’s the end.

Wow… Why are all the reviews for this so low:(
I actually enjoyed this one quite a bit!
I steeped it a little under boiling (I didn’t read reviews or this teas page before hand).
I steeped it for a little less than three minute, I usually go by smell when brewing tea and for how long. This smelled like a very earthy robust tea. The first sip, I got this mouthfeel that mint tea usually gives you. It doesn’t taste like mint but it feels like mint in my sip if that makes any sense. You do get that slight bitterness on the tongue that cinnamon gives you if you eat it straight ha ha which I highly recommend you don’t do. Being a baker I can depict the singular tastes of spices. I understand that in previous note they don’t get any of these notes… I think most people, when thinking of cinnamon think of the sweetness you get from the cinnamon component in desserts and baked doughs when cinnamon is combined with sugar. But cinnamon usually had a very bitter taste when on its own. Very earthy as well. The same with clove. Clove isn’t a sweet spice at all. It add a pinch of complexity to this tea. More earthiness as well. Over all this tea took me on a nice journey.

I loved the color of the dry leaves of this tea. Very beautiful! And the color of the tea steeped was amazing! You definitely see where the name came from. A beautiful velvety red!

Thank you for adding this as a tea for the January steepster select box! Really enjoying these teas:) not sure I can afford to keep up though. Have definitely enjoyed both December and January though! Thank you Jason!

Really solid oolong; it’s light and fresh, almost like you can taste the elevation. I like bold hearty teas as much as the next guy, but sometimes you need something more delicate. This tea will do that for you. I’m really looking forward to additional steeps of this one and am glad this is one of which I can purchase more.