Shang Tea

Backlogging:
(some of this may be repetitive)

Shang Tea is one of the best tea companies out there in my opinion. Everything they do is of the upmost quality. I have not had one bad experience with any tea I have sampled from Shang Tea. Honeysuckle White is pure ecstasy. That is if your idea of ecstasy is a creamy mouthfeel, sweet florals, buttery light vegetal flavors, and an undertone of nuttiness.

When I was a kid there were a lot of honeysuckle bushes around my neighborhood. You could pick the blooms of the honeysuckle bush and pull out the middle section, the stamen I believe, and there would be this shiny wet dew on the stem of the stamen. This was honeysuckle sap. It was sweet and delicious just like this tea but a natural sweetness of course, no where near as sweet or sappy as honey. This tea evokes those memories for me. A time very early in my youth that followed me into my own children’s youth as they too would learn the secret of the honeysuckle bush!

This tea is soothing, calming, almost meditative. The color is so beautiful – a bright sunny golden amber. The aroma makes the eyes open brightly with the lovely smell of honeysuckle blossoms, then the eyes shut with a soothing Ahhhhhh feeling of release. Since this tea is made with the White Peony King tea base you will pick up subtle nuisances of fruity undertones in later steepings.

This tea is a forgiving tea in the sense that you can play around with brew times if you wish to have your tea a bit stronger or a bit lighter. I steep mine for a good 3 to 4 minutes on the first steep and 5 or more on the following steeps, yet you can go as little as 1 to 2 minutes and still get a lovely flavor. Note the directions to bring water to a boil, then let rest one minute before immersing leaves to steep. You will find this tea can easily be steeped 3 to 4 times and still give a high quality enjoyable flavor palate for your palate!

I love a tea that can evoke a memory. This playful tea has the quality to be snobbish yet lets everyone enjoy its bounty, at 16.00 for 2 ounces or you can grab one of Shang Teas sampler packs that include their 8 best selling teas, including this one, for only 8 dollars and 80 cents. Every time I enjoy this tea I will think of the years past, running around my neighborhood, picking honeysuckle and lapping up the sweet nectar of life and remembering times doing the same with my own little saplings!

I got a sample size of this with a very small order I placed with Shang. Actually I ordered one ounce of one kind of tea and several samplers of others. This tea smells like honeysuckle through and through. I grew up around many honeysuckle bushes and always enjoyed picking the flowers and sucking out the juices. Actually I believe we would pull the stamen from the flower – I don’t know the actual word but I know how we did it lol. Honeysuckle has a very sweet flavor sort of like honey, but not, when you do this.
This tea is relaxing, lovely, scented, and buttery. There is almost this milky mouthfeel to it.
Its an enchanting tea.
The color is gorgeous!
A very light vegetal flavor comes out in the after taste.
Slightly nutty.
The vegetal flavor mixed with the buttery milky flavor remind me of buttered green beans. Yes I put butter on my green beans, don’t you?
This tea is a sure shot for my shopping list!
Shang tea is actually only about an hour or so from my home and I hope to be able to drop in there soon to visit and sample more of their teas but for now I have several wonderful samples here to try and this one to resteep many times! :)
Happy dance!

Jasmine is definitely not a favorite of mine so I set out to try this with some trepidation. It came in my Shang sampler pack but is definitely not something I would have bought as a stand alone item.

Yeah the jasmine in this blend is pretty strong, although it smells great the aftertaste is a tad bit bitter and soapy for me. However the aroma is very natural and I can tell this is a high quality tea, very clean and flavorful but I’m not totally feeling the love. Someone who is a true jasmine fan could probably make a better review than this one…

Another sample from Shang Tea – and one of my favorites so far…

I used my whole sample in a mug of tea, the aroma is floral but also with some honey and molasses fragrance. The cup brews up a dark red is very smooth and mellow, clean tasting. There is some cocoa and molasses in the flavor as well along with a little sweetness. Definitely a good tea if you want to avoid anything astringent or bitter…

I am very stressed out this morning but thankfully a cup of this is helping me to feel better and more relaxed. I would say this has a very strong molasses-y aftertaste so if that’s not a flavor you like you might want to stay away from this.

I did resteep a second time and it’s still very nice. This is a big ol’ cup of sweet yum!

This is a gorgeous white peony with long green, olive and brown leaves. The wet leaves have a lovely intoxicating floral aroma.

My cup was steeped for around 2 minutes at 170 F. My cup is a light, soft yellow. Yesterday we were at the Legion of Honor for a show about the Victorian Avant-Garde and I have Whistler’s “Symphony in White #1”and some other similar works on the brain today. I want to put this tea in a china cup next to some white lilies…

This is a very subtle and sweet white peony, it has a delicate hay and clover like aroma. It’s lightly floral with a light sweetness which produces a very relaxing feeling. I’m not an expert on white peony but I really enjoyed this. As the tea cools down a bit, I’m noticing a creamy rich feeling about this lingering in my mouth. Perhaps my favorite from Shang so far is the honeysuckle white but this is lovely too.

wow, this is delicious. It says it’s a fermented white tea so what does that mean, no wonder people are confused because all black tea is fermented as far as I know. I think it means this is a plant that is normally used for white tea only but here it’s been fermented?

Anyhoo, this tea is actually a light red. I steeped mine at around 180 F for two minutes and I found it to be very delicious – definitely light bodied but very full and sweet in the aftertaste, not a trace of bitterness to be found. The tangerine is present but not overpowering here. I would for sure order this again, it’s really a treat and nothing like I’ve experienced so far in my tea drinking journey. I have been very impressed with all of the samples I got from Shang from their clean, sweet and delicate nature.

Clear Jade is a fine Oolong. The package showed up in nice form, not crushed and looking fresh. I finally broke into it last week. It took me awhile to try this tea even though it’s been on my mind.
The aroma is nice and sweet, which made me hungry. This is a good tea to have before a big meal, although the flavor is not as bold as many of my other favorite Oolongs.
I was a little taken back by the price and shipping for 1 ounce. Shang says 1ounce will make 30 cups, but I ended up with more like 14. I tried repeat steeping, but it came out too weak. Still a great cup of tea though.

Another tea in my Shang sampler, I did not really know what to expect from a Pao Blossom but am open to new things. :)

I felt the leaf, when dry, smelled very much like a grapefruit or some kind of citrus fruits but that seemed to be where the comparison ended. I do understand why folks may think this is like a jasmine tea since it has a very floral element but it seems less strong than a jasmine in my opinion. I am, however wishing for a tad less flowers…

I steeped my little 3g sample in the gaiwan and have enjoyed drinking this very much. I tried to keep the temperature of my water very low as well, around 170 – 180 F. This seems to be so much a very relaxing and meditative tea and has a very delicate flavor. I really just want to get more so I can keep experimenting with it, so that fact alone will give it a fairly high rating in my book… It resteeps very well without any loss of flavor but it is a very delicate creature and I’m trying to treat it as such.

Finishing off the rest of the sample this morning. I thought this was a very mild and gentle green tea. Like all of Shang’s teas there seems to be something elegant and relaxing about it, I don’t know how do they do that!

Seriously contemplating an order, it’s good to have some gentle green teas on hand for those days I’m feeling oooooky.

see previous note

I really liked this one!

It has a light sweetness that is very similar to Verdant’s Laoshan green. I’m getting a lot of sweet pea/corn type flavors here. It definitely seems to have a very clean quality as well. No trace of bitterness or astringency which is great for me. Very refreshing and quenching as well. I only wish I had more of this sample so I could try cold brewing it. I think I will be getting more of this some day!

This is the second red tea I’ve had in the last week (the other one was at Taste SF – a local tea place) and I’ve discovered I like them!

This steeps up to be a beautiful reddish-brown and it has a cocoa and cinnamon aroma. I am very intrigued by it since it is made of fermented white tea leaves. It definitely has a smooth and delicate quality but it also a bit malty and chocolate-y, slightly fruity. Reminds me a bit of a golden yunnan… also resteeps well

On a side note I discovered my new $20 Bodum tea for one set is made out of plastic and not glass, and I really don’t like the way tea tastes in plastic… boo

I wouldn’t really have ordered this as a stand alone thing but it came in my sampler pack of Shang teas.

I love the way the wet leaves smell here when brewed – this is high mountain tea and it smells so fresh, sweet and delicious! I really love the white tea that Shang is using here as their white tea base and I think it makes a huge difference in the flavor of this blend.

This sample is about 3 g and I decided to steep the whole thing using short infusions in the gaiwan with water that’s about 180 F. The jasmine is fairly subtle here, definitely not in your face as TeaEqualsBliss describes below. It is very nectar like and relaxing but jasmine never really sits well in my stomach. If you’re a jasmine lover I’d highly recommend checking this one out. Probably one of the best I’ve had of this type but my personal preference would be the Shang white honeysuckle over this one. Keeping the steeping times shorter is helping to keep the jasmine under control.

Beautiful tea very much similar to Verdant’s Laoshan Green. Needs to be brewed properly or it quickly turns bitter. Will write more later.

I’ve never had honeysuckle in tea before so I wasn’t too sure what to expect.

Steeped at around 175 F for 2 minutes the liquor of this tea is a lovely golden yellow color. The aroma of the honeysuckle is not too strong and the flavor complements the white peony tea quite nicely. Quite a lovely combination really… This is slightly nutty and sweet and would be nice for a mood booster and pick me up. It could be my imagination but I feel like this is soothing my frazzled nerves a bit. I look forward to trying more of my teas from Shang (I got one of their little tea samplers).

This tea is indeed amazing. It opens with a distinct fresh pecans taste, followed by the maple coated macadamias. After few seconds comes the overwhelming flavor of the best French truffles sprinkled with a chocolate powder! Yes, the mushroom truffle! What a sensation! Yet, it never lets you forget that this is a tea. Great for daily drinking but also for a connoisseur. Certainly “must have it”. I need to order more. Shang obviously took much effort to create this masterpiece. What a beauty!

Beautiful tea with a whole rainbow of flavors. Very balanced. With each brewing the tea gives a new taste impression and fragrance.
I really enjoyed drinking it and will certainly order more.

So the boyfriend opted for the black currant bai mu dan from 52teas, but I wanted something I hadn’t tried before. I took his lead on the white though, and started looking at what I had. This is one of those samples that I don’t recall who sent to me.

Two things gives me high expectations.

1. As has been previously established, it is in my opinion nearly impossible for Shang Tea to do anything wrong. Ever. I have loved everything I’ve tried from them, even things I did not expect to love.

2. Honeysuckle. I don’t actually know anything about this or what it tastes like, but it’s got such a very attractive name.

I smelled the dry leaf before brewing and was struck by a very rough, earthy, almost grainy note which I can’t imagine could be anything other than the honeysuckle. That’s not really the sort of aroma I would expect from that name, I have to say. It reminded me a bit of sour dough. That’s not really something I find very nice I have to say, so my expectations are taken down a notch. Maybe Shang Tea can make something that doesn’t appeal to me after all.

After steeping, however, the sour dough notes are gone, and the aroma is very sweet and very honeyed. That attractive name there is beginning to show its colours. It’s also quite floral, but not super-perfumed like many flower scented teas are to me, and I can easily pick out the actual tea underneath.

It doesn’t taste like honey. It’s definitely flower-y and it’s got this sort of dusty dry flavour to it. I often get that from flower scented teas, and that’s why I’m not particularly a fan of them. Here’s it’s sort of looming in the background. Not really making itself known, but impossible to overlook. It’s the elephant in the room. Everybody knows it’s there but it’s just not talked about. Maybe it’s even slightly menacing and brooding. (I can’t tell if it’s synesthesia (mine is very mild and spotty) coming in to play here or if I’m just exhibiting a lively imagination)

Apart from that it’s quite sweet indeed, and I suppose that is the bit that has given honeysuckle its name. Although I still don’t think it really tastes of honey. It’s just sweet, but it’s not honey.If the aforementioned is the dark and brooding gentleman in the corner, glaring at the rest of the company, this note would be the lovely ladies having high tea with dainty cups, scones, clotted cream, biscuits, the lot.

There’s something quite Regency-y over this tea, actually.

It’s harder to pick out the actual tea base in the flavour than it was in the aroma. I can’t really say anything about it other than it’s there. Slightly nutty but not really making much of a spectacle of itself.

While this isn’t one I would buy for myself, I will have to see that Shang Tea has still not managed to disappoint me.

Picked this up the other day, but for whatever reason haven’t starting drinking it yet. Yum. It’s lovely stuff. Nice, mellow, yummy green tea.

Sorry I’m not more descriptive or pithy – I’ve got a cold coming on.

Election day. I have been to cast my vote, fingers crossed for the result I’m hoping for.

I didn’t really have anything in the collection which I thought fitted with the whole election theme, so I picked one which could sort of represent the result I’m hoping for.

If you can work out how this tea does this, good for you. If not, I’m not likely to tell yet, although there may be a reaction to the result later on. (I try to keep these things strictly to myself, but you see, I’m just not very good at it.)

Today’s shared morning pot, and I’m surprised to see that I’ve yet to post about it. I could have sworn I posted about it earlier! Or was that the Bai Lin that Auggy sent me? Now I’m confused…

At any rate, if the Tan Yang Te Ji (♥) is my favourite ever tea, then the Bai Lin comes in at a very close second I think. I just really really REALLY love this province, I just do. Where does one sign up to be a fan of a geographical area?

Consequently, it’s also really hard for me to post about it on its own merits instead of making it just a list of the ways in which its different from the Tan Yang. I could say I’d try, but knowing me I’d probably not be trying very hard if those were the words that came naturally to me while drinking and writing. But then again, I’m not trying to bring you the Facts of Tea Forever, am I? I can only tell you what I think, and I think that Bai Lin and Tan Yang have very similar flavour profiles, but with some note-worthy exceptions.

Given the fact that they are as similar as they are, Bai Lin also lands at at least 90 points by default. Any further study of it and subtraction or addition of points is based from that outset.

Yes, I think the black teas in general from this province are THAT AWESOME!

Now, onwards. Bai Lin is like Tan Yang’s good twin. Tan Yang is the wild and powerful of the two, with the heavy cocoa notes and pseudo-smoky notes on the second steep. The Tan Yang is not a tea you want to mess with, because it knows exactly what it’s doing and it will take you to task for any insult to its name.

Bai Lin is by nature gentler, happier and far more sensible. It doesn’t have the pseudo-smoke or the heavy cocoa, it’s much more sweet and with a natural touch of oranges or mandarins.

Or perhaps on second thought, these two are not really twins, but more like a sweet little sister and a protective big brother. :)

Bai Lin, as mentioned, has notes of oranges or mandarins in the flavour, but they’re not really as clear as if it had been actually mandarin flavoured. They’re more like the ideas of the citrus fruits. I can’t tell exactly which part of the flavour that reminds me of them but the association is strong none the less. Whatever it is, it also lends a lot of the sweetness to the cup.

Furthermore, we have an insanely smooth cup. It’s thick and creamy as if it had milk in it, and I have often heard that this quality is indicative of something going well with milk. I can’t imagine that in this tea, though. It’s far too delicate and subtle to be able to carry milk. I suspect with milk all you would get was a cup of non-descript tea-flavoured warm milk, and that’s not really the purpose with it at all. So drink it as it is, ignore any and all urges to try it with milk and just close your eyes and drink. Then, if you are a of the persuasion that tea should have milk in it, you might actually be able to pretend it already has.

I can find very little bitterness and next to no astringency in this cup, only yummy goodness. After it has been allowed to stand still and develop a bit, the mandarin-like associations seem to become a little stronger. In addition to this a new note is poking its head out at this point, and there is now an underlying semi-spicy touch to the floralness of it. Quite akin to the pepper note in a good golden Yunnan, if you can imagine that note without the strong flavour of hay.

Yes, we are definitely coming in just behind the Tan Yang on the Favourite Scale, here. It’s coming in so close, in fact, that I strongly suspect I would be fully able to quench the Tan Yang cravings with this one if Tan Yang is not readily available. I need to always have one of these two in the house. Obviously, being my favourite, I would prefer the Tan Yang, but this one is a totally acceptable substitution. I don’t feel the need to keep the both of them around as Standards, though. Either one will do.

Green and white teas are teas that belong to spring and summer. I just don’t feel like drinking them much during the colder months of the year. Funnily enough, the reverse is not true for blacks and similar. I can drink those all year around. Anyway, it’s summerly outside and I felt like something sweet and refreshing, but also tea.

Therefore we turn towards these summer-teas, and I just happen to have a sample of this one kicking about in the Bits’n’Bops Basket. I’ve mentioned before that I’ve only ever had good experiences with the samples I’ve had the good fortune to try from this company. Seeing that the lowest amount of points given to this one so far is 83, I suspect I’m in for yet another one of those success-stories.

In spite of the fact that I’m not usually a very big fan of flower scented teas. Flowers so easily take on a soapy quality for me, a very basic and dusty sort of flavour which I don’t find particularly pleasant. Like getting shampoo in one’s mouth while showering. Especially jasmine has a tendency to do this for me.

I’ve never had anything with pao blossoms before, and I’m a little concerned about them being compared somewhat to jasmine in the description. I don’t care much for jasmine, so I’m not sure I’d care for some sort of super-jasmine-y flower either. Mentions of grapefruit, however, calms me down a bit again.

It is indeed very aromatic, rather too much for my taste. I’m not really a flower person in anyway. They’re nice to look at and all, but I don’t much care for the scent. Not just in tea, but in real flowers as well. It becomes too heavy too easily. There are even a certain kind of potted plants which I have banned from the house on account of them being stinky (little pink/purple flowers, large, hairy, dark green leaves). I haven’t the foggiest what it’s called but the boyfriend knew which one I meant and thankfully agreed with me on that one.

So yeah. I’ve got a cup of tea on my desk and it’s positively stinking up my room. Having stood there for a few minutes, the worst of the floral odoeur has wafted off, and I have to put my nose down to the cup in order to smell it. It’s much more pleasant now! Can’t say what it smells like though. It smells like flowers. I can’t find any notes of the actual tea in the aroma. If they are there, they are concealed underneath the flowers.

The flavour is not even remotely as offensive as the smell. To my vast surprise, even with my previous good experiences of this company, I find it’s actually really nice. It’s only slightly basic and dusty floral in flavour. Very very slightly, and yes, there really is a good note of grapefruit. I love grapefruit. I eat one nearly every day. Especially the aftertaste is strong on grapefruit.

It’s hard for me to tell how much of the white tea I’m getting through the flavour. There’s definitely tea in there, but beyond that I can’t really tell. I don’t think I’m experienced enough in white teas for that.

Yet another hit from Shang tea. I’m giving it around 95 points to begin with, but I’m deducting some for the fact that I found the strong aroma so unpleasant. I believe that’s fair.