Shang Tea

Gosh, I nearly forgot the daily sample!

Sample Week continues with a hastily chosen random sample of randomness. It was literally then topmost one in the basket.

I have a tendency to prefer Japanese greens, or greens that are similar to Japanese greens. Therefore, I’m feeling slightly wary of this. Because as far as I can tell, it’s not Japanese. Chinese greens are bit touch and go. I’ve never met one that I absolutely didn’t like and I’ve met plenty that I do like, but there is just such a large group of green Chinese teas that I can’t feel more than indifferent about. (Unless they’re flavoured, but that’s a whole other crate of fish)

There’s something I want to watch on tv soonish, so considering the amount of time it usually takes me to write these posts, I’ll try to be brief.

The aroma is, in quick summary, not particularly strong, quite ‘thick’ in character, and it has a strong note of fresh greenery. Not grassy as such, but leaning in that direction. It seems slightly salty as well, but again not particularly much. Not enough to put my off at all.

The flavour rather reminds me of Dragonwell. It’s got that same sort of boiled spinach-y kind of note to it. Again, the same greenery note from before, I think. Funny thing is it tastes exactly like it smells. I could just repeat verbatim what I wrote about the aroma and it would be true.

It’s not that very strong in flavour, not nearly as strong as Dragonwells are, and it’s a bit like taking a sip and then having to pass through some sort of curtain of hot water before getting to the flavour. It’s very smooth, and quite ‘thick’, a fat flavour, but not a buttery one. Although I think this is the character that people think about when they say a green has a buttery note. For me, though, it has to be a lot stronger before I’ll call it buttery.

This is a friendly cup. It doesn’t demand a lot from the drinker and it doesn’t attack and overwhelm the mouth completely. It just compliantly sits there in the cup, waiting to be sipped and doesn’t require a whole lot of attention in order to be enjoyed. It’s the sort of tea that would go quite well along with reading a book or watching something on tv.

Speaking of which, I seem to have written this post in record time and now have 15 whole minutes before my program actually begins. Zoooooom!

Say goodbye, Ang.

“Goodbye, Ang.”

sad-face

(Note, this is not so much a post about the way this tea is to drink (awesomesauce) as it is a post about the thought processes it gave me this morning. Feel free to skip the following ramblings)

Om nom nom nom! I love this tea and I could probably buy it again.

Shang Tea gave me excellent customer service the one time I ordered from them and earlier still than that when I had a question. But it just strikes me as so backwards and impractical when I as an international customer have to contact them first by email and then email my order in. At least that’s how I did it the first time, I don’t know if it would still be that way but I have to assume it would. I know it’s silly if that’s how it works for international customers, but I still feeling like I’m imposing.

And not only that, but then I get to cross my fingers that Customs don’t decide to charge me for the package. I realise that they might as well do that on stuff shipped from China, but it has just never happened to me with any other mail than stuff coming from the US. I suspect they’re checking US packages more diligently because people are far more likely to do their internet shopping from the US than from China. Last time I got charged was a package from 52teas with all of three pouches in it. BAM! That tea was suddenly twice as expensive.

So all in all, I’ve got a few American tea shops that I can order from, but I always do it with my hopes up and my fingers crossed… I hope the 52teas Christmas box will make it through the eye of the needle. I’m trying again this year in spite of Danish Postal Service’s major cock-ups last year. And that’s cock-ups plural. Yes, they did the same idiotic thing twice with the same package. And lost one other package and misplaced another one too while they were at it.

So yeah, I’ll be on the lookout for some sort of alternative. To that end I was checking TeaSpring, as I thought they would probably be my most likely candidate of delivering something similar. No such luck, although I have made a note of a few others that caught my interest.

After that I inadvertantly wound up on Nothing But Tea’s website where I accidentally put something in the basket (seriously, I didn’t meant to initially), and then while I was at it anyway, I figured I might as well continue.

So I’ve just placed a rather substantial order that I was not even allowed to make yet (still have one tin and five samples to go). It just happened, I don’t know how! Instead I shall be saving my TeaSpring order for when the requirements of decupboarding have been met.

I think it’s something in the tea that inspired me to do that. I think it’s that thick honeyed sugary note that tastes like the top of a creme brulee that does it. I’ll do anything for a nommy dessert. Nearly.

In the meantime, suggestions for similar alternatives are appreciated. Don’t worry about whether or not the brand is available to me, I’ll figure that out myself. I know some brands that aren’t, but there are many I’ve never checked.

Next week is Sample Week.
I shall do at least one sample every day all of next week, and it has to be one that I can then decupboard. If there’s more than just one cup’s worth, it doesn’t count. If I’ve posted about it before, it doesn’t count. Sample Week starts officially on Monday, but I got the idea now, so I’m warming up here.

I’ve had tons of luck with Shang Tea in the past. Unfortunately shipping expenses are such that they are out of my own reach, but I’ve had Steepsterites share samples with me in the past and the ones that I’ve tried have all been absolutely wonderful. So it is with no small amount of anticipation and complete trust that I proceed to brew this cup.

This stuff smells absolutely divine! So sweet and caramel-like. No, more like burnt sugar. And creamy custard-y as well. I am actually sitting here with a tea that has a very strong aroma of creme brulee! What an absolutely amazing aroma. I’m completely stunned by this, in spite of the fact that it smells largely only of dessert and not really of tea at all. Just having the warm steam waft up at my face from below is making me all weak in the knees.

After an experience like that, the flavour came as a surprise because it doesn’t actually taste like creme brulee. It’s rather fruity, though, and still quite sweet. I could have wished for a little more strength but I didn’t have enough leaf for my usual amount and probably should have steeped a little longer than I did in order to compensate.

However, I’m still getting a caramel-like note from it, but it’s not nearly as strong as in the aroma. It’s there especially on the swallow and in the aftertaste. All creamy and soft, and it seems to last forever. And right away too. Sometimes, with aftertastes, you don’t really get anything of the sort from the first few sips, but as you drink it gradually builds up until, by the time you’re finished with the cup, you wonder how you didn’t notice it sooner. This is not one of those times. It’s there from the beginning and it’s strong and good.

That was the backend of the sip. Seeing as apparently I’m doing it backwards today, we shall proceed to the more middle flavours. There’s something vaguely fruity about it. Kuanyin suggested melons, and I agree with that. The more I sip, the more I try to focus on it, the more I become convinced that melon is probably the nearest we can come. Those round yellow ones with the funny net-like sort of peel and greenish yellow on the inside. That’s the image I’m getting. I don’t know what they’re called other than ‘melons’. I’m not a melon-recognition expert.

The front part af the sip, the very first encounter with flavour here is something floral, but discreetly so. It’s just there for a flash and then we have the fruit and the caramel-y aftertaste.

Floral, melon, caramel. You wouldn’t really thing these three aspects would work so well together, would you? How extraordinary that it turns out they SO do.

Once again, Shang Tea has not let me down. If you get the opportunity, I would strongly advice giving this one ago. It’s just wonderful.

But that aroma! Gosh, I wish I actually had me a creme brulee now…

Been awhile since I’ve done any Steepster-ing. Figured the best tea to break the hiatus would be a Shang Tea offering I almost completely forgot about. I looked at other reviews for this, and some complained it was too strong. I think part of that might be the brewing instructions. Shang recommended a 195F water temp and a one-to-two-minute steep. I did it for three minutes in 165F – a white tea typical. What I got was a subtly-scented, jasmine-kissed white with a nuanced and delicate flavor. I’m usually not a jasmine guy, but this more than made up for my bias against its type.

I really like the level of jasmine flavor in this tea. It isn’t super strong, but it is there and you don’t have to focus and concentrate to discern the flavor of the flower. It is sweet yet sharp.

The white tea is delicate, and the leaves open to reveal small, tender leaves.

A very beautiful jasmine tea. Shang Tea really impresses me when it comes to jasmine teas.

This is a choice for when you want unique and when you want to savor the exceptional. Mildly uplifting, perfect for early evening when you want to recharge from the day and yet still be able to go to sleep later. Red teas are like that for me. This one is even milder than most red teas, but I found it to also have an herbal, almost medicinal quality. Medicinal doesn’t sound appealing, but it starts off in a way that you aren’t sure that you really like, so you keep slurping and slurping and it’s gone before you know it and you want more. The tangerine element balances the herbal, and then you have the underlying red tea body. I want to enjoy this tea just often enough that it remains a special treat.

The first time I tried this, any cocoa notes eluded me, sadly. It was fine, a nice tea, but nothing to justify the price tag. The second time around, I got the cocoa and flavor explosion and I’m not sure what the difference was. Lower than boiling temperature with shorter steep? I think that was it. Really a beautifully smooth and complex tea for those moments where I can appreciate more in a tea.

Goodmorning Steepsterites.

Because of my current (WOOT!) commute, I have to be up at way early in the morning. Today I’ve been up an hour earlier than that. I woke up by myself and felt rested, so I decided to get up and poke about on the interwebs for a while instead of trying to fall asleep again, knowing that the next time I woke up I’d probably be feeling less awake. Maybe it’s because I was dreaming about the new flat all night. :)

Anyway, I got up and fairly quickly decided to have a cup of tea and very quickly it became clear to me that what I actually felt like having was, uncharacteristically, a white. It’s totally the wrong time of day for me to want white, and I don’t even want white that often to start with.

There’s lots of aroma in this for a white tea. Being used to primarily blacks, I often find whites to be a bit flighty in that department. I really like it when I can smell the cup and sort of fill the nose with aroma. We’re not going quite that far with this one, but certainly closer than most. There’s a hay-like note to the aroma, sort of spicy and sweet, and there’s a robustness underneath it that sort of reminds of the smell of freshly peeled potatoes or carrots or other roots. I had never thought I’d come across that particular thought association in a cup of tea! O.o

There is not only a lot of aroma in this cup, there is a ton of flavour as well. It tastes quite greenish, a bit grassy and spicy and quite floral as well. Not the dusty, soapy sort of floral that actually scented teas tend to have for me, but just something that makes me think of little wildflowers. This tea is like a meadow.

There isn’t much of an aftertaste at first, but I suspect it’s one of those that will build up as I drink and as the cup develops. I can pick out the traces of that sour note that I usually get from green and white aftertaste. I could really live without that. I think I would almost rather have no aftertaste at all.

There’s something fruity in here too. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I’m leaning sort of towards apricots or nectarines or that sort of stone fruits. My brain is also shouting something at me to do with blueberries, but I really don’t know where it’s getting those from. I think those are more of a strange association rather than an actual flavour, but I am finding myself with a sudden wish for a blueberry muffin.

Top notch white, this. I’m very pleased.

Backlogging a bit.

Shang Tea’s specialty is white tea, and I was lucky to get their magnum opus in the sample pack I bought. I’d hoped it lived up to wildest expectations…and – boy – did it. This is one textured and nuanced Silver Needle, and I’ve had quite a few. Along with the usual mellow melon notes, nuttiness, grape line, is a smoothness echoing vanilla. Unusual but wonderful. It also holds up to three good infusions. Can’t recommend this enough.

Yet another one from my white tea sampler from Shang. But this was “technically” not a white tea. I say that because it actually falls in the black tea category. Squarely. In appearance, it looked like a pre-QingMing Keemun Mao Feng. The liquor colored similar to a Golden Yunnan amber. Aroma and taste, however, were quite the oddity. This tasted like the description – a lightly fermented white tea, as if someone took a batch of Bai Mu Dan and steeped it for eight-to-ten minutes. (Without spinaching, of course.) There’s a bit of a nectarine texture to it, but minor compared to a Yunnan Gold. Still a mighty pleasant drink.

This tea taught me how dramatic a small change in steeping time can be.

I have been drinking this off and on for a month now and had almost written it off as a tea that I just was not going to like. Then I accidently made it with water that I cooled longer and steeped it for less time and found myself drinking this a lot more.

3 mounded teaspoons of tea to a little under 2 cups of water.

It steeps a nice golden color and definitely is more complex and subtle with the less time and cooler water for steeping. The smell I’m getting is fresh hay with an almost cinnamon spice added. Cinnamon is not quite right, but it definitely is something close.

Taste when I steeped it longer was very vegetal this tea can be a wonderful combination of white subtly crossed with wu-long if steeped for less time.

Tea #3 in my white tea sampler from Shang. This time it was a white that was blended with pao blossoms. I’m not quite sure what a pao is; the only information I turned up was that it was like grapefruit. Doesn’t taste like it, though. This white had the typical requisite grape and butter lean, but with a jasmine/mint profile due to the added botanicals. The overall effect was quite pleasant.

Got home after a visit to Shang Tea with several choices. Which one to make first? Clear Jade Orchid won and, oh my stars, what a tea! I had no directions, and ended up using 2 generous tsp in a 10 oz pot. For the second steep I transferred it to a yixing pot that is a bit larger. This is unique indeed with flavors that I can’t pin point other than floral. Melon? I definitely preferred it with sugar crystals and thought it brought out more of the deep flavor. It looks like a charcoal roasted oolong, with the darker color, it does not taste like it. It is in world of its own and I wish I could better describe it.

This is an unusual white tea blend. In dry form, it smelled like it was blended with jasmine, but when steeped for three minutes, it turns up a beautiful gold liquor. The flavor is…interesting. On the foretaste, it’s like any white tea with a melon/nutty delivery, but then settles on a very soapy/citrusy middle. It reminded me of Lemon Pledge mixed with honey, only…y’know…not poisonous. It also had hints of marshmallow leaf. I liked it quite a bit. Certainly unusual.

Wow, I’m already out and I don’t have a tasting note? Must be good tea then!

Smells of malt and spices, a really pleasant aroma. In addition I am getting just a hint of some sort of fruit as well. I love to simply hold the cup under my nose and inhale. Taste is a very pleasant combination of white and red tea. As much as I liked the Bai Lin Kung Fu from Shang Tea, I think this is better.

For a red tea this is pretty mild. The reason being this is (as stated on the package) made from white tea leaves.

Taste is less malty than the smell, it resembles their silver needle king and yet is obviously changed at the same time by the fermentation process. This is a wonderful special occasion tea in which you will not realize you have drank it all if you are not careful. Highly recommended!

I am typically able to get around 3 steepings from this, unlike other red teas which you seem to start suffering at around two steepings.

Hiya Steepster…it’s been awhile. How ya been?

On to the taster note. The Shang Tea sampler was my frivolous “Tea WANT!” purchase for March. The main reason I got it was for one particular tea, their Tangerine Blossom “red” tea. As the description stated, it was white tea leaves (Dai Bai) that’d been lightly fermented, then blended with tangerine blossoms.

The result was a dry leaf scent that smelled at first like a jasmine green, but imparted a light citrusy profile. The liquor brewed to – what I can best sum up as – “oolong amber”. The scent also echoed the oolong comparison. The taste? A black tea-ish forefront followed by a strong citrus tang in the middle, and a smooth aftertaste. I can find no fault with this tea. At all.

Prepared with two mounded teaspoons to a little over one cup of water.

Steeps a pleasant golden color making me look forward to a silver needle…

Smells slightly of fresh cut hay, but has something sweet added to it… Maybe clover some smell from my past that I can not quite pinpoint tonight. I got two bags of this and they were individually dated with the date of harvest. This one is from March 26. Taste is mild, very pleasant and subtly layered. I am definitely going to have to order more of this after the next harvest! Using a sip with air, I get a hint of sweetness that may be the clover smell coming through on my taste buds that I smelled before. Slight notes of what seem to be cereal grains, mixed with sweet and a very slight hint of dryness after swallowing.

If you like silver needles this is a very good one. If you have not had one before, expect a subtle pleasant crisp tasting tea. If you are looking for bold flavors or something to assault your taste buds go somewhere else. This is a tea for quiet contemplation which in this household (with a four year old) doesn’t happen very often, however it sure is appreciated when it happens, and this tea makes this quiet moment better yet.

I have another bag of Silver Needle King from ShangTea that was dated April 2. I will hopefully get some free time to write about that as well. After this one, I am looking forward to it!

This is delightful! But, I will acknowledge that it isn’t for everyone – it has a STRONG jasmine flavor to it, so if you’re not particularly keen on jasmine (I am!) this may not be the tea for you.

For those of us who do love jasmine – this tea is such a treat! The aroma takes my breath away! The flavor is beautifully jasmine, and the white tea is very, very delicate here. But it is so lovely.

So my order from Shang Tea came the other day. First let me state how happy I am with the customer service from them. So a big thanks and from what I’ve seen and tasted so far more orders will be coming your way (at the very least from me).

So this tea is the one that I expected the least from in what I ordered from Shang Tea and thus it is the one that startled me with how much I liked it. Having drank it multiple times up to today I can already say it handles multiple steepings well. The flavor improves after it cools a little and makes me look forward to each additional cup/steeping (3 seems to be what I can get from this). This tea is a black tea but made from white tea leaves. Since I love both…

So lets start with aroma. It has a typical smell of red (or black as some of us call it) tea, however this one has notes that I normally expect from a white tea as well. In addition I get a sweetness of honey and something slightly but only slightly floral. Very layered in the smell department and quite a treat for my nose.

Taste is good, varied and interesting. Again the mixture of styles here is probably why it hits me this way. I’m tasting both red tea and white tea notes layered in a way that I find starts bold (and primarily red tea like) and then switches gears to subtle tastes (and more white tea like) near to swallowing. In trying to compare the taste to other teas basically I am thinking of a good lighter red tea crossed with a white peony or silver needle… Quite a mouthful from the taste standpoint.

This easily is better than Ceylon from Adagio which before I found the Red Dragon was my morning cup of choice. Everyone I’ve shared it with so far has also liked this. This tea is now on my list of teas that I always want in my cupboard. I’m looking forward to the two other teas that I have ordered from Shang Tea. Until then happy steeping everyone!

I typically have been using two slightly mounded teaspoonfuls of tea to a little less than 2 cups of water steeped for 1:30 and added 30 seconds for each additional steeping.

At first sniff it smelled like spinach. A very vegetal smell and taste. Lovely delicate green color. Not bitter at all. Very wet and quenching. I am not horribly fond of green teas, but this one seems to be pretty high quality. If you like light, vegetal flavors you’ll love this tea. My rating is based on the quality of the tea, not whether or not I liked it or will buy it again. Greens just aren’t my cuppa. :)

This Pao Blossom is one tea which doesn’t gain much (if anything) from a high tea-to-water ratio. I speak from experience. My first infusion was one minute, much too long for 3.5gm tea to 4oz water, which was a mistake. In all, I steeped it half a dozen times, with florality to spare every time. I think it has something to do with the height of the fragrance note of this flower, by which I mean it resonates at a higher frequency. Aaaah, tea, flowers, and music! To me, pao flower resembles jasmine, but is even more ethereal. It is hard to believe that this tea was scented by mingling with blossoms; I would easier believe that it was sprayed with a pure, organic essential oil from the blossoms … the fragrance is so very strong and/or powerful! I’m considering mixing the tea 50/50 with Shang’s White Peony King, to have more tea with my flowers, and to make it go farther, but first I’ll mix a small sample to see if the ratio is good. This is coming from me, who adores floral teas! The flower is truly exquisite, and I wish everyone could experience it!

I used a bit higher tea-to-water ratio, all 3.5gm of the sample to 6oz water, in an yixing clay pot, and steeped it 5 times … 2, 3, 5, 8, 12 min. While the overweening aroma and taste I got was toasted grain, there was a significant herbaceous component which was hard to define … something like lightly steamed green beans (or green tea?) with a tiny citrus note. While another reviewer reported slight bitterness with no astringency, my take was the opposite … slightly astringent with no bitterness. There was a slight floral note in the first steep or two, but I didn’t identify the fruit and caramel which others have found in this tea. Even at a 12-min steep, it didn’t get bitter. I got a quart of tea from 3.5 grams, and think it would make a refreshing iced tea, especially if you could just steep it for a half hour one time, or overnight. I drank it hot, over an afternoon, with crunchy granola bars. The herbal notes were the most interesting part. A tea I will gladly drink, but not seek out.

This is a spectacular tea! Luscious, mellow, delicious, with an absolutely distinctive flavor. Although it is listed as an oolong/wulong tea, undoubtedly because of its method of processing, it tastes to me more like a mellow, warm, sunny red tea with a flavor vaguely reminiscent of butterscotch — it recalls sweetness without being sweet. I’ve never had anything quite like it. Shang has outdone himself with this tea.