TeaSpring

Today was the War of the Roses chez moi. I had consumed, with great pleasure, Rose Congou by Upton Tea Imports and then thought I would try another rose tea at hand, TeaSpring’s Rose Keemun.

The verdict is in: we have two winners. Upton’s offering decidedly has the greater rose aroma and taste but TeaSpring’s Keemun tastes more like a deep, rich, cup of tea. Rose Keemun has a lot of rose petals in it and looks very attractive yet the dry leaves don’t have much of a rose aroma. They smell a bit smoky, but not like a Souchong. Steeped, the tea liquer is a deeply satisfying and delightful Keemun—somewhat smoky and very layered and nuanced as a tea. The tea hints of many flavors—rose is among them. If I had a blind tasting I don’t know that I would identify the “rose” but I would get right away that it’s a high quality Keemun of distinctive and delicious flavor. I know that the congou is a Keemun tea, but TeaSpring has more of a distinctively “keemuny” smoky taste than does the Upton congou.

This Rose Keemun also has a very attractive “price-point” as Donald Trump would say (why doesn’t he just say “price?”) and I will order more. TeaSpring is a speedy and reliable shipper of teas direct from China.

Described as having a “flowery honeysuckle aroma” this is a very nice tea for those who enjoy floral flavors.

I was disappointed to learn the this is actually a flavored tea. It took some time searching, but I believe the flavor has been added to this tea. It has a rather strong “buttery” taste which, if you like flavored teas, is quite unique

This is a wonderful TGY, I’d purchased it last year (2009) and lost it in the back of my tea cabinet, today when I found it I steeped a cup using gongfucha in my gaiwan, I was pleasantly surprised with the strong, sweet, nectar like floral aroma, I could almost smell citrus in the unfurling (mostly unbroken) leaves.

After rinsing my leaves (1st cup is for your enemies :P ) I steeped the tea for 15 seconds, it was extremely good for being a year old, it had a nice depth to it and tasted very sweet, the leaves now had a more sharp scent, less floral and more citrus(y).

The second steep was for 25 seconds, this was the best steeping, the leaves took on a slightly more vegetal flavor, slightly less sweet, but still layered with many different tastes.

The third steeping was for 35 seconds and- surprisingly- smelled a bit like hojicha, the tea took on an almost roasted flavor as well- it lost most of it’s sweetness, but was still a pleasant brew with quite a bit of depth, I don’t think I’ll be attempting a fourth steeping though.

Simply delicious! Another waker-upper with a slurping and slobbering factor.
TeaSpring provides great, speedy service straight from China.

Today’s Oolong was sent to me by Doulton Thank you so very much! How I love Oolong!

The dry leaves are very long and dark, much longer than most Oolong teas that I’ve encountered. The aroma is floral and fruity.

The fragrance of the tea is a little earthy, a little flowery, and a bit fruity – almost like a plum, or perhaps a bowl of peaches and plums.

The flavor – I am picking up a little smokiness in the flavor. It is a rather soft, smooth note of smoke – not quite as bold as say a “red robe” Oolong. It’s more like the peaches and plums were smoked.

It is a very smooth tasting Oolong with a pleasant mouthfeel. The mouthfeel is not quite as thick as a green Oolong. The peachy notes linger in the aftertaste. And a very nice floral note that hits you as you continue to sip the tea.

A very pleasant Oolong!

This tea is my problem child.

I was in the mood for pu-erh this morning. Unflavoured preferably. I don’t really have a lot of that. and this particular tin was just standing around among the others. Mocking me.

I’ve posted about it twice. One time it was very weak indeed and the other time very strong and bitter with some unpleasant coffee notes. I gave it 20 points, and put the tin away. I just can’t really make myself throw it away though, so I’ll just have to struggle on through.

I used plenty of leaf this time. As a matter of fact, a third of what I had left. Pre-rinsed it for about 15 seconds and then took the first steep at 45 seconds. It was supposed to be 30 seconds, but I turned my back for a short short moment and… Yeah. Nevermind.

While pouring the first rinse out, it had that very strong and unmistakable smell of wet dog. Wet long-haired dog. After the first real steep, however, the aroma of the cup isn’t quite so bad. I’m trying to remember if I did the rinsing step the other two times I had this. I think I must have, but I can’t know for certain. Right now, the aroma of the first steep isn’t really all that special. It’s just standard pu-erh. A bit spicy and a lot earthy.

The flavour definitely still have that coffee note that I’ve observed before. It’s a bit more well-behaved here though. Not over-powering, but still somewhat unpleasant. No bitterness, thank Freyr. (I have decided that being the god of agriculture and such like, Freyr must be the correct one to invoke when it comes to things to eat and drink)

That coffee note is really all there is to it, though. I’ve managed to make an infinitely better cup than those which resulted in previous posts, but I’m not going to adjust the rating. I have most definitely had better. Much much better. The only thing that has changed with this cup is that there is now some hope of me actually finishing this brick off!

I keep forgetting I’ve got this. I’m on a bit of a pu-erh kick at the moment, and the orange pu-erh from NBT is disappearing alarmingly quickly. I’ve put the tin away for now and will save the rest for later. But then I remembered this one, and thought, hey, why not? And now that I’ve made a cup, I realise that I didn’t really much like it when I posted about it the first time. I’m hoping that since it’s hard to make the brewings consistent with the leaves so tightly packed in the cake, it was a problem with the preparation.

Nothing wrong with the aroma, anyway. It’s quite pu-erh-y and earthy. Slightly wooden too. But somehow the aroma seems milder than other pu-erhs I’ve had. Pu-erh Light, if you will.

I can’t be sure because of the nature of the cup, but it looks rather more transparant too than what I’m used to from other pu-erhs. I suspect I may have made a somewhat weak cup here. As opposed to my other post about it, where it seems I made it way too strong.

Nothing to report on the flavour, really. And that doesn’t mean that it’s an average flavour pu-erh. That means that there is little flavour to report on, unless you count hot water as a flavour note. Personally, I wouldn’t.

I’m not going to mess with the rating. 20 points may be a little low. But in order to dislike something, there has to be a flavour to dislike. Me, I dislike teas that doesn’t have a flavour.

Supposedly tibetans can get ill if they don’t drink this tea. Makes me glad I’m not tibetan.

The gaiwan method is good for more than just greens, I realised. And then I found this baby in the cupboard where it had been stuffed in a tin and forgotten about. I’ve had it before, brewed western style. I wasn’t sure how much leaf to use, but I winged it and used too little. I can’t remember much about other than I was a bit disappointed about how weak it seemed.

Trying it with the gaiwan today. Still not sure how much leaf to use and I couldn’t really judge it on how much space it took up in the gaiwan, because it’s so compressed. So I crossed my fingers and then added a little extra with an thought to the first weak attempt.

I did two pre-steeps of 30-45 seconds each.

First real steep was at 30 seconds It smells like a rainy day. Wet dogs. Also earthy, but a mild sort of earthy. Mostly though, I’m thinking umbrellas and wet dogs.

The flavour is sort of bitterness dissolved in rain water. I definitely used too much leaf here. It’s almost coffee-y and this is NOT a good thing. It really tastes very much like tea that has been served from a pot usually used for coffee.

BLERGH!

It’s very disappointing and I just can’t drink this, so out it goes. Good thing about the gaiwan is that it’s actually a very small amount of tea being discarded here.

Second steep was also 30 seconds and I’ve taken about half the leaf out of the gaiwan. That helped. The aroma remains the same, but it’s smoothed out a bit. The taste is earthier and definitely better. But it’s still a bit bitter, and not really…

Well, it’s drinkable, okay?

I kind of wish I could try to recreate the traditional tibetan way of brewing here, but since danish grocery stores don’t stock yak butter, that’s not possible. Maybe I’ll try an approximation with cow butter later on, but I’m not promising anything.

For the moment I’m not really terribly impressed, but it does have a certain win-factor in being a compressed pu-erh. Never had that before.

My first order with TeaSpring was a speedy delight! It was thrilling to get a package from China. I think that it took no more than 10 days (including weekends) from the time I placed the order to the day of arrival.

This oolong has an intriguing taste. I would call it “peach trees a bit before ripening”. It has elements of grass, floral gardens, and young fruit. The leaf is very very long which makes measurement a bit of a challenge, but it’s always delightful to see such a long leaf. The leaf is also really multi-tinted with yellow and green and white shadings that are a real pleasure to look at.

After a brief infusion, I enjoyed a subtle, flowery tea which very much belongs in the early spring. It is not as grassy as some greens and not as astringent as some oolongs can be. It very much is a light yet complex treat, redolent of a walk through a sedate yet aromatic orchard in early spring.

Okay, who spiked my Tan Yang with cocoa powder? Because this is more chocolate-y than yesterday’s chocolate chai. Which, okay, considering the lack of chocolate-ness in the chai, that’s really not saying too much, but still. Added to that cocoa flavor is a little thick and chewy texture like a happy Assam, a little sweet like a lovely Yunnan and when I slurp it’s even a bit toasty/smoky like a Keemun. This tea? So awesome.

Thanks for sending me more of this little beauty, Angrboda! It’s so delightful!

Today is a sad, sad day. I’ve had to decupboard this beauty of a tea. (Much thanks again to Angrboda for the share.) Is it an Assam? Or a Yunnan? Has cocoa been sprinkled on this? And where is that hint of roasty coming from? And is there smoky, too? Surely there isn’t any Lapsang in this…

No, it’s just a delightful tea with MPD. But that’s why I love it. That and the fact that no matter which personality shows up in my sip, I know it will always be smooth and sweet and so tasty. It will be missed. So let’s all take a moment of silence to morn for my cupboard, which is now lacking this tea.

::cricket::

Thank you. Now, in other news, I just bought plane tickets to go to Hawaii so I suppose this day isn’t a total loss, yeah?

This tea is so good in spite of (or probably because) its multiple personality disorder. It sort of wavers between a (higher quality) Yunnan – smooth and a little sweet – and an Assam – malty and almost chewy (but no bitterness!) – with some occasional smoky Keemun (or faint Lapsang Souchong) notes, then the taste is overlaid with Fujian-esque cocoa notes. Seriously, whatever kind of black tea you are in the mood for, this will probably satisfy. I’ve decided to bump the rating all the way up because, honestly, I can’t imagine this tea getting better.

Whee! This tea is courtesy of Angrboda. I’m very excited to try this little tea that gives her such oddness! This is also my first TeaSpring tea so all sorts of fun is going on over here. TeaSpring suggests 2g per 5oz so I’m doing 3.2g for my 8oz cup. It also suggests a one minute steep time for the first and second steep, which seems a bit… different. But I’ll give it a shot!

Can I just say how insanely cocoa-y the leaves smell? It’s seriously like opening a box of baking chocolate and taking a sniff. And after steeping? It smells like brownies. No, really. It’s a pretty light colored cup but that’s not too surprising considering the steep time and it is actually a little darker than I thought it would be. It looks like a perfect match to the Steep.It background color when the timer has hit zero. As the cup cools, it’s starting to smell a little less brownie-like and a little more fruity. Maybe figs rolled in cocoa powder?

The taste is amazingly full. I’ve had teas that smell like this and I’ve always enjoyed them, but this is really something. There’s a roasty note in there that reminds me a bit of Hojicha. And there is a rich mid-note of dark chocolate and cocoa. Then a sweet and slightly tart fruity top note that makes me think of plum skin or maybe cherries. And finally there is a very soft floral note that sort of whooshes in at the end, lightly coating my mouth and making me think of lilacs or maybe lavender. And the main taste differs in each sip. Most of the time it is the chocolate, but then the fruity, floral and roasty all make appearances at center stage, too, though it seems the fruity and the floral seem to come in together.

Second Steep: 1:00. This steep is a bit lighter than the first one but TeaSpring told me to and it worked pretty nicely for the first steep, so I’ll keep listening. (Of course, they also say that after the second steep to increase both time and temperature but how do you increase the temperature over boiling?) Smells a little more figgy and a little less chocolaty. The taste is similar to the first steep but not quite the same – all the players are there but they seem switched around a bit. The chocolate note hits first, then the fruity, then an occasional roasty taste, and lastly the floral note chases everything. And holy monkeys. I just did that slurpy thing and got hit with insane amounts of smoke. Like who-just-lit-up-? smoke. That’s totally unexpected.

I think next time I’ll increase the time by 15 or 30 seconds on the second steep but this is still a pretty awesome tea. It just raised the bar for any other teas with a similar cocoa/figgy taste. It is something that I will definitely need to order in the future. Thanks Angrboda!
3.2g/8oz

Slightly nutty with a nice aftertaste of ginseng and liquorice. Still refreshing even though it coats the inside of my mouth. I like this tea.

After a few steeps the ginseng flavour seems to be used up though, IIRC it lingers much longer with the stuff I bought from Oolong Tea Shop.

Well, this is not very nice. This is a very lovely oolong when I brew it western style. Tonight though I gave it a more gong-fu-like approach. You know, just for fun and giggles.

It now has that strong cocoa-y flavour that I couldn’t find earlier and some wooden notes as well. And also a weak aftertaste that could almost convince my I’m drinking coffee. It’s not a lot and it’s definitely not nearly as strong as if I had actually been drinking coffee, but it’s there and I’m not sure I like that. Coffee and tea shouldn’t mix.

So now I’m torn. Should I stick to the rather nice western style brew that doesn’t have that nice cocoa note, but also doesn’t have coffee-esque aftertastes, or should I go with the more gong fu-y method that brings out lovely cocoa but also not-so-lovely coffee-y aftertaste?

I honestly can’t figure out which is preferable here. Maybe they are equally undesirable yet still quite tasty. I can’t see any way out of this; I’ll have to dock some points, although it saddens me to do so.

Can’t be bothered to actually type out a whole entire post on this right now… This is what a ‘raw’ post looks like… Take it as a silly interlude or some thing…

must live up to pu ti cha
colour as orange as an orange (artistic leaves!)

can’t find chocolate-y note, may have somth to do w steep time and temp. also not sure ab leaf am in this pot

taste alm black, but not quite. sweeter than aver black and strangely w a peppery note.

Can find same sort of floral sweetness that is more floral than sweet.

live up to pu ti cha? yes, tastewise (special wise it can’t cos not sanctified)

knocking off a few for non-sanctifiedness, 85-90

A fairly standard rolled-leaf oolong: tasty and a good value. This is light and very crisp; it almost has a lemony ‘clean’ feel to it. The wet leaves have a slight buttery scent to them, but that doesn’t carry over into the liquid itself: both the smell and the taste are flowery.

This this doesn’t have the depth or tastiness of many higher-quality rolled-leaf oolongs, it’s good and the price is very fair. I got a lot of infusions from these leaves — sometimes 8 or 9 — but I like my tea light (and arguably weak) so others might prefer fewer.

I received a sample of this and just finished infusing it. It’s very interesting looking and colorful…indeed, I am about to drink rosebuds! The color is that of an oolong-ish type. Slight Rose Scent. The taste is light and delicate – I ass+u+me(d) it would be WAY OVER THE TOP Rose since it’s all about the rosebuds but it’s actually quite nice. Mellow. Rosey – yes, but not obnoxious by any means. This was truly interesting and I am glad I tried it.

So now I’m all out of green apart from flavoured greens and samples which don’t really count as I drink samples under different circumstances than regular stash. Pay more attention to them for one thing.

I took the rest of this and chucked in the rest of the Bi Luo Chun (also TeaSpring) and as with the Dragon Powder experiment the other day, the result wasn’t actually half bad. I’m not generally a Dragonwell fan but I’m finding that in combination with a different green it adds some good body to the mix.

Right now I don’t think Dragonwell is a type I’m going to miss having, but on the other hand if I find a good offer for it, I might actually get a small stash again for blending experiments.

Additional: Would you like a christmas card? Nothing fancy, just a card. If yes, PM me with an address and I’ll send you one. :)

I’m having this one this morning, not because I wanted to (I’d rather have had some Tan Yang) or because I’m particularly fond of it (actually I took the rating down a little), but out of some feeble hope for relief.

I woke up with my throat feeling terribly sore and I’ve eaten a strepsils which helped some but not totally. I don’t know if it really is something or if I’ve just been snoring a lot while sleeping, but either way, it still hurts. So I picked this tea not because of the flavour but because it often feels kind of viscous to drink and I figured it might be easier to swallow than other teas. If my throat hurts, I find it easier to drink viscous things like for example milk.

I gave it a pretty short steep because that’s what the timer was set at from last night and I couldn’t be arsed to change it when it was much easier to just press start, and it hasn’t actually developed much of that viscosity at all.

I might as well have made a Tan Yang after all. Can’t win them all, I guess.

I was in the mood. On my second steep now, actually. It’s been ages since I had any of it, but I was in a green mood, coming home from work and decided to make one that I hadn’t had for a while.

Today, I like it well enough. Other days I don’t like it at all. Some days I tolerate it but no more.

But today it’s pretty good. Still, it’ll never be a favourite. Too cat breath-y.

JacquelineM actually inspired me this morning, so after finishing the morning pot of Lapsang Souchong, I switched to this.

I’ve never really managed to get the hang of Dragonwell before and I’ve never really been able to agree with myself on whether or not I like it much. So I was in a weird situation where I had a sort of semi-craving for something that I wasn’t really sure I liked.

What to do, what to do?

It’s not really practical to brew half pots at the time, because I have a tendency to forget that I’m only supposed to fill it half up with water and end up with a totally weakling cup of tea. I don’t really have the brain capacity to do it that way when I know I’ll be steeping it several times. If it’s just the one or two times, it can be done, but more than that and chances are it’ll go wrong at least once.

Cue the little yellow gaiwan that I hardly ever use, because I always spill and/or burn myself. I was feeling brave though, so I brewed in that and carefully decanted after steeping into another little cup. That gave me half a very small cup on each steep which isn’t so much that I’ll give up on the questionable flavour or get too much of it, and it allows me to do a multitude of steeps.

So I’ve been drinking Dragonwell for oh about… let’s see… hmm… about four hours or so. I haven’t got the faintest idea of which steep I’m currently having, the counting got messed up, but JacquelineM totally nailed the primary flavour note when she called it asparagus-y. It’s like with Takgoti and the walnut note in the Pai Mu Tan. I knew it was a well-known clear flavour, very easy to pick up on. I just couldn’t work out what it was.

At this point though, on Steep X, the asparagus-y-ness has diminished quite a lot. It’s not really a flavour that tries to invade and conquer, it’s just sort of there. Much more toned down. The flavour has sort of deepened, if you know what I mean. It’s not as bright and bouncy anymore. It has calmed down and turned darker. Like the difference between brand new leaves on trees at the beginning of spring, and leaves that has been on the tree for half a summer already.

I’m liking these ‘older’ steeps better than the first ones, definitely, so it seems like with this one the gaiwan is the way to go.

As I said, I lost count of what number steep this is, but to give you an idea of how far I’ve approximately come, I’ve become quite good at transferring from gaiwan to cup. I don’t spill every time anymore. And I haven’t burned myself either.

It’s still not a tea that I really see myself drinking a lot of though, so I’ll leave the rating where it is and let first impressions count for this one.