Various Artists

Took this 2006 Bulang from Awazon to work today knowing I had access to hot water :)

Brewed it up 8 different steeps and found it to be an easy drinking tea with a bitterness and astringency to it that kept me awake at work. While it wasn’t something I really enjoyed, it worked for what I drank it for. Still waiting to review the one Awazon I really liked until I find a second to do a back to back review; chances are it’ll happen because I have almost 20 samples awaiting me!

Someone on Reddit sent me some roasted oolong for green oolong and the first I am drinking is this Formosa Nantou Dong Ding from Edmon’s via TeaGschwender
This tast 98% like Bigalow’s light blue box called ‘oolong’ which was the first tea that got me really into drinking tea. While it’s odd to have a loose leaf taste like a tea bag, I suppose that’s not so odd really considering it’s the same type of material just processed and chopped. I do enjoy this though as it’s nice dark, deep, and complex to the taste.

So… https://www.instagram.com/p/BCq0Fo4xYH3/ happened just recently and this morning I am going in for a drug test which means I will fill up on tea prior to driving to the ‘lab’.

Picked out some of W2T Finest DHP; which I was unable to find on Steepster. The dry leaf has a nice soft cocoa smell, but that vanishes when it is brewed. Thankfully this is not one of those DHP that have a harsh throat feeling that I call ‘rough tea’. The taste is of a mildish roasting, to which I prefer. The key aspect about this tea that I most enjoy is how smooth and soft it is making it easy to drink in the morning in my case. Not much of a body or lingering taste, but that’s okay because it does leave residual heat in the mouth that is pleasant. Not to be confused with delicate, this tea is smooth and easy to enjoy resteeps of.

Oh the joys of brewing up a misslabled sample from a friend. With no idea what it is I’m drinking, know it’s not a ripe tea as it says it is. This is a raw with a woodsy taste to it which I’m not a fan of. I like sheng that taste of fruit, fresh earth, and dirty grass beenghole

Anyways, it was fun to try and figure out what is is. I failed. At best I can say it’s a sheng that’s roughly 5 years of age.

Finally got my hand on some of the weird/awesome looking plated/braided raw pu’erh.
Knowing nothing about why this is done, I just really like the appearance but would never buy it just for that. First thing I notice is that this is indeed braided. That’s pretty awesome.
No scent to the tea which is odd. Brewing it for 20 seconds and it’s almost close. I decided to twist the leaf apart and noticed that one of the six leaves is a really dark one and the rest are shades of olive to green.
Taste wise this is weak and flat. With absolutely no body to the liquid or hopes to finding qi, it’s not as disappointing as you would think. It’s drinkable in a way that a lot of sheng is not because of the accidentally overstep or water ratio to leaf. This seems fairly easy to steep and drink. While there is little to nothing to taste to this type of tea, not sure brand or how many places even do it, I still find a value to trying it or even buying it.

After trying to read February 2016 magazine for Global Tea Hut, I canceled my order. Trying to read through this was like a religious exploration for the doctrines on tea preparation… just not my thing. Instead of having mixed feelings each month, I shall go elsewhere for a monthly subscription. Did anyone else feel odd reading an entire Zen based tea magazine last month?

Drinking the 1985 Hubei Zhaoliqiao black tea. Bought 15g of this because I thought it would be a fun time to drink it. At first I regretted that decision because it smells absolutely awful. Almost like body odor lingering in the field of hay. Went into this more skeptical then brewing insect feces.

The initial taste is very similar to lui bao. Interestingly though, there is a boldness to this tea that comes through the hay and leaves a lingering wet old grass taste. It’s kind of a confusing taste to explain because as it smells awful, taste of hay, and leaves a wet grass taste in the mouth… I still have no idea which of the three is most authentic to an aged black tea, let alone one that is from 1985.
To be clear: I resmelled this tea almost 15 times because it was just so awful I had to make sure…

Warning, long review ahead.
The following review is for two Bai Chamoux cakes bought from MX Tea on taobao.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BBitEHWxYNE/ The ram one is Yangyngdeyi and the monkey is 2016 Monkey Memorial. First I will admit that I spoke to MX Tea about suggestion and asked about these teas and they responded by telling me that they are new and not the best to drink now. I went against what they said because I wanted to buy from a place that nobody else was yet (that I knew/know of). I’ve asked quite a few people about Bai Champoux and had no luck finding anyone with experience. I went with two middle level cakes in regards to price. These were $50 and $40; thee numbers include shipping which I divided out for the weight of the order and distributed by the cakes weight.
Here’s a look at these two + the 2007 raw Mengku https://www.instagram.com/p/BB3gPJYxYHh/
Knowing that buying these two cakes would be a risky gamble of getting ‘eh’ stuff at a not so low price, I convinced myself to go for it because I had to try them. As many can guess, I did kind of buy these based on the wrapper and picture of the pressed material.
Firs thing to note: MX Tea has the best packaging out there. The cakes are wrapped in a plastic bag prior to shipping, put in a box, and then wrapped again. Anyways, it took me a few days to even try the teas because I was nervous that buying a 2015 and 2016 (that’s what it says) cake from a producer that nobody has said anything about would end up being wasted money. Then I tried them and committed to another session each before writing a review.
The ram / Yangyndeyi: This is the cheaper of the two cakes at around 11 cents a gram, it isn’t a bad price. I rinsed this tea and let it sit for 12 minutes before the first steep which was bitter and I said ‘damnitttttttttttttttttt’. However, the second steep wasn’t so bitter so I think there was some leftover water from the rinse sitting in there plotting a war on my tongue. With practically no aroma, to the point I can’t even comment about what it could be, this tea having a tasting note (1) to comment about is quite interesting. The only taste I can say stands out is that of tobacco. Texture wise this tea is almost to the middle level, meaning it is not thick but also doesn’t have that buttery feel. What this tea has that the other doesn’t is a mild qi. My favorite part of this tea is the coating it leaves in the mouth which is a warm feeling with a slimy touch.
The 2016 Monkey Memorial: At 14 cents a gram, this cake isn’t that bad of a price either but the fact that it’s a $50 gamble kind of had me nervous; along with the 2016 date on it. I did not let this tea sit because I was wanted to drink it right away on both occasions that I drank this. Considering how sensitive to bitterness I am, I figured this would be something that would take time until I could drink it. I was absolutely wrong. Steep 1 through 15 had no bitterness and I was completely surprised. What stood out most about this tea was the camphor aftertaste that lingered. To be more accurate, it was like an aroma that was trapped in your mouth that you’re tasting… it sounds odd, but it was pleasant. That taste for me was like a mixture of nut and cinnamon. I was in shock upon drinking this tea and I’m hoping others enjoy it as much as I did so I don’t feel crazy: https://www.instagram.com/p/BCBhqawxYHi/
Overall, I don’t think I’d buy more of the Yangyndeyi and I am unsure about the 2016 Monkey Memorial. While the Monkey brews a wonderful tasting liquid, I’m unsure what would happen to the camphor experience as it ages. I’ll keep some of this cake and check on it in a few months because if it stays or improves, I will look into buying another. As for the Yangydeyi, I just don’t care to only taste tobacco notes and have a slight bitterness following me around all day through the steeps.
80% of these cakes will go toward the puerh ttb and swaps so if have anything odd or fun you’re up to swapping just let me know :)

2007 Mengku bought off of taobao… one of the most wonderfully stored cakes that I’ve tasted.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BBit5GYxYOf/
Breaks off easily, https://www.instagram.com/p/BB4DK_WxYPe/
Brews at ease and I can’t complain about anything. The taste has a sweetness and texture to it that reminds me of warm watermelon. This is something I can’t run out of so I’ll be buying a cake every few months.
In the meantime, if you want to swap for a piece let me know. The price after shipping (being split between items) comes out to around $23 for a 357g cake. I think that’s a fantastic price for what I’m tasting.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BB_MK_axYCb/

If it wasn’t clear that either I am addicted to tea or dedicated to it… this will clear that up.
While I was at work I decided that I didn’t want to wait any longer so I would go ahead and drink the Verdant teas from the 2016 Sheng Olympics over the course of four hours tonight.
Considering what I have, it was possible to make a rap song about it while rinsing them. It was easily name: Dust n’ Beengholes. Clearly it would be a song about getting the bottom of the barrel in life, but still finding out how to enjoy it. After that, I decided I am going to make a character and name him Dusty Beeng. Okay, on to the tea.
I decided to go ahead and let these sit for a few seconds in 90c water and then drain them to split the beengholes which actually worked quite well since they were warm and semi moist. Let them sit for 8 minutes while getting on Slack. The smells are as follows:
300 smells light as if it will have nothing to it.
1000 smells very fresh as if it will include the most astringency.
1800 smells funky… unsure how to classify this smell to what I expect in the taste to come, but the best I can do is to say that there will probably be some sour tasting notes from the background smell I am picking up as if this is either old or stored incorrectly.
Unsure how I should brew these, since I have four hours dedicated to drinking these, I decided to do 30 second steeps 12 time for each tea. The first brew was a classic example of how I can think one thing and decide that such a thought was absolutely terrible. The thirty second brews were very astringent and I do not believe I can evaluate anything from anything I just drank so I washed my mouth with some water and took a five minute break to let the bitter feeling dissipate some so I don’t miss any sweet notes or not fully experience any off notes.
Starting back up. The number 7 seems to be regarded as a good one throughout history, thus I am going with it. Normally I do anywhere from flash (new) to 10 (aged) second steeps on my sheng; hopefully 7 will work.
Starting with the seven second steeps, the liquid is not as dark which hopefully means more drinkable and not as bitterness to the tasting. The first three steeps this is what I noticed; all at 7 second intervals:
300 the smell went from about nothing to slight floral notes the come across after a whiff. Steep one and two are pretty bitter as you would expect for a young sheng, but the third one is showing a little less which has me looking forward to the next few steeps.
1000 the earlier smell of astringency turned into more of a steamed green tea smell. The first few steeps of this are unpleasant in general. The astringency comes in and sits at the roof of the mouth. There is no indication that this will lighten up to allow any notes to be distinguished over the bitterness.
1800 the smell hasn’t changed and I am perplexed as to what these funky scents I am picking up should indicate. The first few sips were odd as I tried to get my mind around something smelling odd and then there are sweet notes in this tea. Others have linked it to apricot and I would say that it resembles that in a way. No bitterness added in my mouth between this and the other two I am drinking currently.

Moving o to the next few steeps I decided I need to drop the temperature because I’ve read that some have used lower temperatures to avoid some of the stronger notes that higher heat can bring out. I really wanted the 1000 to be something I could have something nice to say about. If that is possible, I hope to find a way. My thoughts about doing such a thing is to evaluate what will change with the drop in temperature and then if needed later on I can rise the temperature to bring out what may be a tea that needs something to reawaken it. Playing with tea is fun : )
Now with water at 85c and 7 second steeps:
300 this is becoming more enjoyable as my session goes on. The slight bitterness is disappearing either from steeping it out or dropping to 85c; most likely a combination of both.
1000 steep 4,5, and 6 are three more reasons to dislike this tea. Astringency is still overwhelming for me. At this point I have decided that I will pour water over it for three minutes and pour it onto my tray and then taste what becomes of it.
1800 the liquid is a bit lighter now and the taste follows as such. This is becoming a delicate drink, the kind I would love to sip away at during a spring day as the liquid is warm and yet soothing all at the same time as being light enough to not bother my senses but present enough to make me notice the taste as it sits on my tongue and transfers to the side of my tongue and roof of my mouth after I drank the liquid down.
Going forward at this point are only the 300 and 1800 with 85c for now and ready to brew new water if needed to pull more out of these teas. Steeps 9 to 12:
300 interestingly enough this began to lose its lightness that it was starting to turn to and began picking up astringency. The smell stayed the same though, the difference was only in taste.
1800 the opposite began happening for this one. The tea began to lighten even more leading me to more thoughts of having a delicate cup in spring; if only.
At this point, it is about time to eat my awaited dinner. Surprisingly, I was able to endure this journey without breaking for food which is good because it could have disrupted my ability to experience them purely. Since I try to provide helpful remarks for teas and these are sold old, it is probably best to advise what I believe might help them out rather than if it should be bought or not; and I will avoid the pricing, which we can all agree was high.
300 this tea is probably best at 80 or 85 Celsius with short steeps up to 7 seconds to avoid the bitterness that is within it since it is a young sheng. This is something that may be considered a daily drinker if the steeping parameters are figured out to avoid the bitterness that could eventually lead to an unpleasant mouth feeling after a few hours. The smell of this one is the best of the three and needs medium attention to figure out how to unlock its potential.
100 while I did not enjoy this tea at all, maybe I can help someone else enjoy it… I believe this tea would be best with flash steeps and 80 to 85 Celsius water. Brewing this longer than 5 seconds will provide a strong sensation of astringency in the mouth. This tea has a strong scent to it and requires the most attention of all the three.
1800 this was the best of all three, as anyone would expect. Sweetness is the one attribute with this tea that I notice throughout and enjoy most. This tea requires the least amount of attention to figure out and I think people can make the adjustments they would like to make this to their preference for more enjoyment. As I stopped recording thoughts of this tea at steep 12, I am sipping at steep 16 as I write this. This is something that can be brewed quite a bit and stays enjoyable the whole time. My suggestion for this tea is to play with the steeping time and temperature as you won’t ruin it easily because it has a lot to give.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BB0-WmDRYOk/

I was out of town this weekend to see my girlfriend and decided to search for international markets because I enjoy them. Ended up in an Indian market that had a tea shop :)
Scanned the menu and saw something that sounded so odd I had to try it. Traditional style masala chai made with Japanese sencha. Who would even attemp that? Well, it was authentically made in front of my and I stood surprised that sencha was being used.

What an odd combination. It was like a spiced milk that was strained through grass. That’s how I can explain it…. there is a reason that this is not a thing. The lady who made it was quite friendly so I got to smash my top in the jar that was overflowing which made me smile to know these people making tea are not slaving away for the tastebuds of cold people stumbling into a tea shop for chai to warm them up.

Mead infused, sweet, sheng batch #1
FAILED
Unsure if this is something I’ll be able to do without working with the vineyard here; however when I contacted them they said 55 gallons… that won’t work for me. Well, I can say that I reduced the bitterness by a slight amount and for only four steeps there is a slight sweetness that is on the tip of the tongue after the liquid goes down. It did something, but it wasn’t what I would consider a success.
https://www.instagram.com/p/-sYa7uRYPX/

I was drinking some Whispering Pines Jabberwocky and it went to steep 6 but I thought to myself, ’let’s play with this spent leaf’.
I went ahead and grabbed something labeled as ‘random pu’ that was sent to me and poured it ontop. Allowed each steep to hit 25 seconds and once I hit the third steep I decided I was done with whatever I created. For whatever reason, it was one of the fruitiest cups of tea I’ve ever had which blew my mind…. unsure what happened.

@oolongowl this Alaska Breakfast has to be one of the most strangest things I have ever had. The ‘fine weed’ in this tea might be what makes it so odd. Now sure how I feel about the stuff, but it’s not positive. Thank you this stuff, it was an interesting tasting.

Hopefully Phil and his friends don’t read this…

This morning I am pretty exhausted because I didn’t feel good yesterday. That led me to pouring hot water ontop of my matcha in a french press before. I normally do some hand whisking in the morning, but today I decided to do some…. what would this be? Hardcore pumping?
Anyways, I pulled up and smashed down quick about 50 times and poured myself a cup. It worked of course, after all it is a powder meant to be mix within water.
Fun times.

Yesterday I went to a kombucha class :)
While a lot of it taste like vinegar, there are a lot of possibilities. My favorite was a yerba mate oolong blend kombucha. I was given a starter kit so I look forward to creating my own stuff, unsure where it will take me… but it should be fun :)
http://photos3.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/d/5/b/0/highres_445794704.jpeg

WOW
Last night was ridiculous. I wish what had happened didn’t, but now that it has I will never purchase Misty Peak tea or include it in an any group buy. Nick will soon find out that his coowner/brother/marketingdirector is really screwing over the company; some of the people he offended are people with connections in the tea world too…

Anyways, this morning I am drinking some matcha from Yunomi and using the coconut milk matcha from yesterday as the cooling agent. I am going to end up throwing this coconut milk matcha away… the taste is so strong that it is going through the tencha taste of 3 scoops of matcha I whisked. That’s pretty crazy!

Tonight I drove my 15 year old brother on his first date. Knowing that such a thing would be emotional for my mom as he is her youngest child, I decided to go pick up something nice at Whole Foods. After picking up a raspberry truffle cake I went to the drink section to see what I could find; tea related of course.

I ended up finding Rebel matcha coconut milk. I though it would be an interesting drink because the ingredients and color all matched up to being something I would purchase (not some weird fake matcha stuff). Unfortunately this stuff is very odd tasting. There’s a chalky texture to it which isn’t my thing. The cake however is wonderful :)

My best friend came over yesterday and I asked her to pick from my sample stash sent from companies. She pulled out something I haven’t drank for a reason… CEYLON. EWWWW.
Stuff taste so bitter to me. Personal preference for sure. This is the same with Assam. Still waiting to find one of each I like, but it’ll be rough because I have such a sweet tooth that some candy even taste bitter to me at times; this is not a good thing. I read somewhere that sugar is more addictive than cocaine, anyone know this so I don’t have to search the web to find out.

Took 6 serving scoops of matcha and whisked the hell out of it. A little chalky, but I need to wake up!!!

Here’s to something new, maybe silly, but still enjoyable.

Drinking some 1980’s Yunnan Hongcha from a swap.
This is like some light assam mixed with sheng… if that makes sense. Somewhat like a mild malt that has a leftover bitterness which you can tell has faded over the years. A little wetness to the taste as if it hasn’t had the best of storage, but meant to taste this way as well as a dry aging taste would result in a bitter malt versus a moist malt; which I prefer.
Overall this is a darker cup tonight than I expected. I do enjoy it and hope to try similar teas since I believe this is among the first of this variation of leaf for me.

Wild Monk Showdown!
https://www.instagram.com/p/-9L0yzRYOU/

The 2012 offering of Wild Monk was one of my first shengs that I have ever tried. That being said, I was spoiled earlier. Since then the taste has lingered around in my memory as an amazing experience so I wanted to compare the three together.

This time I started with newest to oldest.

2015 has the largest leaf and lightest pressing. The taste resembles a lightly fermented fruit; I will add the remark that it is quite interesting to taste something that isn’t fully fermented, the gentle sweetness in the background is hard to notice if you don’t allow a second to let the taste sit. The leaf takes a great beating and keeps its slight bitterness which is to no surprise as a 2015 offering.

2014 makes me question the claim of this being Wild Monk cake. The entirety of the steeps, which I lowered to 4 seconds, were all quite bitter. The taste was hard for me to detect because of the bitterness from the leaf which is pressed more firm than the 2015 with smaller leaf within it; though such things don’t change the taste as far as I know. The liquid was quite dark with this one which was something I noticed and linked to the bitterness (which isn’t a real thing)

2012., this highly compressed dark ugly leaf looks like the trash monster from Sesame Street had his hair wrapped in lettuce and left in the bottom of the can for awhile. Ultimately this is a beautiful tea that steeps and steeps a cup of wild comfort. The liquid is smoother than most sheng, with some bitterness left in there, and brews a medium thickness tea broth that has brought an experience to many.

My concluding remarks come to think that the 2014 material is not the same as the 2015 nor the 2012. I’m not entirely sure how to justify comparing them as a the same product if they taste so different. Of course there are storing techniques, processing differences each year, climate changes, and maybe a whole bunch of butterflies decided to fornicate on the tea plants in 2014 while the farmers thought it was pretty so they did nothing. Shoot, I don;t know… I just miss my 2012 Wild Monk.
No worries though, I have found some wild variation sheng that are close in taste with leads on others that are said to get me tea drunk in a way that makes the Marvel and DC universe merge inside my conscious.

2007 Menghai Feet of Crab
A fun looking tea with a wild taste to it. While it may not be the most gentle or preferred taste, This was a tea for someone to try for sure, hopefully I run cross more odd looking pu’erh teas :)

Drinking this 2005 Liu Po “Golden Award” (Chua) from a swap… I need to do some research and find out who sent this to me because it’s kicking my ass in a great way.

Not only does this brew a deep tasting liquid… it literally provides a feeling each and every sip. A wonderful drink to unwind to :)
I need to acquire some.