Various Artists

So. Full. Of. Tea.

I have been drinking tea all day long today. I got two tiny little double wall glass tea cups from Teavivre last week. I have never been a huge fan of glass for tea cups without handles, but these were just too cute to resist. And I’m so pleased that they don’t get hot at all. Great double wall insulation I guess!

I started the day with Bi Luo Chun Black (or Golden Snail Yunnan) from Whispering Pines then moved on to Golden Fleece from Verdant – both were delish though I think I’m somewhat over Golden Fleece for now. I’ll still never turn it down, but my palate is trending towards heavier teas lately. Next was Ailaoshan Black from Whispering Pines, Yunnan Gold Tips from A&D, No. 9 Yunnan from Steven Smith – all reliable and good, though the Ailaoshan was by far my favorite of the group. Finished up with Golden Tippy Yunnan from Tealeaves, which unfortunately didn’t really improve much with the short multiple steeping style sessions I was using.

Almost all of the steeps were done with 1 teaspoon of tea, spring water cooled from boiling, rinse leaves, 20 seconds for 1/2 of a little cup, 45 seconds to top off the cup, then 1 1/2 minutes for second cup and leaving the tea in the pot until I was ready for the 3rd & 4th cups.

While that sounds like a lot of tea, I guess in retrospect it isn’t that much since they were all done in 6+ ounce tiny gongfu (not sure this is really gongfu) short steep sessions. I did resteep the Golden Snail so that’s…um… 42+ ounces?

Sipdown 3 of 2016. Sample. Received 11/2015 – Finished 1/2016

This was a gold wrapped sample package from LP. My tasters tell me it is a Keemun, but I do not read Chinese so I have know idea for sure.

I love these little packages. There were several in the awesome package of tea LP sent me. I like opening them up and not knowing exactly what you are getting. The keemun was good. It had the deep notes in keemun that I enjoy. A great morning cup that I throughly enjoyed.

This is a red wrapped TGY that I received from LP Thank you!

I haven’t had TGY in a long time. This particular session is wonderful. Slightly creamy, slightly roasted? No bitterness that I sometimes get. I will be working on this all night. Working late in and effort to make some progress while people aren’t around to interrupt.

I have recently become the owner of 5, yes 5 different keemuns. For a girl who barely knew what keemuns were a month ago this astounds me how they have gravitated to me. So here is a quick summary of how my taste buds viewed all of them in comparison. I will start by saying I actually loved all of them. There are a few I would pick over others to re-buy, but all were worth drinking again and again and again.

Teavivre – Ha Ya Black Keemun
– fruity, complex flavors, smooth, rich,

Teavivre – Grade 1 Keemun
– less fruity than Ha Ya Black, middle of the road as far as the taste profile went, not fruity, not smokey. well rounded and smooth.
– most like the Pine Peak

Teavivre – Grade 2 Keenum
– tad bit of smoke, woody rich flavor
– most like China Keenum from Zen Tea Life

Zen Tea Life – China Keemun
– tad bit of smoke, less body than the Grade 2 from Teavivre
– most like Grade 2 from Teavivre

Whispering Pines – Pine Peak Keemun
– less fruity, no smoke, good body, smooth
– most like Grade 1 from Teavivre

All teas were steeped per recommended instructions. They were all great and I can see lots of keemun drinking in my future. Thanks to those that contributed to my ability to do this comparison!

At the end of this comparison i dumped all 5 together and drank the cup. The resulting brew was also amazing! I can definitely say I am a keemun convert!

I finally finished tasting and reviewing the red leaf matcha samples. Now I’m heavily caffeinated! Hopefully this gets me through cleaning my place today :)

Junpana Organic, from goldenteatips (I believe they’ve since changed the company name)
first spring flush 2015, SFTGFOP1

I’m still going through these little packets! I awkwardly signed up for their annual teabox subscription wayy back when, and early in the process discovered that I was not the greatest fan of assam or pekoe.

This one is labeled as an oolong, from darjeeling, but it tastes like a lightly green black tea, isn’t that weird. It wasn’t my favorite, but maybe I just brewed it too long? I followed the directions, but I think I used to do darjeelings for 1-2 mins rather than 4-5. This probably deserves another try, but I’m in no rush.

If anyone actually wants these little packets, I’ll gladly sell them to you, most of them are sealed and I’m not doing anything with them except letting them get older.

grandpa steeped some 2005 puer in a 30oz tumbler. nom. a nice mild brew to get me through a work day. Refilled at 1/2way point like 4 times? :)

Verdant Tian di Ren 2005 Shu Pu’er

This shall be my Christmas tea this year. I’m using an easy gaiwan with a cupping set (? the one with a long sniffing cup and a stout drinking cup)

It tastes like earth and mushrooms. It’s not at all heavy or too overwhelming. =) Just smooth and easy.

Merry Christmas/Happy holidays!

One of my friends brought me some of the tea her parents brought her from China. Little jasmine green tea pearls, they’re quite adorable. I don’t have a vendor name or anything though. They’re quite tiny actually, and unfurl into little strands. The taste is not as jasminey as what I would have assumed from the scent, but it’s not that bad. This type of tea makes be want to drag out my big ceramic teapot though.

Hot Kumquat Honey tea from Quickly’s

I’m still sick, but a different sick from last week. Tis the season I suppose. Any artificial citrus today has tasted/smelt distinctly perfumey. For example I had lemon pepper on something today, and it was not pleasant, lol. I thought I was safe with this as I’ve had it before (and I actually ordered it before the lemon pepper incident), and it is usually more honey than kumquat, but alas I was not. So it tastes of honey, Kumquat and Perfume. It’s not as bad though if I dilute it down some more, like 1 part to 2 parts water… Note though that this tea is still normally very nice and if you’re near a Quickly’s location and don’t want milk tea, this is what I usually get.

I may be a bit crazy. I mixed some cold Strawberry Oolong and some SunnyD. Yup. That happened. It wasn’t bad.

In other news I found the TeaRen store in my city. But they are cash only and I didn’t have ANY cash on me, not even enough for a cup of milk tea. Boo. Another day.

I THINK that this is Golden Snail. But I honestly have no idea. It might be Golden Fleece. Either way it’s gold. Looking at it the shape is probably more like Fleece than Snails. LOL. I found an unlabeled packet. It wasn’t properly sealed either and I think this tea has been exposed to moisture, so I thought ‘why not’.

Gabriel’s Oboe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ny_q8e9-Qo
That should be enough to say.
Other than that: malty, sweet, honey notes, nutty notes, but very light and not heavy. It had all these different notes, but didn’t have a distinctive characteristic to it so I could identify it as black or oolong or some such. More Honey than Nuts as the steeps went by, this is what I imagine honey castella in tea form would taste like. By the way this was done Gong Fu style, which I haven’t done in FOREVER. It was very nice. If only I knew what it was.

I’ve been so bad at doing notes lately, which seems to be a running theme. These days though, it’s honestly because I’ve been trying to clean up after myself after I make tea in the morning, so by the time I’m home in the evening and have some internet time I have completely forgotten what it is. For example I know that today I had TeaLyra’s something jasmine pearls, and some sort of hojicha, and some sort of darjeeling. Not very helpful. It doesn’t help that ants have invaded my usual tea area (where the kettle lives) because I forgot a piece of candy out. I can’t even disturb the trail because I’m waiting for the ant people to come bait this trail…

Anyway, I’ve just been having a very bad luck, sucky kind of day. My house alarm went off, so I had to drive home from work and deal with that for a few hours. Then I started my chemical reaction late because I was in later…. and that didn’t pass spec so I had to start it all over again. By the time I had a pause for breakfast/lunch it was 5pm and I was super grumpy. But I got out by 8pm! at least there’s that… Then I came home and my sister yelled at me for not letting her know in my nonexistant extra time that the alarm had gone off.

Oh well, now I’m off to the airport to pick up a friend. The ant man comes tomorrow morning to treat the ant trail so hopefully I’ll be back to brewing tons of tea by Friday? lol. Tea gets me through the day, otherwise I’m sure I would have done some PMS style yelling by now.

https://instagram.com/p/0jP7R9RNI-/

My very first pu erh cake! (I have no idea what the label says… I’m not even going to try.) Admittedly, I also stabbed myself with the fork trying to pry pieces off (I didn’t break skin, so it’s OK!). It was super inexpensive, I think about $4 for the 250g cake. I’m grandpa brewing it and enjoying it with a donut. Happy day. I honestly probably didn’t use enough leaf. But that could be because it’s inexpensive (my usual pu’s are loose leaf from Mandala), or because of the sweetness of the donut. Oh well. There’s still plenty left!

It’s really hard to try and write notes when some things are just labeled like ‘puerh’, ‘darjeeling 1st’, ‘darjeeling 2nd’…. the latter two I’m assuming they meant 1st&2nd flushes, but who knows. I don’t.

Mostly I’m just checking in because I know I’ve been bad about tasting notes lately, but I’m alive and still drinking (tea)! Haha.

I’ve been really bad at doing tasting notes lately. Like really really sporadic. =(

Anyways. This is a random Darjeeling 1st flush that I got in a stash sale, the seller didn’t even remember where it came from. I wasn’t too bothered with that then or now even because it does brew up decently, even though I hope that I know a little bit more know about darjeeling tea now than I did then. Although that is admitted not much more.

Compared to the other darjeelings I’ve tried this one is definitely more of a younger taste. Which I feel like I’m saying younger, but that might mean something different to you. It’s more mellow, yet lively. It doesn’t have a whole ton of depth, but there’s an interesting roundness and surface taste. That probably doesn’t really help all that much, but I had fun trying. How’s this: It’s good, not the best, but nice.

Rice Pudding from World Flavors, via the Cooking TTB

Well I wouldn’t have named it rice pudding, but maybe to someone?

The base tea is black, but is neither mellow nor robust. Just a kind of inbetween unremarkable black tea. The dry leaf has little white bits in it, which added to the appeal and held the faint scent of vanilla.

When I think of rice pudding I’m expecting something cremey, decadent, and comforting. With a touch of vanilla and maybe a bit of cinnamon? That’s how I would blend a rice pudding tea at least.

This tea though, is very faintly vanilla and not much else. It’s not even vanilla enough to be creamy, which I feel alot of vanilla teas do without much effort. Oh well.

I should have been tasting teas from the TTB today, but I didn’t. This morning was a trusty, well-loved jasmine tea. Lunch included Twinning’s Breakfast tea. This evening I decided to try my hand at Morrocan Mint tea, which has been bouncing around my brain since I heard about it.

Yesterday I was in the 99ranch to pick up some stuff and I wandered over to the tea area, I always do. I was looking for Gunpowder green tea. You know, despite stories of it being very popular, I had a heck of a time trying to find it, most of the teas available were sencha or long ling or some other green. No Gunpowder to be found. I actually drove over to SF market (another Asian supermarket) to go through the tea selection there. I finally settled on a ‘China Green Tea’ whose characters seemed closest to the ones Wikipedia showed me for Gunpowder. Eh, it was cheap. $4 for about 8oz? Does it remind me of gunpowder tea? Hmm, I’m not sure. I’ve only had it Gunpowder a few times, but at this point I’m just going to finish off what I started even if it’s not completely right.

My mom planted some mint in a pot in on my patio and it really really likes the weather here. The mint is thriving! (I wish I could say the same of my sad little Basil plant) I grabbed a bunch of mint and did my best approximation of Morrocan Mint tea. You know, for not knowing if I have the actual right tea, and lacking the beautiful tea pot, settling for a pot on the stove.

Well, it tastes nice. I would probably try it again.

This was from a LONG AGO teabox.  The only English on the packaging says “Fuding White Tea” but the packaging is so lovely — I never wanted to cut the package open until now!  The packaging is  royal blue, with a teapot on the front and a clear cutout of a maple leaf on the back.  Anyone come across this particular tea/ know what the brand might be? The packaging is the size of a teabag, and in fact the tea itself is pressed into the size/shape of what a teabag might be. Very flat shape!  It takes some unraveling over the steeps.  The flavor is a typical white tea – with maybe a sweetness and actual leaf flavor reminiscent of that maple leaf on the back of the package.  Four solid steeps. Seemed to be a high quality white tea — the leaves were huge when they unraveled — I can’t imagine the leaves being squashed into teabag size.  I’m saving the packaging anyway…
2020 Sipdowns: 41

This will sound ridiculous but there was a flavor profile I was craving. I had this random unlabeled tea from StarFevre that I just happened to brew up, never tried it before. And the flavor profile was EXACTLY the flavor that I had been craving. I wasn’t even sure if the mystery tea was a black or oolong. But I guess that was what I was craving anyway. It could be a light black or an oolong. The flavor is a bit roasty, very sweet, hints of lychee, honey, almost like a lapsang souchong like Teavivre has, where the better lapsang souchongs don’t have a smoky flavor. I know it was a Chinese tea anyway, based on the packaging. It’s just too weird this happened today.
Edited to add: The second steep the next day is definitely telling me this is a black tea (the brew is quite dark at boiling) with plenty of those lovely flavors from yesterday. It’s also starchy yet stays sweet. I’ll certainly have this mysterious tea around when these flavor cravings hit.

I’m very thrilled to have had a try with the Butiki traveling teabox! thank you for starting the box! I will be writing everything for the Butiki samples in this one LONG tasting note, since there aren’t any tea shop/company names. Hopefully this teabox will educate me on the differences between some teas. I’d really like to be able to tell the difference between autumn/spring and first/second flush Darjeelings. I think the only thing missing from the box would be at least one of each sheng/shu pu-erhs for pu-erh newbies to compare. I’m not enough of a fan of raw pu-erh that I have more than one teaspoon in my possession though. I’ll be trying some of the same type side by side, especially if I want to try both.

BLACK TEAS
+*Kenyan Orthodox* – 4 min after boiling // 3 min steep
I’ve tried a couple amazing Kenyan teas before. This one is good. Hints of plum and cherry that I associate with the few I’ve had. Not too much flavor, but I love the flavor that is here. Also, tomato soup, but I wish it would leave the plum and cherry alone.

+*Assam – India #1* The leaves here LOOK like the Hattialli I love from Butiki, with a ton of golden twisty leaves, but though the cup is dark, it is very difficult to even figure out with this tastes like. Definitely not like the Hattialli that I could find so many flavors. I don’t think I’ll ever taste another tea like that one again.

+*Assam – India #3* The leaves here are much darker than #1. The flavor is also darker, but still very sweet and mellow like #1. This one has plenty of that dry grass flavor.

+*China Keemun #2* A decent black tea but it lacks all of those keemun characteristics for me. I’ve had many great keemuns lately though.

+*Kenyan CTC* I accidentally left this to steep for more than the minute I wanted. I expected undrinkablity but it actually wasn’t that astringent for a usual super-strength CTC. Just like rye bread. A nice CTC.

DARJEELING
I’m using one teaspoon of each Darjeeling but not filling the mug to the top as I usually do. I know some Butiki Darjeelings suggest two teaspoons, so maybe not filling the mug will make up the difference. I’ve also recently found out that Darjeelings are usually ruined for me with boiling water. I guess it depends on the Darjeeling.

+*Darjeeling India Autumn 2013 #1* 27 min after boiling // 2 min steep
Very squashy, which is fitting for autumn I guess! I haven’t tried this sort of tea yet. Second steep: half mug // 4 min after boiling // 2 min – completely different cup and not oversteeped so I’m still not sure what temp Darjeeling should be steeped at.

+*Darjeeling First Flush #4* 14 min after boiling // 3 min steep
I think first flushes just aren’t my thing, unless I’m steeping them wrong. The flavor is just not that great for me… what flavor there is anyway. This happened with all the first flushes I’ve ever tried. If anything with this teabox, I guess I learned which type of Darjeeling I like better!

+*Darjeeling Second Flush #6 & 7*
Maybe second flushes aren’t my thing either! These weren’t much different from the first flush, but there was slightly more flavor. But I’m not really inspired to steep a second cup OR even finish the first.

OOLONG
+*Dong Ding #1* 1 tsp // 25 min after boiling // mug 3/4 full // 3 min
No idea what temp to brew certain oolongs. I remember the Mandala milk oolong was a completely different tea brewed at just boiled or waiting around 20 minutes and I know with each oolong it’s different. Ooooo….I could try waiting 20 min for the first steeps of oolongs and then just boiled for the second steeps. I think this one brewed correctly though. The dark leaves of this one were bundled much bigger than the second Dong Ding. The flavor is like roasted chestnuts. Smooth but with a tiny bite to it. Second cup: nice as well.

+*Dong Ding #2* 1 tsp // 25 min after boiling // mug 3/4 full // 3 min
The leaves of this one were smaller bundles than the other Dong Ding. I wonder if that is why the brew was slightly darker. The flavor is stronger as well. More bite. Second steep: even more flavor but it also reminded me of kerosene for some reason.

+*Tie Guan Yin China Oolong* 15 min after boiling // 2 min
I should have went for the parameters of my favorite tie guan yin but I realized that 15 min after boiling (just boiled, 2-3 tsps.). The flavor is lighter and it isn’t a flower garden like I expect from a good tie guan yin, but this is good. Buttery, kind of more like a milk oolong.

+*Tie Guan Yin Traditional #1* 15 min after boiling // 2 min
I’ve already learned that smaller bundles and darker color means more flavor. This happened in both oolong tastings so far. This one also has something that tastes like kerosene again. Hopefully my tastesbuds aren’t like this now, but I honestly never loved roasted oolongs in the first place.

+*Mei Shan Taiwan #1* 25 min after boiling // 3 min
I don’t think I’ve ever had a Mei Shan oolong, at least that I’m aware of, so I had to try this one. The oolong are the biggest bundles I’ve ever seen. This has such an odd flavor that I don’t normally taste in oolong. It’s kind of like tomato soup but also tangy like some other fruit or vegetable. Not floral, milky or peachy like other oolongs. The cup color was light like an oolong usually is though.

+*Mei Shan Taiwan #2* 25 min after boiling // 3 min
The bundles with this one are slightly smaller and darker than the other Mei Shan. This one had a tomato soup flavor too, so it wasn’t just the other one. I guess it’s the characteristic of the Mei Shan. Interesting! The second cup had a really nice floral flavor to it I really liked.

+*Champagne Oolong* 15 min after boiling
This certainly is a flavor I haven’t had before. Very unique. I can’t really describe it but it’s sweet and it does have a creaminess to it. Really good.

+*Oriental Beauty Oolong #1*
I’ve had one kind of tea like this before. It supposedly had bergamot in it, but now that I’m trying this one, the base tastes like it has a sort of bergamot to it already. I wouldn’t guess this is an oolong looking at the leaves.

+*Ali Shan* I tried two of the Ali Shans but I’m not sure if either one was different from the other. It tasted like if a ton of different oolongs were mixed together – not very distinct flavoring.. hints of floral when it cooled. That’s too bad because I think these were the first Ali Shans I have tried.

+*GABA oolong #1* 10-15 min after boiling // 3 min
I’ve never tried a GABA. It’s supposed to lower anxiety, but I don’t think it helped mine. This looks like a roasted/charcoal oolong. With darker bundles with tinges of red. The flavor is so interesting, definitely not what I expected from these types of leaves. To me, it’s like the acorn squash that gets cut and half and baked with brown sugar and butter. Those are the flavor notes: tangy squash, butter, brown sugar. I like it.

+*Wen Shan Bao Zhong #1* 10 min after boiling // 1 min steep
Hmm.. this tastes very similar to the Bao Zhong I tried from Butiki a couple years ago! It’s very nice – light and buttery. The leaves aren’t actually bundled like a typical oolong. The leaves are long and twisty.

+*Milk Oolong #1* I wouldn’t say this is a very distinct milk oolong, and I certainly couldn’t guess it was a milk oolong in a blind taste test. I don’t think anyone should use this one to say if they like milk oolong or not.

GREEN
+*Bolivia Green* 35 min after boiling // 2 min Not sure if I’ve ever tried a Bolivia green, but this one is sure interesting. Some of the green leaves are actually compacted together… I haven’t seen that before. The taste is certainly distinct but I couldn’t even say why, so I’ll leave it at that. Good though.

+*Bi Luo Chun #1* 30 min after boiling // 2 1/2 min steep
This one is really nice. Super creamy breaded corn, as all the green teas seem to be to me. Good thing I love that flavor.

+*Bi Luo Chun #2* 30 min after boiling // 3 min
Even though the leaves look pretty similar, the taste on this one is much different. Weaker flavor even with a longer steep time. Seems tangier. Not terrible but the first is amazing.

WHITE
+*Chinese white* 32 min after boiling // 2 min
The leaves here are all so different! The scent from the cup is lemony. The flavor is nice but not extremely distinct. Hints of lemon and cream. Must be like a bai mu dan.

+*Bai Mu Dan #1* 30 min after boiling // 2 1/2 steep
This one is kind of pickley. Not really my thing. The leaves look really nice though. Reminds me of confetti. Not the best bai mu dan now that I’ve tried some nice ones.

+*Kenya White #2* Little sickles going here – not much flavor and a lot of fuzzies in the mouth. No flavor means the fuzzies aren’t worth it. Not a fan.

+*Kenya White #1* 30 min after boiling // 2 1/2 min steep
This is surprisingly the winner in the teabox for me! A WHITE TEA. My least favorite type of tea! It also figures, that this seems like the rarest tea of all, only nine results for ‘kenya white’ in the Steepster search and none of them look like this one. The leaves actually look like a black twisty Yunnan with plenty of gold. I certainly haven’t seen a white tea like this before. But the flavor that results from these leaves is definitely a white tea and possibly my favorite white tea. It has hints of lemon but the best thing about it is the syrupy texture. Not at all like those fuzzy white teas. This is the texture I wish all white teas would have. The cup of the color is a darker yellow. Two really nice steeps. I really wish Butiki would have sold this tea, or at least one like it.

OVERALL I’ve learned:
+First flush darjeelings, not my thing.
+I should look out for Kenyan white teas and GABA oolongs. I really liked being able to try a few different oolongs I haven’t knowingly tried before.
+Wow, two year old teas taste way better than I think they would. :D
+This teabox was a fantastic experience – also better than I expected! thank you so much!