What-Cha

Take Togo’s tasting notes (thanks for the swap sample!) and combine it with eastkyteaguy’s praises and quibbles and you have my experience of the 2017 harvest of this tea. I wanted to love this tea for its unique savory, grassy and fruity, well structured and complex profile but I found it lacking in assertiveness in any one flavor and in mouthfeel at times. The bright minerality of this tea is stellar if you’re into that kind of thing like me.

Of the Kenyan teas I’ve tried so far — Silver Needle, Purple Silver Needle, Purple Green and Golden Tips Black — I find they offer a liveliness, whether its citric or fruity, that isn’t necessarily found in their Chinese counterparts. This Purple Silver Needle is like the subtle swells of Lake Superior with a slew of sun-ripened stonefruits bobbing in the ebbs and flows. That’s probably not an accessible comparison for most people interested in this tea, oh well. If you’re a fan of soft, subtle and well rounded teas or are looking for a fruity silver needle without the weight of mustiness, I can definitely recommend this one.

To keep the review the focus since my current life happenings don’t tie into this tea, a bit of an update here at the end: one of my ailments was found out and I’m on a hefty antibiotic regimen. There are a few other things I’m being tested for that could be related or not and I have been referred to a specialist. The issue that’s requiring a specialist is, um, disconcerting. But I’m here and able to actually start my new job next week and luckily Doc didn’t say NO TEA, so I’ll keep the reviews coming. <3

More white tea. I’m using this as a medicinal brew today. It’s been an unfortunate few days. I’ve been battling some kind of infection, migraines, vertigo, seasonal allergies and asthma that caused me to miss my first few days with a new employer. Very embarrassing but they’re accommodating. Hopefully the doctor today can tell me what’s going on. I’m drinking this tea due to its pronounced menthol effect. Red Jade (or Ruby #18) teas usually ooze a cooling sensation from my ears and chest, offering some temporary relief of my ailments.

This tea is a little different every time I drink it, which would be exciting if I were in an excitable mood but I’m not, heh. Today it’s a smooth tonal brew. More tones than distinct aromas and flavors.

Teapot time: 5g, 100mL porcelain, rinse of 10s (drank) followed by short steeps starting at 10s. Steeps forever.

Dry leaf smells herbal-sweet and menthol. After the rinse, the leaf aroma has a dominant wintergreen note with a moderate savory undertone and some hay, autumn leaf and menthol. The liquor aroma starts lightly malty and opens into something more floral, ending the session with tones of florals, lemon, tart berries and sweet vanilla. Taste is nectar sweet, slightly tart, savory and herbal, hay and autumn leaf with a light but long and cooling mentholated finish in the mouth that moves its way through my body, down my throat and into my chest, out my ears. The menthol becomes stronger as the session progresses. Light apricot-melon aftertaste.

I normally get pretty blitzed from this tea (see ashmanra’s review) and other Red Jades but today I’m not feeling it. That’s good. Take it easy, derk.

Liquor: Light green.

Aroma: The dry leaf smells of leather with a very slight floral note. The aroma whilst dry is very strong. Whilst wet the aroma is much more subtle. I would say it barely had an aroma, though if pushed I would say it smells of honey with some vegetal notes.

Taste: Initially tastes sweet, honey and cream with a subtle floral note. With more infusions, it starts to lose the honey and cream and gains a more vegetal and seashell minerality. There is a slight astringency, but it is manageable. Mouthfeel is medium to thick, and it sticks to your tongue, and has a decently long and pleasant aftertaste.

Last year (2018) it kept its honey taste much longer, but this year (2019) the minerality is more eager to take over.

Brewed gongfu style using 5 grams of leaf per 100 ml of water at 95 degrees Celsius. Infused approximately 12-15 times. 10 seconds for the first infusion, adding 3 seconds per subsequent infusion.

Liquor: Very dark. Clearly a heavily oxidized oolong.

Aroma: Honey and flowers.

Taste: Prunes/Plums, cream, honey, a moderate floral note that dies off in later infusions. Can easily be infused 8 times. I would recommend infusing 10+ times at least once as when infused this many times the leaf took on a surprisingly strong dry rock minerality that blew me away!

Brewed gongfu style using 5 grams of leaf per 100 ml of water at boiling temperature. 20 seconds for the first infusion, +5 seconds for each subsequent infusion.

This arrived as a sample in my order – it’s not something I would have ordered myself… but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I brewed it up Western style and managed to get 3 steeps out of it.

Steep 1, 3 mins 20 secs: slightly savoury/salty, wood, nuts, cream, malty and a naturally sweet aftertaste.
Steep 2, 6 mins: savoury but less salty, delicate notes, minerals, eucalyptus, camphor and steamed green veg.
Steep 3, 12 mins: subtle black tea, green veg and gentle honey sweetness.

Savoury tea is a new one for me, but it was still nice. It took me a long while before I could name the eucalyptus/camphor flavour. A good challenge for my tastebuds.

Still can’t make up my mind on what food I’d eat this tea with. Would more savoury food make it overwhelming? Would sweet food clash horribly? Unfortunately there’s no tea left to test out my theories. Undecided if I should buy some more of this… I’ll think about it.

In the meantime, here’s the longer review with more detail and a few pictures, in case anyone is interested :) https://www.immortalwordsmith.co.uk/what-cha-yunnan-golden-tippy-black-tea-review/

I’ve been drinking this April 2017 harvest western style in the mornings over the course of this week. Very clean, cooked vegetable savory and lemony and packed a heck of a caffeine punch. I usually used 2 tsp for one steep of a minute or two at 205F, then a second steep for as long as it took me to get ready. Not once did I experience any bitterness or astringency preparing the tea this way.

Today, I finally got around to doing a gongfu session and regret not doing so sooner. The dry leaf, now with 2 years of age, has settled into a soy-sauced and lemony vegetable stir-fry with some pepperiness, sweet potato and marshmallow sweetness, rose and spicy wood (agar). In addition to those aromas, warming the leaf brought out some sautéed mushroom. The rinse, which I drank, was piercing and strong and I was able to discern something like ginkgo nuts. I don’t know how to describe that scent.

The taste was incredibly complex, showcasing the various aromas of the leaf with hints of almond, malt and cinnamon. The body was medium, satisfying, full in the throat. Clean minerality. Aftertastes of peach, peach pit, lemon, lychee and cream. Bottom of the cup aroma of toasted marshmallow? Orange-lemon aroma. The tea forcefully maintained these characteristics for 6 steeps, when most black teas would have lost much, if not all, of their steam. With the seventh steep, some orchid came out in the mouth and the tea transitioned into a stronger lemon taste. This tea just did not want to stop. At the end, I was pushing 10+ minute brews and still sipping on something bright with a light tannic bite. I’m amazed that a black tea could produce more than 15 steeps (the only other I’ve had with comparable longevity was the Jin Guazi offered by Old Ways Tea, another Wuyi black).

I wouldn’t say I’ve been wasting the tea with western style brewing, but the strength of the leaf and its flavor complexity blew me away when prepared gongfu. I recall the price being rather high, maybe somewhere less than $0.50/g, but in my opinion, this tea was well worth it and I would gladly buy more if it were restocked.

This was another sipdown from earlier in the month. I only had 25 grams of this tea to work with and finished them up last week. Drinking this tea reminded me that What-Cha tends to do a great job of sourcing from Darjeeling. It was an excellent first flush Darjeeling black tea, one that I feel could hold its own against just about any other similar tea on the market.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 3 grams of loose leaf material in approximately 8 ounces of 194 F water for 5 minutes. I did not attempt any additional infusions.

Prior to the rinse, the dry leaf material emitted aromas of roasted almond, roasted peanut, hay, malt, straw, and fennel. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of grass, lemon zest, and dandelion greens accompanied by subtler scents of spinach and pine. After infusion, I noted aromas of apricot, orange zest, orange blossom, honeydew, violet, and rose as well as some very subtle scents of toast. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of cream, butter, malt, hay, straw, roasted almond, lemon zest, white grape, orange zest, orange blossom, dandelion, dandelion greens, plum, rose, apricot, and grass that were chased by hints of pine, toast, roasted peanut, violet, spinach, fennel, sour cherry, honeydew, and watermelon.

Overall, this was just an incredibly likable offering. First flush Darjeeling black teas can sometimes be a little astringent, grainy, and/or vegetal for my liking, but this one was well-balanced with absolutely gorgeous nut, fruit, and flower aromas and flavors. Fans of first flush Darjeeling black teas would be wise to check this one out in my opinion. I doubt it will disappoint.

Here is another sipdown from earlier in the month. I think I finished what I had of this tea back around the start of last week or the end of the prior week. I can’t be sure at this point. Anyway, this was yet another excellent Guizhou offering from What-Cha.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After the rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 167 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was chased by 15 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of malt, hay, zucchini, cucumber, baked bread, and chestnut. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of sugarcane, straw, honey, butter, and toasted sweet corn. The first infusion introduced aromas of lettuce and bamboo. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of malt, hay, grass, zucchini, lettuce, bamboo, chestnut, and cream that were chased by cucumber, sugarcane, butter, and toasted sweet corn hints. There were also some hints of plum in the aftertaste. The subsequent infusions brought out aromas of minerals, green olive, pine, yellow plum, snap peas, and spinach. Impressions of honey, straw, and baked bread emerged in the mouth alongside stronger and more immediate notes of toasted sweet corn, butter, and sugarcane. There were also more prominent and immediate yellow plum notes. Notes of minerals, spinach, green olive, lemon, snap peas, pine, and green beans appeared as well, and I even noted some faint umami, apricot, and peach impressions here and there. At this tea’s peak, each swallow seemed to bring out honey, yellow plum, lemon, toasted sweet corn, and sugarcane notes that lingered for a considerable amount of time. As the tea faded, the liquor became somewhat astringent and emphasized notes of minerals, green beans, cream, malt, pine, cucumber, snap peas, hay, green olive, spinach, and chestnut that were underscored by hints of lemon, grass, zucchini, sugarcane, honey, and toasted sweet corn.

This was a ridiculously aromatic and flavorful yellow tea. Though I am certainly nowhere close to being an expert on yellow tea, this was easily one of the better yellow teas I have tried. It struck me as being both more accessible and more drinkable than some of the more celebrated and traditional yellow teas on the market. Overall, this was a more or less excellent offering. I could see it being a great introduction to Chinese yellow tea or a tea that fans of Chinese white and green teas could use to branch out to other types of tea.

Alrighty, I’m back at last. This week was so hectic on my end. I’m just glad it’s over. Now, I can finally relax a bit. This was one of my sipdowns from earlier in the month. I had kind of been meaning to post this review sooner, but I was trying to mix up my reviews a bit and not post black tea review after black tea review, so I skipped over it and ended up forgetting about it. Anyway, I’m remedying that oversight now. This tea was supposed to be a slightly lower end version of the 2nd Flush Gopaldhara ‘China Muscatel Gold’ Black Tea that was also offered by What-Cha. Honestly, I found it to be a very enjoyable tea in its own right, and in terms of aroma, flavor, and drinkability, it was pretty much neck and neck with its somewhat more expensive sibling.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 3 grams of loose leaf material in approximately 8 ounces of 194 F water for 5 minutes. I did not attempt any additional infusions for the review session I am detailing here, but I did attempt a second infusion of 7 minutes a couple of other times and got pleasant results.

Prior to the rinse, the dry leaf material produced aromas of Muscatel, baked bread, malt, and fig. After the rinse, I noted new aromas of wood, roasted almond, grass, marigold, and dandelion. After infusion, the Muscatel aroma faded somewhat, though new aromas of cream, rose, and orange blossom appeared. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of grass, dandelion, earth, marigold, dandelion greens, straw, violet, rose, smoke, roasted almond, baked bread, raisin, fig, Muscatel, wood, cream, and malt that were backed by hints of apricot, orange blossom, orange zest, peach, cherry, and pear. The finish was somewhat astringent, yet it also retained a good deal of fruity, woody, malty, and nutty characteristics that lingered in the mouth and throat after each swallow.

This was yet another nice second flush black tea from the folks at Gopaldhara. It was a little rougher and earthier than the China Muscatel Gold, and I could tell the leaf quality was not quite as good, but this was still a very respectable and enjoyable offering. Truthfully, I very much enjoyed its pricklier, more rough-cut character, and I was not exaggerating earlier when I stated that I found this tea to be about as enjoyable as its more expensive sibling. If it is still available, consider checking it out if you are a fan of second flush Darjeeling black teas and looking for a very good one that won’t bust your budget.

Had more in the scent than the taste for me. I just couldn’t get a handle on individual flavours except “tea” and “rose”. There’s either complexity I’m missing, or it’s not varied enough for me to find the strands.

It was okay though. I’d drink it again but not buy it again.

Good everyday breakfast tea. Mid level of astringency. Reminds of full leaf assam. -Harvest March 2018

This was one of my sipdowns from April. I finished what I had of this tea a day or two after I polished off the last of the Jun Chiyabari Himalayan Tippy Black Tea that I also bought from What-Cha. Like so many of the other Nepalese teas that What-Cha offers, I found this one to be an incredibly strong offering.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 3 grams of loose leaf material in approximately 8 ounces of 194 F water for 5 minutes. For the session detailed in this review, I did not conduct any additional infusions.

Prior to the rinse, the dry leaf material produced aromas of hay, grass, fennel, and pine. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of almond, malt, green bell pepper, honeysuckle, marigold, and orange blossom. After infusion, I picked up aromas of lemon rind, orange zest, white grape, and butter. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of almond, pine, fennel, grass, hay, straw, green bell pepper, toast, lemon rind, malt, honeysuckle, oats, marigold, white grape, orange zest, pear, green apple, and orange blossom that were accompanied by hints of butter, nutmeg, sour plum, and sour apricot.

Much like the other first flush Nepalese black teas I have tried, this tea was very similar to a first flush Darjeeling black tea in terms of both aroma and flavor. What separated this tea from some of those teas for me, however, was its lovely and consistent floral aromas and flavors, the thicker, silkier texture of its liquor, and the more limited bitterness and astringency that it displayed. This was a tremendously enjoyable first flush black tea overall. I imagine that fans of first flush Darjeeling black teas and Nepalese teas alike would be into it.

This was my most recent sipdown as I finished what I had of this tea a couple days ago. At this point, it should perhaps come as no surprise to any of my readers that I found this to be an impressive offering. Seriously, What-Cha does a great job of sourcing Nepalese teas. I have gotten to the point where I will just blindly purchase any Nepalese tea Alistair decides to stock.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 3 grams of loose leaf material in approximately 8 ounces of 194 F water for 5 minutes. For the session detailed in this review, I did not attempt any additional infusions.

Prior to the rinse, the dry leaf material offered up aromas of malt, straw, grass, chili leaf, and wood. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of Muscatel, lemon zest, lime zest, green bell pepper, and hay. After the infusion, I found that the liquor offered aromas of apricot, roasted almond, butter, rose, and orange blossom. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of apricot, straw, malt, cream, butter, chili leaf, grass, straw, hay, dandelion, marigold, orange blossom, white peach, Muscatel, toast, lemon zest, lime zest, roasted almond, green bell pepper, and wood that were underscored by hints of wintergreen, spearmint, and rose before a smooth, slightly citrusy, malty, and vegetal fade.

This was a very high quality tea, one that yielded a highly aromatic, tremendously satisfying, and impressively textured tea liquor. Some of the Nepalese teas I have been trying lately have been a bit thinner and slicker in the mouth, but this one was smooth, silky, and luscious with a little more heft than I have been getting out of many recent Nepalese and Darjeeling teas. I would have liked to see a little more integration and balance with regard to some of this tea’s many aroma and flavor components, but overall, I found this to be an incredibly enjoyable offering. In terms of aroma and flavor, this tea was very comparable to some of the better first flush Darjeeling black teas out there, but honestly, I think it may have been just a tad better than a lot of the ones I have tried. Here’s hoping What-Cha continues to source teas from Guranse. I’d like to try a few more of their offerings.

Alright, I have been lazy long enough. It’s time to get some more reviews out of the way in order to keep the number of backlogged reviews from growing any larger. This was one of my sipdowns from the second half of April. I know I tend to display a considerable fondness for the teas produced by Jun Chiyabari, so it should perhaps come as no surprise that I thought this tea was great. I was a little shocked that it did not get a warmer reception on Steepster.

I prepared this tea in the Western style, but I modified my usual brewing approach somewhat for this tea. I normally do not rinse teas from Nepal, Assam, and Darjeeling, but I opted to do so here simply because I did not get much out of the dry leaf material. I only rinsed the leaf material for 5 seconds, but the rinse revealed a tremendous number of new aromas. After the rinse, I steeped my 3 grams of leaf material in approximately 8 ounces of 203 F water for 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry leaf material emitted aromas of chocolate and malt. After the rinse, I detected aromas of orange zest, black cherry, violet, baked bread, plum, and Muscatel. The 5 minute infusion introduced aromas of nutmeg, cream, clove, licorice, and anise. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of cream, baked bread, malt, black cherry, violet, plum, Muscatel, orange zest, grass, straw, nutmeg, licorice, anise, clove, and chocolate that were backed by hints of smoke, roasted almond, roasted walnut, blackberry, blueberry, and dried cranberry. Pleasant spice and tart fruit impressions lingered in the mouth after the swallow and were accompanied by somewhat subtler malty, smoky, nutty, and chocolaty notes.

In my opinion, this was a more or less fantastic Nepalese black tea. Jun Chiyabari rarely if ever lets me down, and they certainly did not manage to do so with this offering. My only real quibble with this tea was that I found the body of the tea liquor to be a bit thin. That was seriously the only thing I could find to knock. At this point, I will also add that I found this tea to be very forgiving and flexible in the brewing process. It did not display a tendency to get bitter or astringent quickly, and I also found that this tea was capable of producing multiple satisfying infusions when brewed in the Western style as long as one started with a slightly shorter initial steep than I did during the bulk of my time with it. Overall, this was an impressive tea. I do not mind giving it a higher numerical score than previous reviewers because I feel that it earned that privilege.

Thanks so much for sending a sample, Kawaii433! I LOVE Baozhong and never have nearly enough around, as it seems they are hard to find… most tea shops don’t seem to have them. They are probably my favorite oolong. I used 1 1/2 teaspoons of leaves and not-quite-full mugs of water to get the suggested ratio (and so I could have another steep session later.) I was worried the ‘roast’ might disguise the amazing flavor of a Baozhong. Baozhong is lovely by itself. The scent of the steeped leaves seemed too roasty to me, but I shouldn’t have been worried. The flavor is divine from these huge, twisty, emerald leaves: smooth, silky, sweet, pineapple (pineapple like every lovely Baozhong should be!) with only a faint hint of anything roasted. The first steep was somehow the most complex. I shouldn’t have steeped the third steep at boiling, but it wasn’t ruined by any means — no astringency. But the flavor was less unique. The first steep couldn’t have been better. It was like sipping from a magic high mountain stream – full of minerals and goodness. This is a fantastic tea, roasted or not. Definitely one of my favorites from What-cha, though that isn’t difficult since I’ve hardly tried What-cha and any Baozhong would probably be a favorite.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 loose teaspoons for a not-quite-full mug // 13 minutes after boiling // 1 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 10 minutes after boiling // 1 1/2 minute steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // 2 min

This was one of my sipdowns from the first half of April. I don’t know why, but I just have had a hard time getting around to posting a review of this tea. I’m guessing the fact that it offered such a roller coaster of a drinking experience has had something to do with that. This tea was different literally every single time I tried it and was up and down over the entirety of every gongfu session I attempted.

It should come as no surprise that I primarily prepared this tea gongfu style. For the review session, I started off by steeping 6 grams of rolled tea leaves in 4 ounces of 203 F water for 8 seconds following the rinse. This infusion was followed by 17 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 10 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes, and 15 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of roasted almond, brown sugar, toast, honey, chocolate, nectarine, and citrus. After the rinse, I detected aromas of rose, vanilla, and butter alongside a clearly defined grapefruit scent. The first infusion introduced aromas of candied pomelo, orange zest, and plum. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered notes of grapefruit, candied pomelo, toast, roasted almond, and plum that were chased by hints of orange zest, vanilla, brown sugar, rose, cream, butter, and pear. The impressions of cream, butter, vanilla, and orange zest grew stronger after the swallow, lingering in the mouth and throat for a considerable time. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of pear, peach, cherry, cinnamon, juniper, malt, earth, apple, and grass. Stronger and more immediate notes of rose, vanilla, cream, butter, pear, and orange zest came out in the mouth alongside notes of peach, minerals, apple, cherry, malt, lemon zest, and juniper. I also found notes of honey and nectarine and subtle hints of grass, earth, nutmeg, cinnamon, and chocolate. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized notes of minerals, cream, vanilla, roasted almond, toast, pear, cherry, and orange zest that were balanced by hints of lemon zest, grapefruit, peach, grass, juniper, malt, and honey.

This was a very interesting and often somewhat challenging Gui Fei oolong. It was quite heavy on the fruitier aromas and flavors, which I definitely liked about it, but it also did not offer a consistent drinking experience from infusion to infusion or session to session. There were definite peaks and valleys over the course of my review session and every other session I tried with this tea. In the end, I found that I respected it a little more than I enjoyed it as it was a rather fussy, temperamental tea that offered respectable longevity and complexity but not the kind of accessibility and reliability I tend to expect of most Gui Fei oolongs.

This might be the the most floral tea I’ve ever had, which means it’s not as balanced as I would have liked though. However, I think objectively speaking this tea is higher quality than my current impression of it.

There are aromas of grass, ice cream, magnolias as well as other flowers, but overall the smell is not too strong. The taste, on the other hand is plenty strong. It has notes of citrus, sugarcane and nectar. It is a very ‘green’ taste with a prevalent floral sweetness. I didn’t get any custard flavours as is often the case with these high mountain oolongs. In the aftertaste, apart from an explosion of flowery notes, I also notice some celery stalks. It is very cooling in the throat and body warming tea. The cha qi is also strong – heady and focusing. The liquor itself is not overly thick, but the mouthfeel is interesting. It is soft and sticky as well as quite lubricating at times.

I feel like this tea has the ability to transport me to a totally different place, as it does well to capture my attention and its characteristics are quite focused.

Another from Kawaii433! Thanks so much! These dark oolongs are usually not my thing at all, but I’m always very thrilled to try a teaspoon or two. :D I’m intrigued by the ‘red’ in the name. There is a slight red tinge to these charcoal leaves. The bundles are very tightly wrapped. The flavor is charcoal, but not too much – very sweet and syrupy as well. Tastes very mineral and healthy. A nice lingering flavor. Very delicious for a tea that isn’t usually my thing at all. I don’t try enough of these types of teas to tell if this is the best of the best. But as usual, a very tough tea for me to describe. My tastebuds draw a blank on these types, unlike some other extravagant tea notes.
I really want to buy some of the What-cha Sticky rice oolong but I really don’t want to pay $6 shipping for just one tea. I realize they’re a tiny operation, but $6 is a lot of shipping for one tea, even if a couple others are also catching my eye.
Steep #1 // not quite 1 teaspoon for a full mug // 24 minutes after boiling // rinse // 1 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 6 minutes after boiling // 1 1/2 minute steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // 3 min

Well, this is is something you don’t see every day: a roasted Wenshan baozhong offered by a Western vendor. When I saw this tea on What-Cha’s website, I just had to buy it. Roasted baozhong has gotten hard to find in recent years as preferences have shifted toward the now ubiquitous jade baozhong. As a matter of fact, I had only ever gotten to try one other roasted baozhong prior to trying this one. I was excited to try this tea, not only because roasted baozhong seems to now be so rare, but also because several people whose individual tastes I trust indicated that they greatly enjoyed it. Unfortunately, I ended up not being as impressed by it. It did not strike me as being a bad tea, but it also had a few little quirks that rubbed me the wrong way and that I could not ignore for any length of time.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 203 F water for 7 seconds. This infusion was followed by 16 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, and 10 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of orchid, vanilla, smoke, cream, and roasted almond. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of cinnamon, apple, and baked bread. The first infusion introduced aromas of toasted rice, steamed milk, and roasted barley. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of orchid, sugarcane, vanilla, cream, butter, baked bread, roasted almond, cinnamon, and apple that were balanced by subtler impressions of toasted rice, roasted barley, smoke, grass, coriander, and steamed milk. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of coriander, sugarcane, butter, daylily, grass, and seaweed. Stronger and more immediately noticeable grass, roasted barley, steamed milk, and coriander flavors came out in the mouth alongside spinach, watercress, seaweed, Asian pear, mineral, plum, daylily, and daylily shoot notes. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized impressions of minerals, pear, toasted rice, butter, cream, apple, baked bread, grass, roasted almond, and spinach that were chased by hints of plum, seaweed, sugarcane, and coriander.

In the end, I’m still not sure about this one. It has been about a week since I finished what I had of it, and I am still not sure I can assign it a numerical score with any confidence. Unlike the other reviewers, I seemed to get considerably greener, more vegetal notes out of this tea, and the way many of them lingered in my mouth and on the back of my throat after each swallow came to annoy me pretty quickly. That’s unfortunate too because the roast seemed to have been very artfully applied to this tea; it produced some absolutely lovely, balanced aromas and flavors. The floral and fruity impressions were also very nice. I picked up both daylily and daylily shoot impressions in this tea, which was odd considering that I generally find those notes in teas produced from the Jin Xuan cultivar, and this, like presumably every other traditional Wenshan baozhong currently on the planet, was produced from the Qing Xin cultivar. In the end, I suppose I should just state that this tea was a mixed bag for me. There were things about it I enjoyed and found interesting, but there were also things about it that irked me. In the end, I think there was more good than bad in this tea, so a score of 76 feels about right for now.

Today the brew tastes mostly of a clean and malty vegetable broth with a good squeeze of lemon. The aftertaste is light and creamy-fruity and the liquor leaves a light waxy coating in the mouth.

In other news, I visited my friend further up north over the weekend. In this tiny town of Talmage across Highway 101 from its larger sister town Ukiah, is a buddhist monastery and university that occupies the rundown grounds and buildings of a former mental hospital. It’s creepy and the grounds are littered with, I saw, upward of 50 peacocks. Nestled on the property is a Chinese vegan restaurant that was popping on a Sunday afternoon. The restaurant prepares the food without allium plants (garlic, onion, etc), eggs or MSG. We bought 8? plates of food for under $40. I have never once stuffed my face so much only to walk out feeling like a radiant being. What a strange gem.

This is the second tea I’ve had from China’s Guizhou province, a seemingly underrepresented province in the western-facing tea world. The other Guizhou tea I’ve had was a lovely yellow tea that is also sold by What-Cha. They also offer a Guizhou green tea called Dew Drops, which I’ve been wanting to try for a while but for some reason I haven’t picked up yet. All three of these teas are certified organic and affordable!

Back to this Cat Cave black tea. June 2018 harvest, full of flavor and aroma for a summer tea. It performs great as a western-steeped wake-up brew and has very good longevity for a hongcha when prepared gongfu. The aromas and tastes offered by this tea are very complex — savory with cooked vegetables, tobacco and grains, fruity with raisins, cherry and berries and tart with a complementary floral rose overlay. Tannins are present in the full body, giving an otherwise smooth tea a light astringent bite but the liquor does not sit too heavy in my stomach. Expansive raisin-apricot-lychee fruity aftertaste that lingers. The tea even presents a delayed strong returning sweetness when prepared gongfu, after which the tea fades away into a nutty, malty and buttery brew with a pronounced lemon and mineral tone. Very caffeinating!

To be honest, I haven’t had much experience with hongcha outside of Fujian or sweet dianhong from Yunnan so this was rather new territory to dive into. I did find this tea to be very well structured and complex, really hitting all the notes I could want from a tea. If you’re looking for a strong, savory breakfast- or lunch-type tea, I’d suggest giving Cat Cave a try especially given its organic certification (by whom, though?) and price point.

Rating range: 86-91
Western: 2 tsp, 205F, 3/5 min
Gongfu: 5g, 100mL, 205F, flash rinse, many shorter steeps starting at 7-10 seconds.

This was another of my sipdowns from earlier in the month. It was also arguably the most impressive of all of the black teas I have finished within the last thirty or so days. The black teas What-Cha sources from Taiwan tend to be impressive, and this one was certainly no exception. Actually, of the comparatively few Red Jade black teas I have tried to this point in my life, this one has ended up being my favorite so far.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 17 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, and 10 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of sweet potato, honey, baked bread, wintergreen, molasses, and brown sugar. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of chocolate and red grape alongside even stronger wintergreen scents. The first infusion introduced subtle plum, cream, spinach, and malt aromas alongside even more amplified wintergreen scents. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of sweet potato, wintergreen, cream, malt, brown sugar, and baked bread that were chased by hints of honey, red grape, butter, and plum. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of pine, caramel, butter, and roasted almond as well as subtler scents of grass and green olive. Stronger and more immediate plum, red grape, butter, and honey notes came out in the mouth alongside belatedly emerging chocolate and molasses notes and hints of spinach. I also found impressions of minerals, pine, juniper, vanilla, caramel, and roasted almond and fleeting hints of grass, green olive, nutmeg, peach, and nectarine that were mostly limited to the finish and aftertaste. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized sweet potato, malt, caramel, baked bread, and cream notes that were chased by hints of pine, juniper, green olive, spinach, and grass as well as some distant, cooling wintergreen notes.

This was such a great tea. Not only did its liquor display impressive body and texture in the mouth, but it also had tons of depth and complexity and was tremendously fun to drink. A lot of the more complex black teas can be heavy and/or overwhelming, but this one was approachable and consistently fascinating. The menthol-like wintergreen aromas and flavors popped throughout my review session and beautifully framed everything else the tea had to offer. Honestly, I think it would be hard to ask for more from a Red Jade black tea. I loved this one. I’m fairly positive that fans of Red Jade black teas would be impressed by it.

This was one of my sipdowns from earlier in the month. I’m not sure why, but I have been craving Chinese black teas like crazy and have gone through several this month. Honestly, this was one of the weaker black teas I have finished off recently, and I was surprised to discover that considering that I am a huge fan of Yunnan black teas with a particular soft spot for some of the Simao black teas making their way to the West these days.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 17 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, and 10 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of chocolate, pine, sweet potato, honey, malt, and cinnamon. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of roasted almond, roasted peanut, brown sugar, cream, black cherry, and butter. The first infusion brought out a little smoke on the nose and a subtle cooked green bean scent. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered up notes of malt, cream, cooked green beans, chocolate, cinnamon, honey, and sweet potato that were chased by butter, brown sugar, roasted almond, and pine hints. The subsequent infusions brought out aromas of earth, toast, fennel, black pepper, leather, camphor, and eucalyptus. Hints of smoke appeared in the mouth alongside belatedly emerging black cherry and roasted peanut notes. I also picked up stronger and more immediately noticeable impressions of pine, roasted almond, and brown sugar. New notes of minerals, fennel, black pepper, toast, and leather appeared, and I was also able to detect hints of leather, camphor, eucalyptus, and earth. As the tea settled and faded, the liquor emphasized mineral, malt, roasted peanut, cream, and chocolate notes that were chased by hints of black pepper, camphor, roasted almond, eucalyptus, and pine. A smooth malty, nutty, creamy character was left in the mouth and throat after each swallow.

Compared to many of the other Yunnan black teas I have consumed over the last 3+ years, this one did not offer anything new. It did, however, produce a very nicely textured, mellow tea liquor, and it proved capable of displaying very respectable longevity in a gongfu session. Honestly, I could see this tea working really well in a blend due to its easygoing nature and pleasant texture. On its own, it wasn’t bad, but it also was rather dull and predictable.