What-Cha

This certainly serves its purpose as a pick-me-up had in between classes. I stopped by the cafe and they filled my crappy 16oz thermos with an unknown temperature water they use for their own teas. The cut leaf makes this good for a teaball, but mine doesn’t fit through the opening of this particular crappy thermos. So I dumped in a heaping teaspoon of leaf and drank it over the course of 30 minutes. Not recommended as it gets a little bitter.

The very fragrant dry leaf, dark brown and cut with gold tips, smells of sweet dark cocoa powder. The liquor tastes like a thinned, good quality, sweet dark chocolate syrup with a little bit of red fruit jam mixed in. Some woodiness and maltiness. It was really tasty, especially when accompanied by yogurt pretzels and one of those tiny bananas (the only banana worth a damn) as a snack.

I brewed it western over the weekend, which was much better than this afternoon’s approach. 2tsp/8oz/205F/3 solid steeps. Very dark the first and second steep.

I’ll come back to this one soon with a little more detail.

Here is the second review from the back pages for the day. I finished a sample pouch of this around the end of the second week in May. I seem to recall trying it immediately after What-Cha’s Taiwan Heavy-Roast Tieguanyin, but I could be wrong. I did not date any of my review notes from that time period, so I have no way of being sure. Anyway, I had been impressed by the aforementioned Tieguanyin and had high hopes for this tea. Lo and behold, it also ended up being a very nice roasted oolong. It was perhaps not quite as good as the Tieguanyin, but it was certainly a worthy tea in its own right.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of rolled tea leaves in 4 ounces of 203 F water for 10 seconds. This infusion was followed by 16 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 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 baked bread, cedar, honey, cinnamon, and peach. After the rinse, I noted stronger honey, peach, and baked bread aromas as well as the emergence of a malt aroma. The first infusion then introduced hints of raisin and plum to the nose. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered notes of cedar, cinnamon, malt, baked bread, honey, and peach backed by unexpected cream, butter, and vanilla tones. The subsequent infusions saw the nose take on creamy and buttery characteristics while hints of vanilla, coffee, cherry, and brown sugar also started to show. New flavors of roasted almond, toasted rice, brown sugar, coffee, and minerals appeared in the mouth along with subtle hints of sweet cherry and belatedly emerging plum and raisin impressions. I even noted some subtle banana leaf notes too. The final few infusions offered impressions of minerals, baked bread, cream, butter, and vanilla balanced by delicate toasted rice, banana leaf, roasted almond, raisin, and cherry notes. A faint hint of cinnamon could also still be detected on the swallow.

This was a very nice example of a heavier roasted oolong. Even though I found the mouthfeel to be a little gritty and intense in places and the tea to not change a ton over the course of my review session, these were minor quibbles. This tea offered consistently strong aroma and flavor over the course of a lengthy session. It still had a little more to give when I cut it off, but I was reaching a point where I would have needed to either boil the leaves or have a warmer on hand to get the most out of the tea, so I just went ahead and ended the session. I doubt this tea had any radical changes in store at that point anyway. Nothing wacky was going on in this one. It was just a very good, very solid heavily roasted oolong. Fans of such teas would probably be pleased with it.

Here is another review from the backlog. I think this one was either from late May or early June. Like many of the other Chinese black teas sourced by What-Cha, this was an extremely likable, high quality offering. I think it compared favorably to similar offerings from other vendors. As a matter of fact, I have a sneaking suspicion that this tea came from the same producer that supplies the golden snail black teas offered by Whispering Pines Tea Company and/or Yunnan Sourcing.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a brief rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea buds in 4 ounces of 194 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 buds emitted aromas of chocolate, malt, honey, and sweet potato. After the rinse, I noted new aromas of baked bread and molasses. The first infusion brought out a stronger malt aroma with some subtle cream and vanilla accents. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered notes of malt, cream, honey, chocolate, and butter while hints of sweet potato and baked bread lingered in the background. Subsequent infusions saw aromas of butter and pine emerge on the nose. Molasses and vanilla belatedly appeared in the mouth along with new flavors of orange zest, date, minerals, raisin, and pine. I also noted some hints of smoke and brown sugar along with some spicy, herbal impressions reminiscent of a combination of fennel, black pepper, and camphor. The final few infusions offered lingering notes of minerals, cream, butter, malt, and chocolate backed by subtle honey and herbal impressions.

I tend to be a big fan of many Yunnan black teas and strongly believe them to represent some of the best of contemporary Chinese tea craft. That being said, this was a particularly appealing tea with a wonderful texture in the mouth and a complex, harmonious combination of aromas and flavors. Nothing was out of place here, and the tea yielded consistently strong results over the course of a fairly lengthy gongfu session (well, fairly lengthy by my standards anyway). I could see fans of Yunnan black teas being into this one. Give it a shot if you enjoy such teas.

Comparing the Spring 2018 harvest to 2017: nearly identical.
https://steepster.com/teas/what-cha/83892-taiwan-amber-gaba-oolong-tea

Consistency is welcome for your favorite standbys.

I figured I’d finally get some of my own tasting notes out for this tea, one of my favorites for its profile and ease of brewing. This harvest is from sometime in 2017 and has had over a year for the roast to calm down (it wasn’t too strong to begin with) and allow other aromas and flavors to develop. Tonight, I choose you, gongfu. I haven’t drank this tea gongfu in a long time, instead brewing it in my 20oz thermos all of last semester to fuel me through night classes.

5g, 100mL, 205F, rinse, lost count of steeps but made it through 2L of water tonight.

Dry leaf smells tart, fruity, sweet and toasty with notes of roasted pear, baked apple and quince, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla. Warmed, it smells like just like cinnamon raisin toast. Rinsing brings out rye, caramel, cardboard, black cherry and a hint of burnt sugar.

This tea starts out strong and fades very slowly. With the first steep, the liquor is a sparkling and intense dark auburn-amber and maintains this color throughout the session. It has a light, sweet aroma with notes of baking spices and toast. In the mouth, I pick up on roasted pear, golden raisin, baked sweet apple, rock sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and a light mineral presence. The tea is very clean in the mouth, light-bodied and smooth and lacks much of an aftertaste, making it very easy to drink without having to focus. The tea peaks in flavor around with the third steep, typical for a rolled oolong (it looks like a Chinese tieguanyin rather a balled Taiwanese oolong) and fades slowly from there. Toward the end, the fruit and spice notes become indistinguishable, providing a background to butter and wood/slight tannins, with some sweet lemon becoming noticeable.

Admittedly, the tea hasn’t changed much since I first tried it, but I still love it. It’s an easy-going, unpretentious, straight-forward brew with comforting aromas and flavors that always leave me in an excellent mood.

Daylon R Thomas already adequately described this tea but I love this tea, too, so I wanna talk about it.

So here I am drinking it the night before my GRE exam. I’ll probably have it tomorrow morning, too.

Tonight, I’ve gone western. 1tsp/8oz/205F. First steep was 3 minutes, second was whoops I forgot. Third will be a deliberate whoopsy because you can’t overbrew this tea.

This tea is straightforward and ridiculously easy to chug once it cools off. No astringency or bitterness with a light mouthfeel. Aroma and taste is sweet vanilla and rock sugar with roasted pears and sweet apples. Because of its flavor profile, I enjoy it most during mornings on campus when the fog is rolling through or at night at home…when the fog is rolling through. I enjoy this tea any time of day, really.

My preferred method of brewing this, though, is in my clay gaiwan, with 5 grams of leaf to 100mL. It nullifies the barely there funk that’s present in western and it amplifies the sweetness. My glob. Smell the bottom of the cup, people. And it steeps forever but I don’t have time for that tonight.

I recently gifted a coffee-drinking friend with an encyclopedia of loose teas. He was most stoked about this one, What-Cha’s sticky rice oolong and Whispering Pines’ Ancient Spirit but he’s really excited about tea in general (I’m sending him another encyclopedia of loose tea next week). I think I have a convert. Good for newbies and experienced alike. Also regarding converts, my manfriend/lifepartner/whatever swore off coffee for this week. He texted me today saying ‘I need better tea at work.’ Finally he’s tired of the Trader Joe’s Irish Breakfast. So I packed some of this for him to try out grandpa-style.

Woot. I’m happy and calm. This is derk signing out. Nanu nanu.

Trying not to turn this into a blog or muddy what I and some of you are ultimately here for – tea reviews – but I JUST CAN’T HELP IT. This Da Hong Pao is my side piece and it’s nagging at me. I’ve had Prince’s ‘U Got the Look’ in my head for days.

The Bay Area had a 4.4 magnitude earthquake in January. Nothing crazy but since then, chunks of grout in the shower began falling out. I can now feel every single bus and truck driving by. The pots on top of the refrigerator rattle if I don’t place them just right. Each passing multi-ton people-and-things-mover brings the long slow rumble that marked the beginning of that earthquake. Two earth-shattering jolts made this fearless woman grip the sheets in a rush of terror. That’s how you know you’re alive. This old building shakes like a skeleton… rattle them bones. Somewhere I hear a knowing laugh. The grim reaper leaves nothing behind. City neva stops. Nothing ever stops. Some things just leave a bigger impression after passing through.

Holy crap this is a complex and dynamic tea. It’s past 3am and I should probably go to bed. Long and detailed review after I rest this vessel.

—

Some time later…

I tried typing a detailed review but I guess I wasn’t feeling it. Here, again, I fail at providing a completely subjectively objective review.

I wrote notes of the dry, warmed and rinsed leaf, as well as leaf aroma, liquor aroma and taste for each steep but I think this tea just needs to be experienced and for you to lose yourself in it. It instantly commanded my attention and I was sunk into a session for over three hours if that gives you a generalized view of what to expect. This isn’t an everyday tea. It’s intimate.

The leaf, aroma and liquor play a deep, dark dance with a wonderful roast, various forms of chocolate, the most vibrant raspberry I’ve ever tasted, blackberry, plums and currants of all colors, minerals, various nuts both raw and roasted, sweetness ranging from honey to burnt sugar to caramel, florals like orchid, violet and lily of the valley, different grains notably roasted barley, a rye spiciness, some coffee and char, dandelion greens, lettuce, dried cilantro, sage and wood. These were all just the most apparent. There are many fleeting nuances.

The mouthfeel ranges from sweet to thick and velvety, highly mineral but never biting, lightly bitter to astringent and drying. The aroma, tastes and mouthfeel linger…long. They are dynamic and pronounced yet it seems like they are willing to make room for each successive steep.

The energy I experienced was dark yet vibrant, intense yet calm, intuitive, open, introspective. I’d like to have a session in the evening with a few good friends (or anybody, really). The ones you only get to see when events align, the physical distance closes and every time you reunite, you pick right back up. The silken thread between you never breaks. I felt strong, aware and assertive. I wanted to bare my soul. There was expansiveness and closeness, accommodation and acceptance, like there’s room for more under this big red velvet robe.

So, yeah. Whew. Powerful stuff. I’m excited to see what a few more years’ age will do.

—

The next day I simmered the spent leaves for 5 to 10 minutes. Ambrosia.

I wasn’t going to review this again but I finished up the last of the 25g sample and noticed some changes that could be attributed to my developing tastes or the tea changing from sitting in a non-airtight tin. The leaf is not as bright as it was fresh, which is expected. I also brewed a small amount gong fu side by side with my western cup.

This time around I didn’t pick up on the olive. Rather, it moved toward a really weird tisane I’ve had before, Numi’s Dry Desert Lime. Don’t let the reviews of that tea scare you, as it was certainly different than this one, but now I’m picking up on that kind of dried desert lime, a little bit of an earthy tartness. This tea is still as refreshing and bright as the first time I had it, though less floral. The minerals are very much present in mouthfeel but not in taste, creating that very vibrant feeling. Kind of like a salted citrus, but focused mostly on the side of the tongue and salivary glands.

I thought I’d have a little go at gong fu just because. The first three steeps were light and tasted similar to a pickle or pickled leaf. After that it, it thickened up and tasted more like the western brew with still light but more pronounced floral.

I’m not sure somebody else would rate this as highly as I do, but It’s just such a clean, delicate, easy tea to drink tea that has no hint of grassiness nor does it upset my stomach. It’s very non-dominating and somehow works despite my preferences for bold tastes. I like that it’s hard for me to describe, yet I don’t feel annoyed that I’m searching for a way to do so.

It’s hot today by San Francisco standards. No air conditioning nor insulation in a 1906 building. I’m on the top floor and am blocking the western sun with curtains closed. I need something bright and refreshing.

I’ve brewed this tea western every time. 2-3 tsp (length and shape makes for difficult measurement), 8oz, 160F. I’ve played around with steeping times, with first steeps ranging from 30-60s. Good for 3 steeps, maybe 4 if you like to push it and like saltiness.

Dry leaf is a nice mix of lightly rolled dark green leaves and buds with a yellow-brown tint. They have the darjeeling pungency with kind of an orange zest quality but not quite. There is a sweetness there, too, like a citrus blossum, hints of green olive and desert earth. Subtle.

The liquor itself is delicate in color, aroma, and taste. It has a very clear, light yellow body, darkening slightly throughout the steeps. The aroma is mostly present when pouring from one glass into another. I pick up light lemon zest, lemon blossom, bright meaty vegetal. I can put a name to the bright, meaty vegetal once I take a few sips of the glassy liquor: fresh castelvetrano olives. The best olives in the world. If you like olives, I suggest you try them but don’t buy them canned. The dominating taste, though, isn’t olives but rather a light lemon/lime sprinkled with a little bit of powdered sugar, some mineral and complementary bitterness of citrus pith (this isn’t a bitter tea by any means). A pleasant sour saltiness persists long after I’ve drank all three steepings and my tongue is dancing and bright. The spent leaves and buds are whole and healthy, well cared for. Everything about this clean and delicate tea makes me happy and feeling refreshed.

Dare I say it’s like drinking soft sunshine?

As I near the end of a 25g envelope of this tea, I realize it has grown on me immensely. What-Cha continues to introduce me to a variety of teas I’d likely never find in stores or even tea shops. This is my first darjeeling green tea and first from the Rohini Tea Estate. I bought this tea with no expectations and I would love to have more.

Side note: I brewed a glass of this for my partner, too. He’s a coffee and Trader Joe’s Irish Breakfast drinker during the work-week but on the weekends or when he’s hungover (which was today :P), I brew him various green teas. You know, something light, but I have this ulterior motive to get him off coffee because he turns into a trainwreck in the evenings. After drinking this tea, he said, “Now I know why you’re so into this. The quality is so much better than bagged teas. More please.” His full conversion is coming. Soon.

I wasn’t going to rate this one again, either, but brewed grandpa in a thermos it’s a bit better. It can be funky and tart in the first few sips before the flavors meld, but otherwise it’s got a mellow winter squash going on. The liquor smells like spiced winter squash with brown sugar. The faint mint taste I experienced brewed western has turned into a more noticeable menthol which combines with a new nutmeg? allspice? flavor, making the aftertaste reminiscent of camphor. It can get a little astringent at the bottom but it’s tolerable for me. This tea packs a serious punch of caffeine and is helping me power through the day after a sleepless night and a public medical emergency this morning. I’m still on the fence about it but I might try another season’s harvest if one is ever available again and make up my mind after that. I think it’s worth a try if you want something high in caffeine and different. Bumping from 64 to 71.

What-Cha describes this as “A most unusual tea…” I can’t help but think he’s being cheeky.

I brewed 2 cups of this late last night, thinking “Hey, GABA tea.” Well, it turns out it has the typical caffeine content of Red Jade blacks: feckin HIGH. It was late and I wasn’t doing anything with all that unused energy so I decided to go to bed. I ended up getting a lot of anxiety lying there so I took a few diphenhydramines to knock my ass out. Sipper beware.

Moving on. Finished last night’s brew this morning. Gone western. 1 tsp, 8oz, 195F, 3/4/6/? minutes. ?minutes isn’t worth it. I don’t think I’ll try brewing this tea any method other than western.

April 2017 harvest. Dry nuggets are large and smell really good, like overripe strawberries. After the first steep, the wet leaf had minimal funk but past that was roasted sweet potato and later steeps moved to roasted acorn squash.

First steep produced a cup smelling and tasting of funk but that quickly turned into tang (rhubarb?) and sweet potato. Later steeps saw the funk disappear, the tang lighten, the sweet potato developed a roast and turned into roasted acorn squash both in aroma and taste. Noticed a coolness in the mouth on exhale but no minty taste. The liquor was smooth and developed some slickness and dryness. It started off a beautiful shade of pinkish champagne with a tinge of orange and turned progressively clear orange-brown.

The spent leaf is very large and not in the best shape. One leaf was 7cm wide. Couldn’t help measuring it.

For me, this is a morning tea to have with a big breakfast before going out to chainsaw fire lines all day or a tea to carry cold in a thermos on a long, exhausting hike.

I’m a big fan of Red Jade blacks and whites and would rather stick to those. This is certainly “a most unusual tea.”

Bought a bag of May 2019 harvest because I enjoyed the previous year’s.

Malty, leathery, oat-creamy, nut/wood-tannic yet smooth and full-bodied with a substantial orange midtone — not sour, not sweet, just orange. Understated honey and toffee. Sometimes a tiny pop of pickle but not out of place by any means, like “Hey, was that?? Yes, it was. Huh”

Not nearly as tannic or astringent as 2018 and it takes boiling water really well, however, I can get only 2 good steeps as opposed to 3. Definitely still gives me a hot summer day in the Central Valley vibe. I am impressed by this harvest but after finishing a 50g bag, I’m feeling this tea isn’t quite for me anymore.

I had gone over 48 hours without real tea or caffeine and thus feel the need to log this again. This afternoon I was in the mood for something light and bright. Ceylon seemed like a good pick. In my other review of this tea, I said I’d like to keep this around for the warm months, which are usually September and October here, but fortunately or unfortunately we didn’t have much of an Indian Summer so this tea sat around.

The tea has retained its flavor and aroma integrity over the past 3 months of being stored in its original pouch. It has a strength to it that needs to be drawn out and I highly suggest not tossing the leaves after the first or astringent second steep because it still has plenty to give with a third. Its light/med-bodied and brisk quality makes it easy to drink quickly. Warming in throat and chest. I also noticed a moderate, long-lasting sweetness in the throat which is not something I’ve come across in other Ceylon teas (granted I haven’t had many of high quality).

Feels good to be drinking a proper cup again.

This tea is a partial embodiment of the Central Valley in California.

I recommend brewing this western. The concentration of flavor and color sits at the bottom of the cup so I don’t think it’s well suited for grandpa. The leaves are spindly and clump together so it’s difficult to get the recommended 2tsp. Rather, I just line the bottom of my glass with a thin layer. 195-200F, 8oz, 3/5/7 min. Definitely don’t go above 200F or you’ll be lashed with drying astringency.

March 2018 harvest. The dry leaf, as stated, is spindly and clumpy, dark brown with a good amount of orange-gold needles. Visually appealing. It smells like roasted almonds with a decent amount of pungency including an odd green vinegary pickle.

The liquor is clear, bright, roasty and slightly earthy both in aroma and taste. In the mouth I get orange, apricot, honey-roasted/toffee almonds, hot leather, hot dry oatgrass and earth, and walnut and oak woodiness with their accompanying tannins. The mouthfeel is soft yet drying. The astringency is strongest in the second steep. Spent leaves and needles are pretty small and healthy.

If you’re not a fan of astringency, this may not be a good tea for you. I, however, would like to make this my daily afternoon drinker for the hot months.

Rose hips and rhododendron. H keener than I. It’s good, but likely to divide opinion depending if you like floral fruity oolong.

Edit: On revisiting this I find the second steeping is much better than the first.

Has a good punch, well oxidised and quite tannin-y.

I finished a sample pouch of this tonight. Yes, tonight. Night. In fact, I never even drank this with breakfast. I did stop by the bougie bakery on my way home from the grocery earlier for a banana bread accompaniment. I don’t know anything about English Breakfast tea beyond teabags drank too long ago to remember the flavor. Forgive me, my English sistren and brethren.

Gone grandpa. 2tsp/Seattle rainy day mug/water off-boiling/nocreamnosugar

This is a mix of Yunnan, Vietnam and Kenya black teas. Sample pouch has spots of golden down from the Yunnan black. Dry leaf smells delicious, like a woody hot cocoa. The brew, from what I can tell is pretty dark and also smells like woody hot cocoa. Tastes about the same, smooth and sweet with a little bit of malt, leather, rose and spice. Mouthfeel is full and very round, slick with cream. I bet some unsweetened almond milk in this would taste divine. Dairy milk or cream might make it too slick. Never sugar for me, but I bet it would be good. Gets a little astringent at the back of the mouth if left to sit but I like it. Spent leaf is bulky, so I recommend against using any kind of teaball doohickie. Got 5-6 top-offs with a definite caffeine kick. Should’ve eaten more food as I ended up getting shaky. I can see it being great for getting moving in cold weather.

I have no comparison to other English Breakfast blacks but this is really good. Thanks a lot for the sample.

Summer Vacation! This is the last of my Indian tea stash. It’s been sitting in my cupboard for a while, so it is about time that I’m finally getting around to sampling it!

The dry leaf smells very similar to the India Assam Kanoka Hand-made Black, in that it has that peppery hay-like scent, though I also found this leaf to smell somewhat like dried pear. Brewed up, this tea had a very coppery-orange color, and the aroma off the cup smelled very fruity, very much like sweet mandarin oranges and mango.

This is another very smooth tea with no bitterness or astringency; the malt notes are on the lighter side, and the body is very fruity with a honey sweetness. I get a sort of mango-like tanginess left as an aftertaste on my tongue.

It’s a nice tea, and my only regret is that I’m drinking it at 11 p.m. when I know I have to work in the morning. So much for sleeping tonight.

Summer Vacation! I’m still going through my small collection of Indian teas, and I found another assam sampler floating around in my collection. While assams have never been my favorite, I figured I’d give it a go. It’s breakfast time, I have a new episode of Ducktales waiting on my Amazon account, a strong cuppa with some toast will do.

This tea was harvested in May of 2017 and I bought it last January, but my sampler has been sealed all this time, so hopefully it has kept fine. The dry leaf smells very much like a slightly peppery hay to me.

Color me wildly surprised that the aroma coming off this cup is actually quite sweet and fruity, not that heavy, bitter astringent malty scent that I’ve had from every other assam tea I’ve ever tasted. Mind. Blown. And this is why I’m willing to try any tea (banana teas and those containing my migraine triggers aside) at least once! I’m reminded of raisin bread and honey from the aroma. The taste is actually really smooth, with a much gentler maltiness, a more honeyed flavor, and a slight fruity/raisin taste on the finish. No bitterness or astringency to be had. This reminds me more of those smooth Chinese blacks with fruity/honeyed notes than anything even resembling an assam, and had it not been a sampler included in a tea sampling variety package I bought for the sake of getting to try a variety of things, I probably would’ve avoided it on the word “assam” alone. So I’m really happy I got to try this tea and am so surprised by it, as it is exactly to my tasting preferences!

When I made this cup, I had left plenty of room to add milk, expecting a bitter tannin overload and an astringency assault like I always get from assams. Normally I can never get a cuppa of assam down without adding milk, and often some honey as well. Absolutely no need with this, it is perfect as is!

Here is another review from way back. I finished a couple of 10g sample pouches of this tea around the first week of May, but totally forgot to post a review for this tea when I was focusing on clearing out the backlog for May. It seems that What-Cha always manages to offer a number of Jin Xuans from Southeast Asia, and this was yet another of them. I found it to be a more or less excellent and incredibly approachable roasted Jin Xuan. It may not be the sort of tea that will blow all fans of roasted oolongs away, but I found it to be very enjoyable.

I prepared this tea gongfu style, although I did not push it all that hard. After a brief rinse, I steeped 6 grams of rolled tea leaves in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 10 seconds. This infusion was chased by 13 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 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 honey, black cherry, peach, and blood orange. After the rinse, I noted new aromas of baked bread and malt along with a stronger overall black cherry scent. The first infusion introduced milder aromas of cream, banana, vanilla, plum. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered mild notes of cream, malt, vanilla, baked bread, honey, and black cherry balanced by hints of banana and blood orange. Subsequent infusions saw wood, cinnamon, and cocoa aromas appear along with a stronger scent of banana. New notes of wood, cinnamon, apricot, minerals, butter, red apple, raisin, brown sugar, rose, and pear appeared in the mouth with belatedly emerging notes of peach and plum. The final infusions offered notes of minerals, baked bread, wood, cream, and butter that were underscored by hints of vanilla, stone fruits, and pear.

I am so glad that I took detailed notes of my review sessions for this tea because I would otherwise have been forced to not log this one. As mentioned above, this was a very nice roasted Jin Xuan. It seems that countries like Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia are producing numerous quality Jin Xuan oolongs these days. If you are a fan of sweeter, fruitier roasted oolongs, I would be willing to bet that you would enjoy this tea.

Perfect for a refreshing morning/mid-afternoon brew! Bold and bright.

Gone Western. 2 tsp/8oz/200F. 3 steeps at 3/5/8 minutes.

Dry leaf is various shades of dark browns to black, twisty, shiny and hard. Some leaves look slightly powdery. Smells like pure, bright fruit stone fruit and muscatel, lightly pungent.

Over the course of the three steeps, I got mostly baked apricot, muscatel, woodiness, warm spice, light orange- and rosewater. Pleasant astringency. Thinned out nicely. Red-amber liquor turning to gold-amber. Flavors don’t really stick around making for a nice, clean quaff. Did I really just say quaff. Very aromatic.

Spent leaves large, sturdy, quite narrow. Found a few that were longer than my middle finger.

Yum :) Thanks for the sample.

Something about this tea makes me want to ramble.

Spent yesterday late afternoon wandering Golden Gate Park, stopping at Hippie Hill to listen to the drum circle. I laid on the grass and let the music wash over me. It took a while but the percussionists finally got into their groove after some thick clouds of pot smoke emerged from the group. The cool breeze from the Pacific came in short bursts that would trail off and the grass danced, glistening, seemingly in tune with the drums. It was magical, I felt quite high riding the wind and the music. Sucker for cheap thrills I guess.

We later wandered through my old neighborhood and being hungry beyond the point of deciding what to eat, we stopped in the closest Indian restaurant. It smelled weird upon entering. Noped out of there graciously after having our water glasses filled and said sorry, we’ll have to come back another time. That’s one of my city-living life lessons: never eat at a restaurant that smells off. We then stopped at an American Chinese restaurant I used to like because it was right there, no decision to be made in our state. Got a cheap pot of Tie Guan Yin because I’m pretty over restaurant jasmine green tea. Picked the wrong dish to go with my mood and the tea. Spicy Peking noodles. I ended up getting sick last night with a very upset stomach and a raging headache before we even got home from dinner. Guessing too much salt and oil as I’m a spice fiend.

So I rummaged through my tea drawer searching for a glass of comfort, one hand in the drawer, the other holding my heavy, throbbing skull. Found an unmarked tin and upon opening, I instantly knew it was this tea. I thought I drank it all. It was very comforting and calming brewed in a gaiwan but I only had enough tea and energy for a modest grandfatherly brew.

The liquor was so roasty, smooth, sweet and light with a little creaminess. The berry/prune note in this was sooo dark and thick and sweet. Liquid medicine to soothe the soul.

After 3 ibuprofen and a few cups of this in some dim light, I could finally get comfortable on the couch.

I’m getting really bored reviewing for the GRE coming up in a week and a half.

I want to preface this review by stating that if you want bold flavors, this isn’t your tea. Very delicate, light flavors beyond the roast. This is the last of my 25g bag. 4g in 100mL jianshui gaiwan. I waltzed right through the first 21g enjoying the tea’s lightness and minerality but not really paying attention. So here I am, taking my time tonight.

WARNING self-indulgent, reminiscing tasting notes ahead. These will be few and far between since life is about to get bizzay.

Large, shiny, reddish brown nuggets.

Dry leaf: roast, dried blueberry, mission fig, caramel.

Warmed leaf: still edible burnt wheat toast with a bright red high note like a smear of raspberry jam, burnt sugar.

Ten second rinse, let sit for 10 minutes.

FIrst steep 10 seconds. Leaf: proper wheat toast, brown paper bag, raspberry.
Liquor: like chewing on a maple twig without the bark, raspberry, cream, tingling mineral tongue, viscous.

Second steep 15 seconds. Leaf: brown paper bag, raspberry, cream, vanilla. My left nostril got very personal with a random leaf plucked from the gaiwan and I could smell benzene. Really pleasant.
Liquor: smells like raspberry and cream, taste woody peach, creamy at the back of the mouth, mineral carries through, salivation starts.

Third steep 20 seconds. Same as second. I’m breathing out peaches and cream. Lingering taste.

Fourth steep 25 seconds. Leaf: heady, dark resin, black raspberry. Walk back to my desk and it smells like raspberries in here. I’m relaxed. Sighing feels good.

I used to live in this old house in Ohio. One of five houses that still had well water in a town of 13,000 people. I actually found that statistic once when I was concerned about having water during power outages. Funnily enough, I later moved to another of the five well-water houses in that town.

Anyway, that first house was old and had such a great energy. The lot next to us was vacant. An old foundation and light pole remained, choked with weeds and 20-year-old tree saplings. I checked town records for some info but came up empty.

Somebody long ago planted three different hedgerows to separate the two houses. One plant was some stupid shrub I had to trim every year because it encroached on the side of the gravel drive. Couldn’t remove it because we were renting. Another plant was trumpet vine. Dear god, talk about invasive and impossible to get rid of without pesticides. The third plant was black raspberry that had grown out of control as brambles usually do. The black raspberry brambles, in fact, rimmed the entirety of the vacant lot next to us. I suffered every summer diving into those thickets. Stained fingernails for days, thorns for weeks, jam for months. Haven’t come across black raspberries since.
Liquor: I forgot to sniff. Tastes, well, like black raspberries and cream :) Minerals fading but tongue still tingling.

Fifth steep 30 seconds. Leaf: wheat toast, brown sugar. Liquor smells like Cow Tails candy, tastes like fresh spring lawn grass with the minerals returning.

Sixth steep 45 seconds. My room smells yeasty now. Leaf: still wheat toast now with sugar plum prune, some kind of -ene.
Liquor: there’s that heady, dark resin again. Taste is fresh grass and mineral. Breathing out peach again. Noticing a light astringency at the back of the mouth.

I think I’ll leave it at that. My senses are spent. Rating later, maybe never.

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Update: Finished the tea the next day after many more steeps. Ended on a definite kombu note. I love this tea. I tossed the package but I think it said gets better with age. It’s a cheap price to buy a good amount and try different aging techniques.

Over the past few days of doing a sipdown with this tea, I’ve brewed it at a lower temperature (only 5 degrees difference) and noticed some differences, the biggest being a pronounced milkiness in texture in the first steep. Straw, malt, mace (warming and quite peppery, kind of sweet), almond, cream and butter became the dominant notes in taste.
The cocoa I had gotten previously pretty much disappeared. There was still enough of a high note between the fruity nose and the muscatel, orange blossom and yellow gooseberry in the mouth to keep it interesting. The first steep produced an aftertaste of cream/butter while the second was fruity with a lingering light astringency. Again, this tea is versatile in that I can gain equal pleasure by either taking my time sipping or drinking it quickly. The mornings here have been chilly lately and this tea has been a nice accompaniment.