What-Cha

First tea of this kind, so I can not say too much about this note, apart from the present floral side (lilac)

Gongfu cha Methode : 45/45s 95°c – 60s/45s 90°c

This is yet another review I have been intending to post for some time. I bought this tea last year because I wanted to try it alongside Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company’s Jingmai Gushu Oolong Orbs, but until last week, I had yet to set aside time to try this tea. Going back and looking at the note for the other tea, I see that this one struck me as being very similar. I found it to be immensely enjoyable, a hair more enjoyable than the tea to which I planned on comparing it directly.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a brief rinse, I steeped one dragon ball (a little over 6 grams) in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 10 seconds. This infusion was chased by 15 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 12 seconds, 15 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.

The dry tea ball emitted aromas of honey, smoke, hay, wood, and stone fruits prior to the rinse. A little of that sheng-like funkiness was there too. After the rinse, I found new scents of grass, menthol, tobacco, and malt. The first proper infusion brought out a subtle pine-like aroma. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of malt, grass, hay, wood, and cream underscored by hints of tart stone fruits, honey, and sheng-like funk. Subsequent infusions grew steadily more intense, aromatic, and flavorful, offering distinct impressions of sour plum, longan, sour apricot, tart cherry, oats, butter, camphor, pear, lychee, mushroom, cedar, peanut, minerals, caramel, lemon, white grape, eucalyptus, and tree bark. The notes of malt, tobacco, pine wood, smoke, and menthol managed to show up in the mouth too. On a couple infusions, I thought I could just barely catch a hint of petrichor on the nose. The later infusions were more satisfying than anticipated. I could still find impressions of malt, minerals, mushroom, and tree bark balanced by subtle notes of honey, stone fruits, camphor, menthol, and tobacco that were most apparent on the back of the throat.

These Yunnan oolongs are steadily growing on me. I loved the mix of aromas and flavors this tea displayed. Very challenging, yet simultaneously very satisfying, I could see this being a great tea for adventurous oolong and pu-erh drinkers alike.

Yes, to this tea. It’s like a malty Assam married a Black Dragon pearl tea, and this is their child. It is one I would enjoy everyday. Just tasty, good balance of everything involved. Someone else said it didn’t have depth, and I don’t agree. If you like Assams, but don’t want astringency, this is your dream tea!

Nez : senteur de foin (feuille) , fleurie léger , légume verts (liqueur)
Bouche: Crémeux, légumes vert, legerement fleurie en fin de bouche.

Méthode infusion : eau 95°c 45s/60s/45s

Dry tea gave me overwhelming scent of pipe tobacco and lots of nostalgia with that. Later malt – lots. Then even later some of the scent of a struck match, but not at all in a bad way, not sulphurous.

It’s hard to pinpoint what’s going on so I suspect I’ll edit in future.

I way overbrewed this tea, I thought it was the right size for 1 sample because I misread. It is amazing the first steep. Very fruity, I get apricot and raisin type aromas and flavors.

Think I got this as a mystery tea from the site as I can’t find it listed to buy. From the scent of the dry heated leaves it smells similar to a Japanese sencha so I decided to treat it in similar way to one with regards to brewing.

The first infusion had a lot of the umami, grassy tones similar to some senchas I have had, though without the same level of depth. The 2nd infusion was more grassy than the first with some fruit flavour as well but a bit less umami and a bit more astringent (though that could be due to my lack of expertise brewing Japanese style greens).

All round an interesting and unusual tea which is what I want out of a mystery tea from What-Cha. I have tried a few Georgian black teas, which I have enjoyed so it has been good to try a green tea as well.

A——— at What-Cha added this as a sample in my latest order, presumably based on my like for strongly flavoured, well roasted Oolong. Hot and at first steep I got lots of seaweed and iodine. As it cooled and in subsequent steeping there’s pear as suggested on the supplier’s site, and also I got a nutty green flavour not unlike roasted acorns.

H tasted turpenes — how to put this delicately? — of the sort smelled when wandering out of Camden or Brixton tube stations. But I didn’t get that at all.

First oolong. First grandpa-style brewing. Overwhelming tastes of butter. There’s butter popcorn down there somewhere, and buttered veggies. But mainly just butter and it’s delicious.

(This is a very personal review unlikely to help another reader.) H’s note on the bag says, “Nope”. Mine says, “sour”. My first white tea and this wasn’t to my taste at all. It was woody and bitter and set off my stomach ulcer. I tried brewing a few ways and temperatures but it’s not for me.

H’s note on the pack says, “Tastes like a hug.” It’s more jasmine than tea for me, but none the worse for that. It’s floral and exotic and relaxing all at once. (Spring 2017 harvest)

This might be one of the most refreshing things I’ve ever put in my mouth. Loads of green acidity and bitterness, but only in a good way. The complexity isn’t lost at all. Like many shades of green. Repeated steeping lost some of the zing but added to the breadth of flavours.

(H score 6/10, Autumn harvest Sept 2017)

1st flush, May 2017. Brewed in and poured from a pyrex jug. Floral but not great for me, lacking some oomph and body, only exacerbated by repeated steepings. (Though H gives this 7/10)

2nd flush, late May 2017. Brewed in and poured from a pyrex jug. My notes on the bag say “fruity, honey, malt? 7/10”

Edit: revisiting this I like it more, and taste loads of candy-floss.

Bit of a gateway for me. The first tea I tried after reading the faq on reddit/r/tea, linked articles and finding a supplier. At first it just tasted like astringency and chlorophyll. It took a little time for my head to adjust to the tastes of teas. Then suddenly I got tastes of hay and meadow scents and huge refreshment. Hooked me.

I’m still getting used to these GABA oolongs. I like them, but I often find them a bit confounding. I finished the last of a 10 gram sample of this tea yesterday afternoon, and now that I have had a little time to process my experience with it, I can safely say that I found it very enjoyable.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a brief rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 8 seconds. This infusion was chased by 14 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, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, I detected aromas of cream, raisin, and pear coming from the dry tea leaves. The rinse brought out aromas of honey, fig, and prune. I failed to detect any new aromas on the first infusion. In the mouth, I noted flavors of cream, pear, fig, honey, raisin, and prune. Oddly, there was a hint of straw toward the finish. Subsequent infusions brought out stronger straw impressions as well as baked bread, brown sugar, vanilla, malt, orange, mineral, and date notes. Hints of roasted almond, roasted peanut, wood, peach, red apple, and herbs were also detectable in places. The later infusions offered lingering mineral, straw, baked bread, and roasted almond notes that were underscored by traces of orange, pear, honey, red apple, and raisin.

A complex and relatively long-lived tea, I found a lot to enjoy with this one. It was very smooth and mellow in the mouth despite being a touch syrupy at times. All of the aroma and flavor components worked well together. Overall, this was just a nicely balanced, pleasant, aromatic, and flavorful oolong. I could not find any glaring flaws and would have no issue recommending it to fans of Taiwanese oolongs.

A nice clean tasting end of day “ripe pu erh type” tea. plenty of earthiness, wood and as far as I can tell a scent of roasted barley.

075/365

Continuing with Dark Matter! This is another roasted oolong, and another which has made me reevaluate my thoughts on dark oolongs in general. This one brews up a delicious honey-gold, and tastes (quite literally) like liquid digestive biscuit. It’s a touch nutty, with a grain-like flavour, quite creamy, with a touch of honey, but mostly it’s biscuit. Now that I’ve got that comparison in my mind, it’s difficult to shift (and difficult to taste anything more precise, because digestive biscuit.) Love it!

074/365

From Dark Matter 2016. This, I think, is the least impressive of the Dark Matter teas I’ve tried so far. It’s a decent black, with a pleasantly sweet maltiness, but that’s really all I have to say about it. There’s nothing that strikes me as particularly unusual, or unique, and it doesn’t seem to have any deeper flavours. It’s a little woody, perhaps, in the way that honeybush sometimes is, but that’s not really a recommendation. If raw wood shavings are your thing, this is for you? I don’t think so.

Nice enough, but that’s not enough.

One of the many Southeast Asian oolongs I have been working my way through over the past couple of days, so far this tea has been the most disappointing of the bunch. What’s worse is that I have now tried two different harvests of this tea from two different years (this review focuses on the 2017 harvest) and have come away less than impressed each time. While this tea did admirably combine some aspects of the Jin Xuan and Cui Yu cultivars, I found that it did not offer enough of the most appealing qualities of either to leave a lasting impression on me.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a very quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 8 seconds. This infusion was followed by 13 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 10 seconds, 13 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, and 3 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of cream, butter, custard, and grass. After the rinse, I found emerging aromas of sugarcane and violet. The first infusion then brought out scents of lettuce and spinach. In the mouth, the liquor offered mild, subtle notes of butter, cream, grass, and sugarcane accompanied by vague hints of lettuce and spinach. Subsequent infusions began to bring out hints of custard and violet in the mouth. New impressions of vanilla, seaweed, honeydew, and minerals emerged, as did fleeting impressions of baked bread, coriander, and pear. I noticed a brothy umami quality on several of these infusions and much stronger spinach notes all around. The later infusions offered lingering impressions of minerals, butter, and cream as well as hints of grass, seaweed, and sugarcane here and there.

Um, this was just kind of a boring, bland oolong with a very flat, almost lifeless presence in the mouth. The tea did not seem to be stale, and since I have now had two different harvests of this tea and have gotten similar results with each, the only conclusion I can draw at this point is that’s just how this particular tea is. I brewed the final 4 grams of this tea in the Western style and the results were a little better, but not much. If you are into subtle, vegetal oolongs, I can see this one maybe doing something for you, but if you’re expecting a nice balance between the smooth, milky Jin Xuan and floral, grassy Cui Yu, it is my opinion that you may not be all that impressed. I may try this one again at some point in the future, but I also may pass on it. One is about as likely to occur as the other.

I finally got around to starting on a sample pouch of this tea last night. On that note, I really must get out of the habit of drinking tea in the evening as it is starting to interfere with my sleep patterns. Fortunately, I still work for my family and I’m in charge of my own scheduling, so it’s not that big of a deal right now. Anyway, I greatly enjoyed this tea. It was perhaps one of the smoothest black teas I have had in some time.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a very quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 203 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 15 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, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of malt, molasses, honey, and wood. After the rinse, I found new aromas of cocoa and toast. The first infusion then brought out hints of smoke and spice on the nose. In the mouth, I detected smooth notes of malt, toast, cocoa, cedar, and pine underscored by hints of black cherry and plum. What-Cha described this as being a very fruity tea, but my experience to this point suggested that it was going to be more malty and bready. Subsequent infusions brought out hints of honey and molasses in the mouth that were accompanied by slightly stronger notes of plum. The black cherry remained subtle throughout. Black pepper and smoke began to appear on the palate while new impressions of baked bread, cream, butter, caramel, minerals, and orange zest began to appear. The later infusions mostly offered lingering impressions of minerals, butter, baked bread, and cream with hints of cocoa and orange zest in the background.

Although this tea did not change a great deal from start to finish, it was very appealing. I loved how smooth it was and all of the aromas and flavors it displayed worked well together. Surprisingly, it was lacking in astringency. That struck me as being very unusual for a Vietnamese wild black tea of any sort. I would definitely recommend this tea to fans of Vietnamese black teas and Yunnan black teas alike. It made for a pleasant break from the usual assamicas on offer.