What-Cha

Decided to do a late night Gong Fu session after we got back from the restaurant; I don’t work tomorrow and we’ve already celebrated our Christmas so there’s no reason I can’t stay up late tonight and sleep in tomorrow.

I’m doing the whole cake of this one; just broken up into a few smaller chunks. It’s very loosely compressed, so it was really easy for me to break it up. I ordered a couple of these a while ago to experiment with and am only just now getting to them – I couldn’t resist the thematic tie in of having a ‘fruit cake’ for Christmas. Visually, the ‘cake’ is stunning though! Large leaf pieces, and a wide range of colours! Plus, when I cracked open the vacuum sealed packaging, I was hit with the most lovely aroma! Very sweet, with bright notes of overly ripe cherries and peaches. So many people have described this one as tasting like banana though, so I’m fascinated to see if I get that too.

No rinse – going straight into this one!

Steep One – Ten Seconds
- Sweet and fruity; but not too much overall body right off the bat
- Cherry jumps to mind; but almost more of like a candied/cocktail cherry
- A bit floral, quite green

Steep Two – Ten Seconds
- More of an equal mix of flavour; cherry, floral (jasmine/peony), and sweet grass
- Underlying notes of coconut?
- Just a touch of astringency along my inner cheeks; pleasantly so at this point

Steep Three – Fifteen Seconds
- A little bit of a grassy sharp/sour quality in the top sip
- I suppose it’s a LITTLE BIT like under ripe banana?
- Still getting that sweet floral and cherry sort of thing though
- And a very creamy sort of soup in so far as mouthfeel
- Though unlike other reviewers I wouldn’t say it TASTES creamy???

Steep Four – Fifteen Seconds
- Cherry, jasmine, grass, coconut, butter???
- Hints of under ripe banana still
- Same astringency
- Maybe this buttery quality mixed w. the coconut it’s what being called “creamy/milky”

Steep Five -Twenty Seconds
- About the same as above
- Worth pointing out that this has still been quite light throughout
- No real “punchy” flavours at all
- Also, I know this is ‘light’ roasted but it doesn’t much taste roasted to me at all

Steep Five – Thirty Seconds
- No astringency in this sip at all
- Mostly a sweet, generic fruity sort of quality; a little flatter than previous steeps
- I might start stacking steeps now???
- There’s been no mind blowing flavour progression so I don’t see why not

Steep Six/Seven – Forty Seconds (each)
- Generic fruity/floral mix of typical greener oolong notes
- Very smooth, unimposing flavours
- Missing the more distinct cherry/coconut though
- A LITTLE MILKY IN THE UNDERTONE!?
- Kind of banana leaf like???
- Would be nice to drink whilst doing something else; like studying/cooking/etc.

Steep Eight/Nine – One Minute (each)
- Wow, ok this one is so close to just tasting like water…
- Slightly sweeter, kind of floral water…
- Yeah; calling this one done now I think

Ok, so thoughts overall:

I’m a little bit let down by this one in a few ways? For starters, the dry aroma was so beautiful and enticing, and those first few steeps seemed actually really promising but there’s absolutely no staying power to this tea – you get that very slight bump in flavour within the first three to four steeps and then it essentially flat lines? The rest is kind of my own fault for reading reviews before hand and kind of expecting certain flavours from the tea based on those reviews: some were there, but others were super absent and the ones that were present weren’t to the degree I’d let myself expect that they would be.

Positive notes – this was ultimately a very smooth session, if not a little boring, so I think this would be an excellent candidate for something to steep relatively mindlessly whilst doing something else. Plus, since it was a somewhat short lived tea/didn’t have a whole lot of staying power I think it’d work for times when you want to get that Gong Fu session in without making a commitment to like fifteen+ infusions.

And ultimately, there wasn’t anything ghastly/unpleasant about this tea; it was just kind of boring. Totally better than the fruit cakes I usually find myself presented with this time of year, though!

I really don’t like this tea. I still have a cup left (so it’s going into the tea box before I ship it out tomorrow). It isn’t the worst tea ever, but it tastes a lot like a young sheng. It has that same aged/fermented flavour, some bitterness, slight sweetness. Some flavours of leaf pile (in a good way) and sweet potato. It is clearly a green tea, the vegetal notes are very present.

I keep seeing this among my straight teas and passing it over being there is too much to get to a sipdown any time soon. Today I decided to do some serious steeping with straight teas.

I’m aware this is a green tea,. however I find it reminiscent of a puerh, it definitely tastes of fermentation (in a really good way). Notes of hay, slight bitterness, wood, Earth. It isn’t something I would buy again, but I do have a few more cups to look forward to.

Sad gongfu sipdown (208)

I finally decided to sit down for another gong fu session. I had intended to use a different tea but I only had about 3 grams of that one so I ended up using the whole of my sample of this instead, which was 7 grams of tea in my 100 mL gong fu.

I prepped my gaiwan and then got ready to steep. Then I quickly realized I had no idea how long to steep the tea. So I turned to google and found a site that suggested to start with 10 seconds and then to add another 5 seconds per steep until you hit 40 seconds, so I {sorta} followed that method.

I got through 5 infusions before I gave up on the tea. Thankfully throughout the 5 infusions, I only spilled a little and did not burn my hand at all. So those aspects of my gong fu experimentation has much improved.

As for the tea, I was really disappointed. The steeped tea had an awesome milk chocolate aroma. One that reminded me of Teabento’s Jiri Horse. It just smelled delectably like chocolate deliciousness so it was upsetting when the tea, which was steeped for about 10 seconds, tasted sort of how I remember Red Rose. That plain black tea flavor that we all experienced before getting into tea and in my case the flavor that made me think I disliked tea. It was drying and astringent, but not bitter and was rather thin. The second steep was steeped for 20 seconds because I forgot why I was counting and tastewise it was the same as the first cup, but more and bitter. The second steep got dumped. Then the third steep was 10 seconds and more of the same. At the fourth steep, I grabbed a new cup, hoping that would make a difference in taste and it did not. Then the fifth steep was just 5 seconds to try and curb the astringency/dryness and ended up tasting like nothing. I gave up after this.

So, all in all, the gong fu session was a fail but also an improvement technique wise so there is that.

Snaily snails, you are a delightful companion during this game of munchkins.

The past couple of days I’ve woken up and just wanted plain teas to start my day. I’m also trying to balance between drinking my older teas down while still trying my fresher teas while still fresh. So yesterday I drank a newer plain tea which meant today I decided to gravitate towards an older one. This particular tea is from November 2017.

Despite its age, this is still nice. A buttery sort of creaminess. Sort of how whipped butter is since it’s got a butter quality that is silky but still light. And floral but not offensively so. It’s basically vanilla orchid…but without the vanilla quality tbh.

I woke up this morning (not really morning since it was like 10:30) and was super tired. I wanted to make myself tea since I don’t think I have had actual tea in quite some time (either matcha smoothies or EG hot chocolates, but not a cup of tea). As I turned on the kettle, I thought I would go for a straight black tea but since the weather is getting warmer it was the drawer of greens, whites, and oolongs that caught my eye. I looked for what-cha and grabbed the first bag I saw…this tea. Okay, I guess it was meant to be an oolong morning.

This one is pretty good. It is really floral today but milky as well. It is reminding me of vanilla orchid, but with less vanilla pudding flavor. It is not a bad cup to sip as I work on exam prep. 3 down, 3 to go…

The other day I commented to Sil that for some reason Black Friday Rachel (aka me from the not-so-distant past) apparently decided that now was the time to explore oolongs. They’ve never been a favorite so as I added oolong after oolong to my cupboard when our orders showed up I was a little confused. I blame the creamy oolong by Sloane that I had at high tea not too long before placing orders.

Thankfully I brewed this up and it is actually really nice. It’s a little bit floral and a little bit green but a whole lot of milky creaminess. It is making me less anxious about having a growing oolong selection in my stash.

I have not been drinking much Earl Grey lately, instead choosing to spend my time finishing up some of the oolongs and straight black teas that have piled up over the course of the last two years. When I received a sample pouch of this one, however, I just had to break stride and spend a morning with it. I associate Earl Grey blends with comfort, as they are the sorts of blends that I have been consuming as either breakfast or afternoon teas off and on for years. This one was very nice, the sort of blend I could and would turn to in just about any circumstance that called for an Earl Grey.

I prepared this tea in the Western fashion. I steeped 3 grams of loose leaf material in approximately 8 ounces of 203 F water for 5 minutes. No additional infusions were conducted.

Prior to infusion, the dry leaf material emitted a heady aroma of bergamot. After infusion, the bergamot scent was still there, but was restrained by emerging scents of honey, orange, wood, and malt. In the mouth, I found a heavy, yet rather pleasant bergamot presence on the entry that quickly mellowed to reveal notes of wood, malt, brown toast, honey, and orange. The finish was still rather citrusy, but it was also malty. At times, I could pick up a faint hint of honey lingering in the background.

Neither a deep nor complex blend by any means, this was still about as drinkable and pleasant as Earl Grey gets. The aromas and flavors on display were nice and worked well together and the body was neither super slick nor soapy. If you are not entirely sold on Earl Grey, this may not offend you terribly, though it may be a bit much at first. If you are an Earl Grey fan, however, this blend will probably delight you.

Here’s another review I’ve been sitting on for some time. I think I held off on posting this one simply because I was not sure where I was going to go with it. I know several people rather liked this tea, but it was just so strange to me. Allow me to explain. This is a Taiwanese approximation of a Japanese sencha produced from the Qingxin Da Pa cultivar, which I have been led to believe is mostly used for oolong as opposed to green tea production. If you’re going to try to approximate a tea as distinct as sencha, why not use a traditional sencha cultivar? It just seems that using an oolong cultivar defeats the purpose. This line of thought reminded me that sometimes I look forward to reviewing a tea that is doing or at least trying to do something new and unique. Other times I have difficulty motivating myself, and well, this was clearly one of those times.

Prior to trying this tea, I decided to research sencha preparation methods. I do not own a kyusu, so I knew I was going to have to make a few modifications. I ended up settling on a four part brewing process. I started with 3 grams of loose tea leaves and steeped them in approximately 8 ounces of 158 F water for 1 minute. I then increased the temperature to 163 F and steeped them for 30 seconds. For the third infusion, I increased the water temperature to 168 F and steeped for 1 minute 30 seconds. For the final infusion, I increased the water temperature to 173 F and steeped for 3 minutes. I then called it quits.

Prior to the first infusion, I picked up mild nutty, grassy aromas coming from the dry tea leaves. In the mouth, I found touches of cream, butter, grass, and chestnut. The second infusion brought out an indistinct sweetness and hints of spinach on the nose. In the mouth, I found notes of sugarcane, spinach, grass, cream, butter, and chestnut. I also noted a floral, nectar-like sweetness and hints of minerals on the finish. The third infusion brought out heavier spinach aromas on the nose. The tea liquor was grassier with a heavier mineral presence and emerging hints of seaweed. The fourth and final infusion didn’t offer much on the nose. I picked up minerals and a hint of seaweed, but that was about it. The tea liquor was heavy on the mineral and seaweed notes. There were also lingering traces of grass, spinach, and butter. I didn’t find much in the way of nuttiness or sweetness at this point.

This was a difficult tea to rate. I kind of touched on that in the introduction. As much as it looked like a sencha and clearly wanted to be one, its resemblance was largely superficial. My experience suggests that sencha can often be quite full-flavored and this tea really wasn’t like that. The mouthfeel was softer and the little hints of sweet and savory reminded me that this was clearly a tea made from an oolong cultivar. This was not an unpleasant tea to drink, but graded on how well it approximated the character of a traditional Japanese sencha, it didn’t quite hit the mark for me. All in all, I’m glad I took the opportunity to try this tea, but I would never turn to it over an authentic sencha.

I don’t know why, but when a tea is said to have “raisin” flavor profile, I want that tea. And I am not exactly a fan of raisins, but when it’s in black tea, I adore it!

This tea reminds me of a black dragon pearl tea cousin. It’s robust, caramelized and sweet, and stewy. I gave my friend a sip, and they usually think tea is bitter enjoyed this. It has no astringency. So many flavors, and so delicious.

This Qi Lan is a much gentler animal than the one I had from Tao Tea Leaf a few hours ago. I steeped around 5 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The first steep is surprisingly light for a Wuyi oolong. Honey and florals show up first, followed by roast and light tobacco. The second steep has a few more of those char and tobacco notes, but is still very floral and sweet. I also get roasted veggies and maybe some fruit (Lichi? Honeydew? I can’t tell.).

As Amanda Wilson said in her tasting note about this tea, it has some qualities that make it similar to a Dan Cong. Its honey character softens the roast, especially as the session progresses. Although the tea starts to get drying by the sixth or seventh steep, the honey carries it through.

As someone who likes greener oolongs, I enjoyed this Qi Lan more than its roastier counterpart from Tao Tea Leaf. It’ll be fun to see whether storing my remaining 30 g for a couple more years will mellow it out even further.

I am a brisk, strong, larged flavored black tea lover. I was won over by the reviews of no astringency. This tea is that, my friend. It has the biggest leaf cut of any Assam I have ever had. I think that might be why there’s no puckering.

I bought a sample, and have drank the whole sample within 2 hours (I am also studying for finals, I need my fuel). This tea is yum.

This isn’t your typical Assam at all. I almost thought it was more similar to some of the Ceylons I’ve had. Still strong in flavor, and 2 tsp is needed per cup. I would purchase this again. I really think Assam tea companies need to follow suit, and not cut up the leaf so much. This was a really pleasant cup.

this + dark chocolate caramel popcorn = the best. sooo good.

If you have to get up at stupid o’clock on the weekend, you might as well get someone else to make you breakfast! Today we explored emma’s country kitchen and oh man, i’m still dreaming about their buttermilk biscuits. We had breakwiches AND their spiced pear, baked oatmeal thing and it was so good. Exactly what i wanted in a breakfast treat. Had a cup of this when we got home while i organised a couple board games to get them ready for play :)

overleafed makes this one work for me. However, because i nede to do that, i’d rather have some of what-cha’s other offerings (snailey snail!). However this is a great malty, cocoa-y, delicious tea.

Final count: 39

Haven’t found the sweet spot with this one yet…it’s still a good cup of tea but nothing extraordinary. I’ll need to try steeping it for 3+ mins i think, to see what happens there.

oh this worked out much better this time. Upped the leaf and brewed it for a little longer. now it’s a much heavier brew…little bit of astringency, but it’s still smooth and there are hints of cocoa. noms. Now to go play some board games!

Need to try this one again. So far it’s not bad..but it’s really…light? Maybe a gonfu session. Anyway, jury is still out on this one – efels sort of oolongy…but there are some flavours hiding there that i’d like to take another crack at :)

I have a quiet work day today so i’m trying to drink up a few of my samples – aiming for 4 sipdowns today. Kicked off the morning with this one since it’s a sipdown. It was a nice start to the day even if it’s not really that typical LB chocolate, malty goodness

If you ever want to wear your dog out…take them on a 2 hour fat bike adventure in the snow. Ruby had the time of her life running with the bikes, playing in the snow…but maaaaan, adventure dog is a tired dog now. :)

oh tea. sorry for being distracted while i drank you this morning. i’ll do better next time