What-Cha

Another good steep of this tea. I’m trying to drink through some of my many samples! The flavor is very light this time, so I think I might try it a tad longer next time. It reminds me a lot of other “golden” teas I’ve had, and the sweet taste has a lot in common with the Golden Buds tea from What-Cha, though this tea isn’t as rich.

I don’t think I’ve tried a Nepal black tea yet. This is a very nice beginning. It has the mellow, chocolatey flavor I like so much in black teas. It’s also a sweet and toasty kind of tea. I notice a subtle spice flavor that reminds me of the Yunnan black I got from Upton. It goes beautifully with my breakfast rolls and is a cheery start to the morning

Even though it has been less than a week, it feels like forever since I have posted a review. Where have I been? I took some time off to visit friends in Lexington, KY. I am very likely moving there in a month or two. I guess I’ll have to change my Steepster name since I won’t be living in the eastern part of this state anymore. Anyway, despite the fact that I haven’t been posting, I have been drinking tea. Yes, the backlog is once again full. Yes, I still have notes from October I need to post. Getting back into the groove of regularly posting reviews, I wasn’t sure where to start, so I just randomly chose this tea. I finished a sample of it late last week. I found it to be a very nice milk oolong.

Naturally, I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 185 F water for 10 seconds. This infusion was chased by 12 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, and 3 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, I noted aromas of cream, butter, and vanilla coming from the dry leaves. After the rinse, I noted an emerging custard scent. The first infusion began to reveal aromas of steamed rice, grass, and flowers. In the mouth, the liquor revealed delicate notes of cream, grass, butter, and vanilla with floral impressions that reminded me of daylily, Narcissus, and orchid. Subsequent infusions brought out the custard and steamed rice on the palate. I also found new notes of coconut milk, spinach, mango, pineapple, daylily shoots, pear, lettuce, sugarcane, minerals, seaweed, and honeysuckle. Later infusions mostly offered hints of cream, butter, steamed rice, lettuce, grass, spinach, minerals, and daylily shoots.

This was a much softer, subtler, more refined tea than I was expecting. The aromas and flavors were masterfully integrated. Nothing came off as being uneven or heavy-handed. Normally, I find flavored oolongs of this type to go way too heavy on the milkiness, but this one (thankfully) did not. Despite the fact that I would not turn to this over a good Taiwanese milk oolong or a traditional, unflavored Jin Xuan, I found it to be a very good tea. If you are into milk oolongs at all, this one is definitely worth a try.

Another nice Korean green tea. Description is perfect, green taste (i get peas) transition into sweet corn. Green aroma, perhaps a slight nice bitter along the sweetness, compared to some of the other Korean offerings.

Managed to get a nice second cup too.

Chestnuts, salty, thick, also surprisingly sweet in the mouth coating. Slightly toasty savoury finish. Less aromatic aftertaste and more about the mouthfeels this one.

This was a tea I had been wanting to get to for a while. I ended up doing a gongfu session with it yesterday evening after I finished exercising. It made for a good companion during the Stan vs. Evil marathon I stayed up late to watch. Hey, I live pretty much in the middle of nowhere and we hardly ever get any trick-or-treaters, so drinking tea and watching television beat waiting on children to show and eating tons of candy out of boredom.

Obviously, I gongfued this tea. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 203 F water for 8 seconds. This infusion was followed by 13 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 10 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, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced a blend of nutty, vegetal, and floral aromas. After the rinse, I picked up more distinct scents of cream, violet, damp grass, gardenia, orchid, watercress, and some sort of nut. The first infusion added additional aromas of vanilla, butter, and tea flower. On the palate, I noted surprisingly pronounced notes of cream, butter, vanilla, gardenia, orchid, nuts, grass, watercress, tea flower, and violet. Subsequent infusions brought out the watercress on the nose. I was also finally able to place the nut aroma and flavor. I had read that people often get walnut impressions from Da Wu Ye, but I couldn’t pick up any walnut notes myself. At one point, however, I recall thinking, “What in my kitchen smells like walnut oil?” I then realized it was the gaiwan. The power of suggestion most likely played a role in that realization, but whatever. New impressions of pomelo, lemon peel, candied orange peel, peach, cattail, plum, cinnamon, osmanthus, almond, pear, anise, and minerals also emerged. The later infusions mostly offered notes of minerals, cream, and butter backed by hints of grass, watercress, almond, and walnut, though there were also some ghostly floral and stone fruit notes coupled with an equally vague citrus tanginess in places.

The very little bit of research I did regarding the origins of Da Wu Ye suggested that this particular cultivar was originally a hybrid of Shui Xian and Ya Shi Xiang. That makes perfect sense considering that this tea offered the slight spiciness and mineral notes of Shui Xian with the floral, savory, and nutty characteristics of Ya Shi Xiang. While I very much enjoy Shui Xian, my continued experimentation with Dancong oolongs has given me the impression that Ya Shi Xiang is not my thing and likely never will be. I do have to say, however, that I found this Da Wu Ye to be deep, complex, and exceptionally approachable. I greatly enjoyed it and have no doubt that I will be seeking out other Da Wu Ye oolongs in the near future.

My first pu’erh Tea and it didn’t really have much flavor. Although I’m not really sure what it’s supposed to taste like anyway. I don’t know, just not for me. Would still try more teas from the company though.

Smell coming from the wet leaves smells like a lot of oats, barley and cereal with a nice sweet greenness to it smells like it has a nice roast to it as well. On the first steep there isn’t a TON of flavor but I can tell that there is something good to come. The second steep has some definite notes of barley, replacing it is a nice baked cherry flavor. Some interesting acidity like a lime but without the sourness. The third steep is like the second but stronger. The rest of this tea will be taken on the road with multiple steeps stacked. I will review this tea again when I have another session with it. From the first three steeps I quite enjoyed the fruitiness coming from it along with the really interesting top acidic note.

If I had to sum up this tea in one word, it would be corn. There’s all sorts of corny aromas and flavors going on here.

The dry leaf smells like matcha popcorn and soybeans. Wet leaf brings out toasted nori.

After a quick first steep of 30s, I got what tasted like warm grass and creamed corn. The corn intensified in the second steep, this time with corn husk and silk notes and accompanied by toasted rice. The flavor smoothens out in the next two steeps and becomes more of a sweet corn on the cob affair.

This was a fun tea to drink. Compared to Chinese and Japanese green teas, there’s less of the vegetal and umami taste you typically encounter. I could see a resemblance to genmaicha in its toasted corn notes. I prefer grassier green teas so I won’t be seeking out this tea in the future, but it’s worth sampling to experience the unique flavor profile of Korean tea.

I got this tea with my last order from What Cha tea. I fancy to try it because it made from unique variety pubilimba native to Vietnam.
And I really fall in love with it!
Malted, soft, warm, gently sweet. Raisins, honey, and fruits in taste.
I brewed it ‘gong fu’style with short steep (in this case you get sweeter and less malt).
Started from 10 sec and added 10 sec on each next step.
One of my favorite hong cha!

Here’s Hoping Teabox – Round Seven- Tea #26
A very light brew in flavor, though the brew is darker in color than a typical oolong. There is more flavor here than other purple teas I tried before. The note is definitely of plums that I like to find in teas. PLUM The second cup was probably steeped at too hot a temp and the plum was gone, more earthy in flavor, though still light. Going to journal this, I noticed it was on my wish list! Cool, a wish list tea in the teabox!

I can’t really place the smell of this tea. It tastes kind of like a spice cupboard, you know the mixture of all these different smells and powders. The first wash is crazy, it has a wonderful front but the back is astounding it tastes like you opened a pack of sugar and then poured it into your mouth. While that was happening however you also decided to caramelized that sugar in your mouth. This tea doesn’t exactly have huigan but it’s almost like it. This tea is aromatic to the nose but not in the mouth. Crazy cinnamon sweetness to this tea. This tea is super-ceding all of my expectations.

So, I am finally getting to a tea that was finished less than a week ago. Isn’t everyone proud of me? I ended up buying a sample of this tea and rushed to try it ahead of schedule because I was intrigued by What-Cha’s description of it. It was presented as a low cost first flush Darjeeling “with vibrant floral notes and an apricot finish.” Not only did that sound lovely to me, but the Gopaldhara Estate has such a reputation for quality and consistency that I was eager to see how one of their lower end teas would compare to some of their rightfully lauded luxury products. All in all, this was not a bad first flush tea in the least, though I did find it to be significantly less refined and less flavorful than some of Gopaldhara’s higher end teas.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped about 3 grams of loose leaf material in approximately 8 ounces of 194 F water for 5 minutes. I did not attempt any subsequent infusions.

Prior to infusion, I noted subtle aromas of Muscatel, herbs, straw, and grass. After infusion, I found aromas of straw, grass, Muscatel, herbs, and hay. In the mouth, I noted fairly delicate flavors of herbs, cream, butter, grass, straw, hay, apricot, Muscatel, violet, dandelion, pine, almond, and spinach. The finish was smooth, yet fleeting. I noted very subdued impressions of cream, pine, Muscatel, grass, and flowers that did not linger all that long in the mouth after the swallow. I failed to note apricot on the finish. Maybe it was just me.

As stated above, this was not a bad first flush tea. I recall trying several other first flush teas from Gopaldhara and I recall them striking me as being somewhat hit or miss. At this point, I suppose I just tend to naturally favor their summer and autumn flush teas. Overall, this tea displayed admirable complexity compared to some other Darjeeling teas I have tried at or near this price point, but it did not display enough strength or longevity for my taste. Still, I could see this being a decent daily drinker or an adequate introduction to first flush Darjeelings.

Here’s another one from the backlog, though this one is more recent. I finished a sample pouch of this tea a little over a week ago and forgot to promptly post a review here. Judging from the product description on What-Cha’s website, this was a favorite of the Assam teas they have sourced recently. Personally, I found it to be a very solid, appealing tea, though I am still not entirely certain I would place it alongside some of my favorite Assam teas.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped about 3 grams of loose leaf material in approximately 8 ounces of 203 F water for 5 minutes. I did not attempt any subsequent infusions.

Prior to infusion, the loose leaf material emitted pleasantly malty, woody aromas. After infusion, I noted scents of malt, wood, raisin, caramel, and molasses. In the mouth, the liquor presented a nice, mellow mix of malt, cream, caramel, molasses, brown sugar, leather, raisin, black walnut, roasted chestnut, brown toast, and wood notes accompanying a moderate astringency that became somewhat more pronounced on the finish. Oh, and speaking of the finish, I mostly noted lingering touches of wood, cream, and malt in the mouth.

In a lot of ways, I found this to be a rather typical clonal Assam black tea. I did not notice anything odd or remotely out of place. Compared to some of What-Cha’s other Assam offerings, I think I prefer the teas from Prithvi for their full, rich, almost decadent maltiness and the tea recently sourced from Kanoka for its quirkiness. Still, this was a very nice example of a proper Assam black tea. I could see it making a rock solid daily drinker and/or a great introduction to quality Assam teas.

1st steeps 15 sec plus 5 seconds per steep. Nice roasted smell with bread coming from the wet leaf. The steep brewed up with not a ton of flavor but with a really nice sweetness. The sweetness coming at the end tastes like pure sugar. A nice soft maltiness, not too much like in some assamicas. Some wonderful fruitiness coming in the front like baked bananas and roasted apples. Very nice filling tea.

The chocolatey taste reminds me a little of the Shan Tuyet tea I just reviewed. This is a little milder, and the flavors are subtle. It smells and tastes almost toasted, and like many of the teas I like, is gently sweet. I just finished my sample and will likely order more. I like this one a lot as an afternoon tea, because of its mild flavor.

Found this old “Dark Matter” sample the other day and figured I’d brew it up. The leaves had a bit of a honey, roasty aroma. Pretty sweet smelling.

The tea was thick and a bit floral, with a pretty nice honey note throughout the session. As I progressed, the tea started to taste just a bit rough/sour, likely due to the roasting. It would probably be better with a year or two more rest. Also might have helped to brew with slightly cooler water.

This tea was alright, but I’d definitely go for a good roasted TW oolong over this. Or maybe Red Buffalo if you’re set on something a little different.