What-Cha

Here is another tea that I have been meaning to review for some time. I bought this one during the second half of last year, but I don’t remember precisely when. I finally tried it for the first time last night, finishing the remainder of my 10 gram sample this morning. I found it to be a quality oolong highly reminiscent of Taiwanese Gui Fei.

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 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, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of dates, raisins, spices, honey, and roasted almonds. After the rinse, scents of osmanthus, peach, apricot, apple, butter, malt, and wood emerged. In the mouth, I picked up on notes of honey, osmanthus, apricot, dates, raisins, malt, butter, roasted almonds, and wood underscored by gentle spice, apple, and peach flavors. Subsequent infusions saw the spice notes separate into distinct impressions of cinnamon and nutmeg while the wood notes became reminiscent of cedar and pine. Impressions of rose, brown sugar, vanilla, and minerals also began to express themselves on the nose and in the mouth. The later infusions were milder, offering lingering notes of minerals, butter, malt, almond, vanilla, and wood balanced by increasingly distant impressions of honey, peach, osmanthus, dates, and rose.

Both extremely approachable and surprisingly complex, this oolong made for a great late morning/early afternoon session. I appreciated its strength and the tenacity of its aroma and flavor components. If you are a fan of traditional Taiwanese bug-bitten oolongs, I’m willing to bet you would also appreciate this tea.

Sample from crowkettle this is a pretty tasty oolong. Not a roasty sort of tea – instead it’s sweet, honey like, fruit notes etc.. not a super complex oolong but relatively tasty overall.

Ugh sad to see this one go. Brought it with me on vacation and managed to finish the bag while we were out there. I’ll be adding this back to the wishlist for my next order with whatcha as this is a great tea.

Final Count: 31 (15 teas, 16 puerh)

snailey snail makes me happy. need more of this.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm so happy this one is back in my cupboard. Delicious chocolatey, malty snailey goodness. Honestly. Yum. Bumping my rating up on this one because i am a fan even more so this time…

Thanks again for this one crowkettle it was on my wish list to try so that’s great. I am a fan of this one, having had a couple cups of it yesterday. When i get around to placing another what-cha order this one will be on it

i drank this yesterday and it was a happy day..but then i had to deal with my foot and forgot to write a note. So more to come because crowkettle gave me enough for a couple cups! :)

This tea is really yummy first of all. The dry leaf looks quite like a longjing with a yellower purple tint. The wet leaves smell quite a bit like a high quality sencha. It steeps quite a bit like a nice sencha but with more sweetness and depth to it. It’s a little more fruity and has more complexity then a sencha. This is a pretty rare tea that is hard to find and is quite yummy.

The first thing that I got from this tea that surprised me was the sweetness. It’s not a standard sweetness like honey or sugar but rather a pleasant softness. It tastes very much like the Fujian. There is pretty much no astrigincy in this tea which makes it extremely pleasant to just drink normally. At the end it does sip in with a bit of honey that is extremely pleasant. This tea is really yummy especially for super reasonable price this is definitely going on my wishlist for a daily drinker.

Prep: 60cc gaiwan, enough tea to cover the bottom of the gaiwan, boiling water, steep x1 then let it sit with the gaiwan lid on for 5 minutes so the leaves open up. Then 10s, 15s, 20s, etc..
Sessions with this tea: 8

Taste: Ok a lot of people are describing specific notes for this tea. There is maybe a vaguely citrusy opening note and a vaguely nutty note after you swallow. Later steeps have a more vegetal note, lettucey.

Body: thick, coating, pleasant

Overall pleasant.

Sipdown :(

Hopefully, I’ll get the chance to order more in 2019. I don’t necessarily drink it often, but it’s one of the teas I reach for when I can’t decide which style or variety I want (why not both a black and a white tea?). The Rhino is a secret saviour for the indecisive.

(2017 Harvest)

This one is such a joy to drink- a white tea that’s versatile enough to convince the sleepy drinker that it’s something much darker. I compiled my top teas of recent years and this one easily makes the exclusive list. It’s too bad my pouch is starting to look a little light because an order with What-Cha is not in the cards until end of summer. Hoarding is happening. Good thing I have about 70 other teas to drink (they don’t compare at all)…

(2017 harvest)

It goes without saying that this is my birthday tea pot to myself. It’s the best, and I’m so glad I have it in my life right now.

(2017 Harvest)

Pure goodness in a cup. This tea is the sole reason I placed an order with What-Cha in the first place; It’s amazing when I can pick up my old Butiki favourites elsewhere!

People have written some awesome notes on this tea already, so I won’t go into too much detail here. This tea has a stimulating mix of sweet (honey, caramel, lemon) and savoury (malt, sourdough, sweet potatoes). It’s pretty special and I totally recommend it to people, especially those who think white tea is a one trick pony. The Rhino has some surprising black tea characteristics.

Steep Count: 5

(2017 Harvest)