What-Cha

A consistent winner from What-cha and a great tea to introduce anyone into Taiwan oolongs. This has been a staple in my pantry for a couple of years now and I am still not tired of it. I like that the mouth feel ramps up quickly.
Full review at Tea Spren http://wp.me/p6ZNcy-z

I’m winding down with a gongfu session for the evening. I’m currently craving a 1st Flush Darjeeling, but since I don’t have any this does well in a pinch!

Tonight I’m getting the usual smooth cup with orange/grapefruit tang, but also some juicy pear and cucumber notes I didn’t notice before. It’s slightly more floral than I remember it being. It’s also almost.. smoky? But not quite. Hop-like notes linger on the tongue. The citrusy profile makes it a deceivingly good palate-cleanser!

Steep Count: 4 (plus 1 1/2 of the western steeped mug my mother didn’t finish. Not wasting this tea).

Liquid Colour: soft pastel yellow (gongfu) to vibrant sunshine yellow (western)

(2016 Harvest)

This one’s a beauty and right up my alley. This silver oolong has a profile that I adore in white, green, and some Darjeeling teas. The flavour is a touch floral, which is carried through in the aroma, with a strong “muscatel” presence (flowery, grapey, citrus, fruity, sweet). Even with the tangy citrus notes, It’s a pretty smooth, almost silky, cup.

I’m only on steep two but I can see myself drinking this all day and night; this is yet another offering from Watch-Cha teas to give me that compulsion. Only downside is now I don’t want to drink my flavoured dessert teas. The natural flavours in these are fantastic enough, and I can actually taste tea!

Steep Count: 4

(2016 Harvest)

I’ve been waiting a while to review this because this was the more tricky oolong to brew out of all the ones I had from What-Cha, and I swear the leaves got weaker over time. Feel free to correct me, Alistair.

I cut the cake in half the first time starting off gong fu with steeps of 45 sec and up. I got something that was certainly similar to a Dong Ding with a banana walnut thing going into each steep. I thought it was interesting that the other two reviews mentioned coconut and cherry. I definitely got the coconut in the smooth texture, and a little bit of cherry in the aftertaste, but those flavors were not the pronounced to me. The tea was on the light side, but it had a pronounced light orange color and yielded about six cups.

I kept on experimenting with it, and the results were not what I expected. I brewed a whole cake in a Gaiwan and then in a much larger pot, and both times, the tea tasted and smelled far different from how I had it before. I got a drying walnut skin mouth feel and a weird charred up banana in the aftertaste-but even then, the brew felt more like water with a slight difference.

I tried a third of the cake, and the brew was weak with little water gong fu and even western in the gaiwan. As for tumblering it, I only got a weird subtle plantain taste amidst texture water.Sometimes, I felt like I was drinking warm milk. After all this, I decided that the only ways this tea works is through Alistair’s instructions of 1/2 cake for 1-2 minutes or 1/2 cake western just under boiling in an 8 ounce cup for two minutes. I get the subtle fruit flavors I like that way, but again, the fruit notes along with any previous florals have slowly dissipated. The flavors also dissipate quickly as it cools down.

Though I was extremely critical of this tea (I do not think I’ve given to a 80 to What-Cha’s oolongs EVER), it was a good oolong anyway. The roast allowed for the tea to not have the vegetal spinach taste that so many green oolongs are apt to, and it did have some very unique subtle fruit notes that you can find in a few other oolongs.

Brewed this one more like a Oolong so 195 degrees with shortish steeps in the beginning. The end of this tea is quite sweet and tastes quite like caramel and smoke on the front notes it tastes sort of like a roasted genmaicha or something along those lines. Great tea of nice quality but not much my style.

If you like roasted teas then this is a pretty good option for you. Compared to some of the other dark roasted stuff that I have had this one has more flavor besides what comes from the roasting. The first couple steeps is where I tasted a lot of the roast but the later steeps were better in my opinion with more of the honey and fruity notes coming out.

My baby is now restocked! yesss… I literally just finished off the last of the old batch yesterday so the delivery gods will be lavished with praise today. Also doubles as a nice reward for submitting a paper today. So many happy coincidences.

Everything is more vibrant than my 2018 batch; the aroma, the colour, the starchy taste… I’m looking forward to getting to know the the 2020 version of this tea better.

Steep Count: 2 + ongoing

(spring 2020 harvest)

Here’s another tea that’s gone on practically untouched since buying it back in 2018, despite loving it a lot. I just stopped drinking it as a got more and more stressed over the last year and a half? Some teas are meant to be savoured and not chugged in sleep deprived desperation, I guess.

Since I ordered some of the 2020 harvest I figured now is the time to drink up and enjoy this batch.

Aroma of steeped tea is lovely as always, invoking both a delicious and hot chocolate caramel fudge brownie as well as dusty cocoa powder. First steep is brisker than the the second and third, with a bright pine or citrusy orange peel finish more apparent (this is a nice note if you like chocolate orange-like desserts). There’s a bit of pepper and cinnamon too, I swear. I don’t remember tasting all of these notes in my earlier harvest batch from yesteryear (sweet potato and chocolate were my main takeaways).

Also, it’s a shame steepster doesn’t allow us to remove the old broken images. This is a pretty tea. Edit: and the broken image is gone! Hurrah!

Steep Count: 3, plus a short rinse

(spring 2018 harvest)

I’ve come to the conclusion this tea is too good for office life. It can handle abuse (uncertain temp and loooong steep time) but does it deserve it?

I’m down to about two servings left, and now the dream of The Good Life with black tea is uncertain. I want to put off ordering from What-Cha until some other teas are in stock/I can justify it financially and tea cupboard-wise.

(2017 spring harvest)

Where I’m at currently doesn’t have a temperature variant kettle so this is almost exclusively what I’ve been drinking every day- except for my commute travel mug, which permanently tastes and smells like Jin Xuan Milk Oolong types and will never be able to hold anything else.

My sister left the leaves in the pot for at least an hour, yet somehow this tea persisted in tasting delicious and amazing. The world is too good for this tea. Will have to gift some of this to my sis and her special tea brewing style; it won’t punish her for being late all the time!

Steep Count: 2

(2017 spring harvest)

This kept me alive at the office today but I think I needed more. I’m fading quickly now.. I will make it stronger next time, and won’t feel so bad about sharing because I see What-Cha has the latest harvest of this and my precious Thailand Sticky Rice Oolong in stock. Just waiting on the Taiwan Li Shan Oolong Tea and maybe the Imperial Brandy Oolong (please come back this year); I want to try those two a lot!

(2017 spring harvest)

Argh!!!

Someone spilled water over my brand new, 100g packet of this but I think it’s ok. The inside sheen coating protected it… I hope.

It tastes alright for now. Just goes to show there is no point in hoarding tea. :(

(2017 spring harvest)

I was showing some teas to my sister (Red Rose aficionado) for her upcoming bridal shower tea party, and she decided she liked this one very much. The snails have charm- which is too bad for me because it means I must do without them for a few days. These are the sacrifices sisters make for each other.

The upside is I found out that this is surprisingly tasty with milk (my sister must have milk in her tea or it isn’t tea, apparently).

(2017 spring harvest)

I’m in a pretty volatile place, as far as black teas go. Practically none of them are working for me right now, yet I crave them at this time of the year. I’ve become largely indifferent to the cocoa-malt profiles of a lot of the Chinese varieties and Assam’s astringent raisins.

This is one of the very few exceptions to my current apathy. I don’t know why, since it’s one of those aforementioned Chinese cocoa-malt teas, but there is just something about it that takes me in. It’s possibly the powdered sugar aroma it exudes while steeping, or perhaps it’s the lovely dichotomy of rich, deep notes with the smooth, light quality of the “broth.” I don’t know. until I find the motivation to rebuild my black tea palate I’m going to desperately cling to it though.

Running out of this, along with the Thailand Sticky Rice Oolong, had me reordering from What-Cha a lot sooner than I had planned; I wasn’t going to bother until I ran out of the Kenyan White Rhino too, but these two teas somehow snuck up on me and became an essential part of my routine.

Steep Count: 4

(2017 spring harvest)

I’ve let the tea world slip away from me again. I have a parcel to send out +3mo late (I’m so sorry), and a whole lot of tea starting to look neglected instead of just feeling it. My weak excuse? It’s been hot and smokey.

PSL marketing and the salvation of cooler weather is a nice wake-up call to get back on the tea-wagon. Also, I’m back in classes so caffeine is essential again (Hurrah…).

I just wish I wasn’t starting this new season with a sipdown of this nectar of the gods. This is about the time of the year where I realize I have too much green tea and not enough chai, cold remedies, puerh, and black tea.

Steep Count: 2

(2017 spring harvest)

April 24th, 2017

I found the Real Tea. All other teas are a lie.

On a serious note, this is the best chocolatey, raisin bread Chinese black tea I’ve had in a long time, although that’s not as impressive a feat as it sounds. I’ve also never come across a Yunnan black I’ve not enjoyed, so I’m pretty biased.

There are additional notes of yam/sweet potato, and a starchy, honey-like sweetness that I associate with beer malt processing- specifically saccharification, and the delicious “sweet wort” produce.

The aroma of the brew is smooth chocolate/cocao, malt, and something “bright”. It’s contrastive to the dry leaf smell which is full throttle (brisk) cocoa/malt aroma.

Steep Count: 3

Second steep really brought out the piquancy. It’s a textural, back-of-the-throat kind of sensation. And here I thought this Yunnan wasn’t going to throw me a pepper! Due to the overall sweetness of the tea, my brain translates the spice to a convincing cinnamon.

(2017 spring harvest)

This tea was sent to me to review for the Sororitea Sisters blog, and I reviewed it not long ago. I am finishing the sample today and still have the same reaction.

Hazelnut NOTES or hazelnut flavor added. Gotta be flavored added. (Picks up packer and checks.) Nope, hazelnut notes. Are they sure? Isn’t this hazelnut flavored? Like….added flavor? (Checks package again.) Nope. Still says hazelnut and mango taste.

That is how hazelnutty this tastes, guys. I don’t really eat mango, but I probably should since I don’t detect anything that I think is what mango would taste like, but I do know hazelnut and that is the main thing I am getting from this tea.

Super good and super flavorful. I have had yellow tea before and it was super subtle. And yes, apparently this is just how it really tastes. What a fun tea to try!

I’m nearing the end of my stash and decided it was about time I rated this tea. This is my second What-Cha darjeeling, and my first second flush darjeeling…almost a tongue twister there. I enjoyed the first flush and this is its fruitier, more robust sibling.

The tea steeps a nice amber and orange color. Like the first flush, its pleasantly woodsy evoking colorful autumn leaves. Mild yet full bodied with a crisp frutiness and hints of spice. It leaves behind a soft bite in the mouth and throat as it washes down. This isn’t astringent and rather enjoyable once you get used to it. The oxidation flavor is stronger but without the malt of a typical black tea.

How did I forget that I have 100g of this sitting in my cupboard? Shame.

I’m bumping up the rating on this one because, while it’s flavour profile is not dynamic, it’s one of the most consistent and trustworthy teas in my arsenal. There aren’t many teas that I can resteep all day without a second thought (besides Milk Oolong and friends, + puerhs).

Steep Count: 3

(spring 2018 harvest)

Yes, my travel mug permanently smells like this now. Everyone in the office thought I had popcorn with butter. Disappointments abound. For them.

(2017 spring harvest)

Oh, FML. Writing a bogus Formal Recommendation Report for a situation and person that aren’t real. Please send me back to the department of History, where papers make orderly sense (Ok, Legal Admin is alright and practical, but this req Professional Communications academia class is dreadful).

I’m not sure if I should sleep and feel rested for my early morning exam and the brunt of the paper writing tomorrow, or if I should pull an all-nighter in the hopes that I can finish it in the next 9hrs.. I’m too old for this.

Either way, this tea shall be my friend. Hello, tea (this is what sleep deprivation looks like and it is not positively correlated with work productivity).

Steep count: 2

(2017 spring harvest)

I’ve been steeping the same bunch of leaves for over a day now, and they are still bursting with flavour at the 2 min steep mark. I’m in the good tea place.

So glad I reordered more; I was starting to forget how obsessed I was/am with it. It’s also neat to note a slight difference in harvests. My new packet is from this year’s harvest, and, for the moment, it’s coming across as less buttery but more potent (fresh?) and creamy. This may also be accounted for in an adjustment of steeping parameters though (steeping it at 85C instead of 90C).

Steep Count: +8

(2017 spring harvest)

Sad sipdown, that now puts me in dilemma on whether or not I want to place a premature order at What-Cha or to wait a couple sad months without this tea. I’d have to speed through the White Rhino or Golden Snail, or suddenly fixate on trying that Rose Jin Xuan. Mm, rose cream (I’ve already vividly imagined this future tea drinking experience).

On Sticky Rice: I’ve decided that, while this is a casual drinker, the unique savoury flavour also makes this somewhat of a mood tea. I’m usually in the mood but sometimes I’m not. If I neglect the early steeps it can get a little too vegetal for my tastes. That’s why this doesn’t quite make it into my 91-100 flawless teas, despite the copious amount of notes I’ve written.

Steep Count: 3

Three steepings was about my average across the board but this tea can easily handle 5-6 when I’m committed. It helps that at 90C, I can steep it at 45s start and be completely satisfied with the flavour; What-Cha recommends 1-2min but I’m a flavour wimp.

(2016 fall harvest)

I noticed today that I’m coming near to the end of my packet here. I drink this guy a lot, and want to gush about it endlessly (much to the concern and confusion of friends and fam), so I guess it was to be expected. Still disappointed that this oolong isn’t self-replenishing.

The weather here was gorgeous today, so I took this to-go with me for a long walk along the beach, and then enjoyed some extra steeps in the afternoon on the patio. Practically perfect.

There isn’t much more to add about this tea that I haven’t said elsewhere. I do love that when the oolong unfurls, the leaves are a Frankensteinian assortment of colours (dark vibrant green, pale green). It’s like they are the scraps of unwanted oolong leftovers that have been baptized and reborn in sticky rice glory. How can you not love them?

Steep Count: 3

A small fly drowned in my third cup, and it was the tea tragedy of the month.

(2016 fall harvest)