What-Cha

Dark malt and moderate bitterness up front, with notes of raisins, black grapes, and dried apricots arriving in the aftertaste. This is a fairly enjoyable tea, though it requires care to avoid oversteeping.

The first thing I notice with this tea is just how amazing the leaves look, they are nicely shaped and quite light and fuzzy. This tea has a nice woody aroma with a hint of sweetness. The tea brews up pretty light and has a really pleasant grassy flavor with a woody/sweet finish. Overall I really enjoyed this tea but perhaps I could of brewed it for longer as it was a tad light for my taste.

Dark malt and rye bread are the dominant flavors here, with a moderately bitter bite and a slightly smoky finish. This tea is distinctively Keemun, but quite strong and unrefined.

This tea has a velvety texture and hits with an immediate burst of charcoal, spicy and ever so slightly sweet, and the smooth roasted aftertaste has a unique peat smokiness to it. Highly suggestive of houjicha, but with more depth of flavor. Wonderful.

Syrupy and thick on the tongue, and possessing a beautifully mellow quality without a trace of bitterness. There is a slightly acidic earthiness at first, but an indistinct sweetness takes over soon after and unfolds into cherry cobbler and honey, lingering on these lovely notes for quite some time. Delicious, and my current favorite among What-Cha’s Georgian teas.

This tea has such an incredible robustness and richness of flavor that its lack of complexity doesn’t matter. It offers an up front burst of dark malt and unsweetened cocoa with staying power and depth, but also a slight bitterness. Very satisfying, and the first tea I would suggest to a coffee drinker.

Backlog, sipdown.
195F, overleafed this to use up all the rest of the leaf – which caused leaf to explode out of the teapot. I’m pretty sure I ended up removing some leaf in order to continue steeping. Probably shouldn’t have overleafed – oh well. It’s gone now.

Nectarine and honey, more floral at a hotter temperature.

Nectarines prominent in this tea. Comes through clearly, consistent and lasting. Nectarines and honey. I should try this cold brewed.

Sweet potatoes and sugarcane are at the forefront, with a soft malt background. This is a smooth and unusually flavorful white tea that dispenses with any subtlety and brings to mind a fruity Dian Hong black, only lighter in body and revealing more overt sweetness.

Perfectly smooth on entry, with a rich dark chocolate flavor hinting at sweetness and closing with a very slight note of mint. The body of this tea is wonderfully thick, and it lacks any form of astringency or bitterness.

Tart and astringent at first, like the skin of a plum before biting into it. This yields to an increasingly sweet plum taste that develops a floral note in the finish, along with a hint of basil. Quite unique.

Soft and silky on the tongue, with a delightfully sweet grassy note as counterpoint to a dark, savory green vegetal character akin to kale or nori. The taste is fresh, slightly tangy, and quite oceanic, reminding me of asamushi sencha or guricha. A very fine tea and one of my new favorites.

Just a really nice tasting dark tea that I found pretty similar to some of the pu’erh In enjoy. It consists of pretty large leaves which give off a nice earthy and wood flavor. This tea is really smooth and can be steeped quite a few times.

This is my first time trying a dark tea other than pu’erh and I can say I’m pretty impressed, this would make a great daily drinking tea for me.

Woodsy and mildly earthy malt with a hint of sweetness. The tea develops a very slight cinnamon note in the finish. Smooth and pleasant.

Smooth malt and a faint hint of caramel sweetness. This tea is simplistic in flavor, but pleasant, with a thick texture and no bitterness whatsoever.

Earth and charcoal toastiness with a mildly bitter edge give way to fragrant spicy wood resin and subdued date-like sweetness in the aftertaste, which has staying power and continually emanates from the back of the throat. A complex and intriguing oolong that evolves as it cools.

Mild fruit and a touch of malt. An apricot note comes out in the drying finish. I found this tea to be somewhat lacking in flavor without a longer steep that also draws out the astringency.

Soft malt and light cocoa are immediately apparent, followed by gentle smokiness and a note of baked bread. This tea is supremely smooth and lacks any rough edges, without seeming weak in flavor or mouthfeel.

This was rather good. Very nice, sweet, and subtle. Would drink again.

Ripe honeydew melon and gentle sugarcane sweetness fill the mouth, transitioning into lingering notes of anise, vanilla bean, and light licorice. Beautifully complex and silky smooth, this is a sublime Silver Needle and one that I would recommend without reservation.

Toasted, lightly buttered corn and a vegetal grassy note dominate the palate. The liquor is thin, but fairly smooth. I found it appealing and was reminded of genmaicha with a strong green tea base.

This is one of the better non-Japanese green teas I’ve had I believe. The leaves are very attractive looking – nice green color and all twisty looking. I used 160F water with 5g tea in my 100mL gaiwan. I could get a good 8 steeps out of this tea.

I got some citric herbal flavors off of this throughout, reminding me of lemongrass and thyme. There was also a nutty flavor, which for about three steeps (3-5) took on a popcorn quality. Lots of popcorn flavored things are gross to me, but this was not. The flavor in general started to fade after about the fifth or sixth steep, but I did still get a few more lightly herbal infusions with some nutty notes alongside. This was a really easy drinking green tea which, when brewed at the recommended temperature, never got at all bitter. I didn’t try it with higher temperatures though, so I’m sure you could make it bitter if you decided to ;)

An overwhelmingly sweet tea. The distinct taste of plums really stood out on the back of my tongue in the early steepings as well as some smoothness to the licqour. Later steepings, the tea left a dry mouth feeling with a less distinct sweetness though still delicious. Lasted nine steepings in my gaiwan before I lost interest in it.
All in all a great tea with a refreshing take on sweetness, though fleeting.

The texture is surprisingly viscous and velvety smooth as it fills the mouth, with a peculiar note of white rice accompanying the typical dry hay of other Silver Needles, and the barest floral hint creeps in during the finish. I find it altogether lacking in sweetness, but still a pleasant cup.