What-Cha

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Tea was a much needed sanity break during super loud family gathering. Plus it soothed my stomach after eating way too many sweets. Floral and soft.

Long, twisty leaves with light gold tips. Smells hay and sweet. 4g, 100ml gaiwan, 198F

10s- strong floral aroma, sugar snap pea, sweet, buttery, floral aftertaste. Floral taste is strong and distinct, but I couldn’t figure out what I’d liken it to.
20s- floral, little bit of green, pea. Though, it’s a black tea, it reminds me a good deal of a greener oolong based on flavor profile and way steeped leaves look.
30s- floral, dry at tip of tongue, green, vegetal
40s- floral, pretty dry. Enough that I backed off steep time for the last two steeps
20s – sweeter, less dry
20s- floral, but fading

The tea opens with a gentle woodsy note, followed by light honey and a hint of indistinct fruit. The finish is fairly smooth and without bitterness. I am most reminded of Oriental Beauty, and this compares favorably.

Clean, floral, slightly dry

Softly textured as it coats the mouth, this unscented Jin Xuan delivers with its clear note of sweet, fresh milk and a considerably subtler hint of mango that fades into a vegetal butteriness.

The initial sip is toasted malt, quickly yielding to honeyed sweet cream and a delightful note of cinnamon that becomes more prevalent in the aftertaste. Smooth, reasonably thick, and very satisfying.

The bergamot is sweet and perfumed, but not cloyingly so, and in balance with the light malt of the black tea base. Clean tasting and smooth, without any harsh additives; simply the oil and tea.

The leaf from this tea looks quite similar to the other Malawi oolong I’ve tried – the Father Zambezi’s Mission oolong. Green with lots of visible redness evincing the partial oxidation of the tea. I got this in a swap with JK7Ray on reddit.

This one was pretty interesting. Started out with some light malty and fruity notes. I got a hint of cinnamon in one of the early steeps. By the third steep, the fruity notes started seeming like green grape to me. Through the meat of the session, this tea had a nice and refreshing brisk taste to it. Malty with slight floral notes and a crisp fruit finish, mostly the green grapes. For a couple steeps, the fruitiness acquired a bit of sourness which made it seem more like raisins to me.

Looking at other reviews, I can see how people might taste some tropical fruitiness in this one. I didn’t get pineapple or mango from it, but the sourness could make it seem a little tropical. Good tea either way.

Backlog. Sipdown.

Nice while it lasted, but not a repurchase. Apricot, smooth, silky. Nectarines/stone fruits come out more in aftertaste.

Dry – hay, fruit, unevenly sized pearls
4g, 170F
Rinse – apricot
10s- apricot, nectarines
20s – still fruity, pearls still intact
30s – incredibly fruity
45s – fruity, I broke up pearls with my fingers because they weren’t unraveling in the relatively cool water.
1, 1.5, 2, 3 ,5 min – continued to be very fruity, but a little one note.

Might try this with a little hotter water to see if the pearls unravel faster while still maintaining flavor.

Yummy stuff, having it for breakfast today. Im unsure if I’ve had Wenshan before, but I’ve had tea from Taipei so maybe.

Sweet pea, butter, grass, florals in the the initial steeps leading into sweet pea & a little spinach. Drinking gongfu ive been getting quite a few steeps out of it throughout the day & as the butter faded it stayed flavourful becoming more sweet pea & spinach as the day went on, ive actually lost count now how many ive had by now but its nice & long lasting & has a lovely flower petal sweetness to it.

Im still getting a floral aroma of some kind but I dont know what it is. Also fresh cut grass & fresh fruit & veg & petals. Its all just very nice fresh things.

Really nice longevity (ive almost done a litre out of 5g) & I love the subtle florals. Great stuff, nicely priced compared to the high grown but similar tasting teas

Refined dark malt immediately hits the palate and transitions to notes of cocoa, smoked meat, and leather. There is no sweetness here, only savory qualities. This would normally put me off, but the flavors blend well together, and the finish is very smooth.

A slight oiliness on the tongue leads into a distinct note of peach cream and somewhat overripe honeybell orange, but without any acidity. The aftertaste is mildly drying and has a buttery green floral character that lingers. Enjoyable.

Light, sweet malt with a hint of citrus. Completely lacking in bitterness, this tea seems impossible to oversteep; it’s soft, smooth, and quite pleasing.

From Dark Matter. The first time I tried this tea I didn’t use nearly enough leaf, and was left with just 2 grams for a second round. Poor leaf management on my part.

So I tried western style steeping in about 4 oz of boiling water for 5 minutes and had a very nice cup of tea. Smooooth, mellow and just malty enough. It’s on the sweeter end of the spectrum, but I don’t notice raisin like others have. Very comforting cup on a cloudy morning.

Gentle and smooth. Very light fruitiness reminiscent of plum, with a honey aftertaste that becomes more noticeable as the tea cools. This was my second favorite of the Georgian teas available from What-Cha, and I found it comforting.

So I’ve been holding off on reviewing this one since I wanted to try it a few times before coming to a conclusion on it. Having now done so, I would say that this is a very solid oolong if you’re a fan of the darker, roastier flavors of oolong backed by rich caramel flavors and honey sweetness (which I definitely am).

I generally went with boiling water on all of these, or a little under because I am lazy and look at how dark this thing is, it’s not going to mind a little boiling water. Having played with leaf amount, this definitely benefits from over leafing and tastes a little overwhelmingly roasty if you oversteep (which I may have done due to not enough leaf) and loses a lot of the more delicate sweet notes. Still delightfully complex and layered, though, reminds me a bit of an excellent, baklava with much less sugar and honey and generous with the roasted nuts on top. The brewing is also forgiving, although you can certainly make it too intense if you forget about it.

With the warm profile, this tea would be extremely comforting any time boiling hot tea would be welcome, so I will be stocking up on this once I run out and I give myself clearance to buy more tea, haha.

Unfortunately, no brandy involved in making this tea. =P

This tea smells amazing – the dry leaves have a sweet flowery aroma. I brewed this gongfu style 1tsp (my scale died… =( ) in 120mL starting at 10s. The first three steeps were super strong. It tasted exactly like described – like honey and molasses. There was also a slight flower aftertaste. The later steeps were fainter, but still tasted like I was drinking honey. I will have to also try this western style!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIX6oFKBNfz
Bunny was a fan of this tea too! https://www.instagram.com/p/BIX60dAhenL/

Cold Brew!

This is one of three teas I brought with me on a trip to visit my Grandma this weekend; the other two were hot teas and I thought it might be nice to have a cold option to drink in between the two. It’s worth note, that this got a VERY long cold brew time because I had actually forgotten it was going in the fridge; so it steeped for like three whole days!? I know, I know – shame on me, and my mother, and my mother’s mother and my cow…

I did inspect the liquor closely for ropes of bacteria though, just to make sure it was all good since it had been brewing so long – it wasn’t cloudy at all, and there was nothing to indicate it wouldn’t be good to drink.

Flavour wise, it was really nice! Very, very smooth with some great range flavour wise. Notably, it was very honey like with red fruit undertones and an overall sweetness. I did think there there were elements that were a little more vegetal or indicative of a greener oolong though that I’ve not necessarily experienced with this tea in the past. For example, it also had notes of saline, mineral, and zucchini! The body was also quite grain like; not quite bread but well, you know? Hopefully, you know what I mean – anyway…

I don’t know; I’m a little less enamored with this one that I originally was but I still really enjoy it and I appreciate how it’s got this really nice range of flavour and is just so smooth, no matter how you make it!

One more review ‘cause my queue is getting ridiculous, but then I think I better use the sleep because this is looking to be like the fifth day in a row where I’ve gotten less than five hours of sleep at night…

- Cold Brewed, and consumed at Job #2
- Shared it with a coworker who I know has an appreciation for straight teas
- She really liked the fruity notes; she described them as strawberry like
- Red Fruit undertones; don’t entirely agree with “strawberry” but it’s along those lines
- With a light, bright cream/honey top notes
- And body notes of lightly roasted nuts
- Very smooth, medium bodied “easy drinking” tea; good for thoughtless consumption

Commute tea!

Drank this one Western style on my way to work today; normally I kind of like to zone out on my bus ride while sipping on my tea and just use that time to slowly wake up/gain alertness but I found myself really drawn in and focused on this one as I tried to decipher what felt a bit like a puzzle, in regard to the flavour.

The clearest of the flavours in this cup was the honey – it ran smoothly all throughout every part of each sip and was one big, beautiful connecting flavour. However, the fruit notes going on in this cup were just crazy! I felt like I got such a giant, intimidating range of flavour throughout different sips. I mean, in no particular order I experienced raisins, plums, peach, dark cherries, fig, apple, and dried fruit leather all as distinct and identifiable flavours. Specifically the plum was the most consistent of these notes though. Alongside the fruit jumble was a really delicate floral undertone. Finally, the finish was a bit of a soft caramel sweetness and a touch of muted cocoa.

I’m very happy I got a larger amount of this one because I’m just so fascinated by the range of flavour I got – especially from a Western style mug. I mean, Gong Fu I’d understand such a weird flavour evolution a lot more but this was just… unique.

Sipdown (137)!

I feel like I’m a little late to the hype train when it comes to this tea but oh well…

Had a very pleasant fifteen infusion gong fu session with this tea after getting back from filling out passport information today. Trey had a friend over and the two of them sat with me during my session and we had a very intense conversation about American politics throughout so no tea and music pairings for this session the few people who regularly read my tasting notes all collectively breathe a sigh of relief. In the same vain, I didn’t take my normal amount of notes while drinking this either because I was with company and I can’t ever really let them know how insane I am when it comes to tea. If I whipped out my laptop or a pad of paper to take physical notes then Trey would NEVER let me live it down. Also, just because I was talking politics doesn’t mean I want to talk politics now: I firmly believe talking about politics is important but it also gives me a headache because of all the stupid shit going on. And, for me at least, this tea community is my moment of peace/zen during the day – so the fewer headaches the better.

So, from memory…

Infusions one to four(ish) were a bit rougher; they had a very mild sort of roast to them, and underlying honey notes. Kind of what I originally interpreted as a wood flavour; but now that I’m thinking on it more consciously it’s a bit more like the smell of crunchy autumn leaves. Which, I know, makes NO sense as a flavour but that’s EXACTLY what it is. Fucking poetic flavour descriptors being so… poetic.

Infusions four to like eight(ish) were much lighter on the already light roast notes and then eventually not even really roasty at all. Lots of mild sweetness/honey though! But not really just honey; also kind of an agave like flavour, which is to say it tasted just a tiny bit caramel like/caramelized. Underlying fruit flavors such as raisin and lemon/lemon peel. All quite soft in terms of presence, though.

Infusions eight to fifteen were so delicate overall. Still a lot of honey in regard to flavour, just very lightly delivered in the sip. Finish was just the slightest bit lemony which was nice alongside the honey notes. Infusions twelve and thirteen were given to Trey and Gauge (Trey’s friend who was over talking politics with us) and they both found it very lovely although weren’t able to isolate any flavour notes. I’m not surprised; infusions fourteen and fifteen were SO soft to me that the flavour was barely detectable at all. Had I pushed for a sixteenth infusion I’m certain it would have just tasted like water.

Overall, very much liked this tea – it’s not often I push for so many infusions when brewing Gong Fu. I am surprised that I barely registered the “creamy” flavour that so many seemed to have observed. But the honey aspect was definitely DEAD on. There weren’t really any infusions that lacked that flavour.

EDIT: Also forgot to mention that my small Bitterleaf tea order came today so I got to enjoy this session using one of my new teacups. This probably isn’t the best place for a teaware review, but…

This is the cup in question: https://www.bitterleafteas.com/shop/teaware/cookies-and-cream-partial-glaze-teacup

I have to say that it’s just a BEAUTIFUL cup aesthetically speaking. I loved the way the liquor looked in the teacup, and the glaze itself is so charming and perfectly named. It’s also well balanced in my opinion, and sits very nicely which IS something I was concerned about because of the shape of the base. Only complaints are pretty small all things considered: it’s pretty heavy as far as other cups in my collection go, which is a very small thing. The other thing is that the ‘lip’ of the cup is very thick and it felt just a smidgen awkward drinking out of.

But that said, I still want like four more, so…

Whoa, I totally understand why this tea is so highly rated and popular! It’s amazing! I didn’t want to wait for the tea to cool before tasting, so I I took a sip with a spoon, and before I realized, I had sipped almost half of the cup! I taste honey, butter, and cream. There’s a floral aftertaste that has me going “mmmm.”

Unfortunately, this tea doesn’t re-steep too well – I was only able to get 2 steeps (1 and 2 min) out of it. However, this is definitely going on my re-purchase list!

This is good cold brewed. Go light on the leaves though. The buttery thing is the same, but some missed out florals and a hint of fruit notes come through nicely.