What-Cha

Sunday / Day 1 – White Tea
I’m doing the week of different teas challenge Lion is doing.

The loose tea smells like dry tea leaves and like the inside of a store that sells high end furniture and home décor. The leaves are thin and small, they look like rosemary (no herb or rosemary flavour though) but are light silvery green and have short white hairs.

First steep: 2 minutes, 450 mL of fairly hot water (not boiling)
Steeps very light , almost clear
Smells very sweet and fruity
Tastes like candy and apricot, absolutely delicious and very sweet. I taste light tannins so it does taste like a tea, but it has a natural fruity sweetness I love.

Second steep: 3 minutes hotish water (not boiling)
Smells a bit floral and like white tea
I taste raspberry and apricot, very subtle sweetness, light tannins, delicate and clear tea taste. This is a phenomenal tea, probably the best unflavoured white tea I own.

Great fresh black tea from Nepal, purchased through What-Cha. The tea itself is quite similar in aroma to a fresh first flush Darjeeling black tea. The leaves, however, are whole and thus are a bit more sturdy than a CTC Darjeeling. The flavor is smooth with a bit of crisp astringency, and the aroma intense and satisfying.

From the LiquidProust group buy.
The pearls are quite large, so I was surprised to read on the package instructions to use 3-5 pearls. Nevertheless, I used the average of 4 pearls, so the steeped tea was quite strong and lasted a lot of steeps. Very nice taste, no astringency and quite sweet.

From Dark Matter 2016:

I brewed this in a gaiwan with short steeps. I probably should have looked at recommendations first, but it came out fine. The tea itself smelled strongly just like granola to me. It even tasted like it on the first steep. The next few steeps brought out the roasting flavor and this was just on the edge of being unpleasant for me, but I’m very sensitive to it. Later steeps mellowed out to just toasty as well as having good unroasted oolong flavor. There was also a bit of mineral in there that seemed to fade in an out on what seemed to be based on steeping time.

I’ve been brewing this for a good part of the day now so add “decent staying power” to the list.

Got this as part of a swap with JK7Ray – Thanks! Used 3.2ish g in a 60mL gaiwan with 175 degree water.

This is one of the most intensely aromatic teas I’ve encountered. I was surprised by the aroma the first time around – smelled like cinnamon and fruit, maybe raisins, plums, or apples (that might be cuz of the cinnamon, so my mind went to apple pie). The aroma was incredibly vivid and intense – it seemed like some kind of fresh-baked pastry. I couldn’t wait to see what the tea tasted like. Unfortunately, I was a little bit disappointed, not because it tasted bad, but because the intensity of the flavor didn’t come close to the intensity of the aroma. I got sweet, tangy fruity flavors with the cinnamon barely apparent in the first couple steeps. After that, it had some malty sweetness accompanied by dry fruity notes. The leaves looked like black tea once brewed, but I’m not sure whether that was because they were highly oxidized or due to the fact it was made from a purple varietal.

I tried this tea with 185 degree water as well, but it just muddled the flavors a bit, burying the high notes. I should have tried with almost boiling water too, since it looked like a black tea, but I didn’t. It doesn’t seem to be available on What-cha’s site anymore, and I’m not sure I’d want to buy more of it if it was. Aroma was the best part of this tea by far. I smelled the wet leaves for quite a while. Certainly interesting and I’m glad I got to try it.

I purchased this tea for use in masala chai off of the recommendation of Alistair of What-Cha. It has been great for that. This morning, rather than my typical Yunnan black, I had a hankering for a malty, deep black tea. I remembered I had this on my shelf and tossed a big pinch into my gaiwan. Hitting the leaves with hot water released a plume of malty sweetness. The brew is a deep golden red color that is smooth with deep malty flavor, some sweetness, and almost no astrigency or bitterness. For me, this morning, this tea is hitting the spot.

Backlog from Dark Matter 2016

Yesterday I drank this while studying for this week’s finals. I haven’t had time to sit and thoroughly write reviews, but I have been jotting down notes on the various teas that I’ve been drinking. Unfortunately, I have a short explanation of this tea….

Dark roasted oolong with a sesame, nutty, mineral, and slight floral notes. I enjoy the deep complexity of a roasted oolong tea. The Indonesia Harendong is as complex, unique, and satisfying as I expected it to be just by the way the dry leaf had smelled. I will be purchasing this one in the future.

Note: I was a little biased while trying this oolong. Oolongs have a special place in my heart, since they are what made me into the tea enthusiast that I am today. However, I did find this altogether enjoyable, and will love to have more eventually.

8:10 pm Monday Indianapolis, IN

Sometimes you just really love a tea. I really loved this stuff for whatever reason.

Smelled the malt from the first steep.

Tasted smooth honey and almost sheng puer-like earthiness.

A light, fudgy rich aftertaste.

Right now this is at the top of my to buy black tea list. 100!

The dry leaf is long and twiggy, but somewhat broader across. Some of the dry leaf is so brightly green and wide that it makes me think of a white tea, actually. This is some pretty aesthetically pleasing leaf!

When I first opened the packet of tea, I was greeted by an intensely vegetal aroma that reminded me of Chinese tea. It was buttery and beany, but underneath there was a surprising undertone of sweetness.

I brewed it for 80°C for 2 minutes, as recommended on the package, and that resulted in a tea that was a pale straw green colour. The smell of the brewed tea was pretty similar to the taste of the dry leaf: vegetal, nutty, and buttery, like a dragonwell tea.

This held up upon the first sip, too, but that sweet undertone made comeback — underneath the vegetables and the butter, I sensed an intensely sweet note that, rather than being fruity, reminded me of the neutral, inert sort of sweetness that you get from syrup or icing sugar. Weird!

Full review at: http://booksandtea.ca/2016/05/russia-host-tea-estate-what-cha/

The dry leaf looks long, dark brown, and twiggy, and smells richly of citrus and raisins.

I took about 2 grams (enough for larger mug) and steeped it for 4 minutes at 90°C, as per the instructions on the package.

The resulting tea was a cool umber colour and smelled malty, robust, citrusy, and raisiny. It reminded me of a Ceylon tea, but it wasn’t quite as sharp. The first sip was a surprise, though: it was somewhat thin-tasting, but also floral — it made me think of lychees.

I brewed the remaining leaf in the packet a few weeks later and it was similarly thin, fruity and floral; it reminded me then of cherries.

Full review at: http://booksandtea.ca/2016/05/russia-host-tea-estate-what-cha/

10:55 am Sunday Indianapolis, IN

Reviewing my first tea from the dark matter group buy.

I seem to be getting into the habit of only reviewing a tea when I find something about it that I don’t prefer. I must like being the bad guy ; ) or I am too picky. Or I don’t want to see you get burned if you buy a tea because you read only good reviews, but then are stuck with something you may not like for a reason no one mentioned.

And this tea is the first one I would not recommend. It’s not that bad, but I tasted a very off putting taste in the first couple steeps, which ruined most of the following steeps for me. It could have just been me (my friend enjoyed the tea) or it could have been my batch, as this can happen.

I started off gongfu-ing this for 4 steeps. Then went into 10 min, 20 min, 30 min steeps. I would recommend brewing with western parameters. It made the weird chemically taste that I have tasted before, but can’t describe, seem less noticeable. It was either the roast (is this tea roasted?) or the high level of oxidation. First rounds very noticeable, last three less noticeable. The off flavor never totally went away.

One thing I did like, the smell towards the end was like real oatmeal raisin cookies. I did like that. I plan to experiment more with oxidized and roasted teas in the future.

Sipdown. 4 pearls 8oz. According to the directions I overleafed. I didn’t get much flavor out of these. It was caramel, but not strong. Not what I wanted from this tea. 70

This is a sipdown, but I hate that it’s gone because I love it so much. Please bring this one back instead of that vegetal one you stock now What-Cha, this one is waaay better.

Almost out of this one. I’ve been holding on to it because its so good and no longer available, but it should be consumed soon to make sure I get the most out of my last few cups.

This is just so perfect. Flavours of cocoa, dry grass, grain. Toasty like an oolong, tastes oxidized (similar to a black?), sweetness of a silver needle, umami/buttery like a steamed green. This tea just has it all, and yet it’s quite unique. I’ve never had a yellow like it.

I just love this tea so much.

First steep: 2 minutes, 500 mL almost boiling water.
Steeps a very pretty gold colour and smells like straw and tannins.
Tastes mild and lightly roasted, no bitterness or astringency. I really like how light the flavour is, more like a white tea than a green.Slightly sweet in a toasted grain kind of way.

Second steep 3.5 minutes 500 mL hotish water
Slightly stronger tea flavour but less toasty. Slightly sweet but there is also a tiny bit of cardboard or paper taste. Still not bitter or astringent.

In the future I will make this using more leaves but much less water and much shorter steeps. I could see this giving 10 or so steeps if I was using less water.

This is a very nice toasty, nutty, mellow tea. I do find it a bit weak and unimpressive unless it is steeped a bit longer. It is great on the second and third steeps, much more flavour. I find it starts t get astringent and a tiny bit bitter after that.

Honey! A delicate honey smell and flavor. It seems pretty balanced with only the slightest hint of toasty. The 3rd steep turned a red gold color that may just be one of the prettiest cups of tea I’ve seen (alas, no pictures!). I brewed this in a gaiwan but there wasn’t much of a change until the very end steeps where a bit of mineral came out. It was pleasant but I’m not sure how often I would want to come back to it as opposed to a bolder tea.

Revisiting this because my last note on it was along the lines of “I liked it, but I don’t remember specifically why”. So, taking it nice and slow! This is a complex but not overwhelming tea. The initial impression from sipping is a roastiness that floats off the top, then a good, substantial dark-oolong feel. And then there’s a lingering sweetness that has a surprisingly fresh quality. For a while as I tried my first few What-Cha teas, I’d feared my palette was just very different from Alistair’s, as I rarely got what was in the written description of the tea, even though I found them all enjoyable. This time I’m happy to say I do get a plum note from this tea, and it’s a fresh juicy one. When I think of plum notes in conjunction with tea, I usually mean Chinese dried/candied plums (hua mei) or green plums, but in this case it reminds me of something entirely different!

I saved this for a weekend, as work has been kind of hectic lately (= super short notes) and I wanted to sit down and take more time with this one. Well, that was a few hours ago and I’m afraid most of the lovely descriptors that came to mind when I tried this tea have fled from memory. At least that’s reason enough to enjoy another cup soon!

This tea arrived still stored inside a desiccated bitter melon, and I brewed with a piece of the melon added to the leaf. I’ve often eaten bitter melon while growing up; it’s part of traditional Chinese cuisine, although it is one of those vegetables infamous for being unpopular with kids. I was kind of a weird one for enjoying it! There isn’t any recognizable flavor from the melon in the tea, which is a very enjoyable dark oolong, with a smooth roastiness that is very well-rounded. It used to be that oolongs were my favorite teas, but I’d become disenchanted with overly green tie guan yins and even da hong paos I tried over the last few months. (Most of these were unknown/unknown from family friends, so they are not logged here.) With teas of this type, the roastiness can be quite harsh and the effect is not very harmonious when the base is still noticeably green—plus the effect from drinking it can be like a kick to the head, whether you want to call it cha qi or caffeine. This tea, I am happy to say, is the answer to those problems, and everything a dark roasty oolong should be. A great example of something well prepared and well aged. So even if I can’t taste the bitter melon, I’m sure it contributed its part to the process.

And well, that’s about as much as I remember. No specifics this time, but I did enjoy this one greatly!