What-Cha

Okay, I guess I’m back on Steepster for now. It seems like I never get time to post any reviews anymore. I’m reaching into the backlog with this one, as this was a tea I finished sometime back around November. I enjoyed this tea greatly, more so than the previous reviewer.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a brief rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 203 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was chased by 19 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, and 20 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of baked bread, malt, chocolate, and butter as well as a subtle sweet potato scent. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of roasted almond and spearmint that were coupled with a greatly amplified chocolate aroma and a subtle black raspberry scent. The first infusion brought out a roasted peanut scent. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of baked bread, sweet potato, butter, cream, brown sugar, roasted almond, and malt that were balanced by subtler impressions of chocolate, black raspberry, vanilla, and roasted peanut. The subsequent infusions coaxed out aromas of raisin, oats, brown sugar, vanilla, black cherry, and black currant as well as a somewhat stronger black raspberry aroma and a subtle pine presence. Stronger and more immediately notable impressions of chocolate, vanilla, and black raspberry appeared in the mouth alongside mineral, oat, blackberry, black cherry, gooseberry, black currant, spearmint, and pine notes. I also picked up hints of fig, earth, blueberry, raisin, and honey. As the tea faded, the liquor amplified the raisin and earth notes, though impressions of minerals, baked bread, pine, malt, cream, and butter remained strong. Underlying hints of spearmint, roasted almond, vanilla, honey, black cherry, sweet potato, brown sugar, and chocolate continued to provide some depth, balance, and intrigue.

This was a very nice offering that came off as a refined hybrid of a Taiwanese Assam and a traditional Vietnamese black tea. I could see it pleasing fans of both types of tea. If you are looking for a new and experimental black tea, this would be one well worth trying.

Not much to this particular oolong. It’s got a pretty stock-standard ‘tea’ flavor that gives way to something fruity at the very end— wild blackberry, maybe— tangy and not too sweet. Not the most nuanced drinking experience in the world. It may be better suited for gong fu brewing, as on the second steep there was a little more fruitiness to it, although unfortunately the body was flatter and blander that go around.
Note: temperature given is for my first steeping. I increased it a notch on the second.

I realize teas like this typically “should” be drunk gong fu, and maybe I will still get around to that (I have 50g, so plenty more to experiment), but today I just wanted to brew up a quick mug of something to go with my grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. Originally I was going to make a straight black but when I started digging through my straight tea storage, I saw this pouch, it had been opened at some point, and it’s old, so I figured, why not? (It has been brought to my attention my definition of “old” and other Steepsterers definition of “old” is not the same, so I will specify this is the Spring 2017 harvest. Yes, I consider 2017 teas “old.” Remember, I didn’t get into the tea game until fall of 2016 so my oldest teas in my collection are currently 2017 teas, and those are the ones I’d rather get out to replace with fresh.)

Anyway, I was certain I’d reviewed this before, since it was an opened package, but I did a Ctrl+F on my Steepster.txt file where I keep all my review writings and… nope! So here we go. Considering this is an older tea and brewed western, I’m sure it will not be as nuanced, so take anything I say with a grain of salt. (To be fair, anything I say about oolongs should be taken with a grain of salt anyway).

3.5g brewed in 350ml water at 205F for a 3 minute steep. The aroma is incredibly fruity, like oranges and honey, immediately making me think of marmalade jam. I’m getting a bit of an apricot note in the aroma as well, and a more subtle maltiness. The flavor is quite tasty, definitely very heavy in the fruity notes that were coming out in the aroma. Mainly I’m getting an orange taste, but it is sweeter and honeyed rather than citrusy, and I’m getting a strong stonefruit impression. There is a bit of a maltiness with hints of baked bread, cocoa, cinnamon, raisin, and toward the end of the sip, a sweet florality toward the back of the tongue that tastes of rose to me. I’m really enjoying it and impressed with how much flavor I’m getting considering the age and brewing method I chose.

A decent TGY for a fair price, which is not easy to find at all. It has a medium body with a creamy, cooling mouthfeel. The taste is very vegetal, the dominant flavours being asparagus and parsley.

The aroma is more sweet and cookie-like than what I would normally expect from a TGY. There are notes of coconut macaroons, green apples, and sunflower oil before the rinse; and stewed vegetables afterwards.

This seems to be the only Li Shan that What-cha carries so it must be this one that Kawaii433 sent me.  It was a while ago, but thank you very much again for that excellent package!  I will be drinking it alongside the crazy flavored Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster and that may be a mistake, but I will see what I can taste here anyway.  I’m also eating some melon so there are all sorts of flavors happening.  The oolong itself is very tightly bundled and very dark green. It’s very smooth, silky, with a strong minerals, hint of cream and coconut… as it cools, pineapple.  So an odd oolong for flavor notes for me… but I think I had one like this before where it tasted both of coconut and pineapple.  Possibly that is how Li Shan varietals taste to me?  I like it, but there was also a biteyness to the leaves throughout the consistently flavored steeps, which seems out of place considering the cooler water and short steeps I used.  Always glad to try something once though!
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for a full mug // 22 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // 20 minutes after boiling  // 2 minute steep   
Steep #3 // 3 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep 
2020 Sipdowns: 10

Life in general has been beating the crap out of me so I decided that today is a rat lunch day! It made me smile to think of KS and our rat lunch reviews and I needed a smile and a good memory.

For those who don’t know, rat lunch is toasted cheese and tea – good, solid, black tea specifically. We got it from the children’s book “I Was A Rat” that JacquelineM introduced me to. And I really wanted to try this gift from derk and this is the perfect time since I am alone today for lunch and don’t have to pick a tea that everyone else likes.

May I say….it could not have been more perfect. It has everything one loves about Assam but not the thing that keeps me away from Assam so often – boiling heartburn. As soon as I smelled it, I knew. I fell hard for this guy and he is probably going to make me break my “no ordering” ban. (Ha, like I really observe that anyway!)

Malty, bready, rich, thick, full body, dark, just the right amount of tingle. It is the perfect tea for today. It resteeps well. Rat lunch has done me a lot of good.

Thank you, derk!

[Summer 2019 harvest]

It’s always fun to drink teas without knowing much what to expect, but these experiences seem to get rarer as we move along our tea journey, at least unless we specifically design them to be such. Today was the first time I tried a Japanese black tea and I really wasn’t sure what to expect. It turned out to be a bit like an autumn flush Darjeeling with extra umami notes. The most striking feature was the long, pungent and abrasive aftertaste, but the flavour notes were quite interesting too.

Dry leaves smelled of stonefruit pits and burnt meadow/hay, while the wet leaf aroma was more on the side of sweet wood, butter, peach, and anchovies. In the empty cup, I could also detect lavender and aged red wine.

The first infusion was very sharp and astringent with a light body, but a bold spicy, tart and bitter taste. Subsequent steeps didn’t really have any of that bitterness, but had more sourness (rice vinegar), umami (soy sauce), sweetness (caramel), woody and malty notes. The texture also became very smooth quickly, while still retaining a lot of that astringency. The body was medium to light and the mouthfeel fairly bubbly.

Brewed grandpa, 2 tsp, 300 ml.

It was amazing how the small pieces of tea (it is not whole leaf, no way) floated in the water. So nice to watch. But now, all tea settled on the bottom and it brings following:

Colour: light brown or copper, maybe orange, similar to light pieces on the photo.
Aroma of brewed tea: wet wood, roasted nuts, bit into sweet notes. I do not notice much of soy sauce, grassy, or seafood/weed as Bluegreen noticed before me. Maybe I just have different sense of smell.
Taste: lighter than expected, still somehow woody, but – with subtle sweet notes. I am afraid I could not explain it somehow better, not bitter at all, maybe little malty. It reminds me something, but I could not find out what it is.

Derk – do you want a sample to your envelope?

Holy crap I love this tea. It fits me like a good pair of pants.

Summer 2018 harvest, gongfu.

The fragrance and the way it carries into the mouth and lingers is on point. A caramel sweetness is suspended loftily by intense creamy white floral perfume maybe with orange blossom, the kind of heady scent that relaxes you. The deeper notes of the tea are distinctly sandalwood, nuts, musk and banana leaf. Great body with mineral brightness and salivation. Later, a succulent white peach aftertaste develops as the strength of the florals subsides. The finished cup smells so strong and sweet. Initial violet floral bitterness and vegetal-woody astringency grow ever stronger with each steep, eventually numbing the tongue. While I find those qualities to add depth to the experience, if there is one thing to turn others away, it’s the combination of growing bitterness and astringency. That and the low brewing temperature, which is a necessity. And the price. And the lack of availability. Shucks.

I wonder why it’s called Moondrops.

March 2019 harvest.

The best morning/afternoon Assam I’ve ever had. Very complex and layered taste and mouthfeel yet approachable due to a distinct lack of bitterness, very light astringency and an inviting aroma. Savory and mineral backbone with plenty of berry tones and a lemony taste that zings. Emergent menthol. The leaves are alive and have plenty to give.

I would serve this to anybody entering my home.

Not for small pocketbooks but well worth a try! It’s very forgiving :)

derk sent me a generous sample of this a while back, and I think it was the first tea I pulled from the box to try. Today we did something new…since we couldn’t go to church for Easter or visit anyone, I made a little brunch of waffles with strawberries and whipped cream and we had a gong fu tray outside. The forecast said rain wouldn’t start until 2pm, so I was pretty surprised to get out there and see lots of clouds. It held off long enough for a nice long session.

My husband ran an extension cord through the garden to the backyard where we were having tea on a blanket so I could keep the water hot enough. Had it been a green, I would have just used a tetsubin on a warmer.

This steeps up dark for a darjeeling, at least compared to the ones I have had. It is much more similar to black tea to me, and is smooth and lacking the bite that I always have to tame with just the right parameters for darjeeling. This is much more forgiving and boy did it ever last! Steep after steep.

When it started getting paler, I just steeped much longer, and it kept going and didn’t get bitter.

Even my husband liked it, and he is not a big fan of black tea without milk and sugar, though he has decided to eschew additives and is getting himself accustomed to plain black tea.

I must say it went well with the strawberries, as the fruitiness of the tea wasn’t biting and sharp like some darjeeling is to me, which would have been too much in my opinion.

Happy Easter to all!

I really should “add to cupboard” because the sample derk sent was so generous. I suspect that I am going to drink it so fast that it makes more sense not to add to cupboard because I will be taking it off very soon!

Out of a box of super interesting looking teas, I picked this one to go first. I loved the name, and when it comes to Darjeeling I have found that I often prefer Autumn Flush.

Some Darjeeling is quite light, but this one has a nice, copper color. I steeped at 203F as recommended on the website, using a gaiwan.

The leaves are medium brown and have unfolded to reveal whole leaves about one and a half inches long, with lovely little serrations.

I am rewarded with a wonderful aroma and lots of flavor. I smell deeply toasted – but not at all burned – bread, a hint of molasses, and over and over again I think of caramel. I make a pound cake with caramel frosting and this comes to mind as I drink the tea. The tea has medium body and is sweet and smooth.

I made five steeps. By the fifth, a bit of briskness has developed, mostly noticeable in the lingering aftertaste. The color is still gorgeous.

This was paired with one single Godiva White Chocolate Birthday Truffle. Ha ha!

How have I not ordered from What-Cha yet? I must remedy this soon.

Thank you, derk! I can hardly wait to try the others, but I am being nice and waiting for my husband to get to try them with me!

I’ve never had a tea from Vietnam so I thought this would be fun to try. Black tea is my favorite and I found this one to be enjoyable, although you do have to watch you me steep time as it can get a little astringent if you oversteep. That being said my favorite steep was the last when the tea
Mellowed out. Not one that stands up to milk, a little brisk tasting. It’s nice. Although nothing particularly stood out about it to me.

The main takeaways from this session are – a very strong honey aroma; tart and comforting profile; lingering sweet aftertaste; a smooth, buttery texture; and a relaxing cha qi. It’s a very good tea, and although similar to some other GABA teas I’ve had, it does seem to also have its own personality.

The dry leaves really have an overpowering (but beautiful) honey scent, complemented by butter cookies. In the preheated pot, the aroma is more fruity with notes of passion fruit and pear. Wet leaves then smell of grape leaves, spices, and garlic. The taste is pleasantly sour and fruity with flavours such as grape, melon seed, and lime.

Gongfu!

This is a really old sample but it’s been stored in its sample bag since I got it without ever having been opened so it’s held pretty well; I brought it with me to Saskatchewan for my vacation because I thought it would be a nice opportunity to give it a whirl!

It was my morning tea today – sipped slowly in my dad’s living room over a little bit of light music and some conversation. It’s been really nice having the time this vacation to just slowly and peacefully have long Gongfu sessions (and usually with some nice surroundings too)! I ended up completely brewing out the tea, and it was handedly a dozen infusions – though since I’m using a teacup much bigger than the pot I’m brewing in they’ve typically been stacked infusions. Two or three at a time.

I like Jin Xuan a lot, but more the greener kind – I haven’t really tried much roasted Jin Xuan, I think. I wasn’t totally sure what to expect but this was smooth, medium bodied and coating in the mouth. It had the creaminess of mouthfeel I’d expect from a greener Jin Xuan without being nearly so creamy and buttery in taste, though it was still a little bit creamy. More so I experienced warming notes of roasted mixed nuts, sweet honey notes, and hints of fruits like prunes – generally with a light woody and floral undertone. I imagine it would have been much better when fresh, but even still this was a great session!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/B6jDH6Hg7be/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Osv71FQ0quY

[Winter 2017 harvest]

The tasting notes for this tea have been more or less covered. It is a very floral, dry tea that seems to have a lot in common with the more floral of Dan Congs. In fact, I think it is too floral for me, there’s not that many occasions I imagine craving this tea. Or more precisely, the issue I have with it is that there doesn’t seem to be all that much beyond the floral notes.

The dry leaf aroma seems to be a mix of cookies, star anise, chocolate, and wood; while wet leaves smell mostly of malt, citrus, and honey. Furthermore, there is an elderberry flower scent rising from the empty cha hai. The taste is savoury, bitter, and floral, with dominant notes such as honeysuckle, walnut, dandelion, all of which were already mentioned by other reviewers. Aftertaste is then sweeter and quite dry. This is where the advertised orange blossom seems to appear as well. Body is medium to light and the mouthfeel is very coating.

Non-smoked Lapsangs are one of my favorite kinds of tea, so I had big expectations for this one .

This tea is very similar to China Fujian Basic ‘Jin Jun Mei’ from What-Cha. It’s less remarkably dry, but distinguishes itself by having a wider flavor palette, with malty and chocolaty notes providing a background for the baked bread and sweet potatoes.

However, the overall taste is quite muted and generic. Also, it does not resteep well. There was nothing in this tea that would stick in my memory and drive me back to it. Any other Lapsang that I tried was decidedly more interesting.

This is one of those elusive teas that I feel I don’t have the right words to describe. It is a bit like a cross between Dong Ding and high mountain Jade oolong. One thing is for sure though, I like it a lot!

The aroma has a lot going on, but I really can’t place it. There are some notes of pastries and stone fruits, but that’s far from a complete list. Taste starts off vegetal, grassy, and bitter with a very sweet finish. There is a nice short-lasting astringent bite and flavours such as butter, flowers, apple, peach. Aftertaste is more floral and has notes of forest floor and pine as well as a long-lasting sweetness. As derk mentioned, there is also a strong menthol quality in late steeps. I also got a bit of a fenugreek flavour, not unlike the one you get from some wild Taiwanese varietals.

The mouthfeel is thick, oily, soft, and slightly numbing with a throat-cooling quality – this tea certainly doesn’t lack in the texture department. It is also very calming and body-warming and makes me sweat a bit. A final point to note is that it lasts a long time, I can easily get 200ml/g from it, and if pushed, even quite a bit more.

This was my second sipdown of the month. It was a tea I wanted to get out of the way more than anything, but that’s not because it was a bad tea. I’ve had a lot of Jin Jun Mei this year, and since Jin Jun Mei is not one of my favorite Chinese black teas, I did not want this tea hanging over my head as the year drew to a close. Actually, it was pretty good as Jin Jun Mei goes. It was definitely less challenging and more approachable than quite a few of the others I have tried, but that being said, it also lacked a bit in terms of body, texture, longevity, and depth.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea buds in 4 ounces of 203 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 16 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and 7 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea buds produced aromas of baked bread, malt, sweet potato, pine, and cinnamon. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of butter, roasted peanut, and roasted almond. The first infusion brought out a molasses aroma and a subtler scent of honey. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of cream, malt, butter, molasses, sweet potato, and baked bread that were chased by hints of cocoa, roasted peanut, pine, honey, and cinnamon. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of orange zest, cocoa, cream, earth, and marshmallow. Stronger and more immediate notes of honey, cocoa, and pine appeared in the mouth alongside hints of roasted almond, black pepper, and eucalyptus. Notes of orange zest, earth, grass, minerals, red grape, and marshmallow also emerged. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized notes of minerals, malt, baked bread, sweet potato, roasted peanut, butter, and cream that were balanced by hints of roasted almond, marshmallow, grass, cinnamon, pine, orange zest, and red grape.

I liked what this tea had to offer and was surprised I was able to pick up as much as I did. If I had been going solely by aroma and flavor, I would have scored this tea higher. Unfortunately, the liquor was a bit thin, and the texture was not as sharp and defined as one would expect of a Jin Jun Mei. I also noticed that this tea peaked early and faded rapidly. Still, this tea had a lot to offer for what it was. This was clearly intended to be treated as a basic offering, and for anyone looking for a quality introduction to Jin Jun Mei or a solid daily drinker, this tea would fit the bill. Did it hold up to more expensive Jin Jun Mei? Well, yes and no. I have had worse higher end Jin Jun Mei, but I also have had better, and this tea didn’t threaten the positions of those higher quality offerings. Again, for what it was, it was good. I doubt I would go out of my way to acquire it again, but I am certainly glad I took the opportunity to try it.

I don’t have a lot of experience with Yashi Dan Congs, aside from a greener one from Yunnan Sourcing, so I didn’t quite know what to expect. But since it was around $13 for 50 grams, I decided to give it a shot. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 7, 9, 12, 16, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry leaves smell overwhelmingly of roasted almonds, with some florals and stonefruit at the edges. Roasted almond dominates the first steep, with hay, cream, orchid, and peach in the background. (The peachy aftertaste is the best part of the steep.) The next couple steeps add notes of honey, grain, apricot, roast, grass, butter, and florals I can’t identify (gardenia?). Steeps four and five are a bit fruitier, with more apricot, peach, and peach pit flavours along with the almond. The next few steeps emphasize the roast and almond, and the tea becomes a bit drying in the mouth. The session ends with almonds, roast, and minerals.

This is a pleasant Dan Cong, especially for the price. I gave it extra points for the lovely peachy aftertaste in the first few steeps. However, I tend to enjoy greener Dan Congs and this just didn’t bowl me over like some previous What-Cha teas I’ve had. I still recommend it for those who like this type of tea and want an affordable option.

One of my most favorite teas of all time.
The complexity and flavor of this tea is fantastic.
The melon adds such a unique flavor – I like to toss in a decent sized piece of the melon rind each time I steep.
A great daily drinker tea; one I will continue to drink for years to come.

I have found that I really enjoy most teas from Malawi. I really appreciate What-cha for obtaining so many great teas from this location.
I think (for me) it might be the soil that the tea is grown in because I have yet to find a tea from Malawi that doesn’t have a rich deep earthy yet green flavor – and I can lose myself in the taste.
This tea is no exception. The flavor is of a warm dark soil yet sweet and slightly vegetal.
I like to brew this tea Gong Fu style, where I run close-to-boiling water over it in a flash steep and can get many cups out of a few pearls.

After reading the rave reviews of this tea, I picked up 25 grams of it this summer. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 7, 9, 12, 16, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma of these huge, curly leaves is of blackberries, grapes, honey, and malt. The first steep is amazingly complex, with notes of grapes, plums, blackberries, strawberries, malt, honey, fruit leather, and baked bread. The second steep adds notes of cherry, brown sugar, and raisins. There’s no astringency and wow, this tea is good. The fruit explosion continues through the next few steeps, with lots of plum, cherry, grape, and blackberry flavours. By steep six, sweet potato, orange, baked bread, brown sugar, malt, and honey take over, with the fruit in the background. The final steeps have flavours of peanuts, sweet potatoes, malt, wood, and minerals.

Like everyone else who has reviewed this tea, I was incredibly impressed. It’s simultaneously mind-bogglingly complex and very accessible. There’s no astringency and the fruity flavours jump out at you. (Unlike Eastkyteaguy, I didn’t get any menthol.) This is definitely a special occasion tea that repays careful attention. What-Cha really knocked it out of the park with this one.

SIPDOWN

I ad just a teaspoon left, maybe one and half, I don’t know. I wasn’t measuring, and I just decided to drink what I had left in grandpa style.

Turned out like a liquid freshly baked bread, with hints of roast, nuts and honey-sweetness. Luckily it wasn’t very sweet.
I am not sure about the vanilla I recalled last time, certainly I noticed it – but I had as well vanilla flavoured ice cream, so… rather it wasn’t in the tea :D

Sad to see it go, it was indeed a nice surprise to pick this one and it was very tasty.
82 → 88