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June 2018 harvest.

I only had one go at this old sample forwarded my way, so perhaps not a great assessment. It was a nice Assam, more in line with my tippy tastes than some of the malt-heavy leafy picks. It was bright and dark, tangy and vibrant with a cherry-rose theme: tart cherry candy, rosewood and rose florality, only some malt and a hint of chocolate if I went searching. My only quibble was the lack of a grounding bass note. It was kind of zippy?

“Sencha Origin Unknown”

Today has been a day of data gathering.

Confusion abounds again. It certainly doesn’t look like a Japanese sencha. Maybe it’s Chinese or Taiwanese. It looks dead whatever its provenance. Mixed in are very thin stems all cut to the same length. Closer inspection reveals the stems to be small bunches of pine needles I guess, blanched in their age. The dry leaf smells like sweetgrass and perfume. The aroma once brewed contains the vestiges of fruity jasmine. There isn’t much taste — dry sweetgrass I guess and a whiff of perfume. Certainly no pine so I question the small tufts of needles — it’s some kind of shrub. Almost no bitterness and no astringency. Butter on swallow. Undefined lingering stonefruit aftertaste with a hint of butter.

The tea’s not entirely dead but it shall remain a mystery.

addendum: after sniffing the wet leaf, I’m pretty the tufts are pine.

An unmarked tea from White Antlers.

The leaf is flattened and brown. Is there such tea as black Dragon Well?
Dry, it smells like raspberry caramel chocolate. But the leaf shape and delicacy is not like a Da Hong Pao?
It tastes like Houjicha. Light bodied, roasty, caramel, hazelnut and rather mineral with a dry woody, lightly bitter caramel finish. But it just doesn’t look like any Houjicha I’ve had? No stems, all whole leaf.

Stumped but satisfied.

I drink this sometimes at work since we sell it. I can’t taste the leafy, earthy yerba maté much which is nice since it’s a flavor I don’t much care for. In my opinion it’s perfectly sweetened and the blueberry and elderberry walk the line between jammy and tangy. Probably my favorite of the varieties we carry. Clean and clear energy. A full can makes my left eye twitch, though, and sometimes leaves me too aggressive. But this is worlds beyond any other energy drink out there.

Really, though, I went on a date today at the park. We shared a few cans of Bluephoria. It was a nice afternoon :)

Big woody, earthy background with plummy mid and an apricot brightness, aged floral notes. Sweet tastes like caramel and powdered sugar are subdued. Still a touch of vegetal quality. Soft aroma. First steeps are oily and of medium body, lots of mouthwatering. Hint of mineral bitterness emerges in the back after swallow, coming more to the forefront later. Mouth-cooling, some tannic astringency. The aftertaste varies between thinned winter honey and maple butter.

Made it through an entire sample without much of an impression being made. With every session, I found myself taking a long break after the third steep and not feeling compelled to continue. I did persevere, though, and was rewarded with good longevity and a brew that become much more like the thinned honey aftertaste. The low-toned tastes and muscle-relaxing energy were very welcome after a long day, however the tea left my mind clouded rather than cleared.

Moonlight white tea with snow chrysanthemum flowers, the orange ones that as of late, I’ve realized can be a polarizing flavor due to pickle perception.

I’m not going to lie about what the dry leaf smells like. It’s stinky — perfume, stale urine and dill. Care to read further? Stewed in my work thermos with water off-boil, the tea is fantastic. Brilliant orange-red with a strong aroma. Aging white tea taste with a hearty melding of the snow chrysanthemum taste. Medicinal, savory, sweet, thick, tannic, tangy and tingly; tangelo, hay, forest floor, Demerara sugar, white florals, pastries, minty cooling, black pepper, ginger and yes, I finally taste the dill pickle, quite strongly actually.

More, please.

Autumn 2016 harvest

Age is doing these dragon balls well. The white tea delicacy is transforming into a more robust, tonal character. Red fruits, wood and a hint of malt fill out the deeper tones, supporting an otherwise bright, almost tangy-sweet taste with a mix of apricot-melon-honey-straw-oats, minerals and a little floofs of vanilla marshmallow and caramel. Very mild bitterness adds some depth. Good strength to the aroma, decent aftertaste and even some returning sweetness. This tea makes me long for autumn.

I’ve brewed a few of these dragon balls by stewing them in my work thermos with 200F water. A few others I’ve brewed western with water off boil and three flavorful steeps. Robust and woodier when stewed, sweeter with western. Both methods satisfying and caffeinating.

I found it gmathis! It was hiding in a box of chamomile I had taken with me to my work father’s house a few months ago.

I really liked this blend of rooibos, green tea, dandelion leaf and peach/other flavors. The peach flavor is fresh and natural, like biting into fruit not quite ripe. It still has crunch. The star of this blend is definitely the peach but it’s tempered and rounded out by everything else. Leaving the bag in my glass past the recommended 4 minute steep time gave me a smooth and crisp green tea accented by that light woody sweetness of rooibos and a touch of something more grounding from the dandelion leaf.

What a nice no-nonsense teabag. Recommended for those times when you can’t be fussed with anything.

A hot cup.

Very lemony taste and sickly sweetness mixed with piney earthy seaweed.

It met its fate with the kitchen sink after a few sips.

Thanks to White Antlers, I was able to try another Whispering Pines Guangxi province tea, the other being a gold bud which was a tasty, easy-drinking tea.

The tea possesses, like other silver needles, a mellow sweet aroma, though the tastes lie within a lower tonal nature along the lines of dry forest duff and sweet, fresh mushrooms. When brewed western with 3g to 300mL, the body is medium with a dry finish followed quickly by sweet mushroom. The lingering aftertaste has a dominant, mouth-filling note of sweet cream butter mixed with fresh sweet corn (I listed kettle corn below since sweet corn is not an available taste). The second steep is earthy and still very mellow.

This tea serves as a pleasant contrast to the fruity, floral silver needles from the Yunnan and Fujian provinces and even Kenya. I could see this tea appealing to some fans of green and yellow teas, as well as fans of Jinggu puerh.