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This was one of my sipdowns from the first half of April. I don’t know why, but I just have had a hard time getting around to posting a review of this tea. I’m guessing the fact that it offered such a roller coaster of a drinking experience has had something to do with that. This tea was different literally every single time I tried it and was up and down over the entirety of every gongfu session I attempted.

It should come as no surprise that I primarily prepared this tea gongfu style. For the review session, I started off by steeping 6 grams of rolled tea leaves in 4 ounces of 203 F water for 8 seconds following the rinse. This infusion was followed by 17 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 10 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, and 15 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of roasted almond, brown sugar, toast, honey, chocolate, nectarine, and citrus. After the rinse, I detected aromas of rose, vanilla, and butter alongside a clearly defined grapefruit scent. The first infusion introduced aromas of candied pomelo, orange zest, and plum. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered notes of grapefruit, candied pomelo, toast, roasted almond, and plum that were chased by hints of orange zest, vanilla, brown sugar, rose, cream, butter, and pear. The impressions of cream, butter, vanilla, and orange zest grew stronger after the swallow, lingering in the mouth and throat for a considerable time. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of pear, peach, cherry, cinnamon, juniper, malt, earth, apple, and grass. Stronger and more immediate notes of rose, vanilla, cream, butter, pear, and orange zest came out in the mouth alongside notes of peach, minerals, apple, cherry, malt, lemon zest, and juniper. I also found notes of honey and nectarine and subtle hints of grass, earth, nutmeg, cinnamon, and chocolate. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized notes of minerals, cream, vanilla, roasted almond, toast, pear, cherry, and orange zest that were balanced by hints of lemon zest, grapefruit, peach, grass, juniper, malt, and honey.

This was a very interesting and often somewhat challenging Gui Fei oolong. It was quite heavy on the fruitier aromas and flavors, which I definitely liked about it, but it also did not offer a consistent drinking experience from infusion to infusion or session to session. There were definite peaks and valleys over the course of my review session and every other session I tried with this tea. In the end, I found that I respected it a little more than I enjoyed it as it was a rather fussy, temperamental tea that offered respectable longevity and complexity but not the kind of accessibility and reliability I tend to expect of most Gui Fei oolongs.

Well, this is is something you don’t see every day: a roasted Wenshan baozhong offered by a Western vendor. When I saw this tea on What-Cha’s website, I just had to buy it. Roasted baozhong has gotten hard to find in recent years as preferences have shifted toward the now ubiquitous jade baozhong. As a matter of fact, I had only ever gotten to try one other roasted baozhong prior to trying this one. I was excited to try this tea, not only because roasted baozhong seems to now be so rare, but also because several people whose individual tastes I trust indicated that they greatly enjoyed it. Unfortunately, I ended up not being as impressed by it. It did not strike me as being a bad tea, but it also had a few little quirks that rubbed me the wrong way and that I could not ignore for any length of time.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 203 F water for 7 seconds. This infusion was followed by 16 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 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, and 10 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of orchid, vanilla, smoke, cream, and roasted almond. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of cinnamon, apple, and baked bread. The first infusion introduced aromas of toasted rice, steamed milk, and roasted barley. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of orchid, sugarcane, vanilla, cream, butter, baked bread, roasted almond, cinnamon, and apple that were balanced by subtler impressions of toasted rice, roasted barley, smoke, grass, coriander, and steamed milk. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of coriander, sugarcane, butter, daylily, grass, and seaweed. Stronger and more immediately noticeable grass, roasted barley, steamed milk, and coriander flavors came out in the mouth alongside spinach, watercress, seaweed, Asian pear, mineral, plum, daylily, and daylily shoot notes. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized impressions of minerals, pear, toasted rice, butter, cream, apple, baked bread, grass, roasted almond, and spinach that were chased by hints of plum, seaweed, sugarcane, and coriander.

In the end, I’m still not sure about this one. It has been about a week since I finished what I had of it, and I am still not sure I can assign it a numerical score with any confidence. Unlike the other reviewers, I seemed to get considerably greener, more vegetal notes out of this tea, and the way many of them lingered in my mouth and on the back of my throat after each swallow came to annoy me pretty quickly. That’s unfortunate too because the roast seemed to have been very artfully applied to this tea; it produced some absolutely lovely, balanced aromas and flavors. The floral and fruity impressions were also very nice. I picked up both daylily and daylily shoot impressions in this tea, which was odd considering that I generally find those notes in teas produced from the Jin Xuan cultivar, and this, like presumably every other traditional Wenshan baozhong currently on the planet, was produced from the Qing Xin cultivar. In the end, I suppose I should just state that this tea was a mixed bag for me. There were things about it I enjoyed and found interesting, but there were also things about it that irked me. In the end, I think there was more good than bad in this tea, so a score of 76 feels about right for now.

Though I had already tried a 2017 Feng Qing dragon pearl black tea from What-Cha, I decided to try some of these 2017 Feng Qing dragon pearls from Yunnan Sourcing simply because I wanted to attempt to gauge how more or less the same tea can differ after being in the hands of two different vendors. In many instances, I find that formed teas, even those produced from the same harvest, can display significant variation from vendor to vendor and brewing session to brewing session. Sometimes it’s almost like drinking an entirely tea, and while the same can be said of loose leaf teas as well, I find that I get more variation out of formed teas for whatever reason. What really surprised me about this tea was how different from the presumably more or less identical What-Cha offering it struck me as being. The dragon pearls I purchased from What-Cha seemed slightly smaller and were also a little earthier and more mellow. These seemed slightly larger and also livelier and pricklier. Of the two offerings, I definitely preferred this one.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After the rinse (about 10 seconds) , I steeped two dragon balls (just shy of 7g in combined weight) in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 10 seconds. This infusion was chased by 17 infusions in water of the same temperature. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 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. I then steeped the remains of the dragon balls in 200 F water for 30 minutes, and then I ended the session by steeping them in 205 F water for 40 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry dragon balls produced aromas of malt, cream, chocolate, molasses, earth, brown sugar, and eucalyptus. After the rinse, I noted new aromas of baked bread, vanilla, butter, and sugarcane that were backed by subtler scents of banana and sweet potato. The first infusion brought out aromas of marshmallow and roasted almond. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented delicate, smooth notes of malt, cream, earth, baked bread, sugarcane, and vanilla that were chased by hints of brown sugar, banana, marshmallow, and roasted almond. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of pine, camphor, black pepper, honey, oats, cinnamon, and orange zest. Notes of sweet potato, eucalyptus, butter, and chocolate emerged in the mouth alongside slightly stronger notes of marshmallow and roasted almond. New notes of minerals, pine, camphor, black pepper, cinnamon, oats, and orange zest also appeared. In places, I also found subtle impressions of molasses, honey, clove, and tobacco in the background. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized notes of minerals, earth, malt, cream, roasted almond, and baked bread that were underscored by hints of butter, tobacco, cinnamon, sweet potato, camphor, black pepper, pine, orange zest, and eucalyptus. There were also some fleeting, often just barely detectable hints of banana and marshmallow.

I was really impressed by the depth, complexity, liveliness, and longevity of these dragon pearls. Though I tend to not be a huge fan of formed black teas, this one was highly enjoyable for me. Compared to its sister offering from What-Cha, this tea consistently offered greater character in a gongfu session and also had a few highly enjoyable quirks that I either did not pick up in the other tea or did not pick up to the same extent. In summation, this was definitely a worthwhile dragon pearl black tea. I’m glad I took the opportunity to try it.

Here is another black tea review. I figured I might as well post another before calling it a day. If I manage to make it back on here to post any other reviews before the end of the month, I’ll try to mix it up a little as I don’t want to ignore a couple of the oolong reviews I have remaining in my notebook. This was one of my more recent sipdowns. I think I finished the last of this tea sometime around the middle of last week. Overall, it was a very nice Yunnan black tea.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea buds in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 18 subsequent 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, and 15 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea buds produced aromas of chocolate, marshmallow, malt, pine, and cinnamon. After the rinse, I noted new aromas of sugarcane, roasted peanut, plum, and honey. The first infusion introduced aromas of vanilla, maple candy, and baked bread. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of chocolate, marshmallow, malt, cinnamon, pine, plum, and sugarcane that were backed by hints of vanilla, roasted peanut, baked bread, honey, and maple candy. The subsequent infusions brought out aromas of cream, earth, cooked green beans, butter, camphor, and eucalyptus. New notes of cream, butter, earth, grass, cooked green beans, sweet potato, caramel, minerals, orange zest, and toast appeared in the mouth along with stronger and more prominent vanilla and maple candy notes and hints of eucalyptus and camphor. As the tea faded, the liquor continued to offer notes of minerals, cream, vanilla, malt, earth, chocolate, marshmallow, and toast that were chased by hints of pine, roasted peanut, camphor, sweet potato, butter, and sugarcane.

As Yunnan black teas go, I found this one to be very sophisticated. It was also frequently much subtler than one would expect. I particularly appreciated that its bouquet did not always emphasize some of the more typical Yunnan black tea aromas. Also, what it expressed on the nose was reminiscent of but also not always wholly identical to what came out in the mouth, and this tendency made this tea a rather interesting drinking experience. In the end, this was an intriguing, refined, and highly enjoyable Yunnan black tea. Fans of such teas would likely get a pretty big kick out of it.

I didn’t realize how much Jin Jun Mei I had in my home until I started this black tea binge around the end of last month. I have been prioritizing sipping them down since my experience suggests that such smaller-leaved black teas do not tend to keep as well as things like Yunnan Assamica. Luckily, I have yet to encounter one that has not been still more or less at its peak, but unfortunately, this Jin Jun Mei reduction effort has forced me to accept the fact that Jin Jun Mei is not my favorite type of Wuyi black tea. This one, however, was quite nice. It grew on me a great deal over the course of my time with it.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 194 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 leaves produced aromas of baked bread, malt, smoke, honey, sweet potato, and molasses. After the rinse, I detected aromas of roasted peanut, green tomato, green bell pepper, earth, and cocoa. The first infusion brought out aromas of caramel and pine. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of baked bread, malt, smoke, sweet potato, cocoa, and roasted peanut that were chased by hints of grass, green tomato, earth, honey, caramel, and green bell pepper. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of cream, butter, straw, orange zest, ginger, grass, and marshmallow. Molasses and pine impressions emerged in the mouth and were accompanied by stronger and more immediately noticeable notes of caramel, grass, earth, honey, green tomato, and green bell pepper. I also picked up notes of minerals, cream, butter, straw, cinnamon, orange zest, ginger, lemon zest, and marshmallow. As the tea faded, the liquor continued to offer notes of minerals, malt, smoke, grass, cream, cinnamon, and cocoa that were chased by hints of pine, orange zest, butter, sweet potato, and straw.

This was a little earthier, smokier, and more vegetal than I generally expect Jin Jun Mei to be, but honestly, those qualities made this tea more appealing to me. Too often I find Jin Jun Mei to be a little boring and flat, but after all was said and done, I could not say those things about this one. It was a very lively, often prickly Jin Jun Mei that stuck with me long after I finished my review session. Ultimately, I would have liked to see a little more longevity and a little more balance out of this tea, but honestly, it was still a very nice Jin Jun Mei that was well worth the time and effort required to get to know it.

This was another of my sipdowns from earlier in the month. It was also arguably the most impressive of all of the black teas I have finished within the last thirty or so days. The black teas What-Cha sources from Taiwan tend to be impressive, and this one was certainly no exception. Actually, of the comparatively few Red Jade black teas I have tried to this point in my life, this one has ended up being my favorite so far.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 17 subsequent 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, and 10 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of sweet potato, honey, baked bread, wintergreen, molasses, and brown sugar. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of chocolate and red grape alongside even stronger wintergreen scents. The first infusion introduced subtle plum, cream, spinach, and malt aromas alongside even more amplified wintergreen scents. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of sweet potato, wintergreen, cream, malt, brown sugar, and baked bread that were chased by hints of honey, red grape, butter, and plum. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of pine, caramel, butter, and roasted almond as well as subtler scents of grass and green olive. Stronger and more immediate plum, red grape, butter, and honey notes came out in the mouth alongside belatedly emerging chocolate and molasses notes and hints of spinach. I also found impressions of minerals, pine, juniper, vanilla, caramel, and roasted almond and fleeting hints of grass, green olive, nutmeg, peach, and nectarine that were mostly limited to the finish and aftertaste. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized sweet potato, malt, caramel, baked bread, and cream notes that were chased by hints of pine, juniper, green olive, spinach, and grass as well as some distant, cooling wintergreen notes.

This was such a great tea. Not only did its liquor display impressive body and texture in the mouth, but it also had tons of depth and complexity and was tremendously fun to drink. A lot of the more complex black teas can be heavy and/or overwhelming, but this one was approachable and consistently fascinating. The menthol-like wintergreen aromas and flavors popped throughout my review session and beautifully framed everything else the tea had to offer. Honestly, I think it would be hard to ask for more from a Red Jade black tea. I loved this one. I’m fairly positive that fans of Red Jade black teas would be impressed by it.

This was one of my sipdowns from earlier in the month. I’m not sure why, but I have been craving Chinese black teas like crazy and have gone through several this month. Honestly, this was one of the weaker black teas I have finished off recently, and I was surprised to discover that considering that I am a huge fan of Yunnan black teas with a particular soft spot for some of the Simao black teas making their way to the West these days.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 17 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, and 10 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of chocolate, pine, sweet potato, honey, malt, and cinnamon. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of roasted almond, roasted peanut, brown sugar, cream, black cherry, and butter. The first infusion brought out a little smoke on the nose and a subtle cooked green bean scent. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered up notes of malt, cream, cooked green beans, chocolate, cinnamon, honey, and sweet potato that were chased by butter, brown sugar, roasted almond, and pine hints. The subsequent infusions brought out aromas of earth, toast, fennel, black pepper, leather, camphor, and eucalyptus. Hints of smoke appeared in the mouth alongside belatedly emerging black cherry and roasted peanut notes. I also picked up stronger and more immediately noticeable impressions of pine, roasted almond, and brown sugar. New notes of minerals, fennel, black pepper, toast, and leather appeared, and I was also able to detect hints of leather, camphor, eucalyptus, and earth. As the tea settled and faded, the liquor emphasized mineral, malt, roasted peanut, cream, and chocolate notes that were chased by hints of black pepper, camphor, roasted almond, eucalyptus, and pine. A smooth malty, nutty, creamy character was left in the mouth and throat after each swallow.

Compared to many of the other Yunnan black teas I have consumed over the last 3+ years, this one did not offer anything new. It did, however, produce a very nicely textured, mellow tea liquor, and it proved capable of displaying very respectable longevity in a gongfu session. Honestly, I could see this tea working really well in a blend due to its easygoing nature and pleasant texture. On its own, it wasn’t bad, but it also was rather dull and predictable.

Yeah, let’s throw another one or two of these things out there before calling it a night. Why not? This was the last of the reviews from March in my backlog. Every time I sat down and tried to post this review, I ended up having something come up, or I just skipped over it in favor of reviewing something more recent. Anyway, this was an excellent Bai Hao oolong. I was a little shocked to see the ridiculous range of numerical scores for this tea.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After the rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 205 F water for 8 seconds. This infusion was chased by 17 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 10 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, and 15 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of roasted almond, straw, honey, peach, and cinnamon. After the rinse, I noted new aromas of rose, violet, chocolate, malt, and baked bread. The first infusion introduced aromas of nutmeg and orange zest. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of roasted almond, rose, honey, straw, cinnamon, and baked bread that were chased by hints of nutmeg, violet, chocolate, and orange zest. The subsequent infusions brought out aromas of pear, vanilla, sweet cherry, wood, plum, butter, guava, and minerals. Notes of peach and malt came out in the mouth alongside stronger and more readily noticeable impressions of orange zest and violet. Notes of nutmeg, minerals, plum, cream, vanilla, wood, guava, roasted peanut, sweet cherry, butter, marshmallow, brown sugar, and golden apple also emerged. As the tea faded, the liquor began to emphasize lingering impressions of minerals, rose, violet, roasted almond, honey, cinnamon, baked bread, butter, cream, peach, sweet cherry, and orange zest that were underscored by hints of vanilla, wood, malt, plum, nutmeg, guava, and pear.

This was a really nice example of a Taiwanese Bai Hao (Asian Beauty) oolong. It produced a liquor that had a ton of depth and complexity as well as a nice body and good texture in the mouth. Again, the ridiculous range of numerical scores for this tea shocks me. Even though I have not tried a ton of Asian Beauty oolongs, I have had several very high quality teas of this type, and honestly, I would say this one was very comparable to some of the best I have tried.

Okay, I’m finally back with a new review. I wasn’t sure whether or not I was going to be posting anything else here on Steepster since this place seems like it’s on life support and just barely hanging on, but I decided to go ahead and do so simply because I wanted to keep my backlog of reviews from growing any larger and also because I still like this place. For now, I’m unwilling to entirely give up on it. That being said, I am investigating some new forums for potential contributions to the tea world just in case Steepster goes belly-up. With all of that out of the way, I have some things to share. Those of you who get annoyed with personal updates in their tea reviews and have made it this far should get off this train now. This has been a hell of a week for me. It was a very heavy work week that started off with my credit card getting skimmed Monday. Then my debit card got hit Wednesday. Luckily, I was able to get assistance from my bank’s fraud protection department and was able to recoup the vast majority of my losses without interrupting my work schedule, but this experience led me to review my financial situation and also the extent of my online presence. I have known for some time that I spend way too much time on the internet and do way too much online shopping, so I took this opportunity to cut down on my online presence and expenses. Outside of Steepster, if it even really counts at all, I have done away with my social media presence and have been spending far less time online. I’ve been working on getting back in shape for the last month or so anyway, so my computer and phone time had been steadily tapering off, but I have reduced it even further. It was jarring at first, but cutting the cord felt wonderful. I’m a fairly grumpy, reserved, asocial person IRL. I tend to shy away from social gatherings and obligations and spend most of my time at home with my cats. Not having to deal with the flood of notifications and not feeling the constant urge to check my social media presence has been a breath of fresh air. I feel more comfortable in my own skin than I have in several years. I’m less stressed, pessimistic, and angry. I don’t feel burdened by relationships that had become a chore. I feel like I can spend more time authentically interacting with the people I like and respect and with whom I share interests. I’m finally starting to make concrete plans regarding my future, have been taking better care of myself, and have begun to pick some of my older hobbies and interests back up. Make no mistake, I’ll still be around, but there is a good chance that my little breaks from Steepster will eventually grow longer and longer.

Well, now that I have written a novella, let’s talk about this tea. I’m not normally a chai guy, but this blend wasn’t bad. I tend to prefer my chai very spicy and herbal in character, so this was a little mild for my tastes. I could not help thinking that it was missing some characteristics that would make it more memorable. Overall, though, this was not bad.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. I started off by steeping approximately 3 grams of the loose chai blend in 8 ounces of 194 F water for 5 minutes. For my first encounter with this tea, I did not use any additives of any kind. After trying it unadorned, I decided to see how it worked with an addition of 2% milk, so I again steeped about 3 grams of the chai mix in 8 ounces of 194 F water for 5 minutes and then added a healthy splash of milk to try to tame it.

Prior to infusion, the dry chai blend emitted aromas of cardamom, fennel, and ginger. After infusion, I picked up aromas of cream, malt, caramel, and cocoa underscored by slightly muted cardamom, fennel, and ginger aromas. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of cardamom, fennel, and ginger on the entry before revealing impressions of cream, malt, wood, caramel, cocoa, and brown toast that were chased by hints of molasses just before the swallow. Cocoa, caramel, malt, molasses, ginger, fennel, and cardamom impressions were evident on the finish, which brought out noticeable bitterness and astringency as well as hints of roasted walnut. Trying this blend with an addition of 2% milk eliminated the astringency and tamed the bitterness somewhat, though it also seriously muted the fennel, ginger, and cardamom, coming across as a CTC Assam with just a pinch of chai spices added.

As stated above, this was not a bad packaged chai, but it also was not all that special either. I know I have said it before, but commercial blends like this can rarely if ever equal or beat real homemade chai. In the end, I suppose this was pretty good for what it was. I have certainly tried worse chai blends, and I could see people who prefer their chai milder and mellower than I generally do being into it, but I just couldn’t fall in love with this one.

P.S. I’m lazy. I have been sitting on this review since January.

This is my most recent sipdown to this point as I finished what I had of this tea last night. I had been meaning to get around to this one for some time, but for whatever reason, I put off drinking it until this week. Anyone who reads my reviews knows that Yunnan black tea is one of my things; indeed, I drink Yunnan black teas pretty frequently and also tend to be pretty picky about them. This one I found to be a keeper.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea buds in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 17 subsequent 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, and 10 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea buds produced aromas of baked bread, malt, sweet potato, and chocolate. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of roasted almond, roasted peanut, sugarcane, eucalyptus, and cinnamon. The first infusion then introduced aromas of walnut, black pepper, and hay. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of baked bread, malt, cream, chocolate, sugarcane, walnut, eucalyptus, roasted almond, and hay that were balanced by hints of black pepper, butter, sweet potato, and cinnamon. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of apple, minerals, clove, wheat toast, moss, green bell pepper, cedar, and leather. Stronger and more immediately detectable butter, sweet potato, black pepper, and cinnamon notes came out in the mouth alongside notes of caramel, moss, apple, minerals, grass, leather, cedar, earth, orange zest, green bell pepper, and wheat toast. I also detected subtle hints of clove and roasted peanut. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized lingering notes of minerals, earth, malt, wheat toast, moss, grass, and baked bread that were chased by hints of roasted almond, cream, sugarcane, black pepper, hay, and eucalyptus.

I think what I appreciated so much about this tea was that its liquor was so balanced and smooth. Sometimes I find that Yunnan black teas can be overwhelmingly malty and/or treacly, but that was not the case with this tea. All of its components worked together well, making for a thoroughly pleasant drinking experience. In the end, this would definitely be a tea for fans of Yunnan black teas to check out.