306 Tasting Notes
I’ve had fresh lychee recently so I felt rather spoiled until I ran out. I was craving and this was an impulse purchase. This lychee oolong is a rather mild lychee flavor, much milder even than generic grocery store lychee tea. As an oolong the base was smooth, light, and more on the green side than roasted. Actually probably not at all roasted. I will repeat that the lychee flavor is mild and maybe kind of muddled because of it. For me it tends to be a odd mix of lychee/logan/other fruitiness.
It’s nice, but I think I much prefer the one from Butiki.
I’ve been browsing through jetpens and amazon for some new fountain pens. Some of my daily carry pens were stolen recently and the lack makes me sad all over. I’m thinking of trying the pilot metro in F, or perhaps a good sturdy Lamy Safari. There’s apparently also a new line by Kaweco called Skyline. Anyone have recommendations under $40?
Steepster was still broken as I was drinking this one. I’m glad that it seems to be back up!
I had never tried a Phoenix Oolong before and I’m pretty sure I messed it up.
Instructions said 1 tbsp/cup for a minute. The 1tbsp didn’t surprise me but this tea is super ‘fluffy’, so I ended up just grabbing a bunch with my hand to put in my cup. I’m wondering if cup meant gaiwan, because I feel like I underleafed.
10 seconds to the rinse.
First one minute steep it tasted like a very light oolong. Very nice and smooth. But the taste was soo light that I couldn’t really say much about individual notes.
The second, and third steep tasted the same, if a little weaker. I wonder if I let the tea cool for too long between sips. It’s hot here and I couldn’t handle really hot tea so I just decanted the steeps and wandered around with chores while sipping away at the last steep. By the end of the third (12oz) steep I was ready for something different (and more interesting).
I feel like this tea is wasted on me. Surely I’m just not doing it right?
Hmmm…did you use 1tbsp for 12oz?
I would do gongfu
Rinse/5/10/10/15sec. 5-6g. 100ml 195F. Usually works for me;)
^that works too :)
I measured the cup today and it was probably closer to 1tbsp/8oz. I guess I’m terrible at guessing volumes. The later steeps kind of got all mixed together as I was pouring the leaves off because I was getting frustrated. I’ll probably try again later in the week.
Can always increase steep time :-)
My recommendations are generally “safe” for people that dislike bitter and astringent qualities, which a dancong SHOULD have if brewed the way it’s brewed in China. :-)
Would be be perfect for grandpa brewing then? I tend to rarely have the time to just sit down and gongfu, grandpa is my preferred method. I think this might actually be really nice that way if I add more leaves. I’m unused to working with such long twisty leaves. =D
Yay for learning! Slightly bitter and astringent is how I grew up drinking oolong so the tendency to avoid bringing out the tannins taste is kind of bewildering at times.
Yes, it would be nice grandpa style. Lots of orchid notes that way!
Is it really that no one has been active on Steepster for the last 13 hrs? I think something’s not updating!
Guh. This tea is soo good. It’s really pretty true to it’s description the first brew. I’m using it grandpa style in a glass bottle. It’s even after a few steeps it’s yummy. The flavors aren’t as hard hitting and distinct anymore, but it’s still yum.
I wonder what the drinking version of Nomnomnom is. =D
I went to Lupicia today. Let’s see when I’ll be able to put up notes.
Steepster is so broken this week. I gotta stop checking!
Nom nom nom. Sounds delicious.
Haha, made that comment before reading your wondering about the drinking version of nom nom nom is… Google search! Suggested alternatives:
glug glug glug slurp slurp slurp gulp gulp gulp bloop bloop bloop (fish sounds, supposedly) glop glop glop glush glush glushI love this one!!
I had the most incredibly horrid weekend in a long long time. Resulting in being enormously busy and feeling unsafe and wanting to cry.
I brewed up a large pot of this this morning, and am on the third steep now. Nothing like tea and chocolate to help fortify you after bad things happen.
Argh. Steepster ate my review.
I’ve been steeping this grandpa style all day. Let me walk you through the progression: Honey, sweet black, apricot, plum, malt…. at this point of the day I added some actual honey and it was sweet honey black the rest of the afternoon.
This tea makes me honey obsessed. I’ve been looking up teas with ‘honey’ in the name with the search bar. Any recommendations?
This stuff is amazing! And it’s simply too much fun to use. At first I was like ’I’m just doing to do one liter on my most tea-stained stuff’, which turned into ‘make 4 liters and clean anything that has the slightest tea or coffee stain on it’. Haha- and I’ve alot of various cups and thermoses and teapots. I even soaked the OUTSIDE of a brushed stainless steel thermos, just to see how it would do (SHINY!) I’m half tempted to make a big bunch of this stuff to see if it’ll get my stainless steel kitchen sink super shiny, but that would be overkill… and a waste of cleaner. Although the tea stains never really bothered me before (except on the inguineTEA), it was just really cool and fun to watch. I think some of this stuff is possibly shinier than when I bought it.
Warning: it does make your hands slippery and slick for awhile after touching, so be careful with handling or you’ll drop it. After the first few I switched to using rubber gloves so I wouldn’t drop anymore things, I didn’t want to risk the ceramic. Also, it does work tons better when HOT.
