LuckyMe Send Message

Finished off my sample of this tea last week. This Dayuling was nothing special given the prestige and high price tag attached to it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad tea by any means but I’ve had other high mountain oolongs and inexpensive low elevation tea that tasted better.

It’s got subtle florals with a wisp of nectar sweetness but lacks depth and fullness. Fairly thin and doesn’t go for many steeps.

The bad weather in Taiwan this past winter may be partly to blame here but in general, Dayuling seldom seems to justify the hype.

Sipdown, though not much of an achievement since this was just a sampler. This was a very good Bi Luo Chun – spinachy and herbaceous with a peppery arugula note. Onto the spring version of this tea now to see how it compares.

It’s a sunny 81 F in Chicago today and the summer like weather makes this lockdown feel a little less miserable. It also calls for cold brew which is what I did with my last spoonful of this tea. This reminded me of peach cobbler. It has a sweet, jammy peach flavor with some brown sugar notes and a slight roasted edge.

The quarantine sipdown continues. This is another good Baozhong from TTC though a notch below the winter harvest. I steeped it grandpa style as usual with Baozhongs. Nice buttery lilac-y flavor accented with wildflowers, honey, and nectar. Hyacinth lingers in the mouth after it goes down. Some delicate vegetal tones settle in as it continues to steep. There was lots of broken leaf in here which affects how quickly it infuses but still avoids any bitterness.

Received this sample with my YS order almost a year ago. There’s no harvest date listed but most likely it’s from 2018 so this tea is already at least 2 years old. Black teas however seem less prone to going stale the way greens and oolongs do. In my experience, they tend to lose a little of that oomph but still remain quite drinkable.

This one has a rather generic Yunnan black profile. It’s smooth with a light malty flavor and a little sweet potato though not terribly earthy. The aroma is an interesting mix of malt, tobacco, grapes, and raisins – giving a hint as to what this might have tasted like at its peak. A good tea for blending but alright otherwise.

Here’s another tea that was stashed away in my fridge for many months. I’ve been trying to sip down what’s left of last year’s green tea. Pacing myself though so I don’t run out before the 2020 spring greens are ready.

It’s been somewhat of a chore drinking through my Laoshan greens as last year’s harvest wasn’t all that great. One of the few bright spots, however, was the Laoshan flat pressed varietal. I liked the Reserve grade version and the first flush turned out to be delicious as well. It’s a fresh, bright tasting tea with crisp florals and notes of soybeans, peas, and bamboo shoots. There’s a soft sweetness rounded out by a nice nutty tone in the background.

While this tea is modeled after dragonwell, the flavor profile is completely different – it’s closer to regular Laoshan green tea. The leaf is itself is darker, and thinner than the large flat blades of dragonwell.

Like many other people I’ve been working from home for the past week because of the Coronavirus crisis. Although I hate being confined indoors, it has given me plenty of tea drinking opportunities. This was a sample I received with my Rishi order a while back. I love peach flavored anything and this tea was no exception.

The smell of the tea is incredibly sweet with juicy bursts of tangerine, pineapple, and peach. Brings back fond memories of Teavana’s Fruta Bomba. The taste is less intense than the aroma though. It has a gentle peach-pear flavor that’s light and refreshing. The peach flavoring tastes natural and complements the white tea base nicely. There’s quince in the blend but I couldn’t pick it out in the tea. As someone who finds most flavored teas overpowering, I can appreciate how well-balanced this one is.

Spring 2019 harvest.

I didn’t realize until I sat down to log this tasting note that I had ordered this tea once before. But it’s okay because that was back when I didn’t have an appreciation for dragonwell nor understood how to brew it properly.

For a tea that’s sat in cold storage for 8 months, this has held up remarkably well. The aroma that this tea presents is a nutty, creamy mixture of chestnut, asparagus, and buttered green beans. The brewed tea starts with a vegetal-wheatgrass like flavor quite similar to matcha. Notes of Napa cabbage, asparagus, and green beans appear as the tea continues to steep. It’s strong, full-bodied, and has a very savory flavor. Very drinkable but not as sublime as the higher end Shi Feng dragonwells I had last year. In fairness I didn’t drink it at peak freshness so who knows how good it might have been.

Whoa, this was a lot better than expected. I was originally getting a regular latte with my French Cruller but the marketing hype for Dunkin’s new matcha lattes nudged me to order this instead. I rarely order matcha drinks from cafes and bubble tea shops because they are never to my liking. Either they’re super sweet like Starbucks, taste weird, or made from poor quality matcha. However I enjoyed every slurp of this drink aside from the few clumps of undissolved matcha powder. Nice bright green tea flavor, not too earthy, with just the right amount of sugar to give it a subdued sweetness.

There was nothing fancy to the preparation of this drink at all. They literally just dumped matcha powder in with cold milk and ice and gave it a little stir. That’s it. No fancy whisk or hot water. It’s kind of embarrassing how this ridiculously simple preparation tasted better than the fussy methods I use at home to make matcha lattes. It never occurred to me to add matcha directly into cold water.

So with some inspiration from Dunkin, I’ve been making my own iced matcha lattes at home and dare I say they taste better than Dunkin’s. I start by dissolving a teaspoon of matcha powder in a little room temperature water inside a mason jar. Then add a small squirt of agave or sugar followed by milk. Put on a lid and shake everything till well blended. Drop in a few ice cubes and sip directly from the mason jar. Easy peasy. Soo good and no bitterness either!

Finished my sample of this last night. This was a solid Shan Lin Xi with tropical fruit aromas and perfumey florals, typical of this type of tea. Out of the bag, the leaves have a buttery honeysuckle fragrance. Following a rinse, the aroma becomes fruitier with notes of mango and nectar, accented by vanilla and coconut.

The tea opens up with a subtle sweetness and hint of jasmine. As it progresses through steeps, it builds intricate floral layers of lilac, honeysuckle, and wildflowers. Smooth body and a slight fruitiness in the background that complements the florals nicely. I got about 7 steeps out of it.