LuckyMe Send Message

Got this as a sample with a recent Aliexpress teaware order. Initially I suspected it was a cheap, throwaway tea. I didn’t have any idea what kind it was – thought it was puerh because I’d never seen oolong in cake form before.

A google search cleared up the confusion and I immediately fired up my kettle and dropped half of the mini-cake into my gaiwan. The dry leaves had a floral and, true to their name, sweet narcissus aroma which intensifies with wet leaf. Brewed gongfu style, the tea matches its aroma. Lots of nectary flavor with robust floral notes and a lingering sweetness that stays in your mouth for a while. The brick stays intact for several steepings and then opens up to reveal long, pristine leaves with a beautiful purple hue around the edges.

This tea was surprisingly much better than I expected and totally blew me away. It’s a flower-packed oolong that happens to be one of the best I’ve tried. Not bad for a random, no name tea from Aliexpress!

I wasn’t thrilled by this tea initially but it has really grown on me. My favorite jasmine tea these days is Yunnan Sourcing’s jasmine silver needle tea. Being a white tea, it’s very subtle and gently sweet. This tea on the other hand is creamier and has a lot more body than the white jasmine. Though the jasmine dominates, the base oolong seems to accentuate the perfumeyness of the tea. I prefer to have this one during the day when I want something a little stronger and reserve the white jasmine for bedtime.

So this tea is quite different than what I expected. I’ve been spoiled by Verdant’s excellent tie guan yin this spring and was eagerly awaiting the autumn harvest. It’s remarkable how the flavor profile of some teas can vary from one tea garden to another. I was expecting some sweet nectar and floral goodness, but this tea is predominantly milky both in flavor and smell. It tastes like a very strong flavored jin xuan. There isn’t much complexity to it beyond the milk and cream flavor, which is quite intense and the aftertaste lingers in your mouth for a while. I couldn’t take more than a few sips of this tea because I started feeling queasy. I tried steeping it gongfu and western style, but couldn’t avoid the nauseous feeling from the overpowering creaminess. Unfortunately this was not a tea that suited me which is too bad because I can tell from the freshness and bright green leaves that it’s high quality.

Just finished off the last of my stash of this tea. After starting off on the wrong foot, my appreciation for this tea has grown. I’ve come to enjoy the pickle-y, floral flavor of this tea. I use 3-4 flowers, rinse for 1 minute with 120 F water, and then steep in boiling water for several minutes over a warmer. It’s no Den’s Sakura Sencha for sure, but delivers a nice subtle cherry blossom flavor.

This is a delicious, high quality silver needle tea. It has a light body and sweet, soothing taste. Steeped at higher temperatures, I get a lot more of the hay and corn. For me the sweet spot for this tea was around 165 F at 1 min. That produces the most balanced cup with a mild nuttiness, natural sweetness, and pleasant vegetal notes.

Although I still prefer jasmine scented silver needles, this is easily the best straight silver needle tea I’ve ever had. Just the tea to help unwind and relax before bedtime.

Admittedly I’m not a fan of black and puerh teas but I’ve been trying to branch out and broaden my taste horizons. I received a sample of this with my last Verdant order and the flavor profile was intriguing – lychee, grape, pumpkin, and sandalwood are some of the notes described by Verdant. Sigh – if only this were true. Frankly, I would use less flattering descriptors for this tea. This tea apparently comes from an old forest and that’s exactly what it tasted like: soil and wet wood. The musty smell and earthiness was a little too much for me. It’s pretty much what most puerhs taste like to me anyhow.

Lesson learned, tasting notes are palette specific and highly subjective (including this one). Now for a nice cup of green tea to cleanse my palette.

Of all the BTT samples I ordered, I liked this the best. This is a pleasant oolong with light floral notes, slightly vegetal and an unexpected hint of seaweed. When I took the first sip, I thought my sencha somehow got mixed up with oolong. The grassy undertones dominate the initial infusions and then the sweet, orchid/plum notes begin to emerge. There’s really no mouthfeel to speak of or thickness.

Overall, I thought this tea was okay. It’s a perfectly acceptable high mountain tea but nothing to really get excited about.

I am decidedly a green oolong person but I do enjoy a good roasted oolong every now and then, especially iced. This tea from Verdant is an interesting offering. It feels like a hybrid between a Dan Cong, Shui Xian, and Laoshan black tea. It has the sweetness of a Dan Cong, the deep mineral notes of Verdant’s Shui Xian tea, and a hint of chocolate/cocoa as it goes down reminiscent of Laoshan. I had to dial back the leaf quantity because the cocoa and mineral notes become too heavy for me.

It’s not as floral as I was expecting – which was a little disappointing – and less floral than other roasted TGY teas. I tried this side by side with Adagio’s TGY and thought Adagio’s was more balanced though not as full-bodied as this one.

This is a solid but unspectacular TGY with a slightly unusual flavor profile. I’ll probably cold steep the rest of my stash because it tastes a lot better cold.

This mint flavor of this tea is quite different. I’m used to the dried mint found in most teas and steeped fresh mint leaves. The flavor of this tea is akin to those red striped peppermint candies. You get a blast of peppermint that hits your throat and leaves a tingly minty/menthol sensation in your mouth. The strong mintiness overpowers the flavor of the oolong too much for my liking. My least favorite of NaiveTea’s infused oolongs.

The tea itself is visually beautiful and the salt pickled flowers have a sweet cherry blossom aroma. But the taste doesn’t match the intensity of aroma.

Following tasting notes from other Steepsterites, I rinsed two flowers with hot water (140 F) for one minute and then steeped the leaves in boiling water for 3 minutes in glass teapot. The tea tasted like salt water with a very faint cherry flavor. To boost the cherry blossom flavor, I kept the flowers submerged in hot water and put the teapot on a warmer to help it continue brewing. 15 minutes later the cherry blossom notes were a little more prominent but saltiness still overpowered the tea.

I still have a few flowers left so I’m going to troubleshoot this tea to see if I can subdue the saltiness a bit and coax out more cherry flavor. I would not recommend this tea if you want to flavor your sencha or want a strongly floral tea. Den’s Sakura Sencha has a lot of real sakura taste and would be a better option. I also discovered freeze dried cherry blossoms on Amazon which may produce a better tasting tea.