Featured & New Tasting Notes

I should have added this earlier when it was still on the website. The Dayuling was priced at $17 per oz, which is expensive, but not bad for a Dayuling. Hopefully, Brenden or someone can edit this note page appropriately. I also wanted to get it out there that WP did sell Dayuling.

From what I remember, the website described it in very general detail, focusing on the cotton candy texture and teas inherent sweetness. “Being in the know” about this type of tea cuts off the rest of the description.

I gotta confess, I love Dayulings despite being rivaled in flavor by the lower elevation teas in my opinion. All of the Daylings I’ve had are comparably fresher and sweeter than many Alishans and Shan Lin Xis, but it’s an effervescent sweetness that’s not thick or heavy. Not bubbly, but green and light as feather. Effervescent may not be the best word since it literally means to boil up with bubbles, but it works for the green and lively energy I get from Dayulings. I also tend to find that they are not very durable on average, but if they are, the have full stamina and a monster of a commanding price.

Some of the best Dayulings I’ve had were from Floating Leaves and Wang Tea, but even those on the pricier end that tradeoff the opportunity of other teas because of their cost. You could argue the same for this one, but it’s not a bad price for what you get.

I haven’t had the luck I wanted to with this one. I was impulsive and drank it immediately after I broke the air-tight seal. I could smell it, and it did have a green grape of cotton candy sugar cane quality in the dry leaf, but even Western, the flavor was muted. Light, effervescent, and green-absolutely. Flavorful beyond those notes? No, or at least not yet.

I did try again Gong Fu, but steep three was the only pronounced one. Lemongrass was the most prominent note, or for people who can see past tasting note pretension-a light green oolong. I do think the issue lies in the prematurity of breaking the seal, but more importantly, my water quality has not been the greatest for the past few months. I do use a water filter regularly that makes a difference, but I have had to do it through my city tap water which has a little bit too much minerals in it. The chlorine taste really blocks the flavors of my better teas, so I stopped drinking them for a time being because of it.

I ordinarily refill purified water from the local grocery store or Meijer, but since COVID, I can’t refill my bottles like I used to, and the sanitized bottles are regularly out, and restock is delayed due to increased shipping times.

Are there any economical recommendations of getting better water? I’ve managed with my blacks replacing my filter regularly and relying on my more basic profiled teas that aren’t altered too much by water quality, but it’s still problem. I should catch up with my 20+ of backlogged teas anyway.

Back to this one, I can’t judge it properly yet. I can recommend Brenden’s Taiwanese teas if you don’t want to wait for international shipping times in the U.S., and while they are slightly more expensive than I prefer, they are a good medium for high quality teas.

I was making soup when the doorbell rang. I was surprised because I wasn’t expecting a package and no one else ever rings the doorbell. I set down my spoon and hurried to the door where the dogs (I am keeping my grandpup for two weeks) were enthusiastically announcing the presence of the postal carrier and there was indeed a box by the door! A surprise box from White Antlers!

I read the nicest letter and then dug into the box of goodies. Everything looks so good! I picked this to be the first I try.

About the soup – I was inundated with cucumbers from the garden. I have given away cucumbers. Made cucumber sandwiches and cucumber salad. Some cucumbers were about to get away from me, looking a little sad in the fridge but still edible. They are not a sort suitable for pickles.

So I cooked some onion, added broth, tossed in chopped cucumber, lots of dill, garlic, evap milk because I don’t usually keep cream on hand, blended it….and it was really delicious. But I really didn’t taste cucumber. It could easily have been cream of zucchini. I decided to make it go a little further and added finely diced carrot and potato. Topped it with mozzarella. Yes! We will have this for a couple of days for supper.

All that added to say that when I saw the instructions for this tea, I was a little leery of sencha with boiling water. I looked at other reviews and decided to go with a lower temp and short time. And when the water hit the leaves…it smelled a lot like the soup on the stove!

A short steep of two minutes and…This tea is THICK. Or as the young whippersnappers like to say THICC.

The name would imply the taste of cherries, but it is not cherry. It is salted cherry leaves, such as the brined leaves wrapped around mochi. There is nothing fruity about this tea. It is savory through and through!

This is like drinking a broth, nice and salty, something that would take the edge off your hunger when you are sick and can’t really eat anything but you are hungry nevertheless.

And what was really cool was that it smelled so similar to my soup that was still simmering on the stove. This would be an excellent addition to the base for a fresh vegetable soup, especially a cucumber, zucchini, or turnip soup. YUM.

Thank you, White Antlers! There are so many teas in the box that I can not wait to try!

A sample from Tiesta!  THANK YOU, Tiesta Tea! Unfortunately this tea was gone from their site quite soon after they sent it… but sometimes their teas appear and disappear a lot. This is a lovely green yerba mate mixed with all sorts of tropical fruits: mango, papaya, passion fruit, lychee and other fruits you might typically find in a blend. I thought this would give me a reading power boost while drinking it the other day, being a yerba mate blend.  But there are PLENTY of other ingredients here, making the yerba mate fairly unnoticeable.  So many tropical fruits!  But then they seemed to blend together to create a generic fruit flavor. An enjoyable one anyway!  These are the ingredients I want to see in a summer blend. I wish I had distinctly tasted these fruits, but at least the tea didn’t really distract from the book I was reading (Barbara Kingsolver’s ‘The Lacuna’ – also the perfect summer read.)

I was still in the mood for a smokey tea today, so I brought out my favorite. This is easily one of my top ten of all time teas. There’s a good amount of pine smoke, but also delicious cocoa notes mixed with malt and a flavor I always think of as baked grapefruit. It’s so good. The flavors play off of each other in the best of ways. It’s a great breakfast tea, but I’ve also reached for it in the afternoon when I’m looking for that break in the day to rest and regroup. This isn’t a tea I ever rush through. It’s too delicious for that.

Yay! This is my two hundredth tasting note. I’m glad I’ve had the opportunity to develop my palate on Steepster and to meet so many fellow tea people. This is truly a great community, one that I hope to continue participating in for a long time to come.

I bought this oolong two years ago. Ai Jiao is usually a Wuyi varietal (and I had a not-too-impressive example of that version a few years ago), so naturally, I was curious to see how it would take to my favourite terroir, which seems to be all of Taiwan. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot using boiling water for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of honey, flowers, grass, roast, and faint stonefruit. The first steep has notes of honey, raspberry, roasted grains, apricot, and grass. The honey, roast, and grains become more prominent in steep two, and the roast gets even stronger in subsequent steeps, with a hint of roasted walnuts. Though the stonefruit, berries, and flowers put in sporadic appearances throughout the next few steeps, mostly what I can taste is the honey and roast.

As someone who prefers greener oolongs, I’m not the ideal drinker for this tea, but I do appreciate its complexity. Maybe after another two hundred reviews I’ll be able to look past the roast to understand the full spectrum of flavours, though by then this tea will probably be gone.

I almost never buy rose scented tea. Not because I dislike the flavor but rather I can usually achieve the same thing by blending in a dried rosebud to any tea. This tea basically confirmed it.

The smell out of the bag is very faint with the barest whiff of rose, cherry, and almond. The brewed tea has a soft rose flavor that’s nice but also very similar to my Teavivre dried rosebuds. Can’t taste much of the underlying oolong. Where this tea really shines is cold brew. Here the greenness of the base oolong comes through complemented with a gentle touch of rose.

This could be a good tea for those who are into rose or floral scented teas that aren’t overpowering. I personally would just add a rosebud to regular oolong tea to obtain the same result but this is a nice option too if you want a pre-blended rose tea.

I received this generous 15 g free sample in an order I placed last fall, so I assume it is from the spring 2019 harvest. Gardenia is one of those flowers whose fragrance is sometimes hard for me to pin down in tea, so I was happy to get an example of what it’s supposed to taste like. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of gardenias, other heady flowers, peaches, and sweet cream. The first steep tastes strongly of gardenia, orchid, butter, cream, peach, banana, and grass. It’s simultaneously sweet and kind of waxy, and drying in the mouth. The banana and peach persist in the second and third steeps. I get a distinctly floral gardenia flavour as well. The banana becomes more prominent as the session goes on, especially if I let the tea cool. The tea develops a lovely, thick body with a gardenia aftertaste. The florals and grass take over by steep seven, and the session ends as one with a regular green oolong would, with floral, vegetal, and grassy notes.

Although some people might consider this oolong to be too perfumey, I like floral teas and enjoyed this one. I also think it would make a great cold brew.

This was from JakeB quite a while ago – thanks so much!  Since this is a cake, I’m assuming these are supposed to be aged black/red teas?  YS has a black cake from 2014 listed on their site, so I’m assuming these cakes are supposed to age a bit.  One can dream anyway, for my aging cupboard. But since JakeB sent four cakes (have since rehomed one of the four) it would take me quite a while to get through these cakes!  The leaves in the cake are fairly compact.   The first steep’s flavor is very light and bland, probably because the water was too cool to properly unravel the compactedness of these leaves.  The second steep was VERY dark and deep and more of what I’m looking for in a black tea — the leaves had also fully unraveled by then.  I wonder where the “drunk” in the name comes from, because I could swear there was a boozy quality to this second steep, that I normally wouldn’t notice in black tea… This is fine, an the only black/reds I have within full cakes.  So I guess I will have to be content with that novelty, as it stands this just tastes like BLACK TEA to me at the moment.
Steep #1  //  20 minutes after boiling  // rinse// 2 minute steep
Steep #2  // 2 minutes after boiling //  3 1/2 minute steep

This tea is from spring 2020. The curly leaves still have some give to them, which testifies to its freshness. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of honey, cocoa, and stonefruit. The first steep features honey, raisins, malt, muscatel, and peach. The second steep adds plum and more peach and muscatel, making it a jammy peach/raisin combination. This tea just keeps getting fruitier. In the third and fourth steeps, the stonefruit really takes off and the plums/peaches balance the grape/raisin notes. The honey and faint malt bring it all together. Steep five sees a return to the raisin/grape notes, and honey, malt, wood, and slight tannins gradually take over as the session goes on. The final steeps have notes of honey, wood, tannins, and minerals.

The love child of Doke Black Fusion and a black Dan Cong, this is a fantastic tea. If it has one fault, it’s that the stonefruit disappears too quickly, but the remaining steeps are still tasty and interesting. I’m glad I picked this one up.

What’s left of my packet had woogled down to the bottom of the odds and ends basket (you have one of those, don’t you?) so I didn’t expect too much in the way of flavor and freshness when I steeped a tumbler this morning. Not so—it was still pastry-like and tasty, even more so when I iced it. Makes me think of a cream puff that’s been in the fridge. Oh…now I AM thinking about cream puffs…and frosting…and cookie dough…and…

Samurai Travelling Tea Box – Tea #9

Not normally a chai person (or a chocolate tea person, for that matter) but T2 is one of those companies that’s not convenient to get ahold of in Canada so I figured I best take the opportunity to try this blend our while I have it…

My initial thought was that I was surprised how little chocolate actually seems to carry through to the flavour! It’s definitely there amidst the murky and muddy liquor but it’s certainly not the flavour focal point of the blend, and I surprisingly found myself wanting more! What did stand out was how rich and intense both of the star anise and clove flavours were. They were complimented by other typical chai spices like cinnamon and ginger, but there two were really the stars of the blend. Coincidentally those are my favourite two chai spices so I was very pleased in that regard; it was a bit of a trade off with the chai delivering and the chocolate not.

The only thing I could really think of was that maybe the general sweetness of the star anise was supposed to lean into the “sweetness” of the chocolate chips? If that was the intention then I think it was a failure though; those flavours are not the same.

Overall… fine.

So I’ve been following the local news… I’m feeling ambivalent about it all. It’ll be great to get some admins around the place. Users have done their best, but the site really needs some proper maintenance. It’s a bit like an old house that has seen better days. Totally fit for human habitation, but could use some paint, the tap drips a bit, and that one radiator just won’t turn on. On the other hand, it would have been greatly preferable if the site could have stayed indie, and previous bad experiences that some users have had are looming heavily. I have not participated in the debate, because I wasn’t there when aforementioned bad experiences were made, but I’ve been keeping up with the thread. I do get the impression that the representative of our new owners might have suddenly found himself in a discussion he was not prepared to have to deal with. It started out so well, and then there was a distinct tone of feeling pressured and maaaaaaybe not thinking things entirely through before pressing ‘post’. Okay, yes, I did leave an acerbic remark there. It doesn’t add anything to the conversation either way and I probably shouldn’t have made it. Oh well.

Anyway, I’ve had two cups of this today. It’s not actually the first I’ve had of it. My very first impression in the very first cup I had, the thing I mostly remember is that I found it incredibly fruity. Like someone had made a cup of tea, and then poured juice into it. That… sounds ghastly, actually. Poor description choice there. But it really had a distinct taste of eating forest fruits. Not any one in particular, just generic ‘fruit’. And in spite of my inability to describe this in a positive sounding way, it actually was a positive experience, albeit one that made me wonder how well it would reproduce.

Fairly well, although not completely consistently is the answer to that one. Sometimes it’s been more fruity, other times it’s had a more herbal characteristic to it. I once had a tea that was flavoured with thyme and, I think, raspberry. I can’t quite remember. But definitely thyme. When this one goes a bit herby, a milder version of that thyme tea is what it reminds me of.

I like it best when it’s in the juicier mood, but I’ll take it either way.

Back on the mate train… we’ll see how long this lasts. Haha.
This blend’s good because the black tea takes the edge off of the smokey note in the mate and amplifies the caffeine content of the brew, which is exactly what this wretched coffee addict wants in a breakfast tea. I really appreciate the non-jittery aspect of mate— I just wish I liked the flavor more. The black tea definitely makes this one drinkable for me.

I finally finished my online training so I’m baaaack! I’ve missed you guys. Drinking this today because it’s instant and we have people coming to view the house later today so I didn’t want to make a mess with loose leaf. I still don’t get why this is called ‘dreamtime’ when it’s full of sugar and caffeine. Still, it’s pretty tasty once you get past the name.

From a LONG AGO travelling teabox.  I was craving sheng, so I wanted to finally try this one.  I wanted to split the smaller sample into two steeping sessions, so only used one teaspoon while also not filling the mug completely.  Mini steeps.  I must say, I haven’t tried very many from white2tea!  (And seemingly the 2015 Poundcake has a MUCH higher rating than this one, if that says anything.)  The flavor here has a thicker mouthfeel – is that where the “cake” in the name comes from?   Very sweet, slightly starchy, very minerally, almost lemon and vanilla and cream.   Certainly sounds like some sort of cake!   But also with a lovely sort of tanginess.  Either I haven’t had sheng in a while, I don’t usually wait 52 minutes to steep sheng, this sheng is exceptionally different, OR white2tea is simply magic, because this sheng is addictive.  Hopefully it’s not my new thing because I only have a few samples of sheng in the cupboard.  However, as I remember usually happening, the steeps after the first tend to lose their magic.  I really should learn to steep sheng much cooler, as I thought I learned that lesson long ago.   This might be my problem with sheng – I love the first steeps but then they get worse from there, probably because I don’t have patience or I oversteep.  Or the Western steeps have been ruining sheng all along.  That first steep though!
Steep #1  // 1 teaspoon // 52 minutes after boiling  // rinse // 40 second steep
Steep #2  // 35 minutes after boiling //  1 minute steep
Steep #3 // 20 minutes after boiling // 45 second steep
Steep #4 // 20 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep

This tea is a coconut monster. If it was a chimera it would have a coconut head, a coconut body, and a coconut tail (three coconuts joined together, gasp!). I kid you not, coconut is listed three times in the ingredients section (coconut, toasted coconut, palm sugar).

The pairing of toasted coconut and roasted rice in a genmaicha is a nice one. I’m just a little unnerved because I thought 52Teas Marshmallow Treat was a candy tea. The palm sugar and the 500 coconuts present in this blend are zealously excited to show me all the ways in which I was mistaken.

For the most part I enjoyed this tea, but there is something present that is making my mouth dry and my throat sore; I may possibly be sensitive to something in the blend (I can’t see it being coconut, but who knows). I’ll try this again both hot and cold and see if I get the same results.

Steep Count: 2

Thanks to tea-sipper for this one! I’ve also had a sample of it from Mastress Alita, though I didn’t write a note at the time. The mint is really good. I’m having it at room temperature, and the flavor is so clean and fresh. I don’t taste any pistachio or black tea, but the mint is some of the best mint I’ve had. Really pleased with this one, though I don’t think I’d buy it over a caffeine-free mint blend.

The cheapest matcha at Yuuki-Cha. I bought this one specifically for lattes as I don’t care much for straight matcha. Opening the pouch revealed a slightly yellow tinged fine green powder with a creamy spinach aroma. A few whisks of the chasen is all it took to whip up an incredible froth. Much frothier than any matcha I’ve ever tried. Adding milk turned the matcha bubbles into a velvety microfoam like a skilled barista would produce.

Even though it later got doctored with milk and sugar, I did the obligatory tasting of the straight tea. It had a bright, rich forest green color. Smooth and creamy with a thick mouthfeel. Notes of sautéed asparagus and a little spice. Sweeter and less earthy than matcha can sometimes be. And more importantly, it made an excellent matcha latte.

Honestly I couldn’t find any information about this tea. On their website it is not even advertised, tea bag isn’t helping.

It is basic Ceylon black with lemon flavour. There aren’t much notes to notice unless the basic black tea with, at least, quite juicy lemon and lemon zest notes. Nothing much to write home about; but yeah today the writing is helping (even it’s tea from yesterday).

Mostly for Shae, who is my discussions poster (but others as well):
It made me a giggle a bit that admin is experiencing the troubles we had here for… for my forever. I was able to post in discussions only once I think. Anyway, I don’t know issues with TeaForum or TeaChat, as I never was a member there. But please, if you are going to run out of the space, never, never ever delete old posts. I think this family is even ready to pay some monthly subscription, so we can be together. My tasting notes are kind of mine diary, so I won’t really like to lose them just because the company ran out of space on servers. I have no idea how big this database can be, including all the pics (please let us fix outdated photos), maybe saving the pics directly to database would be big in size, but will solve photos which have disappeared (don’t know details “inside”)

As for me: 1) check and fix spam filters, they aren’t apparently working; 2) fix 503 errors, they are most annoying while using the website; 3) saving the tasting note in some cache before hitting publish button. I hate when I accidentaly close tab or just something goes wrong. Maybe checkbox share to public? — Sometimes you want just some technical data for future reference to have written down?

Well, there is lots to do! Maybe I will get rid of “buying part” even it is great idea… but maybe everyone can write there where he bought it, not necessary a vendor data based.

I agree we should have checkboxes for additives, as sugar, honey, et cetera. They are widely used and athough I don’t use them, there are some members who do. Good luck finding all the best solutions, but keep us together, please!

I’ve never been one to celebrate anniversaries, nor have I ever been a particularly sentimental person. Don’t get me wrong, I have great appreciation for all manner of folks and events that happen their ways into my path and mine into theirs. I do experience weighty nostalgia at times. Reflection has always been a pastime, though instead of it being a conscious choice to take some time for processing, it is usually spurred by the anxiety of an overwhelmed and subsequently depleted nervous system. That is where tea comes in. Conscious reflection and centeredness.

I’ve been spinning in place lately. Every input from the reality that whirls around me sets me a little off balance and into unexpected territory but I come right back to this every time. This neglected website. Both the members new and those seasoned, some of whom have put up with my life happenings and musings and contributed their own. You’re all so very excellent and I wish that sometimes I were in the mood to communicate with you more, but damn, am I tired. Twenty-twenty, I’m trying. I’m trying to break out of this dizzying spin.

Here’s to 2 years of Steepster. I’m in awe of all that has happened in this short amount of time. Come what may. Hopefully a brighter future for the site and for us all.

Song pairing: Stevie Wonder — As
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLbmdG8U60E

One of my old Adagio samples that I’m working on sipping down, now that I’ve finished all my old Tealyra stuff off. The leaves are very long, twisty, and dark, and smell almost chocolately in the bag. Brewed western, 2.8g in 350ml @ 205F for 3 min.

The tea smells like malt, honey, caramel, and strongly of roasted nuts. It has a pleasant roasted flavor; I’m getting notes of malt, toasted bread, roasted nuts (particularly a more earthy walnut flavor), honey, and a bittersweet cocoa that settles toward the end of the sip. There is a hint of a cherry note, as well, but it is subtle. There is some earthiness and minerality as well, but the tea is quite smooth. I’m really enjoying this one.

Another chance to this tea went well.

The green base isn’t phenomenal, it is pretty much boring but I noticed apples, pomergranate and earthy sage. There was some hints of cloves and cinnamon, which made it warming effect a bit which I liked this quite cold morning (around 15 °C only) and overall it was nice. Expected more fruity though.

I checked Steepster after two days again, 40 notices… many tasting notes. And I feel meh. I fel like I ran out of my passion writing them. Like who cares about same teas I am drinking? I don’t have any new ones. But you all care. Is it some panic attack effect?

Another tea from a newly arrived order to support more Black owned tea companies!

I feel sad that I didn’t know about this company sooner – they’re based in Canada and seem to offer some very unique and interesting tisanes and straight/traditional teas. The turn around time for shipping was also insanely quick! This is probably the fastest that I’ve received a tea order all year!

Today I was craving something bright, tart and flavourful which is why I started my order by cracking into this bag! And of course this delivers on all of those counts!! It’s a beauty to watch it steep, and while I know hibiscus can often be a VERY polarizing flavour I’ve grown to appreciate it a lot over the years – especially on its own! My main issue with hibiscus is really just that it’s so intense it often takes over flavour profiles – and that can irritate me when blenders use it as filler or to add colour to a tea and don’t take into account that it wont compliment the flavour of their blend or that it will mask the flavours. I also think that hibiscus has a bit of a natural berry type of flavour (certainly this one does) but it’s not a direct recreation and sometimes people rely too much on hibiscus in berry blends instead of actual berries…

Bottom line though – this was both stunning and delicious!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CChLS1NAw93/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkoo7mLF3I8

This has become one of my regular morning drinks lately. I first tried it about six months ago when I was looking for something with high caffeine for the mornings which broke out of my usual black teas, and fell in love with the taste. The caffeine buzz was also really nice.

The taste is unique — vegetal of some kind — mostly similar to grass, in my mind. I tried it with stevia once and really disliked that combo — I’m now sticking to the straight tisane with nothing added. The dried leaves are cut/torn into small pieces and are very lightweight, so I am hesitant to use the normal weight in grams for this teapot that I do with black teas — I have found 7-8 grams of these leaves seems to work well with 20 oz of boiling water for 6-7 minutes.