412 Tasting Notes
When not in competition with Jackee, this is a very tasty tea in its own right. Smooth, sweet, good plain or with milk; a little bit smoky, but only in flavor – it doesn’t have that dryness at the back of the throat that I get from gunpowder or lapsang teas. More earthy than fruity or floral, this is satisfyingly rich as an afternoon tea.
Preparation
This is a really lovely, flavorful, sweet oolong. There is a sweet, lingering aftertaste; a little like flowers, but not overpoweringly so. It invites you to stop, breathe, take a break from your day. I’ll definitely keep an eye out for other teas from Phoenix Mountain in the future.
2 grams, 3oz water
Preparation
I was looking forward to trying this one, never having had a pu-erh chai before. It smells like I expected, earthy and cinnamony. Drunk plain, it’s a little on the bitter/spicy side, but the cinnamon and cardamom flavors come through well. A little milk is nice; sweetener would likely help but I’m resisting. I can’t quite decide whether this is good, and will grow on me, or just too strange; I wouldn’t buy more at this point, but I’ll drink what I have. I’m curious to see how well it resteeps, though there was enough in my sample for two solid cups.
ETA: I had the first two steeps (2 and 3 minutes) with milk, to soften the spices a little. The 3rd and 4th I’ve drunk plain, and I like them that way. The spices are milder by now, and the sweetness of the pu-erh is coming through more. It reminds me of harvest parties and field trips – drinking hot apple cider in a barn; it probably helps that it’s cold and rainy out today.
Bumping the rating on this one for resteepability and versatility.
Preparation
I didn’t try this plain. I can’t imagine I’d like it that way. I’m pretty much completely won over to the stovetop method for anything having to do with chai now, to the point where I’d probably choose not to drink chai if I couldn’t make it on the stovetop.
Yeah, I don’t think I’d choose to drink it plain normally; I was trying to compare it to both other pu-erhs and other chais here, but I think it does better as a chai. The spices cancel out the pu-erh sweetness all too well, though it is re-steeping a little milder. I should try the other half of the sample on the stove top though…
Alright – I got this one back when it was a Steepster Select, but I’d been waiting to log it until I got a steep I liked. Someone recently said that the dry leaf smelled like fresh cut hay, and that’s about right. The taste is mildly sweet, and reminiscent of sunshine, meadows, warm summer days. Not overtly floral, but not really grassy either. I’m having trouble pinning the taste down, clearly, but the sweet/dry/sunshine smell of hay is pretty close. The mouthfeel is nice and full, the aftertaste lingering and faintly sweet. I had meant to make this iced, but it’s pretty nice at just above body temp – warm, but not hot.
3 grams of tea, 3 oz water, 185ºF, 1st steep just over 1 minute; cut 1:1 with cool water to make 6oz tea
