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Quite a while ago I ordered a bunch of samples from Puerh Shop, tasted one or two, and subsequently forgot I had them. I found them again and started drinking them, and while I’ve had some teas I liked from Puerh Shop, unfortunately most have just been mediocre.

This one has a very mild flavor, but gets bitter easily if overbrewed. Tastes of green wood, wet moss, and heavily diluted whiskey. Slight lingering aroma in them mouth, body is fairly thin. Overall it’s just ok, as might be expected from a cheap tea that claims to be “Bulang Wild Grown.”

This one has been in my storage for a while now, but hasn’t gotten a tasting note.

The tuo is very fragrant coming out of the box. Brews up a light yellow-orange. Fairly balanced sweet and savory, but leaning more towards sweet. Slightly green pine and wood notes with a light melon fruityness and floral aroma. Very clean tasting and somewhat mineral. There is some bitterness, but fairly mild for how heavily I leafed it. It has a strong, lingering aroma in the mouth and throat. Overall its pretty nice, especially considering the price. The only bad thing I have to say about this tea is that the mouthfeel is rather thin; none of the thick, oily quality often found in nicer sheng.

Edit: later steeps got thicker. While I strongly prefer cakes to tuos, this is really nice for the price.

Revisiting this sample as I’m dreaming up a big order from the YS China site. Overall it’s cleaner and tastier than I remember it being when I last drank it. Still a little bit “dank”, but slightly more positive tasting notes of damp wood, burning incense, and mineral-rich mountain spring water. While mostly aged out, there’s still a hint of something green and cooked vegetable-ish.

It’s good, but not fantastic: I’m still undecided on wether or not I need a cake of it.

Any Yunnan Sourcing recommendations? I’m looking for a bit of everything; sheng and shu samples, blacks to refresh my stockpile, fresh green teas, and some cheap-ish Wuyi or Dancong oolongs.

I’m not the biggest fan of highly green Tie Guan Yin, or greener oolongs in general, so I was slightly worried when I saw this among the samples sent to me by The Teaguy. However, I found that I enjoyed this one much more than I expected too.

Instead of harshly floral and grassy and green, this one is mild, nutty, and “warm”. It is somewhat grassy, and has a floral note that I’d compare to gardenias, but neither of these aspects are overpowering. It has a nice aroma that lingers in the mouth long after sipping. It’s a very mellow and enjoyable brew with a light honey-like sweetness.

I would not say that this is a top tier TGY, but it’s quite nice and priced very reasonably.

Ever seen that Spongebob episode where he and Patrick go to Glove World? They get glove hats, glove flashlights, and glove-flavored candy. This tea would fit in nicely because it has a nice buttery texture and notes of fresh cut grass and freshly-opened latex gloves!

Rubber flavor aside, it was drinkable, and I did in fact make several infusions of it. If you can get over the “dentist sticking his hands in your mouth” aroma, it’s not all that bad. Pairs well with pistachios.

I’d think that maybe it’s just me or I got a bad batch, but a friend had said the same thing to me about it a year ago.
Idk, I’m not very experienced with Japanese teas, but I have had one other gyokuro and it didn’t taste like gloves at all. :/

My second tea from The Teaguy, this one sounds interesting as they say it’s a blend of Assam, Keemun, Ceylon, and Vietnamese grown tea. Small-ish dark leaves with a few silvery buds. The aroma is light and citrusy with a hint of dry oats.

I tried following their recommended brewing, 2 tsp, 90C for 3-4 minutes, but while I probably added a bit too much water, it came out very weak, so I let it keep brewing, and after about six more minutes it was closer to the proper strength.

The resulting brew is still a little on the weak side, but it’s tasty. Slightly sweet with little to no bitterness, the flavor is light but malty with slight oat, citrus, and cocoa notes.

This was fairly good, but I think I’ll try it again at a higher temperature with a bit more leaf.

Hello Steepster, it’s been a while! I was recently contacted by The Teaguy and asked if I’d like to review some of their teas. Who would say no to that? Anyways hello, and sorry it’s been so long since I last posted.

The samples arrived today, St. Patrick’s Day, and with an Irish Breakfast among the samples. So of course that’s the first tea I’ll try.

It appears to be a blend of CTC and other broken leaf; not unusual for an Irish Breakfast. The dry aroma is sweet with notes of honey and barley.

I followed their brewing instructions: 2tsp for 3-4 minutes at 90C. 90C is lower than I normally brew blacks, but that makes sense to balance out the strength and bitterness of the CTC and broken leaf leaves.

The result is quite good! Mildly sweet with honey, malt, and barley notes and a slightly floral background. It’s bold and slightly bitter, but not overly so in comparison to how Irish Breakfasts can be, and none of the metallic quality they sometimes have. It reminds me of Grape Nuts cereal in beverage form. Very drinkable with or without milk, this would make a great first cup in the morning.

*Editing to say that this tea definitely has a lot of caffeine! I felt a coffee-like punch after drinking it, so I wouldn’t recommend drinking it late in the day.

This tea makes me happy. Not because it’s the “best” or “highest quality” tea, but because it’s exactly what I want in a roasted oolong. Good complexity with fruity, spice, grain, and resiny notes with just the right amount of roast to compliment but not overpower. Overall it just “fits” my pallet right, like the worlds most comfortable pair of underwear. I’ve been drinking this a lot lately, whenever I’m not craving anything in particular, and I’ll definitely have to stock up on a lot the next time I order from Mountain Tea.

From the Pu TTB Round 5

Brews up a light amber color. Tastes of tobacco, peat, slightly smoky with mineral and warming spice notes. Slightly musky incense-like aroma. Not much green left, but moderate in bitterness and light sweetness. In short: tastes like Xiaguan. A good daily drink semi-aged sheng and I might need to pick up a tuo or two.

Completely unrelated and unusually blog-ish for me: Several years ago I fell in love with the sounds of North Indian/Hindustani music. I saved up a pile of money and bought myself a beautiful sitar. I started off really into it, but a major bout of depression caused me to lose interest and it ended up living in my closet.

I’m managing my depression much better now, and the other weekend I went to I really inspirational sitar concert by Ustad Shujat Kahn, son of Vilayat Kahn. I decided to open back up the sitar case and completely restrung it (takes hours) and I’ve been practicing from a book and DVDs daily. I knew from experience that I would need a teacher if I really wanted to learn, so I contacted the shop that sold my the sitar and asked for recommendations.

Last weekend I had my first skype lesson (good sitar teachers are few and far between) with the owner of the shop, and by his recommendation I’m going to take lessons from his teacher, Indrajit Banerjee, in the future. I’m really excited! Unfortunately I’ve been drinking less gong fu tea and doing more big pot brewing (hadn’t done that in a long time) haha.

Anyways, I’m really exited and feeling much more motivated in day to day life

From the Pu TTB round 5

Brews a light yellow. Super nice and thick, oily mouthfeel. Mineral, spice, green wood, slight floral and mushroom notes make a complex brew. “Yiwu-ish” profile by my experience. Low-medium bitterness and a little bit of sweetness. The brewed leaves are very nice. Thick stems, olive green color.

Thinking about this tea, I realize how hard it is to put into words what differentiates a tea that’s “good” or “ok” from one that’s great. I may not have the words, but this one definitely falls in the “great” category for me, at least for near-term drinking.