Thistea

Advent tea
This one is grassy and subtly nutty. Just a hint of bitterness. Not something I’d gravitate towards every day, but a nice example of mossy green tea done right.

Receiving a sample of this tea from ThisTea (thank you!) was kind of cheating, as this variety is a tried and true favorite of mine.  Laoshan Green is the green of my dreams.  It’s always nice to try a fresh harvest though.   The leaves here might look slightly brighter neon yellow green than I’m accustomed to seeing from Laoshan.  The flavor is naturally sweet to the point of seeming like sugar was added, also nutty, vegetal yet fruity at the same time, buttery.  It’s just an explosion of various flavors and exactly why I LOVE Laoshan green.  I would never tire of it.   I have been steeping it a variety of ways and it never fails.  Second steeps are essential.  Laoshan is only the most interesting unique flavor profile of any green tea I have tried.

I received this tea as a sample from Thistea.com

I rinsed the leaves once before infusion.

Dry leaf aroma: fish, autumn leaf pile, slight sweetness

Steamed leaf aroma: fish, sawdust, aubergine-vegetal, molasses sweetness

Brewed tea tasting notes: sweetness, autumn leaf pile
Infused for 20 seconds

Thank you very much for the samples, ThisTea! I have always been a fan of the Tie Guan Yin.  I have tried this a couple times now, trying to brew it different ways.  I used a bit more leaf than usual for this steep session – 2 1/3 teaspoons for a mug.  Trying to impart a bit more flavor than I was tasting in the previous session.  The leaf does look slightly battered than I would like to see from a quality Tie Guan Yin.  I will say it never gets astringent, no matter how long I steep it.  The flavor notes are a bit muted to me… as oolong seems to be for me lately.  Mostly a drying aspect – with buttery notes.  Maybe some orchids.  Maybe even a cooling minty aspect — and very syrupy mouthfeel on the third steep.   But I usually expect (and love) when a Tie Guan Yin is a full bouquet of flowers in flavor, and when it isn’t that, I’m a bit disappointed.  This flavor has happened before with other Tie Guan Yin harvests, so I know it is not something unachievable that I’m hoping for!
Steep #1 // 2 1/3 teaspoons for full mug // 22 minutes after boiling // rinse // 1 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 8 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // 3 1/2 minute steep

Many thanks to Thistea.com for sending me this sample.

Dry lead aroma notes: sweet, savoury molasses, chocolate, hint of floral jasmine, red pepper, melon
Steamed leaf aroma: sweet bread, dates, leather, chestnut
Brewing leaf aroma: cucumber, melon

Brewed tea aroma: sugary, melon, sweet floral

Tea tasting notes: sweet melon, thick mouthfeel, sweet cucumber notes into the aftertaste.

I brewed this tea gongfu style at 95 C starting at 45seconds→ 30 seconds → 45 seconds and adding 30 seconds each time until the brews lost their flavor. The tea provided ~6 pleasant infusions
The tea leaves were for the most part whole, with a few cut leaves that brewed up a light-green-yellow color with a sweet and grassy aroma. The mouthfeel of the tea was medium-thick and leaves a lingering vegetal aftertaste in the second infusion, but not much florals. In later steeps, there is a pleasant oily texture that appears on the tongue., while later steeps progress towards light florals and soft vegetal taste with an almost juicy mouthfeel. However, there is sharpness in the throat if brewed up too strong.

This tea is for people who like steamed veggies and quite similar to sencha. I did not like this tea, but it is a solid tea nonetheless. The tea brews up a lightly floral, vegetal, and grassy drink. There was little to no bitterness and astringency and a very smooth mouthfeel to the tea.

No bitterness, but there is a slight tolerable astringency. Brewed up the color of the tea was light. Typical green tea savory taste in the beginning, with some candy-like flavors, while citrusy fruity notes appeared towards the later brews.

I was kindly sent this tea to review.
I made two separate cups one steeped at 3 minutes and the other for only 2 minutes.
The 3 minute steep was strong and jasmine heavy with a syrupy nectar taste and feel to it. I was reminded of Honeysuckle because it was very sweet. It’s a delicious jasmine tea one of the best I’ve ever had. It’s very elegant and I could see this being a good candidate to serve at a tea party.

The two minute steep cup was very light in flavor and a bit too light for my taste. It tastes sweet with a slight honeysuckle flavor. It’s still pleasant but it’s lacking the depth of the prior steep and I would guess that my perfect steep time would be around 2 and 1/2 minutes. Somewhere in between the two cups. I realized I brewed this in the teapot that doesn’t pour very evenly and I forgot to stir it before pouring. When steeped right the jasmine in this tea comes across as fresh jasmine flowers as opposed to floral perfume.

This is clearly a gongting grade ripe. The tea itself is nice. It has very strong energy as do most gongting ripes. I would classify this as a wood/ slightly bitter ripe which typically tells me the material in it is good. It’s thick as well and has some room for growth as far as the aging process goesZ although I imagine with the right type of storage this would age wonderfully!

Tea: Premium Grade Dragon Well
Vendor: @thistea
Harvested: Spring 2020
Origin: Da Fo Mountain in Zhejiang Province, China

I tend to drink Longjing brewed western or grandpa style usually. This time I brewed it in a tea infuser bottle that my family got me for Father’s Day. I used 3 grams of leaves to 175ml of filtered tap water at 190 degrees F and got 4 solid infusions at 2, 3, 4, and 5 minutes.

Just an incredible aroma on this one. A rich, full aroma of buttery steamed spinach with roasted chestnuts filled my space. That nuttiness was strong in the cup and was the main attraction for me. A broth with the best of all worlds, savory but sweet, and slightly bitter, vegetal and nutty. I could drink this tea every day and be happy.

Scent of Dry leaf: dry and sligt tabacco(what you would expect from a silver needle) Appearance and scent of wet leaf: this has me confused, it smells sweet but i cant identify similarities with another thing, closes to cane sugar i will say Brewing method/time/temp: 1 st infusion i did 195 35 seconds. But second infusion i did 212 35 seconds. Taste- slightly sweet for first i fusion. More sweet the second infusion

After this, altough it was a good tea, i decided to put in a tall glass and see how it does grampa style(which is how i have been doing white needles in the past) Once you do this you can see all the little tea hairs separate and swim around, which is really relly relaxing. Taste- whith this it will vary since its less precise, my first cup was a lot more alive than the teapot generated, it is still sweet, but it also has slightly black peper spicy notes. Silver needles really is something special, i love it.

Overall, i recomemd this tea, is great

I kept drinking after writing the review and the longer it is in the water the creamier it gets, this is actually amazing.