73 Tasting Notes
Drinking up the last of my sample from Liquid Proust’s Sheng Olympiad.
The wet leaf has a pretty strong scent. I would describe it as herby, a little bit vegetal, with a kind of candy sweetness to it. I don’t smell apricot or tartness in this one.
The first steep is strong in body with a little bit of upfront bitterness. Overall flavor is fairly light, mostly floral and vegetal. In the second and third steeps, the bitterness tends to build up in a tongue-coating way. I’m essentially flash steeping but still finding quite a bit of bitterness.
Preparation
Drinking up a sample of this today. The leaves came very tightly packed together, and I had to work to break up my given chunk into a little bit of a smaller piece. The wet leaves smell lightly fruity and tart, and generally quite mellow.
The first steep comes very light in flavor. It feels overall very mellow and comfortable, with a little bit of a high bitterness note. It is fairly sweet tea with low bitterness, making it a comfortable drinker. It doesn’t seem to be particularly strong in any aspect, however, which is maybe to be expected.
Later steeps don’t feel as they change too much. Longer brewing tends to bring out an unsavory bitter note. Overall, very light flavor profile, and in my opinion, somewhat uninteresting. I would prefer a tea such as White2tea’s Milk, Cream, and Alcohol, which although can be a little bit on the side of bitterness, provides a little more interesting of a drinking experience.
Drinking up a sample of this today. The wet leaf has a wonderful sour plum or apricot smell.
The first steep comes out quite light, though the body is already coming forward quite strongly. This is quite a “mid-centered” tea, with a forward body and a hint of maybe spiciness to it. Overall it’s quite low in bitterness and has a long lasting aftertaste of mellow sweetness. Definitely an enjoyable tea for me, though I find it lacks any particular high notes and mostly hangs around in mid to low notes.
Drinking up this sample tonight mostly western style (200mL teapot, 1.5-2min steeps). Overall, the flavor on this one is lighter than I realized. Opening up the sample bag, I was met with a delicate, sweet floral smell that I can’t exactly describe. This is a flavored tea (as far as I recall!) though the brew came out quite light in both color and flavor. It’s smooth and has a sweetness to it, as well as a gentle floral note. I can’t quite pick up on any flavoring (magnolia?) but overall it’s quite tasty, if not a little light.
Second brew I left in for longer, and definitely got more flavor out of it. It’s a very bright yellow color, and reminds me of a jasmine tea in its flavor profile. Maybe a little bit on the sweeter side, with almost a rose-petal sort of note showing up. Overall, a well rounded mouth feel and generally enjoyable, though I find it to be somewhat underwhelming. Maybe decent for a casual drink, but not that interesting all things considered.
Drinking up a sample of this from way back when. Probably should have drank this a while ago but figured I’d clean a bit of this off today!
Very pretty leaves tightly rolled up. The dry leaf has this sharp, vegetal (?) sort of smell to it that I’m not totally fond of, but I’d chalk that up to a personal preference. Wet leaf also shows a strong, floral aroma. I find this to be a little sharper than the Taiwanese oolongs I’ve tried (such as Jin Xuan or Baozhong) which I believe is mostly par for the course.
I can’t comment too much on the flavor as it isn’t really my realm of experience, but unfortunately I wasn’t a huge fan of this one. I think this has to do with my own personal preference, however, as I prefer fruitier and smoother teas :)
Drinking this one up in my clay pot. I’m almost completely finished with my 25g sample of this tea by now, though I’ve already tried it a couple times. This tea was the first one I tried and probably one of my favorite. It’s very mellow and buttery in flavor and smell with a generally smooth texture. It has some light floral notes, but I find it’s less sharp than some similarly “greened” oolongs. Despite that, I’d definitely draw its character most closely to other green oolongs with a creamy buttery note. It has the ever-so-slight hint of fruitness to it, which I mostly noticed when cold brewing this tea! During regular brewing, I didn’t notice this note so much, though that may be my own shortcoming.
Brewing up the sample tea bag that I was sent! I’m just western-style brewing this in a smallish teapot. After about a 1 minute brew, it comes up pale yellow. It has a calm, mellow flavor profile, with an immediate punch of light, roasty flavor and hints of maybe corn and bready grain. I’m not yet picking up too much in the way of fruits, but I might notice some more as I brew.
The second steep comes out deeper in color and flavor. There’s a little more of the roasted note coming out here now, but still nowhere near as much as a heavily roasted oolong (good by me!). It has a very rich and round flavor profile, with a sweetness and a mouth coating viscosity. Very enjoyable and looking forward to trying some of my other Tea Ave purchases!
