73 Tasting Notes
One of the samples from my Black Friday sampler pack. I’m still working through this thing four months later, but there’s only a few left now!
This tea comes in pretty looking needles and smells of corn or wheat or some kind of comfortable grain. The first steep comes out smooth and clear and smells buttery sweet. It somewhat reminds me of a Jin Xuan with its buttery and floral upfront notes. There’s a hint of bitterness, but definitely quite mellow.
Overall, quite an enjoyable green tea.
Preparation
I’ve enjoyed this tea quite as bit as I’ve sampled it. Interesting, I’ve found it has different flavors different times I’ve tried it. This is more likely to do with my mood or setting than anything else, but my best experiences have brought out sweet, fruity strawberry notes. Overall, the flavor profile of this tea is similar to that of a black tea, with its relatively high oxidation levels, but does not have the same malty “blackness” of a black tea. I’ve also found hints of a roasted flavor here, but I was brewing in a vessel I’d just brewed a roasted tea in.
Overall, quite a tasty tea! I don’t know if I can say anything toward the health benefits of it being a GABA tea, but it is quite tasty.
From Liquid Proust’s Sheng Olympiad! This is the first time I’ve opened up this package with it’s cute cats and it’s pretty fonts.
The tea itself is kind of ugly—it’s very flattened and in brownish dark green shapes. Despite that, I’m hoping it’ll taste good. I even found my first hair (as far as I know) in this tea—but I suppose those things happen.
The smell of the leaves after a rinse is sweet apricot. Probably my favorite part of younger sheng is this, so I hope it’ll persist well into the tea itself.
The first steep comes in as a light yellow. I flash steeped this one, so it’s somewhat light on flavor, plus the leaves still have quite a bit more room to open up in this tightly compressed tea. Nevertheless, it has a present body and maybe the ever-so-slight hint at a smokey aftertaste, though no fruity high notes yet (this is where I’d usually find them!). There’s no bitterness to be found here either.
In the second steep, a hair of bitterness and astringency work their way out, making an appearance at the back of the throat. The main qualities here seem to be the smooth body and overall rounded flavor profile. There is a hint of a fruity sweetness at the tip of the tongue, but it’s barely perceptible. It’s smooth and easy to drink, but overall falls in the realm of mellow and overall not super interesting to drink.
Steeping for a long time seems to make this taste super vegetal as well. All in, I only managed to get a few good steeps out of it. I’m kind of surprised with the outcome—maybe since it’s a huangpian it doesn’t have the same longevity? To be honest, I’m not too sure. Overall somewhat disappointed, but I’ll definitely revisit again another day.
Preparation
I drank this one the other day with a friend. I wasn’t paying as close attention as I maybe should have, but I noticed some of the same traits I did from when I first tried it. It has a nice overtone of apricot fruitiness, though it blends in well with the body of the tea. It’s quite smooth and has very little bitterness even when brewed for a long time, lending itself to an easy drink. It can tend toward the light side, though it might have more to do with my technique and sizing than anything else. Definitely one of my favorites so far and looking forward to trying more!
This is my second time drinking this tea, though the first time was with a friend and I didn’t really have the chance to think carefully about this one.
First steep comes in quite light but showcases some of the high notes. There’s a strong fruity grape note here, with a hint of tartness to it. I would consider this note to be the highlight of this tea.
The smell of the wet leaves smells like a black tea—dark and malty—and a little bit of that makes its way into the flavor. I would definitely draw some parallels between this and a black tea, however this carries a heavier proportion of fruity flavor to dark, malty, and black flavor. If you brew it for longer, you pull more of those black tea notes out, however it always remains quite fruity.
Overall, an enjoyable tea for those who would enjoy fruity black teas!
Flavors: Grapes, Malt
Brewing this up in my gaiwan as an evening tea to enjoy while doing some work. It’s quite green and the leaves are curled up with some stems visible as well. It’s quite “green” in smell, with heavy floral notes akin to a tieguanyin. It’s a little creamier and softer than the tieguanyin I’ve had, but definitely a little bit stronger in flavor than TTC’s Jin Xuan.
