199 Tasting Notes
From the Butiki Educational TTB
Today’s tea is the Vietnamese Green :)
I brewed this like a normal green with 175 degree water for a minute (it was a little longer than this since I got distracted). I’m not really finding any typical green tea flavors in this! I’m getting the taste of a lightly roasted oolong, which is good, but not what I was expecting. Also, it’s very one-note, so it’s kinda boring and gets hard to drink after the first half of the cup.
67/100
Continuing in the Butiki Educational TeaTeaBee
I tried the Kenya Green #1 at work, but I don’t remember everything about it because I was drinking it during a meeting! Medium vegetal body with some smoky/nutty flavors. Definitely a nice tea :)
71/100
Flavors: Nuts, Smoke, Vegetal
Channeling my inner Lou Bega…
Ladies and gentlemen.. this is Puerh #5.
From the Butiki Educational TTB :)
I wish I knew what I was drinking.. So, this is obviously a sheng.. Well, it’s in a bag marked puerh and it looks like a sheng? So, I heat up some water to about 195 degrees and put 5g in my gaiwan. After a short rinse, I taste the first five second brew..
Are we sure this is a sheng? It’s not very sheng-y. Granted, I still know nothing about puerh, but this definitely tastes and smells like most of the Indian teas that I enjoy. I didn’t know such complex flavor could come from a pu! The first steep is a barrage of flavors and I tried to capture them all. I felt that there were hints of raisin and dried fruits, but with a slight (very slight) vegetal finish. This first steep is super smooth and has a very full feeling in the mouth.
The second steep.. Okay! Now we have some pepper kicking through! Still a great finish and smooth feeling. I didn’t think that I would like pepper raisin tea :P
Third.. The flavor of the pepper raisin tea is still there, but I have this overwhelming feeling that I’m drinking water. The flavor kinda dissipated with the first two steeps :/ The aftertaste on the third steep is a strong pepper kick.
Third.. The flavor of the pepper raisin tea is still there, but I have this overwhelming feeling that I’m drinking water. The flavor kinda dissipated with the first two steeps :/ The aftertaste on the third steep is a strong pepper kick.70/100
Flavors: Dried Fruit, Pepper, Raisins, Vegetal
Preparation
Butiki Educational TTB
I didn’t know where to start, so I opened up the oolong bag, since I enjoy a lot of oolongs. I just kinda looked through them for one that looked interesting and came across the Bihar Oolong from India. It smelled great – kind of a muscatel, sweet/fruity smell – so I figured I couldn’t go wrong.
I brewed this for 2.5 minutes at 195. The resulting brew has an interesting smell, but I thought it tasted completely different than the smell. The taste is nice and sweet with a grape/apricot flavor. Very nice tea and I enjoyed multiple steeps!
78/100
Flavors: Apricot, Muscatel, Sweet
Preparation
No matter what I did, I couldn’t get the bitterness out of the brew.. I steeped it the same parameters as the previous dancong, but it always had a bitter finish even when I lowered the water temperature or had shorter steeps. Not sure what I did wrong – maybe I need a dancong expert :P
Still, woodsy notes with a hint of sweetness until the bitterness hits at the end. Steeped gongfu style.
Preparation
If there was ever a sheng to finally convert me, it would be this one. This is pretty amazing tea and I ended up drinking a half gallon worth XD It’s a nice amber color and feels very “full” in the mouth. It’s a nice woodsy, sweet brew and smells like a campfire. It’s slightly smoky and all delicious. Hands down the best puerh I’ve had so far.
Flavors: Campfire, Smoke, Sweet, Wood
Preparation
This is a pretty awesome shou. A medium-dark amber color with a sweet earthy taste. I guess the word is “meaty” even if that doesn’t make much sense to anyone else :P I enjoyed multiple steeps of this tea. I noticed a distinct difference between this and the other grade that I tried (either fifth or seventh, I can’t remember). This is more clean and pure tasting to me – definitely enjoyable and would have again.
Flavors: Earth
Preparation
I get “meaty” and “brothy” sometimes.
I’m glad it made sense to someone :)
Always, most puerh is multi-faceted and hard to nail down a particular note sometimes. I get the salty/brothy sometimes with sheng.
The fifth grade is much bolder than this one is. They are fun to try side by side.
I actually had seventh – I looked back in my notes. I preferred the first grade though!
we all have our unique preferences:) glad you enjoyed the tea kieblera5 and thanks for the reviews!
for a pretty awesome Shou a 77 seems low?
