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nice daily drinking dahongpao. familiar notes of wood and forest, cooked celery, roasted almonds (bordering on some marzapan sweetness) and minerality.

The leaves look as they do in the picture, but their texture is fascinating. hard and wiry, like tiny dreadlocks.
First smell of the wet leaves surprised me. It was far ‘darker’ than i had been expecting: raw cocoa, heavily roasted almonds to the point of being burnt, rounded out by malt. I got a whiff of dark berries like blueberries, but later I had a more consistent raspberry aroma.

these aromas follow through on tasting. malty cocoa, sweet and bitter. It walks the edge of medium-bodied to custardy mouth feel.

Overall very enjoyable. I did find it hard to eradicate my expectations on this one: it was far more ‘high-toned’ that i had anticipated

I don’t normally review teas twice, but I enjoyed this brew so much more than all of my other times with it. Previously, i’d been underwhelmed, dare I say bored, but today it hit all of the right notes for me.
Medium bodied, fairly roasty with minerality, roasted almonds, faint stone fruit, and to borrow a wine term, ‘sous bois’

Brewed western style today

Thin dry leaves smell of pears and flowers

I normally have this in a gaiwan, but I’m working so opted for a simpler ‘western’ approach.

Infusion is pale and fresh. very vegetal on nose and taste, filled out by a gentle sweet nuttiness mid-palate.
Pleasant

I’m still playing around with steeping times and dry leaf amount for hojichas. This one I made ‘western’ style.

This one is quite stemmy: looks to be about 60-40 stem to leaf ratio.
pleasant roasted aromas of seaweed, nuts and grains. the seaweed and grainy aspect standing out more than the nuttiness.

very smooth medium bodied and more roasted grain when tasting

Picked March 2014
Dry Leaf: black and wiry
very aromatic: dried berries, cranberries, very light smoke, sweat, medium roast coffee, medium dark chocolate,

Wet Leaf not as aromatic. More earthy, foresty with a very distant campfire.
liquor more chocolate and malt on first infusion
sweet potato
sadly, later infusions don’t reveal much further. certainly a fine tea, but lacked mid-palate to back up its initial aromas
low astringency, medium body

It’s listed as an easy-drinking tea, which I would certainly agree with. It’s good, but not really worth the price

I jotted these notes down ages ago and recently came across them, so here we go. (no score given)

Wet Leaf: buttered swedes and grass
liquor very bright low intensity minty green
sweet, low astringency, light body, floral, grass

Is there any other tea as attractive as Bi Luo Chun? As the name implies, the rolled leaves are black and gold with aromas of chocolate and cocoa. Liquor is a beautiful rich mahogany.
This follows through in the steeped aroma which is malty. It’s smoky as well, but not overpowering…altogether like a s’more. Nutmeg and more high frequency cocoa notes.

Taste is rich and creamy. rather sweet with some bitter astringency, which just makes me think more of cocoa.

this is for the Spring 2015 tea.

Dry leaf aromas of smoked meat and edamame
liquor is more floral with orange peel
Sweet peachy taste with some bitter astringency

tasty

This appears slightly more oxidised than some of the other Oriental Beauty teas I’ve had.

As would expect, it’s highly aromatic with rose, peaches, wood, lemon oil
Taste delivers what the nose expected. I may be crazy, but also think i get a touch of maltiness on this.
medium body with mild astringency. Surprisingly creamy
It’s good, but some thing is missing. Today is a leaf day