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Drank this to get through a round of awful phone interviews. Only enough left for one last session. I must save it until reinforcements arrive.

My note got deleted! :(

Got this as a free sample from Alistair in my first What-cha order. Decided to steep it according to the recommendations, though I would normally do short steeps for my oolongs, jin xuans included. The first steep is a very light, transparent golden yellow, and it smells floral and milky. The taste is more floral than anything, with a milky texture that thickens to almost creamy as you swallow.

The following steeps are similar, but gradually lighter in flavor. So far I feel like I prefer What-cha’s Fujian Jin Xuan to this one, but I will see if steeping it my usual way changes that at all.

So, I’ve already had too much caffeine today, but the SO decided she wanted to try a green tea today and this is the one she chose. We couldn’t agree on this one from the get-go. She kept smelling things like rotisserie chicken and other dinner smells, I was getting roasted chestnuts more than anything else, which gave me high hopes for the flavor itself.

I followed Teavivre’s preparation recommendations for this one. She says it tastes like dinner. To me, it tastes like slightly bitter roastiness. Not getting the chestnut or nutty flavors the aroma had me expecting. Neither of us wants another cup at the moment, so I wait an hour to resteep.

The second steep is better, which leads me to believe I didn’t wash this quite long enough the first time around. Smooth in texture, lightly nutty in flavor and lightly vegetal. I guess I’m not used to the concept of the second steep being best applying to green tea. I now take the time to admire the very light golden liquor in my clear cha hai.

The third steep is also light and pleasant, and the leaves seem to have expanded nicely. I’m getting some buttery notes in this steep. Fourth steep is super light and what flavor is there is mostly buttery.

This tea taught me that it needs to be washed in order for me to enjoy it, and for longer than the recommended five seconds. It was a good learning experience, and I’ll finish up the rest of the sample, but I don’t think it’s quite up my alley enough to ever put in a full order of it.

Steep times:
20/30/45/60

I think I finally found my preferred steeping parameters for this. 7 g for about 100 ml of water, steeped for around 1 min and 15 seconds or so with 70C water. Really getting that strong, vegetal umami flavor that I love from kabusecha this way, as well as more of that unique, stemmy flavor that comes with it being a shiraore kabusecha. Second steep is a quick one, no more than 10 seconds long or so, and the third steep goes for about 30 seconds.

All steeps uncovered. I find that after about 3 steeps, more bitters and less flavor start to come out, so that’s a good point to finish up with this one.

Had this for the first time this morning. It’s my first time having and making matcha since leaving Japan. I think having it first thing in the morning on an empty stomach without having had it in a while was not the best idea, as I am feeling a bit of the nausea one can experience. Going to eat a persimmon in hopes to calm that down.

Anyhow, to the tea. I bought this when Yunomi advertised it for 50% off on reddit. It mixes up to a nice green. I made it a bit thinner than what I would like, as I was using a new chawan and was out of practice, so I didn’t get the best sense of the taste right off the bat. I can tell it’s green and vegetal, though, and it doesn’t seem particularly bitter or astringent. I also got a hint of creaminess that I’m sure will come out more when I get it to the right thickness.

All-in-all, this was a good deal, perfect for getting back into practice, and I look forward to drinking it again. I will select flavors for it when I’ve prepared it better.

Ordered a sample of this in my last YS order. Got a nice chunk of cake with a couple smaller chunks that were quite compressed but easy enough to break apart to the size I needed.

The dry leaves smell welcoming and earthy, and after a quick wash, they give off a mouth-wateringly sour aroma with a hint of woodiness. I do a quick 15 second steep to start and I’m getting a light, fruity sweet and sour flavor with a very nice woodiness.

The following steeps deliver more of the same, and I definitely get that umeboshi flavor I’ve seen mentioned about this. I’m finding the flavor to be very good and consistent across steeps, even after longer steeps. A great, fruity aroma clings to the empty cup.

I can definitely see myself buying a full brick of this and sharing with folks who may generally shy away from aged teas. Definitely very drinkable.

So, my SO requested I buy this, so I added it to my last Yunnan order. I’m not sure how to feel about this, and she is just sitting over here laughing at my face. I can smell the butter in this just from the dry powder alone, and as soon as I add water, it smells even more buttery and sweet. We share a serving and it pretty much tastes the way it smells—buttery and sweet with a hint of tea in there. I think this is definitely more up her alley than mine, as she liked it, but would have liked a stronger flavor. I may experiment with this a bit more, but I’m not sure having buttery tea will ever not be odd to me!

So, introducing this one to the SO has been fun. The following are some of her comments:

Wash:
“It smells like your dogs ran into a wet forest and rolled around in mushrooms.”

First steep:
“It smells like someone is making rum in a wet, dense forest.”
“It smells like rum. Like someone said I’m going to make some rum and put it into my tea. Pirates would drink this when all the rum is gone.”

Second steep:
“Now it’s like someone said I want to make mushroom alcohol. But not.”

Third steep:
“It tastes like wet bark and overly sauteed spinach with a little bit of apple cider vinegar”
“…I think I’m getting tea drunk.”

A couple steeps later:
“I think I’m /too/ tea drunk, can you finish this for me?”

She liked it more than I expected (she hasn’t been too receptive to puerh so far), so hopefully we’ll be able to enjoy more of them together moving forward. Now we have to go back outside to harvest more sweet potatoes.

Finally introducing this to the SO. She thinks it would go well with ochazuke or tamagoyaki with shiozake and rice…which sound like very interesting pairings to me. I would drink green tea with those. Upon taking bigger sips she starts to really taste the chocolate and the earthiness of it. I love how the taste of this tea evolves after a few steeps. The dark chocolate taste gradually gives way to the sweetness of the rice and the leaves themselves. Such good stuff. As we get to the last steep she’s very smiley and giggly. I am intrigued by this effect.