Leafhopper Send Message

A few days ago, I wanted some green oolong without having to open an entire 150 g pack, so I raided my tea museum for this small sample bag. The label doesn’t have a year on it, but I suspect it’s from 2021 or 2022. This Lishan deserved a better fate! I steeped 6 g of leaf in 120 ml of boiling water for 55, 45, 55, 65, 75, 90, 120, 180, and 240 seconds, plus some long, uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of peaches, orchids, other florals, cream, mung beans, and grass. The first steep has notes of underripe peach, cream, orchid, sweet pea, mung beans, and grass, with a nice, thick texture and a peachy aftertaste. I notice a bit more grass than is usual in Wang’s teas, though that could be due to age. Steep two is grassy peaches and cream. The next couple steeps are more floral, with notes of cream, custard, and sadly, more grass. The next few steeps retain the ethereal floral, peachy aroma, but the taste increasingly features spinach and grass. Still, I continued to steep the leaves several more times to extract those lingering florals.

This is a good oolong that might have been fantastic when it was fresher. I’ve added it to my list of great teas from this company, which also includes their SLX Wild Garden, Da Yu Ling, Fushoushan, Osmanthus Alishan, and SLX Small Leaf Black Tea.

This is the last first flush Darjeeling I ordered in 2023. (I have three 2023 second flush Darjeelings to go!) The name refers to the estate’s founder, Basant Kumar Birla, and “basant” is also a word for spring in many Indian languages. I steeped 3 g of leaf in 150 ml of 180F water for 2.5, 3.5, 5, and 7 minutes, followed by a couple uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of honey, lemon, peony, spring flowers, herbs, and wood. The first steep has notes of lemon, apple, honey, caramel, spring flowers, herbs, minerals, and wood. It’s somewhat reminiscent of lemon pound cake. The next steep is a little more brisk and nutty with pronounced herbaceous undertones. However, there’s still a lot of sweetness, florality, and fruitiness to enjoy. The next couple steeps lose much of the fruitiness, but are still nutty, floral, and sweet. The final steeps are a bit floral, but are predictably more astringent, herbaceous, and mineral.

This tea is lemony and sweet for a first flush Darjeeling and has a lovely aroma. I enjoyed its honey, caramel, and spring floral notes and appreciated the relative lack of astringency. I highly recommend it if it ever comes back in stock.

My version of this tea is from 2021. I bought it because the vendor said it was fruity, but I couldn’t dial in the steeping parameters and ended up letting the rest of it sit in a drawer for three years. I steeped 6 g of leaf in 120 ml of 195F water for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of mango, orchid, lilac, cream, and grass. The first steep has vaguely fruity notes of mango and pear, plus cream, orchid, lilac, and lots of grass. It doesn’t have any high notes, possibly due to its higher oxidation, and is a bit drying. The next steep has a nice mango aroma and flavour, along with some nuttiness, cream, florals, and lots of grass. It also has more astringency than expected for a green oolong. Steeps three and four have a great mango flavour, but are quite astringent and grassy. Subsequent rounds are still fruity, but the mango flavour is less apparent. By steep seven, the tea is grassy, vegetal, and astringent with some floral hints.

I commend Floating Leaves for introducing a green but more oxidized oolong in their gaoshan lineup, and at times, I appreciate the fruitiness of this tea. However, the grassiness and astringency are hard to get past. I’d blame these drawbacks on its age, but it was like this when I tried it several years ago. I think this is the first iteration of this tea and they’ve been offering it for three years now, so maybe they’ve ironed out some of the issues. I’d be interested to hear what newer harvests are like.

It’s been a while since I posted a tasting note. I attribute this lack of reviews both to having a weird form of writer’s block (palate block? flavour description block?) and to drinking teas I’ve already written about. I have at least five tasting notes I need to write before I can mark some teas as sipdowns. Not having written about some teas is also one of the many, many excuses I’ve made for delaying Daylon’s package for an embarrassingly long time. (I promise it exists, and you’ll be drinking spring Longjing in November!)

Here’s another Chanoka matcha from Nio, which I think comes from the same farm as their Chanoka Silver. I don’t have enough experience with Japanese green teas to understand what’s special about the Okumidori cultivar, so this will be a learning opportunity. I steeped 2 g of matcha in a mason jar containing around 100 ml of cool water. Once again, I got foam!

The dry aroma is an unusual combination of chocolate, cream, green veggies, and umami. Sadly, the chocolate isn’t prominent in the matcha itself, though it does retain a creamy texture and hints of cocoa. I also get kale, green pepper, grass, spinach, and umami. The matcha is sweeter than most, though with a kick of vegetal astringency near the end.

This tea gets major points for its sweetness and limited astringency. I’m beginning to understand why people might drink matcha voluntarily, though it’s still not my preferred tea type.

Until October 31, you can buy two tins of matcha and get the third one free. You can also use the code LEAFHOPPER15 to get 15% off everything on the site, possibly including Advent calendars (I get a small commission when you use this code).

This is the second and last green oolong I bought from Ethan at the beginning of this year. He Huan Shan is close to Da Yu Ling, though I haven’t seen many oolongs labelled as coming from this area. Floating Leaves had a good one several years ago. I steeped 6 g of this winter 2023 harvest in 120 ml of 195F water for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of green apple, orchid, umami, and grass. The first steep is restrained, with orchid, narcissus, green apple, grass, and umami. The next steep has notes of orchid, narcissus, lilac, butter, grass, and something fruity. The tea has a lot of umami and is a bit brothy. The next couple steeps open out into green apple, coconut, pineapple, florals, umami, and grass. Steeps five and six give me softer coconut, butter, grass, umami, and florals, maybe orchid and narcissus. By steep eight, the fruit is basically gone and the tea is floral and grassy. The tea stays sweet and indistinctly floral for many more steeps, with a grassy undertone that never really gets bitter.

This is a solid oolong that’s a little too reserved for me. It’s sometimes hard to dial in the fruit, and though the longevity is great, the flavours are sort of muted. The vendor indicated that this could be a storage issue, so this oolong should probably be consumed quickly.

For a spring project, I decided to compare three Mingqian teas: Bi Luo Chun, Longjing, and Anji Bai Cha. In total, I bought 340 g of green tea, which in hindsight is a lot of green tea. I seriously overestimated how much green tea I would be able and willing to drink, which is why this little experiment is still ongoing. For Part 2 of this three-part extravaganza, I bought four Longjings from Teavivre, Treasure Green, and Seven Cups.

Tea bush: Seed-grown Heirloom Quntizhong
Location: Shifeng Mountain, West Lake, Hangzhou, Zhejiang
Picking date: March 31, 2024
Price/g: US$1.68

As part of this project, I wanted to compare the more prolific Longjing No. 43 with the traditional Longjing variety, which is said to be more floral and complex. Seven Cups sells both of these teas. For the comparison session, I steeped 2.4 g of all four teas in 120 ml of 185F water, starting at 4 minutes. This produced very potent, not to say bitter, steeps! I later did a more typical session, steeping 3 g of leaf in 250 ml of 185F water starting at 4 minutes, refilling the cup as needed.

The dry aroma is of candied chestnuts, hazelnuts, roasted grains, butter, spinach, and faint florals. The first steeps are quite bitter, with notes of chestnuts, hazelnuts, roast, and grain. Subsequent steeps feature roast, hazelnuts, green beans, other veggies, and orchids. The final steeps are grassy, roasty, vegetal, and faintly floral.

Bowl steeped, the florals appear. The first couple rounds have notes of chestnuts, hazelnuts, roasted grain, butter, spinach, asparagus, orchid, sweet pea, and lilac. The florality is most notable after the tea has been steeping for a few minutes, particularly in the aftertaste and the bottom of the cup. The next few steeps are nutty, buttery, vegetal, and floral, with a pronounced floral aftertaste and some asparagus/spinach/grassy notes. The final steeps are grassy, with vegetal and floral hints.

More floral and complex than the Dafo Longjing, this tea still has the nutty, smooth, roasted profile that’s typical of dragonwell. This tea is also less sweet than the Dafo. The differences were hard to detect at first, and they were more apparent in the regular bowl steeping session than in the comparison session. If you love Longjing, this is definitely the one to get, though I think most people would be happy with any of these four teas.

For a spring project, I decided to compare three Mingqian teas: Bi Luo Chun, Longjing, and Anji Bai Cha. In total, I bought 340 g of green tea, which in hindsight is a lot of green tea. I seriously overestimated how much green tea I would be able and willing to drink, which is why this little experiment is still ongoing. For Part 2 of this three-part extravaganza, I bought four Longjings from Teavivre, Treasure Green, and Seven Cups.

Tea bush: Not specified
Harvest date: March 20, 2024
Location: West Lake, Zhejiang
Price/g: US$1.83

Treasure Green sells two grades of dragonwell, with this being the more expensive one. Apparently, it comes from a higher altitude than their regular Longjing and is made by a tea master with 70 years of experience. No information is provided about which Longjing variety it is. For the comparison session, I steeped 2.4 g of all four teas in 120 ml of 185F water, starting at 4 minutes. This produced very potent, not to say bitter, steeps! Following the vendor’s instructions, I then steeped 3 g of leaf in 150 ml of 158F water for 25 seconds, and subsequently used 148F water for steeps of 35, 45, 60, 90, 180, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of hazelnuts, chestnuts, roasted grains, char, and butter. This tea has a heavier roast and some bitterness, with candied chestnuts, grains, beans, kale, florality, and butter. It has a pronounced beany aftertaste. Later steeps feel quite rounded and nutty, though the tea is somewhat vegetal and bitter.

Using the vendor’s very gentle steeping instructions, I initially get soft, round notes of butter, chestnuts, roast, green beans, and other veggies and a tea that’s smooth, sweet, and slightly drying in the mouth. Steeps three and four add green peppers, lettuce, grass, and spinach, with the roast and nuts nicely counterbalancing the veggies. The final steeps feature beans, lettuce, nuts, roast, and grass, and have some woody bitterness and dryness. The nutty aroma at the bottom of the cup is lovely!

This Longjing is all about the roast, which is done pretty well. Steeped according to the vendor’s instructions, it’s nutty, sweet, smooth, and pleasant. I like a bit more florality in my Longjing, but that might be a personal preference.

For a spring project, I decided to compare three Mingqian teas: Bi Luo Chun, Longjing, and Anji Bai Cha. In total, I bought 340 g of green tea, which in hindsight is a lot of green tea. I seriously overestimated how much green tea I would be able and willing to drink, which is why this little experiment is still ongoing. For Part 2 of this three-part extravaganza, I bought four Longjings from Teavivre, Treasure Green, and Seven Cups.

Tea bush: C. sinensis cv. Jiukeng
Location: Qiandao Lake, Chun’an County, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang
Harvest date: March 30, 2024
Price/g: US$0.56

I included this Longjing, which is affordable for a Ming Qian offering, because I’ve enjoyed it in the past. For the comparison session, I steeped 2.4 g of all four teas in 120 ml of 185F water, starting at 4 minutes. This produced very potent, not to say bitter, steeps! I later did a more typical session, steeping 3 g of leaf in 250 ml of 185F water starting at 4 minutes, refilling the cup as needed.

The dry aroma is of green beans, orchids, spring flowers, chestnuts, roast, and butter. The first few rounds are very floral and vegetal, with Chestnuts, orchid, magnolia, green beans, and asparagus. The tea is predictably bitter, with some mouth-puckering effects around my gums. Subsequent steeps feature green beans, chestnut, kale, orchid, spring florals, and other veggies, with the finish being grassy and vegetal.

The bowl steeped tea is a lot more palatable. The first couple steeps have notes of green beans, spinach, asparagus, chestnut, butter, very mild roast, orchids, and grass. The tea has a pronounced but not unpleasant vegetal character and some bitterness. The middle steeps are a bit more nutty, though with plenty of green beans and other veggies and persistent though subtle florality. The final steeps have notes of lettuce, beans, grass, butter, and faint roast.

This is the least roasted and most beany of the four Longjings. Like the Shifeng Longjing from Seven Cups, it’s also quite floral, with nice orchid and spring flower notes. To me, this is the most springlike of the dragonwells, though it’s perhaps not that representative of what a “benchmark” longjing should be.

For a spring project, I decided to compare three Mingqian teas: Bi Luo Chun, Longjing, and Anji Bai Cha. In total, I bought 340 g of green tea, which in hindsight is a lot of green tea. I seriously overestimated how much green tea I would be able and willing to drink, which is why this little experiment is still ongoing. For Part 2 of this three-part extravaganza, I bought four Longjings from Teavivre, Treasure Green, and Seven Cups.

Tea bush: Longjing #43
Location: Xinchang County, Shaoxing City, Zhejiang
Picking date: March 21, 2024
Price/g: US$1.04

As part of this project, I wanted to compare the heirloom Longjing variety with the more prolific Longjing No. 43, which is supposed to have a nuttier, less complex flavour profile. Seven Cups sells both of these teas. For the comparison session, I steeped 2.4 g of all four teas in 120 ml of 185F water, starting at 4 minutes. This produced very potent, not to say bitter, steeps! I later did a more typical session, steeping 3 g of leaf in 250 ml of 185F water starting at 4 minutes, refilling the cup as needed.

The dry aroma of these long, beautiful, mainly unbroken leaves is of chestnuts, butter, roasted grains, green beans, and spinach. The first steeps give me candied chestnuts, hazelnuts, roasted grains, green beans, and asparagus, with some woody bitterness. Did I mention these steeps are potent? Later steeps feature more candied chestnuts, along with beans, other veggies, and slightly bitter roast, with the final steeps being roasty, nutty, buttery, and vegetal.

Bowl style, the first few steeps have notes of roast, chestnut, hazelnut, grain, butter, asparagus, spinach, and faint florals. The tea has a strong vegetal backbone balanced by smooth, nutty, roasty flavours and no bitterness or astringency. The next few steeps give me green beans and a wonderfully round, nutty, buttery, roasted grain profile. The final steeps have notes of butter, nuts, green beans, and lettuce.

If you bowl steep this tea, it will reward you with a nicely roasted, sweet, nutty profile with pleasant beany notes and no bitterness to speak of. The flavours are well integrated enough that it’s hard to pick them apart, and there are absolutely no off notes. Overleafing this tea will yield less pleasant results. This Longjing is well made and deceptively simple.

I’m always up for trying another unsmoked lapsang, so I was excited to see this Hua Xiang Xiao Zhong in Teavivre’s catalogue. I steeped the entire 5 g sample in 120 ml of 195F water for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of peaches, citrus, sweet potato, florals, honey, and malt. The first steep has notes of peach, orange, raspberry, other red berries, sweet potato, honey, orchid, and malt. The tea has a nice, syrupy quality but is a bit drying in the mouth. The next steep is even more peachy, with a lovely peachy aftertaste. Steeps three and four are more malty and woody, but with plenty of peach, honey, berries, orange, and sweet potato. By steeps five and six, the jammy berries are taking over the peach, and the tea has more of those lapsang notes of malt, honey, wood, minerals, and light tannins. The final few steeps have faint hints of fruit, along with malt, wood, honey, tannins, and minerals.

For the price, this is a pretty good lapsang, though I don’t think it compares to the offerings from Wuyi Origin. I’m a fan of the peach and berries, and the tea’s longevity is good. The flavours are lighter than they could be, perhaps because I was using 5 g instead of my usual 6. If you like unsmoked lapsang and are ordering from Teavivre, I’d say this would be a good tea to add to your cart.