2291 Tasting Notes
From Dexter! Thank you so much. :)
So I’ve done some half-assed semi-gongfu brewing of this tea. A couple steeps were overdone and made my teeth feel weird, but generally I’ve enjoyed it. It’s quite rich, and… raisiny, almost. I would consider getting more, even though jin jun mei isn’t my favourite style of tea, so that says something about this one.
Yum. Fruity and floral.
Thanks, Sil!
I did have this in a travel mug, with milk, steeped at a higher temperature than I would usually make tea at. So. We’ll see how it does at home in a regular mug. :)
Preparation
Oh no! Only one cup left. But! There is a recipe, so I’m going to go shopping this weekend for ingredients to make more.
Seriously, FAVOURITE winter tea. So delicious (with honey). So soothing.
I’m so glad I live in Vancouver. Haha. The only thing I might have some trouble finding is plain tulsi, but I shall prevail!
Preparation
As an eggnog latte. But I’m a little disappointed. It smells glorious but it’s a little weak. Perhaps I should have steeped the tea longer.
2.5 min at 298C. Or perhaps 208F. I don’t want to think about how much pressure the system would have had to be under to reach 298C.
As Dex mentioned ages in the review, my bag is marked sheng, but this is DEFINITELY the shou.
This is a lot easier on the nose than the last one I tried today. And I also went through my shou bag and opened all the ziplock baggies so they’re upright and exposed to the air a bit. So hopefully that’ll help out some of the stronger shou mellow out.
As this is a tuo, and it’s tightly packed, I’ve done 2 pretty long rinses. The liquor is dark amber, but not black. And it’s still not completely unfurled. Oh wait I lied. It’s almost completely black now.
https://www.instagram.com/p/-HrUs2R5I2/
But the flavours here are a lot more bearable. It still has that forest compost flavour, and isn’t sweet and gentle like the shou I tried from Sil last night. But it’s a lot more mild. I was just reading the description on the website. Earthy. Yes, indeed it is. Also very woody. As I steep it, it’s turning into that fresh hewn lumber taste.
Not bad, but again, not really flavours I’m into right now. I’ll share what I have around and keep a couple tuo’s for further tasting.
This is from the April box that I shared with Dexter.
I have enough for 2 tastes, which is super nice. The leaves look pretty. They’re pretty small, with golden and dark brown parts, and I think it’s pretty tightly compressed.
I’ll do my usual, which is a 30 second rinse (ish), letting it rest for a bit, and then steeping until I like the colour for a few rounds.
Wet, it smells like shou. IDK, tea people. It’s weird and composty and “why do I want to drink this?” which is basically my reaction to shou every single time I brew it. And then it usually ends up being super tasty.
Ok, I rinsed this one again.
It’s quite woody. Like wet forest. And really really really dark.
I’m missing the sweet notes that I got from the puerh I had yesterday, tbh. IDK that this is bad, but it’s not really what I’m interested in drinking right now. I’m going to put the other serving in my storage (uhh.. the bag with all my shou), and leave it open, to see if it’ll be tastier next time.
I’m just steeping and dumping this, but it looks like after about 6 infusions, it starts losing the strong flavours, and starts getting a little sweeter.
Preparation
Sample from Sil. Thank you!
I picked this out of my sample pile, and then I was thinking about whether I should air it out or not, but then I decided to just go for it and try the tea. The piece I got is quite tightly compressed, so I’ve started with a 30 second rinse and a 5 minute wait.
15 second steep. Oh man, it’s been forever since I’ve had an aged puerh. Smells SO GOOD. It’s really tasty. Has some lovely sweet notes and doesn’t taste musty at all.
And now I have a cat on my lap and to lean forward and steep again would mean tipping the cat onto the floor, and I don’t feel like doing that right now. :)
Edit: I’ve had a few more steeps and I’m really enjoying this tea! Maybe now that I have the kettle set up, I’ll manage to drink more of the vast quantity of puerhs that I have…
This must be the “mystery moon light white tea cake” sample I received from Christina. :)
So far, it seems pretty good. I’m steeping at 204F, which is what my fancy kettle thing holds at. It’s a little more green tasting than sweet deliciousness at this first steep, but I probably didn’t steep it quite long enough at 15 seconds.
The second steep is indeed stronger and sweeter. I think I still prefer the one I got locally, but it’s always fun to try other versions of a tea you like!
Thanks so much, Christina. :)
Yay! I put my computer back together, and set my kettle up on my desk again.
So of course I had to make some tea.
This one is pretty good. Like Dexter mentioned, it’s pretty starchy. I’m enjoying it, but it’s not a favourite. I used the whole packet so I can’t try it in my travel mug, but I tend to like the burnt/spicy notes these types of teas can get when you grandpa style steep them… or just forget them in your timolino for 6 hours…
Whoops. This one is also FROM Dexter. Thank you!
