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I finally took my taste testing a little more serious these past few days. I weighted out 15g of this tea and split it into 3 piles. Sunday, Monday, and today, I went through a session of this tea.

I find it to be easy to brew: Flash steeps provided a more clear liquid that was sweeter, but longer steeps (10+ seconds) began to darken and have a more deep vegetable taste. The leaf, at this point and age, is not as beautiful as it once was which stinks because the pictures of this from when it was first pressed are WOAH!

This could be a pretty good daily drinker with the ability to steep light or medium on the spectrum of depth or even the balance of sweet or roasted spinach. It’s really as simple as that. I don’t find this tea to be a showcasing one, but it’s certainly one I enjoyed drinking for the last few days which means something as I am probably hitting 100 different shengs this year at this point which means the bars keep going higher and higher and higher. Saying that this was enjoyable is a compliment most teas will no longer see anymore.

Oh the issue of trying so many things… so many become typical and I do not look forward to realizing that more this year.

Drank the rest of mine today from the mystery group buy:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHIZkmSgWzY/ & https://www.instagram.com/p/BHIbAiKAIxq/

Honestly, I think the 2014 version is better because it’s more upfront in its boldness while they has more of a smooth nature to it’s taste. The texture is thinner as well. While this taste quite nice and the color of it is wonderful, showing a slight red hue coming about, I find it to be a bit more complex for my taste as I am not too much into shou as I am sheng.

Interestingly enough, almost everyone has guessed the 2015 (super fake), 2010, and 2007 incorrectly :)
It’s been fun talking to people as they have been trying these three out; it also helps them find out if they like a BS $10 cake labeled GNWL.

Bought from, now sold out: https://world.taobao.com/item/527814873990.htm?fromSite=main

As much as I hate ctc teas… I had to figure out a way to play with one to get it to be acceptable. Eventually I learned that there was semi golden dianhong that was made into ctc which drew me in. I decided that since it was already a dry like tea, why not add some more to that aspect. Well… this happened: https://liquidproust.wordpress.com/2016/06/16/unusual-approaches/

and in 10 days the leaf had taken on the smallest amount of smoke which comes off like a semi smoked chocolate you would taste from a bar that has smoked taste to it; but this is quite dry so it’s more of a cocoa.

It took awhile to figure out how to get this to brew correctly to taste the way I want others to taste it as. Turns out that this is quite strong so 3 grams is plenty and 45 seconds to 60 seconds is the time to keep it at; used a teapot for this brewing. Came out quite smooth, but dry like I described. Being that I’m not a fan of ctc, Assam, or Ceylon, this tea is getting a harsh review from me but it passes. I’m going suspect that someone else will find it much better than I do.

I’m hoping this slight smoke doesn’t completely fade within 3 months; that will be something I test out.

Again, I have to say that Steepster has changed my life. Thanks to this wonderful community, I’ve had the opportunity to enjoy 100x what I would have on my own; through recommendations, swaps, stash sales, and even gifts. This was one of those swaps :)

I drank this every morning for an entire week at work and found that it does best to brew bold and less than 4 infusions. Taste somewhat like what I would expect sweet bread made with dianhong with citrus splash ontop. Baked bread more than malt which is just fine, but it was a bit surprising. A warm cup in the morning. The one downside to this is that it doesn’t taste all that great when it is either lukewarm or cold; but I think this is true with all earl’d teas.

Cheap black tea with long leaf that has dry chocolate and malt notes, how can you go wrong?

So… catch 20/20 here… this was in the TTB so I should review it, but it was so ‘eh’ that I have had nothing to say for the last week about it. I thought to myself, ‘just let it pass and don’t review’ but then I realized I got to do what I got to do.

With so many different sheng out there and what not, and being that I’ve had a ton: Either this is something that isn’t very noteworthy or it needs time?

Friday night and I’m Netflix’n and backlogging, but while I do that I’m drinking this raw :)

Hands down a beautiful tea. Clear. Light with tangy vegetable notes.

This is the better of Bana’s raw offerings I’ve had out of four. Highly recommending this for anyone who likes Bang Dong but wants something just a little lighter.

Literally, I might just buy this just because the brewed color is so light and makes me feel as if I am tasting spring.

Awe man, someone reviewed this before I did!

My first tasting of this had some funk to it, but I have retasted it a few times and find that fresh roast needs some time to settle; probably going to be true about all processes of any tea.

I kind of described it all on Instagram by replying to someone with:
“yeah… It is a tricky one. What I like most is how the texture of buttery sticks through the roasting of the jin xuan. The coffee, Brazilian one picked out by someone here locally, is already on the light side but my roasting at a SUPER light level keeps it mild and in the back but on the sides of the tongue. The roast comes through both lightly with that hint of warm nut, even though there is no nut taste. The oolong taste sticks with the mountain oolong taste upfront and changes a bit throughout. Its certainly like having a watered down coffee injected into a semi roasted mountain oolong with some texture. It’s not the best thing out there, but it’s quite unique and different.”

I was left with a few options on different ways to brew it as well so I look forward to playing around with this even more :)

https://wordpress.com/stats/post/256/liquidproust.wordpress.com

Edit I find it funny how all of my teas scores go down when I assign no point value :p

Drinking moldy tea!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BG5CMo_xYAM/

So here’s the deal: I picked this tea out because for its age and material, if everything check out, it was an absolute bargain. Now I’m going into this with absolutely no information other than Dr Jim had mold on his so I checked mine and I had little pieces of gold as well! Before even tasting the cake you can tell it’s dry and old. The leaf is begging to come apart and I helped some of it do just that. The colors are quite nice, somewhat like an off colored white cake that someone let get wet on accident; if you’ve ever seen one.

Steeping this I decided to just do whatever made sense at the time so I rinsed it with 100c water to wake it up hardcore. Let it sit for a bit and then woke it up a second time. Started brewing and taste each cup one by one because I was so curious and being that I just got off work, I wasn’t thinking about pacing myself.

The first few brews were quite syrup like in terms of viscosity. I thought this would last which made me happy, but as I began drinking through this it started to get thinner. The hue stayed about the same though which was nice.

Since I’m working on signing up for my 401k, which takes a billion words to read through and another billion numbers to ponder about, I am going to describe the taste as a whole rather than steep by steep: This tea tasted much like an old autumn plucking of an ‘eh’ material that went through few different types of storage. Throughout my drinking of it, I found this to taste much like what wet autumn leaves would taste like after being thrown from one yard to the other after a storm. Some dry hay, old leaf, traces of dirt, and worn out sun. Whatever all that means to you…

At first this was going to score a solid B with the texture, but then it started to fade out and become more like an aged white cake; being that it was like dried out leaf and wheat that was wet and ate, moist but leaves the mouth dry. By time I was done with drinking through my first tasting of this I found it to die out too quickly for me, but then I remembered how cheap it was and the potential this has for storage. The appearance of the leaf and room between (being that it’s pretty opened up between the leaf) makes it a great candidate to taste throughout the next year. I’m actually kind of happy about this cake. While I might not want to drink it again tomorrow, I’m looking forward to trying it again next month and seeing how humidity can change it.

Warning: Long Review Ahead
This morning I woke up and decided I would drink a shou with my cereal because I could pair that well; and because I was too tired to cook anything. Looking through the ones I had, I saw a vendor I rarely get to drink: Bana Tea Company. This was an easy pick!
The appearance was that of a broken piece of brick, because that’s what it was. Not much to it in terms of look or smell. Upon washing it… I realized I got myself into something I wasn’t ready for. This wasn’t going to just be a good tasting shou, this was clearly something else… something that would require words to explain it because it needs exposing. Well, how did I know this? From just the wash the leaf had an olive hue to it; one that was easily noticeable. This already told me something unique was going on here. Once I poured out the liquid for the first three steeps so I could drink a few ounces, there was an immediate clarity to the liquid that most shou do not have. Yeah, I got myself into more than I had though.

Now I have not had any other Wild Denong, nor did I read reviews of any of the ones from the past, so maybe I didn’t get whatever else did or even get what Bana was aiming for but here it is: From the first sip, I actually had a sensation of joy because this was the first ripe tea to imitate humid stored sheng. Yes, you read that right! I’ve heard many talk about it but never experienced it. Well, here it was, brewing a dark leaf and it was tasting like a dirty humid store sheng. Not the ideal drink to pair with my ‘breakfast of champions’, but it was so clearly there. It might not have been 100% correct, but the additional notes come from something I would describe as tian jian like… somewhat roasted, but still coherent with one another that the contrasting taste blend together to something smooth. I believe this is where the mysterious wild taste comes into play, something that’s hard to describe but we all know what we are talking about when we say ‘wild tasting’.

Still working through this to see what happens when it dies out, there’s not much to say negatively about this tea because at 100c for 10s this is putting out solid tea that isn’t textured or repulsive as shou tends to be after I hit six steeps because my throat tells me ‘stop with that cooked nonsense’. This is only three years old at this point which has me insanely curious about what the older ones taste like. In terms of price, this is a frickin’ bargain right now. Currently it is selling for $29.00 for 100g. For something this unique, it’s worth the investment to drink say 5g a month to see what happens. It’s actually cheaper than my favorite from Bana, and still favorite after this due to its sweetness, but only by a few dollars (2005 Ginseng scent ripe). I expect this to go up in price by a decent amount while it’s stock each year; looking at the 2010, only three years apart, the price is $47.00 for 100g. I’ll probably do some undercover investigating to see if someone will let me get some of the 2010 to sample so I know which one I prefer since I would only want one of these sorts of tea in my cabinet at a time. It’s truly unique and something that would be nice to have on hand to swap with or share with someone who wants to try something complex and new.

Sometimes, more like many times, little things that look like nothing turn out to be a big deal. This leaf has the color of something I don’t want to discuss, but taste wonderful. The smell is offsetting, but it’s liquid draws you in because It captivates your thoughts as you try to associate the words that fit the taste.