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Dark Matter 2016, taste test

I bought over $40 of samples from Life in Teacup and they were nice enough to just take my money and pick out what they thought would be best :)

I was constantly reminded of the ‘Pine Needle’ tea from Yunnan because it highly suggested from them. Currently it is not being sold online so I feel a little special to try it. At first I drank it at work on break and played with the leaf: https://www.instagram.com/p/BBqREXaRYOj/

I’m now drinking it at home and decided that there is no way I could leave this out of the 2nd group buy I have going on this year: Dark Matter. This tea absolutely wonderful. It’s not often you’ll hear me say such a thing about a Yunnan black tea because they are all malty and lovely. What sets this apart? The mouth feel lingers for over 30 seconds and the taste just hits your brain like ‘woah’. No complains from me. No doubt in my mind that this is going to cause people to go over to Life in Teacup after trying this when they get it :)

For reference: http://steepster.com/Proust614/posts/328940

For reference: http://steepster.com/Proust614/posts/328940

For reference: http://steepster.com/Proust614/posts/328940

If it wasn’t clear that either I am addicted to tea or dedicated to it… this will clear that up.
While I was at work I decided that I didn’t want to wait any longer so I would go ahead and drink the Verdant teas from the 2016 Sheng Olympics over the course of four hours tonight.
Considering what I have, it was possible to make a rap song about it while rinsing them. It was easily name: Dust n’ Beengholes. Clearly it would be a song about getting the bottom of the barrel in life, but still finding out how to enjoy it. After that, I decided I am going to make a character and name him Dusty Beeng. Okay, on to the tea.
I decided to go ahead and let these sit for a few seconds in 90c water and then drain them to split the beengholes which actually worked quite well since they were warm and semi moist. Let them sit for 8 minutes while getting on Slack. The smells are as follows:
300 smells light as if it will have nothing to it.
1000 smells very fresh as if it will include the most astringency.
1800 smells funky… unsure how to classify this smell to what I expect in the taste to come, but the best I can do is to say that there will probably be some sour tasting notes from the background smell I am picking up as if this is either old or stored incorrectly.
Unsure how I should brew these, since I have four hours dedicated to drinking these, I decided to do 30 second steeps 12 time for each tea. The first brew was a classic example of how I can think one thing and decide that such a thought was absolutely terrible. The thirty second brews were very astringent and I do not believe I can evaluate anything from anything I just drank so I washed my mouth with some water and took a five minute break to let the bitter feeling dissipate some so I don’t miss any sweet notes or not fully experience any off notes.
Starting back up. The number 7 seems to be regarded as a good one throughout history, thus I am going with it. Normally I do anywhere from flash (new) to 10 (aged) second steeps on my sheng; hopefully 7 will work.
Starting with the seven second steeps, the liquid is not as dark which hopefully means more drinkable and not as bitterness to the tasting. The first three steeps this is what I noticed; all at 7 second intervals:
300 the smell went from about nothing to slight floral notes the come across after a whiff. Steep one and two are pretty bitter as you would expect for a young sheng, but the third one is showing a little less which has me looking forward to the next few steeps.
1000 the earlier smell of astringency turned into more of a steamed green tea smell. The first few steeps of this are unpleasant in general. The astringency comes in and sits at the roof of the mouth. There is no indication that this will lighten up to allow any notes to be distinguished over the bitterness.
1800 the smell hasn’t changed and I am perplexed as to what these funky scents I am picking up should indicate. The first few sips were odd as I tried to get my mind around something smelling odd and then there are sweet notes in this tea. Others have linked it to apricot and I would say that it resembles that in a way. No bitterness added in my mouth between this and the other two I am drinking currently.

Moving o to the next few steeps I decided I need to drop the temperature because I’ve read that some have used lower temperatures to avoid some of the stronger notes that higher heat can bring out. I really wanted the 1000 to be something I could have something nice to say about. If that is possible, I hope to find a way. My thoughts about doing such a thing is to evaluate what will change with the drop in temperature and then if needed later on I can rise the temperature to bring out what may be a tea that needs something to reawaken it. Playing with tea is fun : )
Now with water at 85c and 7 second steeps:
300 this is becoming more enjoyable as my session goes on. The slight bitterness is disappearing either from steeping it out or dropping to 85c; most likely a combination of both.
1000 steep 4,5, and 6 are three more reasons to dislike this tea. Astringency is still overwhelming for me. At this point I have decided that I will pour water over it for three minutes and pour it onto my tray and then taste what becomes of it.
1800 the liquid is a bit lighter now and the taste follows as such. This is becoming a delicate drink, the kind I would love to sip away at during a spring day as the liquid is warm and yet soothing all at the same time as being light enough to not bother my senses but present enough to make me notice the taste as it sits on my tongue and transfers to the side of my tongue and roof of my mouth after I drank the liquid down.
Going forward at this point are only the 300 and 1800 with 85c for now and ready to brew new water if needed to pull more out of these teas. Steeps 9 to 12:
300 interestingly enough this began to lose its lightness that it was starting to turn to and began picking up astringency. The smell stayed the same though, the difference was only in taste.
1800 the opposite began happening for this one. The tea began to lighten even more leading me to more thoughts of having a delicate cup in spring; if only.
At this point, it is about time to eat my awaited dinner. Surprisingly, I was able to endure this journey without breaking for food which is good because it could have disrupted my ability to experience them purely. Since I try to provide helpful remarks for teas and these are sold old, it is probably best to advise what I believe might help them out rather than if it should be bought or not; and I will avoid the pricing, which we can all agree was high.
300 this tea is probably best at 80 or 85 Celsius with short steeps up to 7 seconds to avoid the bitterness that is within it since it is a young sheng. This is something that may be considered a daily drinker if the steeping parameters are figured out to avoid the bitterness that could eventually lead to an unpleasant mouth feeling after a few hours. The smell of this one is the best of the three and needs medium attention to figure out how to unlock its potential.
100 while I did not enjoy this tea at all, maybe I can help someone else enjoy it… I believe this tea would be best with flash steeps and 80 to 85 Celsius water. Brewing this longer than 5 seconds will provide a strong sensation of astringency in the mouth. This tea has a strong scent to it and requires the most attention of all the three.
1800 this was the best of all three, as anyone would expect. Sweetness is the one attribute with this tea that I notice throughout and enjoy most. This tea requires the least amount of attention to figure out and I think people can make the adjustments they would like to make this to their preference for more enjoyment. As I stopped recording thoughts of this tea at steep 12, I am sipping at steep 16 as I write this. This is something that can be brewed quite a bit and stays enjoyable the whole time. My suggestion for this tea is to play with the steeping time and temperature as you won’t ruin it easily because it has a lot to give.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BB0-WmDRYOk/

I was out of town this weekend to see my girlfriend and decided to search for international markets because I enjoy them. Ended up in an Indian market that had a tea shop :)
Scanned the menu and saw something that sounded so odd I had to try it. Traditional style masala chai made with Japanese sencha. Who would even attemp that? Well, it was authentically made in front of my and I stood surprised that sencha was being used.

What an odd combination. It was like a spiced milk that was strained through grass. That’s how I can explain it…. there is a reason that this is not a thing. The lady who made it was quite friendly so I got to smash my top in the jar that was overflowing which made me smile to know these people making tea are not slaving away for the tastebuds of cold people stumbling into a tea shop for chai to warm them up.

2016 Sheng Olympics

Not being a fan of the purple variation oolong I have drank, I was still optimistic about this tea. Its really dark and has that funky smell to it, yet I hoped for something mild and unique. Unique I got. At first I was conflicted about my like and dislike for this. In the end I was glad to have tried it and find that this is something I do not enjoy. Its not anything to do with mouth feel, steeping abulity, or price. .. There is just a level of funk to this that makes it seem to be something that was made against its own desires; if a plant can taste such a way.
I am not done trying purple variations though. I will find one I enjoy!

2016 Sheng Olympics

Drinking this and I can’t even write a straight review for a tea I drank yesterday. This tea has me gone. What the feelz?

https://www.instagram.com/p/BBtBenixYAh/
Seriously people, this tea has me….
https://www.instagram.com/p/BBtM_UnRYEi/

This tasting note only tells you that I’m having a great Friday night because of it. Wish I could coherently explain the tea, but my fingers are having a hard time finding the keys as my body sways in joy.

Going to be 100% honest about this: The first sip, I knew that this was something different.
Is that different a good or bad thing? Easily said, it’s a wonderful thing.

This tea brews up something I can only explained by story since I’m tea drunk from some sheng
Once upon a time Mr. Guan went over to a new village to pick up some rice from a friend who grows it. While in that village he met a lady known as lady Wuyi and she was a very fine lady who liked her flower garden that was prized, but her father was a very stern man and hard to get through as he knew what was ‘best’ for her. This story goes on and on to explain how love conquered and Mr. Guan and lady Wuyi became Mr & Mrs GuanWuyi, but that isn’t the importance. Their child came into the world and somehow showed promise to not only have traits of their parents, but also grandparents as they were there daily.

What does all this mean? I’m tea drunk.

Anyways, this is one lovely tea that I will buy again when I run out. I normally don’t buy tea again unless I find that it has something great to offer and this does. To me it’s like a weak dong ding with flower notes that a tieguanyin would carry. I’m still wrapping my mind around this being a wuyi because it’s very floral. My first few steeps had a nice texture to the liquid with a buttery finish to the floral taste which was pretty interesting. The best part about this is that I only used 3g for a session and it carried some nice depth to it.

2016 Sheng Olympics

Story time: Instagram is one of my favorite places and I kind of enjoy looking at all the pictures, so it’s of no surprise that I have AllanK on my radar. This is someone, like many of us, who really enjoys tea. Now, here is where this is relevant, he buys tea by the car load and hires an Uber driver to deliver it once it arrives to the post office nearest to him. That’s the amount of tea that he has, now just imagine how much he has tasted and how critical he can be on tea. After about a year of observing his pictures, seeing the difference between the old and new phone, and reading what he has to say I can say this with no doubt: Allan has no bias towards any particular shop and is always on the hunt for good tea whether it is through Ebay or a well known vendor.

Now, let me first say that Allan does not hire an Uber driver to deliver tea and that it’s not a car load at a time. Humor just has to find its way in this because I’m sipping away at this 2011 Bang Wei when I shouldn’t be… there is other teas that I can drink that would be in a better order as I won’t be drinking the 07’ for some time. I’m drinking this because of the review I read, some trust is put in my tea friend as he made remarks of it being good and those thoughts ate at me…

Upon brewing this, the aroma hit me like: you sir will be my date tonight. Sure enough, 16 steeps into this tea and I’ll probably hit 20+ no problem. I will agree with everything Allan said about this tea and I am quite glad that I added it to the 2016 Sheng Olympics. Pretty excited to try the 2007 as well, hoping that it has the clarity and sweetness that this tea has when it comes to having a pure taste that doesn’t deviate from the earlier steeps.

This and the 07’ version will be compared to the CLT in regards to what to purchase as I suspect they will all be similar because the You Le (YS) is more of the medium level sheng for my taste buds so it fits in a different category.