1113 Tasting Notes
When I organize a group buy, variety is a must!
What Cha is not that hard to do such a thing with because of all the countries that are sourced from.
Now, variation of taste and leaf was a focus which brought me to yellow tea :)
Now, yellow tea has never been something that I’ve drank and really enjoyed; however, I have only had four different ones so far. This one was different, but it still doesn’t appeal to me.
This is a wonderful tea for many and this is why: Imagine green tea grew inside some sort of nut and had to be extracted, that is what this taste like.
Those who like nutty notes alongside their green tea will enjoy this (notes of nut with green tea just don’t work for me)
While trying too slim down my samples from swaps, because I just sent out 11 or 12 more swaps, I am just pulling packages out and abusing them until they are gone.
Yesterday I pulled this one out and realized I had enough for two sessions. Yesterdays session was pretty long because I came back to it after an oolong break. Today I am using the rest of the leaf and seeing how it does with longer steeps because I made it a bit light yesterday. This is a tea that would be ideal to have at work as there is nothing special about it that would require some real focus, but at the same time it does lack something unique to set it apart; granted, it is very smooth and the one brewing it can control the depth of the earthiness by volume and steep time, I would want something a little sweeter.
Unfortunately this one is sold out on YS which makes it hard for me to evaluate its price tag with the usage of it because now I use ripe to make pu’erh extract, broth, and hopefully truffles… aside from the solo drinking, tea for swapping, and then tea to share at events.
After drinking through the Tosa Bancha (which I have to buy more of) I decided to try this one out to see if it’d be something I want more of.
This bancha is stronger, but it comes at the cost of a dry afternote that is a bit heavier than I want. The green tea taste is a little subdued as well with the wood/roast in this one so it may be suited for others but it is not that awesome balance that the Tosa had. This is the kind of tea that will easily warm someone up on a chilly day though with a good punch of flavor and warmth.
Oh. Snap.
I’m on my 4th restroom break because of this tea!
That’s tea talk for: I have drank over 50 ounces of this.
The balance of roast and green tea in this blend is absolutely amazing; so much so that I may not stock up on roasted oolongs this year if the other banchas I try are this good. Not only does it have the mild earth notes hidden in its roast quality, there is this woodsy after taste/feel that is welcoming.
Just… this is wonderful.
During the What Cha tea tasting we did a cup by cup comparison of this and the Russian black tea, this one lost. There is a slight off taste with the black tea and fruit notes that do not go down as smooth as the Russian tea. Now, this is still a decent tea and I would like to point out that it may be because of What Cha’s recommendations: 194f instead of 200’ish.
Both teas are similar, but the difference on the finish/aftertaste is quite clear if you drink the teas next to each other.
Well, both of the what-cha dark teas that came in the group buy are way different than dark teas I’ve had before. I think the way to describe it is located in the words of a young jedi that just turned to the dark side… they’d say it’s hard to explain and new so the freshness is inviting.
Whatever all that meant… this brew easy and provides a lot of room to change parameters throughout the steeps. I ended up with 16 × 2oz of this which I really enjoyed. The best part about this tea , aside from the low to no bitterness, is the sweet aftertaste that comes through. I may end up getting some of this next year since I am swamped with pu (well, I will be)
Sweetness puts this one higher on my list than others :)
Today I put 7g of this in my Kamjove at work and added apple spice to it… instant Apple Jacks tea.
This isn’t the delicate white tea I’m use to, it tasted kind of like unflavored cereal and I’m not imagining that. While that sound odd, I was able to get 6 full pots of this at work and I wasn’t complaining at all.
Now at the tea party, when we drank this, it wasn’t the same… it was a bit lighter but I think using 7g kind of changed that. Regardless, I think I like the lighter needles that have a bit of floral notes in them. White tea for me is best when it’s TOO strong or TOO weak, if that makes sense.
Happy with my brewing this morning :)
Here’s the deal about my review on this tea: Repave was the first and only sheng that I’ve had from W2T before drinking this.
Unfortunately this one was too strong for me. The bitter notes came through, not strong but they dried out my mouth by the 10th steep…. now I kept going because I really wanted to enjoy this tea since I can see how beautiful the leaf is. It’s possible that this one may need a few years before I can enjoy it… oh well, I’m impatient and ordering a sample of Last Thoughts; maybe it’ll rival Repave.
(Read the writing on here https://instagram.com/p/9Co1coRYAC/?taken-by=liquidproust)
This was a very smooth shou. I was thinking it would have some umph to it, like some rough notes… but the taste was silkish (not the texture). The texture was creamish and wonderful. While this was a really good tea, and I’ll be buying some, the other shou from W2T kicks this one’s butt. This is the kind of shou I would introduce others to if they like the earthy notes that ripe tea has or the depth, but can’t stand the strength. The sweet after taste makes it even better because the brisk earth taste that is smooth and doesn’t overpower the tea comes right through and makes a smile appear.
