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A sample of the 2015 April harvest, almost a year old and still exquisite. Such a delicate aroma, juicy mouthfeel, and complex yet balanced and soothing taste. I can’t imagine a Silver Needle getting much better than this.

Brewed at 167˚F, 5g leaf, 150ml glass gaiwan. High quality leaves, few broken bits. Skipped the rinse.

1st infusion: (45s)
The aroma is amazing. Beautiful, smooth, reminiscent of roses in moonlight. Such a creamy mouthfeel, not bitter at all.

2nd infusion: (60s)
The liquor has this invigorating yet delicate, musky fragrance. It is full-flavoured, tastes like some creamy fruit. I can see why some people say melon, but that’s not exactly what it tastes like to me. Maybe dragonfruit or something?

3rd infusion: (90s)
Leaves still smell potent. Liquor has not slowed down. Barely very slight astringency in aftertaste.

4th and 5th infusions: (105s, 140s)
Mellowing, getting lighter. 5th is light and elegant. No astringency.

6th infusion: (180s)
Nice finish, still thickish mouthfeel. It’s not water.

Tasted this directly after its 2015 sibling, Formosa Yancha. The 1992 has an incredible dry leaf scent of musky raisins and savoury seaweed, though we didn’t taste much of that in the tea.

Redder liquor and the taste was slightly sweeter and a lot smoother overall than the younger one. But due to this one being twice the price (coming to about $7 per brewing session), I ended up buying the younger one anyway. Maybe if I keep it for long enough…

A solid Dragon Well, but seems to be prized more for its subtlety and I like my Dragon Wells ferociously lively, nutty, and flavourful. This one is more like an uber delicate, subtle white tea (probably because the cultivar is related to Anji Baicha). At $88 for 2 oz, totally not worth it to me there are far tastier Longjings out there. But Song is for the tea enthusiast who wants something out of the ordinary so if you’re tired of typical Longjings you might get a kick out of this.

Wow, a completely 180˚ from my first impression of this tea. I feel like I brewed it stronger at home and that made all the difference. This is the 2016 harvest of the Lishan Winter Sprout. Warm leaves smell so deliciously savoury and fragrant like something that would draw me at a gourmet food fair––olive oil popcorn.

1st infusion: (1:00)
Liquor is the bright yellow-green colour of olive oil. Savoury and oily fragrance like umami seaweed seasoning, or vegetable broth.

2nd infusion: (1:10)
Savoury spinach vegetable broth. I wish it were more floral, maybe I’m craving something like a Tieguanyin.

3rd: (2:00)
Liquor is still bright olive-oil yellow. More vegetable broth, slightly salty. The first steeping was the best, when it still tasted buttery.

Forgot to review this tea ever since I got my precision temperature kettle. Brewed at 203˚F as recommended.

1st infusion: (1:00)
Wet leaves give off a strong delicious scent of brown sugar along with the richer cherry notes. The taste is quite bitter like silky cacao chocolate with some spice, but I remember the sweetness comes out in the later infusions.

2nd infusion: (1:30)
Still bitter chocolate, but smoother.

3rd infusion: (1:50)
Sweet and smooth, can taste the slight maraschino cherry notes.

Rating: 77

I have this 旅行茶具 set in plain white. Just wanted a link to this so that I can remember the capacities of each item.

Teacups: 20ml
Pitcher: 100ml
Gaiwan: 75ml

Would be more useful if it came with say, only 3 or 4 cups and the capacities of the gaiwan and cha hai were bigger. But the fact that everything fits in a 14×8×7.5cm travel case is nice.

Sample from Lupicia. As far as scented teas go, this is pretty lovely. Subtle berry flavours, not artificial candy-tasting, on a smooth green base. Nice for a sweeter change from my jasmine green. I would consider trying this or some other Lupicia tea bags for the office when I can’t brew loose-leaf.

After a few weeks of obsessing over the 2014 I tried at a restaurant, I finally caved and bought the 2015 Heritage Golden Buddha from Red Blossom without even tasting it first. Brewed 3.5g in my 150ml gaiwan at 200˚F.

Dry leaves smell so creamy and dark roasted. The wet leaves look gorgeous, such a dark rich green with almost a metallic lustre. I may be in lust with this tea.

Rinsed for 1 second.

1st infusion: (1:00)
The lid smells like flourless dark chocolate cake––not sweet like confectionery but rich and substantial. Just heavenly. Liquor tastes balanced and round, with a slight nutty, toasted bread and caramel flavour. I’m not tasting anything as doughy or buttery as pie crust or graham cracker but it’s still lovely.

2nd infusion: (1:30)
Leaves beginning to smell a bit plummy and more vegetal. Liquor has dark chocolate notes on top of that smooth base of toast, and the finish is really sweet on the tongue this time. This cultivar seems to have extracted all the best parts of Wuyi yancha without the hard, minerally taste. I need to keep buying this.

3rd infusion: (2:00)
Mellower flavour but still has subtle chocolate and nutty notes and good body.

4th infusion: (2:40)
Even mellower, a little thin now. Would love to try this tea in an Yixing teapot.

5th: (3:45)
Yeah this did not work. It’s basically hot water.

Update: Realised I hadn’t de-scaled my kettle after about a month of use, wondering if this might have contributed to the mineral / metallic taste. Keep having #waterissues with this tea unfortunately. Would love to try another sample in future.

1st infusion: (25s)
Light, floral, buttery, beautiful. Although, I have to note that something roastier and less sweet would have paired better with my sweet waffle breakfast. Not the tea’s fault of course!

2nd infusion: (35s)
Actually tastes really light, not as flavourful as the last time. There’s also a thin metallic note that I don’t like very much (the 铁 in 铁观音?).

3rd infusion: (45s)
Fuller than the 2nd infusion actually. Lingering but thin buttery and floral notes.

4th infusion: (65s)
Steeped for longer than recommended to get more flavour. Of course, then it ended up tasting slightly astringent. Don’t think I can do a 5th steeping.

This tea is meant to be brewed at 190-193˚F. More fruity, richer notes like cherry and dark chocolate come out along with the roasty flavour. Still many broken pieces of leaf inside but at least the tea tastes good. Big improvement over my last tasting!

This actually looks, smells, and tastes pretty similar to Dachi’s Honeysuckle Oolong, even though that one is from Taiwan’s Ali Mountain and this Bai Hao is apparently from Xin Zhu County, Taiwan, China… wait a minute. Haha. They have the same twisted leaves that have several broken bits in it (though this one has more broken bits, the Dachi has better quality leaves). They both have the cocoa notes with a fruity, sweet finish on the tongue. The Honeysuckle Oolong is best brewed at 194˚F, this one best at 190˚F. I reckon they’re from pretty similar terroir and processed in similar ways. Now I’m craving a less sweet tea :)