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A return to one of my favourite teas yesterday. While perhaps not as striking as when I had it young some years ago, I am enjoying its gradual transformation.

The aroma is sweet and spicy, and reminds me of wet forest lands. The tea has a full body and a thick, oily mouthfeel as before.

First infusion also tastes kind of oily and nutty with an interesting pumpkin touch. Mid-session steeps give a full flavoured liquor with a sweet, vegeta, woody, and floral character. The tea is a bit numbing. Around infusion 6, I start to notice light bitterness. It is also a bit sour and overall very tasty. Later steeps are a bit overbrewed, but not off-putting in any way. There is a bit of an astringency now, as well as a warming quality to it. The flavours circle around notes like bread, burnt food, and brown sugar, on top of the familiar ones.

A very pleasant tea that delivers what I would like, but doesn’t exceed expectations.

Its mouthfeel is thick and watery. The sweet aroma takes me to a garden full of fresh vegetables and flowers. The sweet, vegetal taste, on the other hand transports me to the rainforest. There are flavours of mint, custard, edamame, tropical fruits.

[spring 2024 harvest]

This black tea is very well balanced, but less sweet than similar teas. It is also not very bitter, but it has a distinct bite in the aftertaste.

Dry leaves smell of leather, caramel, and wet soil. On the other hand, wet leaf aroma reminds me of cherries, wood, chocolate, fur, malt, fennel, and celery at times.

The mouthfeel is thick and creamy. The liqour feels light in the mouth though. There is very mild astringency as well as a cool tingling sensation.

First infusion is vegetal and smooth with umami, woody and spicy flavours, such as those of miso and pumpkin. Second steep is sweeter and cooling. There are notes of bread, citrus zest, mint, butter, and licorice. Later on, the tea also showcases more flowery, malty and bitter sides. Further flavours I detect are like beer, chocolate, and orange blossoms.

The aftertaste is cooling, biting, and perfumy with an additional flavour of maple syrup.

All in all, it is a particulaly complex and engaging black tea that I can really recommend.

One could say that this tea is more aromatic than flavourful, but really it is of hig hquality overall.

Dry leaves smell very pungent with notes of malt, sawdust, eucalyptus, and tomato vine. During the session, I can additionally detect a smell like chicken meat.

The mouthfeel is smooth and oily and a little astringent. Taste is bitter with flavours of citrus fruits, tree bark, and nectarines.

Aged yancha is usually pretty pleasant to drink, and this one is no exception, even though it is a bit basic overall.

It has aromas of sweet wood and spices, while the taste is earthy, sour, metallic, and a little astringent with an oat flavour.

I got a cake of this tea blind, but the ripes from YS are a fairly safe bet I find.

This one is very smooth and creamy. It smells of black currants, red wine, earth, and fireplace. The taste is sweet and nutty with mild sourness and astringency.

This pu-erh has a very sweet aroma that primarily reminds me of apricots. There are also notes of peach, forest, yoghurt, and a grassy meadow.

The taste is a bit like green tea: bitter and flowery. It is also a bit milky with flavour of custard and nut oils.

Yesterday I pulled this one out of my storage. It wasa very pleasant session, but didn’t wow me. I detected a fireplace aroma and an overall warming character. The flavours reminded me of roots, wood, white wine, and yeast.

Very enjoyable sheng, cooling and bitter with a complex profile. The dry leaf aroma is a mix of menthol, fruit tree flowers, and vegetal notes while wet leaves also smell of bread, fireplace, allspice.

The taste is nutty, medicinal, vegetal and really quite bitter when brewed longer. There are notes of spices, black pepper, eggs, cabbage, and eucalyptus.

This tea is very savoury vegetal and smell a bit like sencha. There is no bitterness or astringency, and also very little sweetness or florals. The main note I get is fenugreek.