2037 Tasting Notes
In returning to this tea (as I’m now up to the 81-82 rated non-tisanes in my cupboard) I am thinking it is more good than great. Maybe it’s that smokiness and summertime don’t mix all that well for me, or maybe it’s that compared to the other 82 rated teas I’ve been drinking it isn’t my favorite. In any case, bumping it down — which also makes it a prime sipdown candidate.
Sipdown no. 10 of June 2019 (no. 82 of 2019 total, no. 570 grand total). A sample.
With this, I just squeaked to my June sipdown goal. Even with summer and much cold brew, I’m finding it hard to sip down 10 remainders of the tins in my cupboard in a month. But as long as my samples hold out I should be able to meet my monthly goals. And right now there is no danger of them not holding out.
One of the earthier, shroomier shus that I still had (until today). It’s a flavor I’m ok with, but I prefer the sweeter ones where the molasses/brown sugar flavor predominates. So I didn’t really regret sipping this down Western style.
In looking back at my original note, I get the cedar note and the leather, again, and something that has a cooling aspect in the mouth. Lots of soil, not really mineral. Again, the original note was pretty accurate.
Sipdown no. 9 of June 2019 (no. 81 of 2019 total, no. 569 grand total). A sample.
It’s the last day of June and I am digging into my lowest rated samples to pull out my minimum goal of 10 sipdowns a month in 2019. I have some single serving pu erh samples, but I just couldn’t get myself psyched up for a multi-steep session. I have too much going on right now, and it’s hard enough during the summer to get myself to drink hot tea. Not because it’s really hot here, it’s just the brightness of the days I think. Tea is a comforting overcast companion.
In truth, there was barely anything in this packet. I combined it with a tieguanyin from Harney to give myself enough to brew a pot in the Breville. So even if I was inclined to change my original note, I wouldn’t have obtained any additional information from today to enable me to do that. Happy to let it stand.
Sipdown no. 8 of June 2019 (no. 80 of 2019 total, no. 568 grand total).
Look at all of those 8s! Pretty cool.
I can’t believe I wrote the original note on this four years ago. I was pretty sure it was four months ago. But whatever. Time just flies.
And again, I have nothing of substance to add to the original note. Still more apple than almond for me. A nice tea, but 81 is about right.
Sipdown no. 7 of 2019 (no. 79 of 2019 total, no. 567 grand total).
Sipdowns have gone slowly since the weather got warmer, and in search of one I could get to rather easily, I decided to make this my take it to work tea as a transition between the last green I finished and the next one. As it happened, it became a sort of a straddle tea. Day before yesterday it was the second spoon when I finished the Premium Steap Red Hoot, and today it was the first with Canton Mi Lan Dan Cong as the second to make my Timolino’s worth.
I find myself lately saying “not much to add” to the original note, which is probably boring to read for anyone but me — but is rather satisfying to me as it means that my tastes are more consistent than I would have thought. And also that my old teas are holding up better than I would have thought. That was true here.
Sipdown no. 6 of June 2019 (no. 78 of 2019 total, no. 566 grand total).
I took the last little bit of this to work over the past couple of days, steeped Western. I also enjoyed it cold a couple of times. It’s a good tea. Looking at my original note, I think the only thing that kept it from a higher rating was that I liked other similar oolongs a bit better — but it was solid. I can’t improve on what I said in the original note.
Sipdown no. 4 of June 2019 (no. 76 of 2019 total, no. 564 grand total).
I do enjoy matcha, which is why I’ll be sad when mine is gone as I’m still wary of any food products coming out of Japan what with the reactor never having been fully contained and all.
This was a good one. Nice for work. Not much to add to the prior note.
Sipdown no. 3 of June 2019 (no. 75 of 2019 total, no. 563 grand total). A sample.
I am logging this here even though the sample packet says Vintage 2008, not 2011. According to the description, 2008 was this cake’s debut year, and it won the 2011 competition for aged — so I wonder whether the 2011 reference is in fact the “vintage” of this. But be that as it may.
I was going to try this a few weeks ago but I have been so busy at work that I have been really flattened on Saturdays and only slightly less flattened on Sundays. I just haven’t had it in me to do a real tasting in a while. I originally rinsed this with the intent of drinking it several weeks ago. Then I let the leaves dry out and started over today with a rinse at boiling and a 15 minute wait.
Then: gaiwan, 5/5/7/7/10/10/20/30/40/60
The tea has a sort of a dull gold color in the early steeps and becomes brighter with an apricot hue with later steeps.
The first thing I noticed about this one on the initial rinse was how very chocolatey it smelled. Not white chocolate so much as cocoa. That was what I tasted in the earliest steeps, too. Around steep three, a smoky note came out with a bit of a bitter downturn, but then it smoothed out and became more white chocolate and butter in the later steeps. And something distinctly arboreal that for lack of a better descriptor in the Steepster suggestions I am calling “wood.”
It’s not really wood, though, so much as leaves. But not dead leaves — living ones. Leaves and wood together equals trees.
I think the trick for me with pu erh is not to try to get through them like they’re a chore, but taste them as a treat every now and then when I have the time to put into them.
This one was quite enjoyable, but I have to attribute most of that enjoyment to absence making the heart grow fonder. If I drank this on the heels of another Bana sheng, I would probably not appreciate it as much.
Flavors: Butter, Chocolate, Cocoa, Smoke, White Chocolate, Wood
Sipdown no. 2 of June 2019 (no. 74 of 2019 total, no. 562 grand total).
I mentioned this tea recently in connection with the Lupicia Orange Chocolate, and I don’t have a lot to add to that and my original note. It was a good tea, but more chocolate than orange — and the orange was very faint. I prefer the Lupicia.
