gylxtea

This was my favourite of the samples sent to me by Elephantasy.

I did make some notes but cant find them – all I remember is that it was really good and I wasnt surprised when I found out it was a more expensive one.

~6.5g to 100ml water, preheated and steeped at 205F.

This was a very easy going tea, starting off sweet and just a little bit smokey. The smoke fades into a surprising floral note towards the middle, but comes back a little stronger towards the end although not too much so (I don’t really like smoke in tea, but didn’t find it to be unpleasant in this). There is some lingering sweetness afterward, but it’s a pretty soft sweet throughout. Not a lot of body or mouthfeel and I would say a pretty neutral caffeine buzz, but pleasant overall.

This one gave me soft grape notes. I am brewing the cheaper gylxtea shengs with 80-90c since I tried the first half of samples with boiling water when on holiday and they didn’t hold up as well as their more expensive puerh.

There is also a more savoury, thicker & bitter body than the Ba Nuo. Although this is fairly subtle with my brewing this time round, and nicer for it as well.

Steep times 5/5/7/10/13/15/20.

I liked this one as well, pretty nice. Another one of the cheaper teas, at 19c/g.

Quite nice and soft. I prefer this one treated with kids gloves & then there is a subtle peachy huigan. Its quite pleasant, and nicely lingers about.

I’ve been hitting it around 85-90c and liking this way for its subtle sweet taste and floral perfume, lack of bitterness or astringency, or strong leafy flavour.

qi is nice and relaxed, too.

Checking the price of this, its one of the cheaper shengs gylxtea have – at $59/357g – its all quite pleasant, really – the peachy huigan, while subtle, is up my street – if it were stronger I would love this – going to buy another sample and try it with more weight than the 5g sent as my gaiwan is 80ml & I prefer 7g.

Received a second set of nearly free samples from glyxtea yesterday! They will send free samples to you, too (check the discussion forums). While they send mostly pu erh, I got one sample of black tea. It is a really nice tea. Beautiful leaves. On the first sip, it is almost like a taiwanese Ruby 18 – minty! As the flavor settles, I find it to be like a cross between a Taiwan black and a Yunnan black. Some malty sweet potato mixed with minty goodness. Overall a very nice tea.

Really nice tea. Bang Dong, it seems, is one of my preferred areas, and this one didn’t disappoint. Really nice herbal notes that are restrained by a mushroom savoriness and fruit and chocolate sweetness.

Great complexity and variety of flavor, and super easy to drink, especially for such a young tea.
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Leaf – peach, rock candy, fresh autumn leaves, honeysuckle, date, lemongrass. In preheated vessel – stronger fruit notes – grape, raisin, date

Smell – sweet herbal (parsley, cilantro, fresh grass), char-grilled zucchini, crab apple, mushroom, carob

Taste – mushroom, zucchini, fresh grass, slight bitter herbal / aftertaste of fresh grass, light mint, milk chocolate and carob, lemongrass, light citrus and peach notes, date, hints of fruit leather. Lingering floral note in aftertaste.

205F, 6g to 100ml.

The aroma off the wet leaf on this is amazing—floral, jammy/fruity, light, grassy, crisp, topped with the unmistakeable heady scent of young sheng. The tea itself was surprisingly palatable and gentle for baby sheng when brewed, kind of like a more complex, lighter green tea. There was even a surprising light sappy sweetness in the first steep that disappeared quickly, but sort of slightly surfaced throughout the session that I’ve never really had in sheng before.

The main flavor on this tea was a savory grassiness that was reminiscent of a green tea, but varied throughout the session in character/lightness/depth. There was a bit of light, pleasant bitterness to counterpoint the flavors, along with a bit of mild astringency and mouth coating. Applying extra heat in the later steeps brought out more of a glossy texture and fuller body, but the flavor itself ramps down quite quickly, with the tea not lasting much longer than ten steeps at a stretch. Still, I quite enjoyed it while it lasted, it would be very friendly to introduce someone to young sheng with I think, although not sure how something like this would age in the long run.

Quite the qi on this one! This is another very fine tea from glyxtea. It’s the second one I’ve tried so far. One thing that stands out is that both have had excellent broth color and clarity. This one has some super qi – I am getting hot and prickly at just the third steep, and I think my face is turning red. The tea is strong, but also light and crisp, with some high note bitterness throughout. It is also buttery, like young shengs often are, which I take to be a sign of good processing. Overall a very nice tea.

This is an excellent tea. It is fairly light, crisp, and dry, with some good bitterness. The leaf quality is very good, and the broth is crystal clear. It is a very nice tea, and I thank Glyxtea for sending me a free sample.

REPOST AS I PUT THIS UNDER WRONG TEA ORIGINALLY

Sample from gylxtea, 7g to 100ml at 205F, preheated. My sample says 2010 on it for some reason, but I think this is probably the same one?

Overall, I liked how complex it was, with some nice fruity sourness (turns a metallic kind of sour when overbrewed) and nicely contrasting bitter flavors, but I wasn’t a fan of the predominant cigarette smoke flavor that lingers throughout. It had good returning flavor (even sweetness towards the end) and savory tobacco body that coats the throat and tongue throughout its decent lifespan. The smoke flavors do die down somewhat eventually in the later steeps as well, but it never fades to the background.

I felt a little tremulous after, but not much tea drunk, probably just a decent amount of caffeine whoosh. Had a fun tingle on the tongue a minute or two after drinking that was very refreshing and slightly numbing. I think I would have liked this a lot if not for the cigarette taste.

Sample from gylxtea, 7g to 100ml at 205F, preheated. My sample says 2010 on it for some reason, but I think this is probably the same one?

Overall, I liked how complex it was, with some nice fruity sourness (turns a metallic kind of sour when overbrewed) and nicely contrasting bitter flavors, but I wasn’t a fan of the predominant cigarette smoke flavor that lingers throughout. It had good returning flavor (even sweetness towards the end) and savory tobacco body that coats the throat and tongue throughout its decent lifespan. The smoke flavors do die down somewhat eventually in the later steeps as well, but it never fades to the background.

I felt a little tremulous after, but not much tea drunk, probably just a decent amount of caffeine whoosh. Had a fun tingle on the tongue a minute or two after drinking that was very refreshing and slightly numbing. I think I would have liked this a lot if not for the cigarette taste.

Nice, full-bodied, savory young raw. The most defining characteristic of this tea is its savory body with hints of earthy sweetness. It really is something close to a broth made with mushrooms. Accentuating this are some lightly bitter herbal notes and some florals. The aftertaste is fresh – with mint, coriander, and apricot coming through.

It has a reasonably full body, particularly for such a young tea. It also has a nice balance of flavors. It does not have an overpowering flavor going wild like fruit, floral, or bitterness, which I sort of expected in a young raw. Everything was pretty refined and balanced, but there is some strength there that it can build on with age.
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Dry leaf – fresh apricot, honey, sweet floral, mint, coriander. In preheated vessel – dried apricot and date, raisin, some nut notes, grape

Smell – grass, wood, coriander, parsley, mushroom broth, lemongrass

Taste – dewy grass, mushroom broth, hints of floral perfume. Aftertaste of mint, coriander, and hints of apricot. Some mouth-drying astringency, very little bitterness.

I would guess that this tea started life quite bitter and herbal – an experience not unlike chewing on the stem of some decorative parsley – which seems to be the trademark of so many Menghai teas. After seven years of aging, there is still some of that left; however, these youthful flavors are now in the process of transforming into more mature, approachable flavors, notably sweet tobacco and mild fruit notes.

This isn’t a bad time to be tasting this tea, but it still does need some more age on it before it really shines. The bitterness isn’t bad right now – it never exceeds what you find in a fairly tame IPA – but the bitter green herb flavors can be a bit much after a while.

Based on what I’m tasting right now, this tea will continue to develop its sweet aged tobacco and dried dark fruit notes. There are still plenty of youthful flavors to this one, which I think would indicate that this will be packed with flavor as it continues to age.

In the meantime, what you can expect right now are plenty of hay, green herb, and tobacco notes with some hops-like bitterness. Rounding out these flavors are dried dark fruit notes that enhance the tobacco sweetness.
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Dry leaf – fresh peach and apricot, clover honey, fresh hay. In preheated vessel – prune, dried fig, sweet tobacco

Smell – parsley and bitter green herb, tobacco, straw, wood smoke, charred wood, some spiciness

Taste – sweet tobacco, bitter herb, parsley, hay are predominant, cigar-like “spiciness”. Consistent base of stewed English breakfast tea. Prune sweetness with undertones of apricot.

As of August 2017, this is not yet listed on their website. I received it as a sample promotion.

Let me start out by saying this is wonderfully tasty and complex black tea. It reminds me of a few Taiwanese black teas I had a while back. It has the expected malt and nut notes, but there is another layer of flavor – itself very complex, tasty, and balanced – a layer of flavor I’ll call “Christmas candle.”

Stay with me… Have you smelled the kind of scented candles that they market for the holidays – the kind with some frosty-looking red berries and a sprig of holly? That’s the one! This Christmas candle flavor has a waxy, bittersweet berry note to it with some sharp green notes cutting through it – sort of a resiny/piney note.

In a previous review of a Taiwanese black tea from BTTC, I had a similar experience. I picked up on this note and related to some mulberry-scented soap I purchased a while ago – floral, fragrant, sweet, waxy berry notes. So, take your pick – mulberry or Christmas candle. I can’t think of anything else to call it.

In any event, it works wonderfully well with the rest of the flavors in this black tea, and, as you can see, it adds a totally new complexity to the whole experience.

Tons of flavor, wholly engaging. Definitely recommend for those seeking a unique black tea experience. Unfortunately, I can’t give it a numerical rating since I don’t know how much it costs. But it certainly is worth spending a little extra on.
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Leaf – mulberry, red currant, pollen, tangy fruity floral; heat – roasted pecan, caramel arrives

smell – roasted pecan, toasted marshmallow, pine wood, hints of wood smoke, mulberry

taste – toasted marshmallow, roasted pecan, notes of wood smoke; aftertaste of pine wood, red currant, mulberry, slight creaminess

Drank this yesterday and was quite pleased.

Very green. Slight floral/fruit taste. Easy to brew. Forgiving. Good, but would need a price point to compare to others as Bang Dong and I go far back.

A very rich ripe. Main flavors are carob, cream of wheat/grits, and cherry wood, with notes of Brazil nut and hints of molasses. There are also definite camphor notes present, but they are subdued and serve to add balance and interest to the brew.

The brew is rich and full of flavor. For every infusion, the development on the palate was slow and deep. You could have told me that this was an aged raw and I would have believed it. At the very least, I would have thought this was a ripe with substantial age on it. For a ripe with only four years of age, this tea carries a lot of depth and maturity.

This tea really does deliver an aged experience, one that is powerful, deep, rich, and unhurried. I found it quite meditative, in fact, despite having my two-year old daughter running around me like a crazy person. Maybe I can convince her to have a tea party… ;)

This tea is not currently listed on gylxtea.com site, but it was sent to me as a sample promotion.
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Leaf – cherry wood, cream of wheat, compost, dark cocoa powder. In preheated vessel – carob, stewed blackberries, molasses, cherry cordial chocolates.

Smell – cherry wood, carob, compost, slight camphor and molasses

Taste – grits/cream of wheat, carob, cherry wood, camphor, Brazil nut, coffee grounds

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a tasting note; I’ve been working a lot and when I have time to drink I’ve been reaching for Yunnan blacks that I’ve already logged.

I haven’t finished my Gylx Tea samples; despite being good I just haven’t been in the mood for young sheng lately.

This one is lightly bitter with a prominent shengy gasoline/alcohol note alongside green wood, minerals, and pine. Later steeps mellow out with a slight honey sweetness. Somewhat generic and not as good as the Bang Dong but an enjoyable brew nonetheless.

Thanks for the sample!!! Quality material – classic bangdong scents on the dry leaf. First few steeps had a great mix of floral and citrus notes with a rich nutty base tone rounded out by fresh grass. Later brews developed a solid bitterness. dense cooling sensation on the midpalate with a slight effervescent tingle. Medium thickness to the body, lots of lingering notes of sugarcane. Tons of sweetness in the cheeks which caused a lot of salivation. Fresh, decent energy, very good characteristics in the mouth. This definitely has some good healthy old trees in the mix (I wont use the G word ;) but would guess this is a blend of tree ages from 50-200 yr old). a great example of bangdong character, good leaf, and good processing.

After a rinse, the wet leaves smell smokey and savoury, like vegetable soup. 3g/50mL.

The first steep, 10s, is subtle and borderline sweet. Second and third steeps were much stronger, brothy, smokey. I let this one get away from me while playing videogames, but didn’t really find it as distinct as the other two samples. Mostly got vegetables and a minerally note.

This was another sample from glyxtea. Used 8g in a 130ml gaiwan. Did a quick rinse and then lets the leaves sit for 10 minutes. First steep was a flash steep, gradually increasing steeping time thereafter. The tea tastes younger than I would have expected, which reflects the storage it has been through, very clean.

Hints of smoke, grass and wood. Not as sweet as the bangdong. I feel like this sheng might be at that phase now where its not young enough for the floral notes to really stand out, and not old enough to have developed more complexity. Would be interesting to see how this is in a few more years. 10 steeps in total and I probably could have gotten more out of it with longer steeping times. A good tea, but personally I prefer the bangdong.

Finally able to get a note up on this one.
I was provided a sample to try from the tea shop.
I used all 8 grams in the shibo. I preheated the shibo and tossed the leaf in and let some of the steam carry the aroma out. It was some flower perfume and some wisps of smoke as well. I gave the tea a quick rinse and noticed the tea is aromatic when I opened the lid. A bit different than the dry leaf tossed around the warm brewing vessel.
First brew very quick. Some color in the cup, a mix of some vegetal , grassy and a touch more of the smoke without being overpowering. Second steep, still the wisps of the smoke maybe a touch bitter and some wood in there as well. Third steep a bit longer and a little tingle on the tongue and some sweet mixing in with the wood. Smoke is dropping out faster now.
Steeps 3 to 5 were very similar to the second steep. Leaves are starting to unfurl slowly in the pot. I ended up with 10 good brews to this. The later steeps were the next day and the leaf kept giving a decent brew. Maybe not as much on the sweet as the Bangdong but an interesting one to sip on.

So I managed to get a mild sunburn everywhere yesterday. That’s pleasant. I need to start carrying an umbrella. …Or frilly parasol.

Used about 85-90C water, just down from boiling; 3g/50mL, prewarmed gaiwan, and did a quick rinse. Steepster again lost my note before I finished, so here’s my quick summary:

First two steeps at 10 seconds, faintly sweet, no real astringency until the second steep, light, almost floral; some people suggested mineral, which I think I agree with. The astringency almost feels roasty, so that the early steeps strongly remind me of a light dan cong. The aroma of the lid was distinctly fruity, but didn’t really carry into the cup that I noticed. It’s quite different from the Mang Fei, which was more smokey and heavy.

Third steep on I upped to 15 seconds. Astringency built for a bit, mostly concentrating on the tip of my tongue; around steep five, it dissipated again. Reminds me of unripe fruit, I think; not QUITE sweet, a bit dry and harsh, but definitely not vegetal or savoury.

I’ll probably edit this later when I get home from work to continue.

The first thing I noticed about this sample, was the aroma from the inside of the gaiwan lid after brewing. Pretty strong, with a bit of a citrus tang. Maybe a bit of smoke.

This is the 2017 harvest of this tea, of which there was no listing, but Elephantasy said posting it here was fine.

Three grams in a 50ml gaiwan, 190F water. Did a quick rinse, and then the first steep at ten seconds. Citrus, with a bit of astringency on the top of the tongue; something almost sweet. Pretty light, but leaves a lingering smokey aftertaste.

Second steep at ten seconds is much stronger. Slightly bitter, trails off into something more pleasant, but leaves a drying feeling on the tongue. Third steep at fifteen seconds mostly reinforces a vague fruit sensation that leans more towards citrus. The aftertaste is still residually sweet but smokey, at the back of the tongue when you breathe out.

By the fourth steep, the fruityness has sort of disappeared and the soupy, smoky sensation’s taken over. Vegetal and brothy, with a lingering drying feeling. The liquor still smells a bit fruity though, but it doesn’t carry over.

Fifth steep , still at fifteen seconds, is pretty similar. I doubt I’m at a point where I can pick out the uniqueness of each steep. Sixth steep, I realize the fruityness reminds me a bit of apples, similar to another very recent, un-aged sheng from Cultivate.

Accidentally oversteeped my next steep while eating a snack; a minute or two, whoops. Bit bitter, but not overly so. Helps that it cooled down in the gaiwan. Vegetable broth with something like stone fruit.