Klasek Tea

I see I never wrote a note of this, that’s rather surprising, but well here is the note:

I was in a mood to prepare a tea in a pot again, mostly because I was feeling cold all day somehow; and I wanted to had more than a single mug. This particular batch is from Autumnal Flush 2023.

So yep, I prepared 8 grams (or 6 grams? I don’t remember!) in the pot and used 85°C water. I wasn’t paying much attention to the scents, but taste was very nice. It was delicate herbal, creamy and smooth, with notes of hay, cut grass and citrus peels.

The liquor is very bright with green-yellow hue, very clear and there weren’t any dust in cups. Either the strainer is very fine or there is no dust in the tea.

What I love about tea, is how heteregenous this plant is. Consider how diffrent black teas can be, some are malty… some are almost chocolate like… some are tannic and bitter. And from same plant we do have green teas with very diverse flavours too. Not mentioning other teas, like oolongs and puerhs.

Also, sometimes it is crucial to keep proper amount of leaf and temperature used. This is the case… Too many leaves and you get nice, flavourful tea, but losing some delicate nuances. Also too hot water means you lose flavours.

With this tea seems it is a must to follow the vendor instructions — 1g/100 ml and boiling water that cooled down to 85-90°C. I did exactly that and I got exactly described flavour profile.

A wonderful dark orange brew with aroma of honey and sweet spices, like cinnamon. In terms of flavours, it was very, very similar — being round, smooth and quite intensivy spicy (again the cinnamon notes, like in Ding Dong), forest honey with slight earthy and wet forest floor aftertaste.

This tea visually looks very nice as well, though I don’t get that many golden buds in my pouch, but looks so delicate and there are lots of trichomes on some leaves too.

Semi-sipdown. I have now last 5 grams to be tried western; but this note will be about gongfu brewing.

Parameters: 5g / 125 ml gaiwan / 90°C water / quick rinse
Steeps: 7s, 15s, 20s, 33s, 45s,

Even dry, this tea is burst of tropic fruits, florals, a little of green oolong. When rinsed, the aromas were even stronger, making me feel I am in a botanical garden greenhouse with all the tropical flowers around.

1st steep
Very smooth and round mouthfeel, a little oily, sweet and again full of the tropic flowers which later changes on the roof of the mouth to tropic fruits and some local ones; as derk notices… peaches, sweet and very ripe pineapples, mango, papaya. Later aftertaste of honey and creamy vanilla, almost custardy like. Mouthfeel lingers for very long even steeped this short.

2nd steep
Before adding water, I did very fast smell of the used leaves and boy they are so fruity! The fruits mentioned above, with a stronger floral note; intoxicating smell that brings me into some tropical islands. That’s weird, never been in those.
All above as in first steep, but double the strength. Heavy especially in the florals, I wish I could recognize them, but rose. Again… very long mouthfeel and amazing relaxing and calming capabilities.

3rd steep
Yes, it gets a little rougher. Not so honey-ish flavour, but instead there is light roasted, curled, green, oolong, maybe bug-bitten. It’s a little different sweetness.

4th steep
Intended 30 seconds steep, however I was made some error when doing countdown and…
It still gives me a lots of florals and less of the fruits, which isn’t a flaw. The vendor mentions the oolong notes, and I do agree with them. The fruits tends to be more citrusy, instead the tropical fruits, as mentioned in previous steeps. But not sour or anything, just peel of the citruses, it is pomelo and grapefruit (a really tiny bit of bitterness). Hints of vegetal notes in aftertaste (maybe it’s the oolong).

5th steep
How I wish having a bigger gaiwan to see all the leaves floating; well that means I would need also a glass gaiwan. They are so gorgeous. Derk is right!
The flavours are not so intensive anymore, however it still gives me good impressions, definitely not washed out. I could drink it all afternoon (oh well, I did).

This tea has a great qualites, lasts long, lots of interesting flavours, definitely worth every penny spent. Maybe I have missed out this year harevest, but if you come across Nepalese Shiiba, I can highly suggest getting it. Because it gives impressions of fruit tea, while it’s plain tea. Lasts long and it is also very versatile, as… I had similar impressions of that fruity line even when steeped western. I will write a separate note for that steeping method.
Later steeps are more oolongy, which can be welcomed by some tea drinkers and again, it shows me how not correct can be “labelling” teas of their type. This is offically labelled as a black tea… but in terms of flavours it definitelly isn’t, as you could read in this note. Of course, first two, three steeps are the best; but as I wrote… it keeps giving and while 5th steep was somehow weaker, it wasn’t done for sure. I will keep steeping — but I will end the note here. I assume that you know that you can steep many teas many times, but writing the impressions about every single steep is tiring and also boring.

A sipdown! (M: 9 Y: 25)
I have decided to spend remaining 7 grams in a single gongfu session.

It tastes very differently, it is not so mineral and salty; but heavy notes of wet forest floor, mushrooms and different woody notes are still present.

Flavour-wise it is not too complex, but it is suprisingly mild for stomach, despite dark and strong notes that I wrote about in previous paragraph.

Longer steeps weren’t bitter or astringent, it was just like you have doubled the mushroomy (shu) notes. In a certain way this tea reminds me Bancha Goishicha from Japan; which is also in my stash… so I should compare it in a short time, in a time I still have a memory of this one.

Finally I decided to open those Bhutanese tea samples.
And I thought this may be very interesting and I was in a mood trying something unusual, maybe because I just came home “on time” and not late like other days; and moreover not so tired.

The dry leaf looks very unusual. It looks like burned leaves, there wasn’t any rolling or shaping; just dark, huge leaves. I may use this into the sipdown prompt! Well, afterall, you can check picture yourself. There are also stems and branches; fairly uncommon for loose leaf.

The aroma itself is also different than I am used to. No, this doesn’t smell like a black tea at all. Rather a shu. With extra salinity and something that reminds me manure. Very woody too.

Decided to brew it western, 4 minutes. It brews sooo dark. This is not a black tea. It’s a shu puerh, but not from Pu Erh region and not pressed.

Anyway, the taste is smooth, maybe almost flat (like not an explosion of flavours in the mouth); woody, wet forest floor and a bit mushroomy. Yes, again a flavors of shu, not a black tea. Aftertaste is a bit earthy and woody, which makes sense, considering the visual of the tea.

I have thought that the tea has more to offer; so I prepared also the second steep; this time 3 minutes brewing.
Definitely it has got potential to show me another impressions. It was dark as the first steep, but the flavour was more woody and earthy, with salt and mineral aftertaste. A bit like licking rock salt (yes, I did that). Not bad!

I’m definitely going to try this gongfu… with a little less leaf than I will be used to. But on the other hand, I don’t think I will try Bhutanese style. That’s prepared this way: into boiling water you throw the leaves, you let them steep in the boiling water, strain the leaves, add hot milk, butter and SALT. Yes, like the tea isn’t salty itself!

A sipdown! (M: 6 Y: 93)

A sad sipdown of tasty tea. But life is too short to drink bad tea. And all teas must be drank before they go bad. This one is from autumnal flush 2023; so year old tea. Nothing is telling me it’s “old”. I know… I have (and we all have) much older teas in our stashes.

I prepared it gongfu. And, oh boy, it works. First steeps were a bit weaker, however then the flavours I mentioned in my previous note started to glow. Baked bread with honey, stonefruity aftertaste, orange zest, all together with velvet mouthcoating feel. A little bit of astringency.

The aroma of used leaves is definitely a bread, made from rye, almost black one as mostly (or only) rye flour was used. And mixed with pumpkin seeds, that’s it; hints of dark malts are present as well.

I saw that Klasek Tea had some teas from Bhutan in offer; so I took sample packages of them. But then I saw they have some new Nepalese teas; white one (Kalapani White Lotus) and some great looking Gold Jeevan, so I took 50g pouches of those too. They weren’t too expensive (unlike Bhutan teas); so I considered that a good deal.

They have added this one as a free sample — thank you! I was actually checking it out, but decided that I don’t need another 50 g of black tea.

Okay, to this tea. Firstly, the leaves are a bit worse quality, maybe a bit broken, not so dark, as other Nepali teas I had from them before. However the dry leaves are nice in aroma, like 2nd flush Darjeeling but less herbaceous as Darjeeling sometimes is.

When brewed, western style, according to vendor instruction 1g/100 ml; so 3g/300 ml in my case and steeped 2-3 minutes (I did 2.5 – 2.75 min) I got a lovely gold coloured liquid in my glass mug, with aroma of baked bread with honey and also some other sweetness, which could be sugarcane as they suggest. The liquid itself has flavours of above + very smooth texture with long mouthfeel, absolutely no bitterness and a little astringency saying “I am a black tea”, but not in any offensive way. In aftertaste are dried fruits, apricots maybe, or peaches; I am never sure about those, which is which, and citrus zest notes, somehow reminding me orange.

Much tamer than the Nepal Jun Chiyabari Himalayan Shiiba I had from another vendor several years ago. Lots to discover here. Magnolia nose. Within the soft texture is a mid-toned tropical jackfruit taste and a cool, quartz-like mineral element. Complex fruity aftertaste morphs with each steep, bringing out notes of peach, pineapple, banana, plumeria, lemon, cream, ginger, passionfruit and grapes.

This harvest reminds me of Nilgiri high mountain black teas. I think it has to do with how the density of flavors are expressed within the texture. Like those teas, the character of Himalayan Shiiba really shines in glass teaware.

Thank you Martin for another generous sample of Nepal Jun Chiyabari tea!

I was editing my review for this tea to add a few tasting notes. While I had the pop-up window open, I accidentally swiped right or left on my touchpad and that deleted any history of my review. Except I can see that a “review”# still exists in the admin site but the accompanying “note”# is gone. I wonder what is the difference between a “review” and a “note” in Steepster’s programming.

So to anybody who swears they’ve reviewed a tea but “Steepster ate the note”, this might be how it happened.

Boo >:<

A nice Nepali black, though I’m having difficulty bringing out its full potential. A lower temperature than normal for black teas – 185F – seems to do it well.

Sweet and nutty nose of chocolate-covered peanuts. It’s darker in tone than the Annapurna Black Beauty. Astringent but smooth. Not particularly sweet; rather, it’s malty-nutty-earthy and tangy with rounded flavors and a touch of cream. I like this as a post-breakfast tea to cut grease but it’s not so bold that I could enjoy it with a meal.

Thanks for sharing, Martin!

In other news, it’s hella storming and a section of our front fence was destroyed early this morning by a fallen power pole in the corner of our yard. It missed my neighbor’s truck parked on the street by about 6 inches. Lucky guy!

Also, I’ve pretty much adopted one of the semi-feral backyard cats since Sophia passed last year. She’s a small grey and white firecracker of sweetness. President of the Itty Bitty Kitty Committee. Responds to “Dora”. She’s a ratter and a bugger and also sadly a birder — Kiki said she brought in a hummingbird the other day. But I love her so.

I wish I could’ve gotten this Nepali black tea to work for me since Martin esteems it highly.

It’s a very high-pitched aroma tea for me with lots of red berry and citrus; deeper notes of malt, leather and cocoa. The taste is less sharp but still tangy-citrusy and malty, also salty and peanutty. Overall, rather tonal. I love that it makes my mouth water but a soapy aftertaste kind of kills it for me.

Thanks, Martin! On to the next Nepali black :)

I have very same tea from What-cha in my wishlist and bought a pouch of this; from Klasek Tea. So, naturally I can’t compare them side by side; that would be interesting.

Anyway, this is FF 2023 (so not that fresh anymore), steeped 5 grams (a bit too much maybe…) western style in 300 ml of water that used to be boiling, but cooled down to 90°C. Roughly 4 minutes steeping (which was a bit over vendor suggestion as well)

Definitely lighther hand next time will be better; but still it is tasty! Strong cocoa notes, aroma of candied fruits and florals. Mouthfeel long, smooth malty (dark malts and caramel malts), roasted barley and with hints of astringency and bitterness, like high percentage chocolate or stout beer (that’s something that Crowkettle notices on What-cha’s tea and it is true for this tea too). Reading other tea notes doesn’t help me much as it wasn’t definitely woody or green pepepr notes aren’t here either. Maybe because it’s FF; or/and different harvest year.

I can see why derk likes Nepalese teas and it is second most favourite region of black teas for me, Georgia being the first.

I have a week-long sick leave and antibiotics, but my taste and smell doesn’t seems to be affected; so I can drink tea, gongfu it and such… Definitely something I will enjoy and hopefully I will get my tea cupboard a little smaller too. This is not yet a sipdown, but I have less than half from the pouch, so definitely a focus tea.

6 grams / 125 ml gaiwan / 90 °C water / no rinse

Dry leaves smell partially citrusy, dark malts and a little chocolately, but in preheated gaiwan the dark malts and dark honey has appeared with slight citrus note. Visually this tea looks similar to Annapurna Black Beauty by the same vendor, but leaves here are definitely less thick and they are smaller.

1st steep, 15 seconds
There is a “clash” between cocoa notes and dark honey notes in aroma of wet leaves, but it makes a wonderful complex aroma, with some spices in the background.
Flavour is very round, mouth and throat coating, quite sweet and creamy, with hints of cocoa and dark honey as the aroma; with sweet spices background. Those spices are a bit hard to describe, but it definitely reminds me a bit of the sweet cinnamon, but not really sure about that.

2nd steep 10 seconds
Flavours mentioned in the first steep note are here, but stronger, definitely more flavourful, even more creamy. The spicy note is an interesting twist, again I think it is the cinnamon. NO astringency. Wet leaves smell after wild and dark honey.

3rd steep 15 seconds
This time cocoa note dominates, with hitns of its bitterness. But there is still creamy mouthfeel that mutes that bitter note.

4th steep 30 seconds
Definitely cocoa and jammy fruits, but also round and cremy flavour with spicy aftertaste. Not only cinnamon this time, but can’t point out the other spices here, with little “juicy” astringency.

5th steep 45 seconds
Very similar to previous one, but with less round and less creamy notes. Also, a little note showing me that this tea is past its prime time – that “finished black tea” flavour; I don’t know how to describe it better. Astringency rises a bit, definitely it’s more drying and I think I will do one, last, 1 minute long, steep.

6th steep 60 seconds
Leaves aroma says definitely that this tea is finished, maybe you can get more from this tea if you are using colder water. But 5 flavourful steeps is a good work from tea that it is probably more suitable for western steeping and moreover it was very tasty and nice complex steeps.

Sadly, all teas have their last steep and this tea in 6th steep doesn’t bring anything but slight astringent liquor with creamy notes; but all cocoa, honey and spicy notes are gone.

A sipdown! (M: 1 Y: 44), prompt: A tea with a special meaning to you
Just marking a sipdown as I finished it on Saturday. But well, it’s hard to make sipdowns when your stash is roughly 5 hours by car away.And in meantime, I have been busy and somehow not in mood writing a note.

Happy to have this finished and the special meaning? Of course I could pick so many others… but this will be as a tea bought on the 1st tea festival I have been to.

A lovely FF Darjeeling bought during the tea festival in June. I already tried it, but today was the delicious day.

Dry leaves smell like a typical FF Darjeeling. Quite herbal, slightly woody and slightly fruity. I put 4 grams in fillable tea bag, used almost boiling water, and voilá!. Steeping 3 minutes is absolute maximum.

It was so smooth, fruity — yellow melons and ripe stonefruits, with little herbaceous profile and little bit of astringency. That astringent note is welcomed though, because it was adding a little depth to overall pleasing experience. I have 50 grams of this tea and with its price point it is worth it!

Martin sent a beautiful little packet of these leaves my way—the kind that are so long you can’t get them on a spoon properly, so you have to guess at proportions just a bit. With new-to-me teas, I tend to err on the side of “don’t overdo it,” so my first cup of these beauties was a touch on the light side, but still malty and sweet.

I’m convinced that this will hold up well to longer and slightly more heavy-handed treatment.

A sipdown! (M: 6, Y: 83)
Last one this year. Maybe, maybe not? Sad one? Definitely.

Last 4 grams and 90°C water.

Well, lovely tea that will be missed; and lots of going here in flavours. As I noticed in first note, from dark fruits through malty notes, honey flavours with the cherry on the top being brown sugar. Round, sweet, flavourful; with distinct flavours and wonderful leaves to the eye (though my last amount had only little of the golden tips).

Affordable and enjoyable. I won’t get next year harvest probably, as I definitely need to cut down tea amounts; but I will keep this tea in mind.

I have tried this one on the tea festival and immediately wrote down I want a pouch. It is for 195 CZK (8.91 USD) for 50 grams; which I think it is rather cheap considering how good is it.

I found out that water seems to be very similar in Cieszyn to my home water, because the flavours were quite similar. Back there I tried it prepared in cupping method, now I have tried it “basic” western steeping.

Also, why you can’t dislike this tea… just look how the leaves look! Long, wiry, many golden buds, very aromatic (afterall it’s harvested just a few months back) and overall just lovely.

It is very complex in flavours. I have noticed many different flavors, ranging from dark fruits, dark malt (almost like a dark beer), forest honey and with long, sweet and round aftertaste. In the end of aftertaste I noticed notes of brown sugar, it’s quite sweet on its own.

Well, I guess that my 50 grams won’t last long!

I got a generous sample of this tea from klasektea.com with the purchase of teaware. I’m not seeing the tea on the website as of this writing, but it is early May and 2015 teas are just arriving in shops.

Normally I’m not a fan of Darjeeling First Flush which is really just plain wrong of me, since it is a miracle of tea processing. The floral scent of this picking is unparalleled. Having said this, for some reason this tea hit a sweet spot for me last night and I stayed up until 5 a.m. drinking it. Maybe the spring blossoms and lilacs outside got me in the mood for this fresh floral.

This tea is the bomb! It is not so cloyingly floral and doesn’t go bitter when brewed hot. I know it’s wrong to brew this much over 85 C but I usually want a little bitterness so I go 95 C. Brewed about 1 tsp of leaves gong fu in Lin’s Ceramic 100 ml teapot and cup. I continue to be hugely impressed with Lin’s cups especially, the heat distribution improves the mouthfeel of just about any tea I’ve tried. It is like a round bubble of warm tea in my mouth when I take a good sip.

Another thing I noticed is this tea lasted for more quick steeps than others I’ve had in the past. I long brewed it on steep 7 and still got a strong cup.