Mark T. Wendell

A smokier version of Keemun tea. A good amount of smokiness to this one, but not nearly as much as a smoky lapsang might have. Not much in the way of the florals or fruitiness I usually enjoy from Keemun teas. Instead, we have very woody and leathery types of flavors. Maybe cedar? Resinous with a touch of bitterness. I’ll stick with the Chinese Keemun teas.

Lighter Keemun black tea. The vendor describes this brew as having a “dark red color,” but I get more of a medium orange/amber color. Brewing western style, I’d say this one is good for no more than two steeps. Which works good for my purposes. If you want to add milk or sugar to your Keemun, this probably would not be your brew of choice. The dry leaves are not very uniform, with smaller and longer bits and a fair amount of stalky/twiggy-looking stuff included. I’d say this is probably the bare minimum level of quality needed to get a decent Keemun tea.

All that being said, it isn’t too bad. It delivers the signature Keemun flavor profile, with orchid florals, winey darker grape notes, amd some pleasant minerality. Nothing more, nothing less. No dark chocolate notes like you can get with some Keemuns.

Probably a good tea for blending. Could be useful to tone down a harsher black tea or contrast against a lighter darjeeling-style black tea.

TTB tea! The clove makes the tea seem a little bitter even though I don’t think it has actual bitterness to it. I found this one to be just okay. The flavoring was quite muddled so you couldn’t really tell what it was going for. Maybe a hint of orange? Really not great though.

Purchased both this tea and “Flowery Jasmine Before the Rains” from Mark T Wendell. Both are wonderful teas. The Yin Hao has a mellower take on the jasmine scent I think, with a lovely base tea. The Flowery Jasmine has both the jasmine and the base tea on full blast. I think I prefer the Flowery Jasmine, so I rate this one a bit lower. I am sure there a many who could just as easily favor this one.

Great lower-priced oolong! Has a nice buttery caramel sweetness to it, with orchid notes. The roasted notes are not prominent at all and stay very smooth throughout. The tea is medium-bodied and has some mineral notes as well. Not my favorite, but nice to have it around once in a while.

Decent green tea with delicate spring-picked characteristics. But kind of the bare minimum for falling into the category of premium spring green teas. A little sweet, a little nutty, and the barest hint of some florals. Nothing about it really seems to stand out too much for me, and on top of that it feels a little stale; like it is losing its essence. Maybe this was an older lot? I don’t know. The vendor does not give dates of production. You can definitely find better teas at a lesser price.

A really nice green tea. Maybe a little bit too nice to become a favorite of mine. It has a nectar-like sweetness, but doesn’t feel quite as thick as some other sweet green teas I have been impressed with. Light pleasant floral-fruity osmanthus notes and a whisper of nuttiness, but so far lacking in any interesting quirks or twists to win me over. I’ll keep trying with this one. I’ve often changed my mind on a tea after a few brews.

I like this! It is nice and relatively sweet with some Yunnan “funk.” Notes of what I might consider a typical delicate spring green tea are there, with the addition of some hay-like grassy notes which tend towards richer grain/bread tones. I suppose these same characteristics might have been described by the vendor as “beany,” and I could see that. I am not at all sure if this was a spring-picked tea, though. 2nd steep is okay, but clearly dropping off. I am not noticing any floral elements yet, but will continue to experiment with this one.

This tea makes a pretty good cup. Strong orchid aroma typical of many oolongs, but over a very light almost green tea base with some nuttiness. No mistaking that we are in oolong territory, though, as there is the minerality characteristic of oolong tea. Kind of a creaminess/slight sweetness present, and I get something reminiscent of tapioca pudding in the brew. Leaves a leafy, herbal, aftertaste, kind of like parsley.

This is a really nice basic roasted oolong. Great value for the price, and I could see this being a staple tea. Roasted flavor up front, but not offensive. Caramelized sweetness, orchid florals, and a touch of oak round out a tea which has perhaps a black plum fruitiness at its core. A great combination!

This would definitely benefit from an extra teaspoon of tea. It’s weaker than I would like. I know it’s delicious though because when I steeped it stronger for my smoothie it was perfect with some milk and honey added. I think that might be the key here.

Mastress Alita’s Monthly Sipdown Challenge
June 2022 → A tea smoothie

I’ve been excited to try this decaf Earl Grey, so I found a recipe using EG in a smoothie for today’s sipdown prompt.

https://www.rhubarbarians.com/earl-grey-tea-blackberry-smoothie/

Of course I had to try it before mixing it into the smoothie and it’s just really good. I don’t think I would have been able to tell it’s decaf honestly. It holds up really well to milk and honey, both of which I added before mixing with the blackberries, which doesn’t seem to be the case for other decaf black teas. Of course, to be fair, this was steeped up really strong for the recipe. The smoothie itself was alright, not anything incredibly special, but I do really like this EG.

Looks like a light green tea, smells fruity of pomegranate. Smooth, good for a change, though in general I prefer black teas and find green teas sort of weak.

cut leaf black, fairly smooth. Raspberry always seems to sound better than it delivers. It foes have raspberry overtones, but it’s nothing like a fresh red raspberry, unfortunately. Not bad for a flavorful change, but not a daily tea either (at least for me). Again, I steep light and no cream or sugar.

Light, Fruity, Definitely Tropical.
A nice tea when you want something that is only minimally tea-tasting. Sometimes you just ant something different.

I thought this was a Lapsang “blend”, but after having a few cups, it’s really “just” lapsang souchong. It’s a good one, I still think Upton’s Lapsang is slightly better.

fairly light, very flavorful; reminds me of Harney & Sons “Paris” in its floral notes.
Very light colored steep, no real bitterness. Nice variety.

Smooth, very much the same sense of oolong as from the twinings I just drank, but smoother and more flavorful. A nice change of pace, a very nice oolong.

Excellent, light, golden tea. Smooth flavor, only challenge since it’s a full-leaf tea is in getting it into the tea ball!