Old Ways Tea

Gongfu Sipdown (2666)!

I’ve been rationing the last of this tea for a while now, but it felt like the right time to finally let this one go. It’s a very thick, syrupy and sweet tasting tea with a lot of very cooked down and brandied notes of pungent, waxy red fruit’s and stonefruit. Nectarine, plum, black cherry. Also floral in a dark, sultry kind of way with notes of malted chocolate wrapped up within the whole sip. Complex, aromatic and the kind of tea worth rationing, but also worth treating yourself on special occasions. Like Halloween…

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DBzQJPLyfmD/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y5W5iM38Xg&ab_channel=TheRubens

Gongfu!

From the first steep, this full-bodied tea is so syrupy and potent with a wide array of punchy, bordering on pungent ripe fruit notes! There’s a mix of malt, leather, exotic woods, and dark honey but mostly tasting notes of over ripe stonefruits, brandied fruits, blood orange, and other orange liqueurs. Very mouth coating with a subtle lingering astringency and taste of cassis. It’s a very excellent way to jumpstart this last week of vacation!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CvXqR1_AJoX/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtKTfzNcX9Y

Gongfu!

It’s soon to be a Yancha party at the strange household – my Christmas gift to myself was a ton of samples from Old Ways Tea to drinking over the break and heading into the new year. I started with a black tea instead of an oolong yesterday, though.

Beginning my day with some Gongfu definitely through off my advent routine for the day, but it was worth it because this deeply hit the spot. Plus, it was the last “proper” advent tea day, so I didn’t mind scrambling so much later in the day. This tea liquor steeps syrupy with notes of brandied stonefruits, jammy plums, leather, honey, a tiny bit of floral orchid in the undertones. Coating, sweet and full bodied! A great prelude to the FINAL day of advent season!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJL-s31A-QH/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbtkwavP-A0&ab_channel=Poppy

Gongfu!

Drank this one for Lunar New Year! The aromatics of this tea are kind of insane; reminds me of stewed purple fruits, leather and musk, and different kinds of incense and woods. This translates into the taste, for the most part – there’s a bit more emphasis on the oakier wood notes and the deeper raisin and stewed fruit notes are more of a persistent undertone than a main tasting note. I also get plenty of caraway, buckwheat honey, and dark spice notes with a bit of a rosey floral back end taste. It’s not an overall sweet session, though there are sweeter elements. I find it very, very grounding and it’s a bit hard to focus on anything else as I sip given how gently commanding this profile is.

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cnusx-ju_lp/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd2zg3HisM4

Gongfu!

Another tea that I drank over that virtual tea session/hangout last night! I managed to fit this 5g sample into a 70ml teapot without much cramming needed, but suffice to say that I enjoyed a pretty strong session of this tea/it brewed very thick and intense. I love strong black teas though, so definitely no complaints!

I usually struggle to track tasting notes when having conversation with people but I think because I was brewing this so strongly the flavours really jumped out at me more and I was able to kind of mentally follow along better while keeping the discussions going. I found this very sweet and syrupy though with notes of brandied/stewed red fruits and plums, raisin, honey, and just a little bit of a floral “something something” in the later steeps as this was mellowing/settling down a bit. Pretty fragrant and coating on the pallet and also a long lasting session as well before steeping out. I think I maybe even got more steeps than the sheng that I had later in the evening!

I have a few more preportioned samples of this, so will definitely be revisiting. However, this is just another tea from OWT that really delivers!!

Yellow florality top note is underpinned by an autumn leaf-straw body, light creamed honey sweetness with a mellow pine-smoked meat base note from the roast. Slight citric-fruity aftertaste and clean minerality. Unique like the 2018 with less complexity. Comforting taste with high energy. The 2019 is definitely worth a try for a different white tea experience. More robust flavor when brewed with water off the boil.

2.5g, 300mL, 200F

I remember this Wuyi black tea having the basic, fruity profile of the region. The osmanthus flowers are the orange ones, not the yellow ones stored in gallon jars in Chinatown shops. The osmanthus was very strong in the first steep prepared western style. Its fruity, savory character blended very well with the black tea. I do remember the mouthfeel being rather thin but cleansing. It would make a great teapot tea to accompany lunch.

Thank you for the freebie, Old Ways Tea.

I wish I had more of this tea, like all the previous Old Tree Black offerings from Old Ways Tea. I had one bag, which I drank during the Steepster Freeze. Old notes, fairly illegible.

Like the other 3 years I’ve had (2016, 2017, 2018), this one had a great, complex strength in aroma and taste. It reminded me most of the 2018 harvest, and I think that’s because there was an umami quality present in this one that wasn’t there in the 2016 and 2017 harvests.

Main taste profile included pumpkin candy, wet rocks, sunflower seeds, rose-orchid-sunflower florals, almond, blackberry, antique wood, malt, bright leather and a tangy apricot-orange tone. Creamy finish with lychee, morphing into apple and peaches and cream. Long lasting floral aftertaste developed vapors of nutmeg that grew stronger. Ginger heat, camphor cool.

I can’t recommended the Old Tree Black teas enough if you’re willing to pay for a treat! These teas deserve attention and would be a fun learning experience for anybody wanting to develop their palate and understand complexity.

There’s something reminiscent of a bug bitten quality- syrupy sweet honey, mostly in the flavor. There is a bit of a woodiness (like an oak tree after it rained) in the flavor. But, the aroma is extremely off-putting for me. Like boiled vegetables that sat out for a couple of hours. Subsequent steeps yield for of a chocolatey aroma, but the vegetables scent is still there. Definitely an odd experience, but the most intrigued I’ve been by a tea in a bit.

I found this a bit disappointing. Instead of tasting aged and nuanced, it mostly tasted stale. Like the back of a cupboard that has been closed for too long.

Still not loving this. The most recent cup was very hay-forward.

This was much less tasty than I remember it being. Much more vegetal and smoky, and lacking the honey sweetness and fruit notes that I was hoping for.

I’ve been really good about not making any tea purchases! I did, however, purchase the Tea Thoughts summer box. I love a surprise, and the Tea Thoughts boxes are always loaded with such fun items, I couldn’t resist. This is one of the teas that came in the box, and I’m loving it. I woke up with a headache this morning (the worst!), and was feeling much better after drinking this tea. So smooth and soft in the mouth. A bit smoky, and full of sweet honeyed stone-fruit flavors. Absolutely no astringency or bitterness.

Great daily drinker yancha. Aromas of chocolate/syrup, caramel, blood orange tone, marshmallow, dark wood and raspberry/blackberry. Thick mouthfeel but light and refreshing with a playful bitterness, strong mouthwatering effect and camphor throat feeling. Vibrant, lively flavor that’s mineral sweet with a complex fruity aftertaste. Doesn’t present its full palate within the first few steeps unlike a lot of rock oolong. I seek that quality in this style of tea though others may prefer full flavor in the first or second infusion.

This tea proved to me that you can accidentally blend two cultivars and create a concoction that is steps above huang guan yin or qi lan on their own.

Lucky Accident is something Old Ways Tea should consider adding to their usual catalog as a fantastic value rock oolong (it is no longer available).

Spring in a cup. For Easter.

I had some 2017 Qi Lan gongfu this morning while watching service so I didn’t take notes. It was good but nothing that blew me away.

Right now I’m drinking the last 3.5 grams western and I like it better this way. It tastes like a specific Easter candy — those small, candy shell coated chocolate eggs. Like those are mixed with roasted almonds and a touch of caramel, sitting on the damp mineral soil and overgrown tender grasses in one of our raised beds. And of course, orchids. Those are in my backyard, too. Gentle tangy-fruity, creamy aftertaste. Some bitterness. Tea oil coating, tingling. Not necessarily sweet tasting but rather dry with sweet aromatics. That’s what I like about a lot of Wuyi yancha.

Like the 2016 Qi Lan from Old Ways Tea, still too green/floral for me to go crazy over but today it makes me happy and that’s what matters.

Backlog. The final tea of my 3-year spread of Old Ways Tea’s Old Tree Black teas.

This tea reminded me of an old leather couch in a study. Pipe tobacco and raisins, malt, florals, tangy. Interesting unexpected umami. Glorious silky texture later turning oily with mouth-watering minerality and a complementary light astringency that opened the door for a strong returning sweetness. Explosive yet contemplative energy, warming and cooling. Six great infusions.

Each year from 2016 to 2018 was markedly different, each with their own strengths.
2016 — complexity and strength of flavors, lingering aftertaste, longevity
2017 — roundedness and daily drinkability
2018 — strength of brew, structured body/mouthfeel and pleasing energy
All delicious. All aromatic and engaging.

In comparison to the 2016 harvest I had earlier this week, the 2017 is more of a high-end daily drinker as opposed to a real treat.  It manages to be both bold and light yet not so complex that it commands all my attention.  The flavor profile is exemplary of Old Ways Tea’s Wuyi black teas.  It is very similar to the 2016 though more rounded and less active in the mouth.  It smells and tastes a lot like a sunflower seed dark bread.  Quite sunflower-wildflower-rose floral, malty, leathery, fruity.  There seems to be less of an old-growth depth and the baking spice and cream notes are not as apparent, briefly experienced early on in the back of the mouth.  It evokes a feeling of a cool, damp meadow in full bloom, surrounded by berries, rather than an old-growth cedar forest. It’s still a wonderful tea and I’m sad to see it go.

This was a freebie provided by Old Ways Tea what seems like many lives ago.

Some jots:

Dry leaf — deep, dark old growth forest, orchids, spicy, WOW.
Warmed leaf — complex HOLY COW
Liquor color — clear cool brown w/ a green-grey-blue ring around the edge of the cup
Tastes — woody, leathery, malty, sweet, mineral, creamy, fruity, spicy, cooling, sweet potato, lemon, lychee, baked bread, brown sugar, herbs.
Progression — the low tones fade as sweet potato comes forward, then finally black pepper and citrus come to the forefront. Most pronounced black pepper note I’ve ever experienced in hongcha.

Got 6 good short steeps like most hong.

I had a very difficult time parsing this tea due to my mood and the tea’s complexity and low tonal nature.
May I point you in the direction of eastkyteaguy’s review?
https://steepster.com/eastkyteaguy/posts/384677#likes

Caveat: I haven’t even been able to enjoy tea since I’ve been home from dogsitting and have in fact drank very little. This tea is just ok for me. It’s complex and strange as baijiguan is. Try a baijiguan rock oolong if you never have and want to throw your tastebuds for a little loop.

I debated editing out a portion of my life because it sounds whiney (frankly, I’m scared), but I have friends here so it stays, just moved below.

I tried some big girl panties on for size the past several weeks to push through exhaustion and anxiety. Even big girl panties rip when you’re dragging ass like my cat did across the rug the other day… And all the bits of myself I didn’t want people to see came out in full force last week. Hello, vulnerability. Yes, my cat looks at me with shame when she’s dragging ass, the same look my dog used to give while experiencing the joy of peristalsis over a very sad parcel of sandy soil in a sidewalk that once housed a tree on a steep block in San Francisco until somebody drunkenly parallel parked into the tree. That’s the look I was giving the world last week with my knitted brow. A combination of shame and “Protect me, I’m vulnerable right now”, which quickly morphed into the look of chronic pain — a defocused gaze and disinterested body language that many seem to take as a personal affront. The sweater I knitted wasn’t going over so well at work so I opted to take off the past few days.

What all that whining comes down to is I’ve had a hernia? for several months that I think may be putting pressure on a nerve in my leg which is causing my right hip to crumple beneath me along with that dull, throbbing pain that mutes any pleasurable moments one may have in the midst of SAD season. Makes doing my job difficult and I can’t work out at all. Due to changes in health insurance providers and a period without any insurance, I had put off going to the doctor until last week. I was scheduled for an immediate consultation with the surgeon, which is thankfully today.

I had around 6 grams from derk. Thank you!

Prepared grandpa, overleafed with all in my 85 ml gaiwan. Ehh, it wasn’t so clever.

I feel really weird somehow. I can’t really explain why, because I don’t know myself. Like some nostalgia coming up, or just being tense because my nieces and nephew are coming tomorrow for a week.

Anyway, prepared this tea of char aroma when dry. I have to say, it wasn’t too appealing for me, but I hoped it will disappear with rinse or first steeps. Please note, that this note was written while I already finished it and I was drinking it in family circle (is that valid in English?).

First steeps were really mineral and char like. Not even much of roastiness for me. Then it started to transform into stonefruits as well my headache started to grow. I don’t really blame tea for it, but unfortunately I think it took its part as well. After few steeps it became really fruity, but it is as well quickly over. Not my favourite oolong I guess. Thanks for chance to try it though, derk.

Backlog from early December. Barely took notes. It must’ve been a bad day. I don’t remember anything about this tea, unfortunately :/

Dry leaf had notes of caramel, marshmallow, vanilla, roasted nuts, milk chocolate, florals and peanut.

First infusion was sweet and roasty with florals and graham. No notes in between there and the seventh infusion where all I had to say was peach-osmanthus and butter finally coming out in aftertaste.

And there you have it folks.