Old Ways Tea

I bought a sampler set as I was curious and I just happened to like the name of it.

Dry leaf aroma from bag: It’s a lovely sent of roasted oolong with hit of herbal medicine. I really love this smell. It reminds me of my grandfather’s tea cabinet.

Leaf in warmed gaiwan: There’s a hint of sweetness — fruits & florals — with that smokey charcoal scent.

Wet leaves: High notes of sugar & fruit (peach?). Deeper notes of roasted charcoal. As the steeps increase, the high notes become more prominent.

Brew times: 60s, 75s, 90… I was able to do about 4-5 steeps before I felt the tea gave out. YMMV with brew times & water temps.

Water temps: 196 – 200 deg F

(Since this was a roasted WuYi oolong, I felt comfortable brewing it at a higher temp and longer steep time than a Dan Cong oolong.)

Color: It starts of a deep rich red amber, but decreases in color/intensity with each subsequent steep until it was about a mid-orange amber.

Tea broth: This is an extremely easy tea to drink. It starts off slightly sweet which counteracts the mild bitterness that follow on the tail end; it’s fairly balanced. It’s got a medium-body at the first steep and drops of with subsequent steeps (which I attribute to my longer steep times and extracting most of the flavors)

The flavors of this tea aren’t complex, but they are well balanced and gives you enough to enjoy the tea without feeling like it’s missing something (which I find often happens). There’s a mild tongue drying after drinking the tea, but it’s pleasant as it also causes a mild watering on the tongue. There’s also a very mild cha qi in the mouth & throat that is refreshing.

Honestly, it reminds me of my grandfather’s tea, so there’s a bit of nostalgia at play here.
I would NOT brew this Grandpa style as I think it might get very bitter over time.

Overall, I think this would make an excellent travel tea to have in your valise. It’s got enough flavor to be enjoyable but not so complex that you need to sit there and think about what you just drank. The small pre-sized packets are handy for traveling (although not convenient if you want loose leaf tea.)

The pack comes in 8 grams. I brewed up 5 grams and will be using 3 grams in a cold brew.

Folks, here is my final review of the day. This was another of my July sipdowns. Some of you may recall that I was extremely impressed by the 2016 version of this tea, and once I dug through my sample stash to find this offering, I was excited to try it. Well, I am happy to report that I found this offering to be even better than the one from 2016.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After the rinse, I steeped 5 grams of loose tea leaves in 3 ounces of 203 F water for 6 seconds. This infusion was chased by 17 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 8 seconds, 10 seconds, 13 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, and 10 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of roasted almond, rock sugar, cream, char, pine, raisin, and dark chocolate. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of orchid, blueberry, and raspberry as well as subtle scents of grass and baked bread. The first infusion introduced a slightly stronger baked bread scent as well as a subtle blackberry aroma. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of orchid, cream, char, blueberry, baked bread, blackberry, roasted almond, pine, and rock sugar that were balanced by hints of grass, butter, raspberry, smoke, raisin, and black cherry. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of orange zest, roasted peanut, cedar, rose, black cherry, butter, banana, cinnamon, and roasted grain. Stronger and more immediately noticeable impressions of raisin, grass, butter, and black cherry came out in the mouth alongside very subtle hints of dark chocolate and slightly amplified raspberry notes. Impressions of cedar, roasted peanut, minerals, plum, rose, orange zest, and pomegranate also appeared alongside subtle roasted grain, cinnamon, banana, and nutmeg notes. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized lingering notes of minerals, cream, grass, butter, roasted almond, roasted peanut, roasted grain, and orange zest that were underscored by hints of pine, char, rock sugar, raisin, black cherry, blueberry, orchid, and pomegranate. There were also some hints of popcorn that came out late.

This was a tremendously enjoyable Qi Lan that yielded a liquor with a smooth mouthfeel and incredible depth and complexity on the nose and in the mouth. Fans of the cultivar should find a lot to enjoy in this tea. Considering that Old Ways Tea is batting 1.000 with their roasted Qi Lan oolongs, I cannot wait for the 2018 and 2019 versions.

This was another of my July sipdowns. I’ve been on a quest the last couple of years to develop a better understanding of Rou Gui. It is apparently a super popular oolong overseas, but I have had great difficulty seeing the appeal. To me, it often seems very woody and heavy, though I have managed to try several Rou Gui that have shown tremendous depth and character. This was one of them. I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed this tea.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After the rinse, I steeped 5 grams of loose tea leaves in 3 ounces of 203 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 17 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, and 10 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of cinnamon, rock sugar, mushroom, cream, vanilla, pomegranate, and blueberry. After the rinse, I noted new aromas of roasted almond, black cherry, earth, and pine. The first infusion introduced aromas of smoke, char, and plum. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of cinnamon, rock sugar, cream, vanilla, roasted almond, and blueberry that were chased by hints of pine, smoke, char, earth, black cherry, nutmeg, and pomegranate. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of red apple, red wine, blackberry, and tobacco as well as stronger smoke and char scents. Stronger and more immediately noticeable smoke, char, earth, pomegranate, and black cherry notes appeared in the mouth alongside impressions of mushroom, roasted almond, and plum. I also found notes of blackberry, red wine, minerals, and tobacco as well as hints of grass, cooked spinach, cocoa, red apple, and orange zest. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized lingering notes of minerals, pine, smoke, black cherry, earth, cinnamon, and roasted almond that were chased by hints of grass, red apple, cocoa, pomegranate, tobacco, red wine, mushroom, and blackberry. There were even a few hints of roasted barley that emerged on the last two or three infusions.

This was a very nice Rou Gui. It was not quite as nutty or as woody as I was expecting, but it displayed tremendously enjoyable spice and fruit notes. It’s rather hard to get me to give an overwhelmingly positive review to a Rou Gui, but this one was delightful. Old Ways Tea continues to impress me with their offerings.

I’m moving on to a more recent sipdown with this review. I’m pretty sure this was either the last tea I finished in July or the first one I finished in August. Those of you who are familiar with my reviews of Wuyi oolongs will realize that I am more than a bit of a Shui Xian nut as I purchase and try tons of different Shui Xian oolongs. Normally, I find it to be a tea that is hard to screw up, though it is certainly possible to get hold of a bad one (there was a Zheng Yan Shui Xian from Yunnan Sourcing a couple years back that still makes me cringe when I think about it). Fortunately, this was not a bad Shui Xian. Old Ways Tea generally does Shui Xian really well, and though this was not the best Shui Xian I have tried from them, it was a very good, solid one.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After the rinse, I steeped 5 grams of loose tea leaves in 3 ounces of 208 F water for 6 seconds. This infusion was followed by 16 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, and 10 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of charcoal, smoke, pine, pomegranate, cinnamon, raisin, cranberry, and dried blueberry. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of tobacco, black cherry, and strawberry. The first infusion introduced aromas of dark chocolate, orange zest, and black cherry. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of cream, butter, charcoal, smoke, rock sugar, cinnamon, raisin, cranberry, pomegranate, and black cherry that were chased by hints of malt, pine, dried blueberry, blackberry, grass, and orange zest. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of grass, rock sugar, roasted peanut, and tar as well as subtler scents of malt, mushroom, and earth. Hints of strawberry, tobacco, and dark chocolate appeared in the mouth alongside stronger notes of grass, orange zest, pine, malt, and blackberry. I also picked up hints of tar, mushroom, and honey as well as stronger impressions of minerals, earth, and roasted peanut. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized notes of minerals, malt, earth, cream, charcoal, pine, orange zest, and grass that were underscored by hints of roasted peanut, tar, raisin, rock sugar, butter, pomegranate, mushroom, black cherry, blackberry, and tobacco.

This was a very pleasant Shui Xian that was something of a grower in the sense that I found myself growing fonder of it the more time I spent with it. I was extremely impressed by how balanced its flavors were as well as the pleasant body and texture it displayed. It did fade a little quickly, however, and there were a few moments where I thought it got just a little muddy in the mouth, but aside from those relatively minor gripes, I did not find there to be much wrong with this one. It was definitely a worthwhile Shui Xian overall.

Tastes like a slice of toasted Greek sweet bread made with mastic, while sitting in a rocky old growth cedar forest somehow being delightfully drowned by the perfume of roses and sunflowers. Then on the swallow and in the aftertaste it’s like eating a slice of apple-lychee-cinnamon pie, dotted with raisins and sprinkled with brown sugar, finished with a drizzle of sweet cream. Leather, malt, cocoa, citrus, apricot, rum, spiciness, oats.
It’s all there waiting to be found. Camphorous, heating/cooling, long aftertaste, medium-thick body, good longevity, relaxing qi. I’m floored.

Phenomenal Wuyi black tea probably not for those new to the style but recommended for absolutely anybody curious what the region has to offer.

I’m reminded daily of resiliency and grateful to be situated where I am.

Brewed this gongfu to compare to the 2018 Grass Fragrance Black. This one is very similar, though with a deeper, more savory, fruitier aroma and taste, bolder flavors early on and greater longevity. Like the Grass Fragrance, it has a solid backbone of baked bread, malt, sweet potato and cedar. Some light bitterness on the sip that becomes more apparent if oversteeped. The finish is a tad drier yet more robust with osmanthus and the returning sweetness darker like brown sugar as opposed to red grapes. The tea also has a nice medium body with a pleasant astringency and the same clean minerality and salivation. The Fruit Fragrance Black seems to have an instantaneous calming and cooling energy. Overall, an excellently structured tea for its price range and such a pleasure to sip.

Song pairing: Toro y Moi — Rose Quartz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ID1plssS4s

[5.5g, 100mL porcelain teapot, 200F, drink the flash rinse! Very short steeps starting at 7s]

This was a mellow and smooth, yet complex and round rock oolong such that I had a difficult time pulling out distinct flavor notes. General impression was a brew composed of well cured cherrywood-scented tobacco with touches of charred vanilla marshmallow and peanut caramels later flowing into rock sugar, orange blossom and grass but always maintaining a cherry/wood-tobacco and cinnamon undertone. The minerality of this tea was more along the lines of petrichor and river rocks than something deep and dark. Highly fragrant, thick and active in the mouth with light astringency, moderate salivation, a looong sweet and lightly floral finish and a quick returning sweetness. Warming and relaxing in the body yet cooling in the mouth and chest. Also some nice lemon zest tingling later in the session. I’d love some more of this.

I have a spread of 4 Shui Xian rock oolong teas from Old Ways Tea that I’ve been working my way through since the past few mornings have left the town blanketed all day in a breezy and chilly coastal fog. The weather became more like winter and as said in my last review, an almost out of season rainstorm blew in last night.

Here we go. This yancha has an understated power. My body feels full after drinking it, like everything under my skin is pushing outward. Much more caffeine than the 2017 Shui Xian from OWT but not jittery in its effect.

The dry leaf was incredibly fragrant with marshmallow, vanilla, strawberry, citrus, dark chocolate and almond. It smelled like dessert! A strong, sweet and creamy cocoa with a high note white floral came out above a fruity strawberry base after warming the leaf. I drank the rinse of this one and I’m glad I did. It was already incredibly mineral with a thick body, like a cross between maple syrup and congee. The aroma and taste, underneath a tongue-electrifying minerality, was all sweet and floral cinnamon mixed with cloves in melted chocolate and of course some yancha woodiness. Very much like a floral-vanilla Mexican hot chocolate. I’d say the minerality was more pronounced than the flavors on the tongue, but the tea presented a long-lasting finish and lingering retronasal florals. A sourness like very dark chocolate hung around in the back of the mouth. Plenty of salivation to balance the light astringency. Warming and cooling at the same time, camphoresque in the throat and chest, leaving both with a full feeling.

Later the thick liquor moved from syrupy-porridge to glassy while almond, marshmallow, butter, orange blossom, fresh grass and coffee came forward in the mouth. The long finish showed no signs of giving up. Orange zest like feeling on the tongue. I lost track of steeps… great longevity.

A western preparation of 2g, 8oz, 212F yielded 2 infusions with a great balance between floral, nutty, woody, chocolate, mineral and vanilla marshmallow characteristics.

Super tea, masterfully roasted. I feel that, compared to eastkyteaguy’s review over 9 months ago, some more resting time has allowed this tea to shine. Too bad its gonegonegone.

[6g, 100mL clay gaiwan, 212F, rinse (drank) followed by 12+ infusions starting at 7s]

The hills have already begun their browning out for the dry season yet a rogue rainstorm has come through, ensuring that I have several days off of work and both the time and the mood to drink up some of my Wuyi rock oolong.

This is a pleasant, short-lived Shui Xian that makes it appropriate as an everyday drinker. I suggest drinking the rinse because it had already presented a blast of aroma and flavor. Otherwise it will seem like the tea quickly falls off the cliff, which it does, but why not delay the inevitable?

Aromas and flavors of dark milk chocolate, dark chocolate, oak wood, faint roast, dark brown sugar, indistinct florals, red and black raspberries, orange and faint herbs. Mostly dark woody, mineral and chocolatey with a bright fruity backing that keeps it from being too heavy of a tea. Light bite in the back of the throat in first steep after the rinse quickly transformed into returning sweetness. As the session progressed, the darker flavors dropped away quickly and the florality and minerality of the Shui Xian cultivar came forward. I understand Shui Xian is meant to have a narcissus fragrance, but I picked up on something more akin to orange blossom. The session finished somewhat bright and creamy but so very close to drinking hot water.

Price is an accurate reflection of its performance. It also performed well as a one-steeper western style with 2 grams per 8oz, 5+ minutes. Dominant characteristics were a roast not overplayed, woodiness, florality and minerals with an undercurrent of dark chocolate.

[6g, 100mL clay gaiwan, 205-212F, rinse (drank) followed by 8 short steeps starting at 7s]

This is the first time I am drinking a tea from Old Ways Tea, thanks derk for sending me the sample :)
I don’t think I can add anything to eastkyteaguy’s review in terms of flavours present. However, I want to point out that the mouthfeel of this tea is absolutely phenomenal. It is thick like a maple syrup, super soft and silky, unlike anything I ever drank.

This is not an easy drinker for sure. The complexity in flavours is exceptional, the body is super full and the qi is electrifying. Unfortunately, the price reflects that as well.

Gongfu Sipdown (602)!

I’ve hit that ‘wall’ that I always hit when writing tasting notes on the weekends; it’s just what happens when you’re 30+ tasting notes in and those tasting notes generally also happen to be multiple paragraphs long…

This was a freebie sample that I received when I ordered my sampler from Old Ways Tea a while back; and I’ve had some good sample success as of late because I think I actually enjoyed this sample the most out of everything I’ve tried from this company!?

Here’s what I wrote on instagram:

Heavy roast, with smoky grilled nuts (peanuts), charcoal, dark chocolate, mineral, cinnamon, and tree bark notes. Perhaps a hint of leather? Introduction of poached peach notes mid session. ONly started to notice a hint of heady floral notes in the finish of the sip pretty late into the session.

Honestly, it doesn’t surprise me at all that my favourite sample from OWT that I’ve tried so far has been the one that, arguably, has the strongest roast. That deeply fits inline with my favour preferences…

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/BxDgTTNHgFf/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bjD1tarzr4

I’m pretty sure I received this as a freebie several orders ago and have finally gotten around to it. Thanks for the sample, Old Ways Tea!

Given the price point of $0.18/g I should’ve brewed this hongcha western, knowing that it would probably fade quickly when prepared gongfu but I decided to go against better judgement.

Dry leaf did indeed have an almost grassy aroma at the forefront along with orchid. A deeper huffing of the leaf in hand revealed blackberry, red grape, baked bread, malt and cedar.

Teapot time: 4.4g, 100mL, 200F, flash rinse which I drank followed by 8 steeps of 10/12/15/20/30/40/60/120 seconds.

Warmed leaf and rinsed leaf had the same aromas, with the baked bread overpowered by the stronger malt and cedar notes.

The tea started light in taste and had an appreciable aroma with grass, honey and orchid. Tastes of honey, sweet potato, undefined stonefruit and osmanthus led the way, getting stronger in the second and third steeps where additions of brown sugar, asian pear, and orange blossom appeared. Clean minerality with some salivation. Aftertaste was lingering with subtle smoke and honey, orange blossom and peach. By the fourth steep, the flavor began dying and in retrospect, I should’ve pushed the tea harder at this point. It did have a nice body with good astringency and a moderate red grape returning sweetness in the back of the mouth. There was absolutely nothing off-putting about the brew.

This tea is a nice Wuyi black and worth it for someone who wants an introduction to teas from this region at a respectable price. I may pick up another bag of this to try it western style.

Gong Fu Sipdown (607)!

Trying another one of the yancha samples from my Old Ways Tea sampler; this time the Light Roast Shui Xian. To be honest, I knew I would enjoy this tea – but I also knew right away that I wouldn’t enjoy it as much as some of the others in this sampler. I really enjoy heavily roasted teas – so in general light roast oolongs can be a bit frustrating for me since it’s like being teased by the flavour profile I crave so deeply in an oolong.

This was a nice tea though – I steeped it in my yancha dedicated yixing pot and it brewed up very smooth and consistently. I did find that it was not an oolong I could brew for an extended period of time though; after only the sixth infusion the flavour of my infusions was getting pretty rough and tapped out. However, that short session turned out to fit perfectly into my evening schedule and I didn’t have to feel like I was cutting it too early/short and losing out on good tea since the flavour had dwindled so badly already.

This is probably my least favourite thing I’ve had from Old Ways Tea so far, but it was still quite nice overall and I’d definitely drink it again – though this isn’t a yancha that I’m considering repurchasing, unlike their Rougui (as an example).

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw8E7TJnezU/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USY602Ft98M

My last tasting note was my second ever one. It has been three or so days since created that note and I have learned much about this tea since. In the previous note, i mentioned that Shui Xian means `narcissus` which is, of course, the beautiful flower. well, it also means `immortal water` and i bring this up for a reason.

i have been steeping these same leaves now for 3+ days, bout 12 or more times. each time i steep the leaves just a little bit longer. so far i am still receiving the powerful aroma and a quality taste. i am very impressed.

there are a couple lessons i have learned from drinking this tea about tea in general:

1) it is important that you know how to properly steep your tea. the directions on the packet/label/tin whatever… are meant to be guidelines and you should feel free to experiment. in doing so you will increase the enjoyment and longevity of your tea and i believe it is respectful to do so.

2) proper storage of your tea when you are done enjoying it for the moment is an imperative skill to hone. tea can be very expensive. if you don’t take care of it- it will go to waste! the best advice i have for that is to store the tea spread out on some kitchen roll/towel and leave in an oderless, dry, dark, environment.

overall this tea is fantastic, and i urge you to buy some.

For my second tasting note, I have chosen to review this tea which is absolutely phenomenal. First a note about steeping time. The slider on this website only goes down to 15 seconds. This is a tragedy of design because you should steep this tea no longer than the time it takes to pour the water over the leaves and pour the water out of your vessel. 4-10 seconds maximum. Steeping any longer than that will dramatically affect the flavor.

As soon as the boiling water hits the leaves a deep rich aroma of tobacco, almost burnt charcoal smell invades noses chemoreceptors harder than an uppercut from Mike Tyson. Once I recover the excitement begins. a toothy smile adorns my face.

I let the tea cool before slurping it over my tongue. My taste buds sense the tobacco and charcoal flavor. A memory of bitter dark chocolate from my childhood. I am reminded Shui Xian means `Narcissus` and the beautiful flower is pictured in my mind.

I feel calm, happy, and safe. The flavor lingers in my mouth as an after taste for quite some time and I relish in it licking the roof of my mouth.

I am at peace with everything. My mind is now clean. I breathe deeply. Satisfied.

This is my first ever tasting note. I am hoping to do this more frequently, but I have not quite learned what to look for in aroma, fragrance, color, and taste of real tea yet. I will say this tea was suggested to me by Philip @Old Ways Tea. He included a gaiwan with my purchase which was absolutely lovely of him.

The tea is delicious and I will probably come back to this tasting note when I have learned what to look for and experienced more teas.

Gongfu Sipdown (600)!

Finished this one off in my Yancha dedicated yixing pot last night; really nice session too! The tea was really good, but I had set everything up on my bed and was brewing while cozied up in bed, playing music and just relaxing. It was one of those moments were all the things come together in a way that can only be described as sublime.

Song Pairing #1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GdgUWx7yi0

Song Pairing #2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-Y83Z9nNUY&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=11&t=0s

Only around seven infusions from this tea; I’m still working on seasoning this yixing pot and it’s still experiencing flavour ‘suckage’ – so kills the length of sessions, a little bit. It was delicious though! First few infusions were channeling buckwheat honey notes; sweet in a darker/denser way with those intense roasty qualities and a hint of a molasses-y note. Mineral too – but less so than other Da Hong Pao I’ve had. Those buckwheat/molasses “dark” qualities softened through steeping, but this was still pretty roasty all the way though – nutty notes as well, sort of a chestnut element? Very woody throughout as well. Not as fruity as expected, but there was still that sweetness coming through from those denser honey notes.

Pictures: https://www.instagram.com/p/BvHXp_AlWVI/

Sipdown (607)!

I drank this one Gong Fu last weekend, and I definitely enjoyed it – but I’m SUPER mad at myself because I didn’t write down any notes about it; not on instagram, the little notepad I have next to my tea tray, or on the excel document I keep open on my laptop. Of course, because of this, I remember next to nothing about what the tea tasted like! That’s so frustrating! But, here’s what I do remember…

- Less roasty that the Rougui I tasted from Old Ways
- Less sweet than the Rougui, as well
- More upfront mineral notes
- About ten infusions…

But damn it! How am I supposed to be learning/refining my knowledge of Wuyi teas when I don’t recall anything about drinking them! Two years ago I would have had near encyclopedic memory of the tasting notes without writing anything down; it drives me crazy that I can’t do the same now.

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/BumBw8flY3a/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrtMj3K2Aws

Yet another delightful oolong from Old Ways. Floral fragrances are not something I associate with Da Hong Pao, so I was looking forward to getting into this one. The aroma of the leaves when dry was sweet and nutty, sort of like praline, and a touch floral. Wet, the leaves had a heady roasted aroma – higher than most dhp which have a lower, darker aroma in my experience. Might have been floral, but I’m not entirely sure I would have made such a characterization if I wasn’t looking for that sort of aroma due to the name.

The flavor was wonderful. I could taste the roastiness of the tea, but it was not at all sour. Very smooth, with a slick, mouth-coating feel to it. The finish was light and pretty floral early on, but after a few steeps turned more into a sweet nuttiness, and sometimes even chocolatiness. This is probably about as floral as a DHP can taste, but it wasn’t a wild departure from most. That said, it was just a darn good Da Hong Pao.

Saying goodbye to 2022 with the last bag of my favorite leafy white tea. So mellow. Goes well with this winter rain.

Maybe I’ve rated this Wuyi white tea so highly because it’s unlike any white tea I’ve had, very savory and assertive. Maybe it’s because I’m a fan of Wuyi oolong and black teas and this tea also clearly comes from that, ahem, terroir :P

Or maybe it’s because this tea is like strolling through a forest on a dry and warm autumn day in my home state of Ohio.

crunchy autumn leaves fallen and still falling
smoke snaking through the trees
round bales of hay left in the bright sun at the edge of a farmer’s meadow
a quick shimmy up a pine tree (this tea gets me elevated, haha)
snacking on roasted nuts and a dried sausage with apricot from my jacket pocket
mushrooms pushing up from the forest floor
plants giving out the last bit of their sweet nectar
peeling lichen from the cool limestone cliffs at the bottom of a gorge
somehow yellow peonies and cream fit in with all of this, lol, i promise

This tea is like home.

Gong Fu Sipdown (606)!

I’ve been craving Yancha a lot lately, but I wasn’t really feeling the few options I had in my stash so I asked teachat for some suggestions – James/shredsofmetal suggested this sampler, and I couldn’t remember having ever had anything from this company so I figured why not – it would get me several different kinds of Yancha, and I’d get to explore a new company’s offerings.

Rou Gui is probably my favourite kind of tea from Wuyi – it’s just got such a nice overall profile, and even the somewhat mediocre quality ones still aren’t that bad tasting. This one REALLY blew me away though – and if it’s any indicator what the rest of the teas from this company are going to be like that I am in for a really enjoyable experience!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/Buhw4m3F3Ye/

Ten infusions total – only ending because it was getting late, and I wanted to police my caffeine intake a little bit. This was delicious from start to finish though: the first two or three steeps were very heavily roasted with loads of mineral, charcoal, and roasted nut flavours, but even with those first steeps there was still this underlying sweetness that made me think of roasted walnuts/hazelnuts (arguably two sweeter types of nuts), as well as whisps of maple. The mouthfeel was thick, and lush.

Later steeps started to ease up on some of the heavier roasted notes (without losing them entirely), and progressed into this deeped and more complex profile with quite a bit more of a layered richness and sweetness. The maple was more pronounced, and became this sort of thick, creamy maple butter note, and some of those beautiful stonefruit notes started to emerge that I personally deeply love in a good Rougui. Caramelized peach undertones, for sure – with some nectarine notes as well. Maybe a little bit of molasses/brown sugar. Long lingering finish; like pancake syrup on the tip of my tongue but denser.

Final infusions were shifted more towards the peach, but still a very cooked down peach; fruity but not bright/acidic. Some warming cinnamon, as well, in the body.

I thought that this Rou Gui was surprisingly pretty sweet – but never cloying, and still with an immaculate balance of complex flavour notes. I was swooned! Swooned!

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzTK811f0_Y&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=11&t=0s

(Really beautiful cover of this Imogen Heap song; though hard to not associate it with the meme…)

This was one of a couple tea reviews from the fall of 2018 that I needed to post here. I finished a sample pouch of this tea back in November, but I unfortunately did not get around to posting it here on Steepster before the end of the year. Prior to trying this tea, I had never tried a Wuyi white tea. In terms of appearance, the tea looked very similar to a traditional Bai Mudan, and the similarities did not end there. The aroma and flavor profiles of this tea also displayed some marked similarities to a Bai Mudan, though this tea displayed the expected Wuyi minerality and was much heavier, livelier, and more energizing.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After the rinse, I steeped 6 grams of the loose bud and leaf mix in 4 ounces of 185 F water for 6 seconds. This infusion was chased by 18 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, and 20 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry leaf and bud mix emitted aromas of pine, smoke, cedar, and hay. After the rinse, I detected an aroma of roasted peanut that was accompanied by hints of honey. The first infusion introduced aromas of toasted rice and char. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of smoke, hay, pine, cedar, and toasted rice that were balanced by impressions of char, roasted peanut, and roasted barley. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of malt, autumn leaves, and roasted almond. New impressions of malt, minerals, caramel, cream, autumn leaves, and roasted almond appeared in the mouth along with belatedly emerging honey notes and hints of mushroom and birch bark. As the tea faded, the tea liquor emphasized lingering mineral, malt, roasted almond, roasted peanut, caramel, and hay notes that were balanced by subtler impressions of cream, mushroom, autumn leaves, and cedar.

This was a very interesting and potent white tea that was full of the nut, grain, wood, and mineral notes so typical of Wuyi teas. It definitely showed off the influence of its terroir as it captured the qualities that make Wuyi teas so unique and treasured. That being said, I felt that it was missing some subtlety and could also have used a little additional sweetness or some sort of floral component to balance out all of the heavier notes. To be clear, this was a very good white tea, but I felt that it was missing a few elements that would have made it even better. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for other white teas from Old Ways Tea, though, as this first stab at white tea production indicates to me that their partners have the potential to produce some truly excellent white teas after this one.