Rivers & Lakes Tea

posted on the wrong tea yesterday. Oops. This is for the Huang Ya. Updated the correct Gan Lu review.

3.0g, 100 mL Brita water, 180f-190f

no strong smell, but slight sweet and malty

30s: wet leaves smell of cooked tomato like sour and sweet, which is a little strange. tastes slightly sweet, slightly thick. slightly lingering undertone of tomato, but passes so fast it may as well not have happened.

30s 2nd infusion: similar

forgot to note exact time, but probably similar to before. 3rd infusion note: light astringency and bitterness. sharp toasty note.

2.1g, 90 mL water, 180f

Meng Ding Gan Lu

leaves don’t have any strong smell to note, except maybe raisins or maybe that’s just the paper bag style that seems to give contents an odd smell. leaves in warmed gaiwan give off a slight warm, nutty smell.

1 min: weak

30s: strong beany taste w/ tannins, slight drying and astringency

1 min. 30s: more tannins

2 min: smoky note.

2 min. 30s: smoky

indefinite, cooled: tastes and feels a bit like a young sheng puer off the first steepings. Not sure what it was, but my stomach felt a bit funny afterwards and I connected the dots. Only really bitterness and sharp edged throughout though, and lacking in the complexity that a quality young sheng would have.

Maybe batch issues, or I got something different than the rest of the people reviewing on their site that seemed to have loved it. Plenty of great green teas out there; this is not one of them.

2020 Winter Shan Lin Xi Oolong

Rivers & Lakes Tea

6.0g, 100 mL gaiwan, Brita water, 212f

dry leaf smells like classic Taiwanese oolong: floral and bright

wet leaves: sweet floral, reminiscent of Bath and Body Works Sweet Pea lol. nice bright green.

5s: light sweet, floral, vegetal. bit of mint cooling note in aftertaste

8s: bitter note that transitions to a floral, then mint note. something slightly coconut & crushed leaves as well.

6s: an extension of previous, but less bitter. more crushed leaves and mint. the last steep and this one make this one seem like something akin to Philosykos, if that were a tea and not a perfume, haha

8s: slight sweetness reappears. No bitter, just a slight dryness then mint aftertaste.

15s: similar to before, coconut-like notes, then mint.

Proceeded to cold brew, not because the tea ran out of steam, but lighter oolongs are just not my favorite. cold brew wasn’t really complex, but a strong ginger note appeared.