Tea Mountain

This is perhaps the best Nilgiri tea I have had. It is very aromatic and tasty with a buttery mouthfeel and a pungent and protracted aftertaste.

The strong dry leaf smell has notes of jasmine, courgette flowers, compost, burdock, and camphor. The last one persists during the session and is complemented by meaty, vegetal, and herbaceous aromas.

The taste is savoury, floral and bitter, while the aftertaste is more spicy and sweet. There are flavours of butter, vegetables such as rapini and courgette, and various spices.

The crisp sencha has a nice bitterness without it ever getting overwhelming. Its mouthfeel is very smooth and soft and its aroma is sweet and floral with notes of rice and seaweed. The taste is grassy, vegetal and milky. One specific flavour I noticed is also kohlrabi.

I haven’t had much Gyokuro in recent years. I prepared this one in my first session with it with the following parameters:
50ml/40°C/2.5min
80ml/40°C/1.5min
110ml/50°C/30s
130ml/55°C/1.5min
160ml/55°C/5min

It was also a bit of a test session, since later in the week I organized a tea party with a focus on Japanese teas, and this is one of the teas that I brewed up there. The above preparation was a bit too heavy early on tbh, but the tea holds up well to these high leaf/water ratios.

As one would expect, it gives a thick liquor with a super long aftertaste. The first infusion is an umami feast – very brothy with a sweet finish. The second one is much more balanced with a very oily texture and additional bitter and grassy flavours. Later steeps are then progressively more vegetal and bitter with much less umami.

This is only a second tea of this type that I have tried as far as I can remember. I would like to see more of Japanese oolongs on the market though.

The aroma of dry leaves is sweet and toasty with notes of nectar and grass. During the session, it is much more floral with hints of orchid and burdock among other associations.

It is a full bodied tea with a thick creamy mouthfeel. The taste is a little bit like a green Taiwanese oolong. It is sweet, vegetal and mineral with a little bit of bitterness, lending to a long and sweet aftertaste. There are strong marine and grassy flavours, as well as those of custard, kale, lemon balm, lime zest.

Quite a subtle black tea that is not as robust as most examples of the category on the market. Its aromas are very floral with rose being the primary association for me. The taste is bitter and has a woody astringency as well as coffee-like sourness. There are notes of sap, peanuts, earth at first. Later, more of a “Japanese” character comes forward. The taste has more umami and hints of shellfish and wheat, as well as molasses and allspice in the aftertaste.

This is quite a sweet tea for an aged oolong. It also has the espected metallic and medicinal taste, and a soft buttery mouthfeel. The aroma is fruity and toasty at first. After the rinse, it gives off notes of peat, angostura bitters and orange.

This tea has a familiar Assamica character. It has a foresty and chocolaty character, with a bitter, savoury (tomato vine) and slightly medicinal flavour. The body is light to medium, and the mouthfeel creamy. The aftertaste gives a strong cooling and biting sensation.

[Spring 2019 harvest]

This tea is quite perfumy with an aroma of cherry wood. The taste has a lot of underlying bitterness, as well as a strong mineral presence that makes is quite savoury, almost salty. There is also a kind of vegetal note and a sweet finish with a very strong aftertaste subsequently.

The liquor has quite a presence. The mouthfeel is at first silky, then mineral and astringent, almost tannic. The finish is somewhat cooling with an expansive fragrance.

As other Japanese black teas, this one also need low temperatures to avoid overbrewing it. Nevertheless, it is still a bitter tea with lots of pungency.

The aroma reminds me of hibiscus, almond shells and muscatel wines. I really like the mouthfeel, which is thick and creamy. As for the taste, I don’t mind strong flavours and bitterness, but if I am not careful with brewing, this can be a bit overwhelming and thus a bit flat tasting. With a careful hand, one can get a very tasty brew though. It is woody and sweet, with a cooling and drying aftertaste that is reminiscent of eucalyptus.

A very comfortable white tea with sweet leathery aroma of burdock, fresh wheat when dry and of fish/mussels, lemon balm and honey when wet.

The tea is bitter with notes of hay, walnuts, and lemongrass, as well as a particularly warming and sweet aftertaste.

These needles are some of the most beautiful tea leaves. They smell buttery and a tiny bit toasty.

First thing to notice about the brew is its vibrant colour and virtually no cloudiness. As soon as I drink it, the full bodied liquor covers my mouth with a creamy mouthfeel and a strong but smooth taste. It is bitter, vegetal, and very crisp. The flavours are really quite amazing. There is a decent umami and sweetness as well as notes of rocket, butter, pine, and vegetable broth.

It has been some time since I had such a positive experience with sencha and I will look for the 2023 harvest in the spring.

A great tea for autumn times, which however doesn’t impress in any particular dimension. It has sweet aromatics and a taste that is mineral and a bit more savoury at first, but later turns into a little flat taste permeated by grape sweetness. The liquor feels light in the mouth, the aftertaste seems to have more presence.

Specific notes remind me of baked goods, pear liqueur, and custard in dry leaf aroma; and then wood, nectar, grape vine, and bubblegum in the wet leaf aroma.

This Rou Gui didn’t stand out to me in any way, it’s fairly standard.

I don’t have much experience with Xiaguan tea, and even less so with aged ones. This one strikes me as a very good example though. It has an engaging aroma, super pungent and enjoyable taste with a fragrant aftertaste coupled with powerful huigan. The tea induces a pretty numbing sensation and there is also significant astringency despite the clearly aged character overall.

The aromas remind me of kahlua and barn when dry, and wet earth and freshly cut wood when wet. The liquor tastes of red grapes, black currants, and has also many sour, woody notes. It is bitter and warming with a good dose of umami too. In the aftertaste, I additionally detect a sandalwood essence.

One thing I would count as a potential negative is that the tea really doesn’t last so long. As it is very pungent though, one could try to brew it less aggressively to prolong the session, which is however not so easy given the leaf size.

Really good tea, albeit not too complex. It carries a lot of pungency and a strong bitterness for a sencha. The taste is nevertheless quite smooth and cooling with a sweet vegetal finish. There are also strong notes of pine and acacia, as well as mineral ones like shellfish.

One of the better examples of Shui Xian in my experience, at 6 years of age the roasting is well settled.

In particular, it has a very pleasant molasses aroma, complex taste, long and evolving aftertaste and a cool texture that is at once bubbly, slick and dense.

There is a mild drying bite to the tea and it carries flavours of salt, tamarind, juniper, and parsley roots among others.

A couple days ago, I found out about some mould growing in one of my aged pu-erh cakes, ouch! Thankfully, I caught it quite early and I only found in two other samples (from Tea Mountain) which were stored next to it. I will have to be a bit more careful when putting new samples into my storage. I think it has been a good decision to keep most of them separated in any case.

This sample was unaffected as far as I could tell, however. Its dry leaves have a funny look – they remind me of aged moonlight white tea with plenty buds. After the rinse, they smell of kahlua, limestone, peat, and leaf compost.

The taste is a little sour and bitter with a woody/honey sweetness to it. Overall, it is a mild tea and the bitterness really only comes in the middle of the session. There are flavours of nuts, grains, decaying wood, and pinecones.

The body is also on the lighter side and the texture has a drying edge to it, kind of like tree bark. I quite like the overall woodsy character as well as the relaxing energy of the tea.

[Spring 2016 harvest]

A good yan cha whose aftertaste is the most intense and memorable aspect. Unfortunately, it only lasts for 6 infusions.

It has an aroma with notes of vanilla pudding, chocolate cookies, and cherries. Taste-wise it reminds me of tobacco, sweet wood, blood, and black currants. The finish is savoury at first, then turning more sweet and woody with a buttery flavour. The body is light and the cha qi mild and warming.

This is a really nice comfort tea, I’ve enjoyed it on every occasion and it never demanded too much attention from me despite being quite complex and full bodied.

When dry, its aroma reminds me of curry leaves, fenugreek seeds, green wood, and Chinese leek. Then, while brewing, I can smell hints of maple syrup, eucalyptus, and yeast.

The liquor is oily, thick, active and yet quite smooth. It tastes quite nutty and fragrant at first, more sweet and herbaceous later on. There is a lasting numbing sensation coupled with a spicy aftertaste and notes of hops, honey, sugarcane, coconut water

I don’t think I’ve ever come across a Darjeeling tea that is as warming in the body as this one – truly one of the impressive examples of Himalayan teas.

This is one of the best sencha teas I’ve had. It has a soft, creamy texture and a well balanced taste with a mild sour bite. Its character is bready and floral with a very sweet finish.

Amazingly refreshing FF Darjeeling here. It smells of fried vegetables, lime zest, and courgette. The tea has an oily mouthfeel, crisp biting bitterness, fruity acidity, as well as notes of vegetables, pine, and white wine. The aftertaste is very pungent and somehow both drying and mouthwatering. There is a floral sourness and pear flavour to be found too.

[Spring 2022 harvest]

Great warming and crisp white tea with some green edge to it. The mouthfeel is a little too watery for my liking, but otherwise I like it a lot.

The aroma is a mix of peas, squash flowers, pancake, and thistles. Taste is bright and savoury with good umami and grassy sweetness as well as notes of sand, shellfish, apple leaves, and rapeseed flowers. The aftertaste is sweeter with a fruity apricot note present.

This is a somewhat average aged oolong. I like its depth in aroma with plenty of heavy sweet, woody and coffee notes. However, the rest of the experience is not as distinctive, and the tea loses steam quite early on in the session.

The mouthfeel is a little tannic and sticky, while the taste has a notable TGY presence without any particular roasty notes left. The profile is grainy and almost earthy at times.