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Ugh, this tea was blander than bland. Hot steeped, it tasted like hot water. When cold brewed, it tasted like cold water. Completely and utterly devoid of any flavor…like an empty canvas where flavor should be.

I’ve had a lot of bad teas in my lifetime but at least they had some discernible taste, be it sour, bitter, ashy, musty, whatever. But this is the first tea ever that had zero flavor or aroma of any kind, good or bad. The very epitome of bland tea.

Another dud from Green Terrace Teas. This tea is kinda just meh all around. Stale and flavorless with a muted brothy taste. Doesn’t have those luscious tropical-floral SLX aromatics or flavor.

Once again, cold brewing came to the rescue and made this tea drinkable. I’m puzzled as to why it was stale when the tea was vacuum sealed. A little nervous about trying the remaining samples from this order.

Placed my first order with Green Terrace Teas recently. At this point I’ve done TTC and Tea from Taiwan to death and wanted to try something new. Ended up buying a bunch of samples of my usual go-to Taiwanese oolongs from here – Ali Shan, SLX, Dong Ding, etc. – and will be reviewing them in the days to come.

This Jin Xuan was the first tea I tried and as far as first impressions go, it left a lot to be desired. When I opened the pouch, it had that dreaded stale seaweed aroma, a telltale sign of lost freshness. The description promised milk and osmanthus but instead my cup tasted musty and vegetal, like raw turnips, with a little butteriness.

I was able to salvage the rest of the sample by cold brewing but this was a disappointing start. Hoping for better luck with the other teas in my order.

Not usually a fan of heavily roasted teas, but they’ve occasionally surprised me and in the interest of expanding my tea horizons, I decided to pick up a sample of this tea.

It does indeed have a deep roasted flavor and aroma. You can taste the roast but it’s not smokey by any means. I get notes of firewood, pumpernickel bread, and toasted nuts. These are ancillary though and the tea is predominantly dark and toasty

This may appeal to those who like dark tea but I prefer the subtle caramel taste of lightly roasted oolongs.

Impulse buy from Trader Joe’s. I’ve seen passing references to barley tea in Japanese novels (Murakami) and was curious to finally try it myself.

While I’m glad to see TJ’s beginning to stock Asian bottled teas, this one was a miss for me. My better half, who shared the bottle with me, aptly described it as “like drinking watered down coffee”. I have to agree. This is a pretty aggressively roasted tea and has a slightly oily texture. Coffee drinkers and fans of dark tea might like it but for others like me, this is at best an acquired taste.

The third shincha of 2020.

I don’t think I’ve ever gone through a Japanese tea as quickly as this one. Usually it takes me a while to get through a bag of sencha but I’ve already polished off half the 100g pouch in only a month. Have to pace myself now so I don’t go through my stash too quickly because that’s how good this tea is.

This is a tamaryokucha, which is processed differently from regular sencha resulting in less astringency and a smoother flavor. It’s more forgiving to oversteeping and water temperature.

The tea itself has a subtle and unassuming appearance. Small broken leaves that have a mild grassy aroma. The brewed tea is a buttery sweet fruity explosion with nice umami and floral overtones. Smooth, crisp, and full bodied. Upping the leaf quantity intensifies the umami. Second steep is a denser cup, vibrant lime green with grassy chlorophyll flavors. The third and final steep is lighter but delightfully fruity and sweet. There was little to no bitterness and no sulfuric edge that Japanese greens can sometimes leave behind even when I really push the steep.

This was a marvelous tea exhibiting the best characteristics of sencha without any of the off-putting ones. It’s less finicky to brew and has more sweetness than other Japanese greens I’ve tried which I like . Easily the best shincha this year and the best Japanese green I’ve had recently.

Another Verdant sample that had been sitting around forever in my cupboard. Unfortunately it was far less impressive than the Old Tree Wulong I just finished prior. There were some intriguing aromas – orange peel, wet rocks, and sandalwood – however the taste fell flat. It was pretty forgettable, more like a generic yancha than a typically fruity dan cong. Woodsy with an oily texture. At times, there was a faint floral glimmer in the aftertaste but otherwise it didn’t offer much in the way of flavor.

This wasn’t as good as the Shibi teas of yesteryear. It had those familiar mouthwatering aromas of wildflowers and syrup, and it starts off just as I remembered it: bright, fresh, and floral. But it goes south quickly. It develops a savory flavor with this odd oats/toasted grain edge to it. Tried different brewing methods but alas, could not rescue this tea. Ah well, better luck next season.

**I had mistakenly added this tasting note for the wrong tea, so I’m correcting now.

Backlog.

This is one of the teas from the great Steepster freeze of 2020 that I’m getting around to logging now. My memory is a little hazy because I only had a couple of sessions with it, but I remember it being a solid SLX with the usual alpine florals and tropical notes. A little lighter and lacking the full mouthfeel of previous harvests. Good for 6-7 steeps.

Not as good as last winter’s harvest or the regular Wenshan oolong from this spring. This tea has sumptuous aromas of hyacinth, melon, and pear but actual flavor is somewhat lacking. It has a standard buttery, mellow TGYesqe floral flavor. Little to no depth or richness to it.