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This is an okay genmaicha. There’s more toasted rice in here than tea. Just a basic genmaicha taste, quite drinkable but not particularly memorable. Tastes good by itself, as a cold brew, and makes a good base for blending with other teas.

Nice to see Steepster working again. Time to start posting some of my backlogged tasting notes.

I was glad to finally get my hands on this tea again. I first tried it a few years ago and have not found a better yancha since. What’s even better is this is the 2019 version so its had time to age and the roast has mellowed out.

Upon opening the pouch, a powerful aroma of flowers, cinnamon, and peaches greets the nose. This turns into browned butter and chocolate chip cookies when the leaves are dropped into a heated vessel. I brewed this grandpa style steeping 1g in 8z of water just under boiling. The taste of the tea is outstanding – familiar wet rocks and clean mineral wuyi notes, along with rich cocoa and pecan. Some spice and wood as it settles. A very satisfying cup.

My recent sessions with this tea haven’t been quite as good but I blame that on me being rushed and unfocused, not the tea.

First oolong of the spring 2020 harvest. Grandpa steeped just over a gram in my knock off the wall style mug from AliExpress. I love me some AliExpress for cheap teaware. Shipping takes forever sometimes but I don’t mind waiting given the deals that can be found.

This one has more aroma than flavor. The scent of the dry leaves is a perfumy bouquet of honeyed flowers. Notes of gardenia, lilac, and violets. Brewed tea is rich and buttery with a vegetal sweet pea flavor. Lilac dances across the tongue in the after taste. Towards the end of the session, it turns somewhat flat.

Good baozhong though nothing earth shattering. Going to brew with lower temperature next time to see if I can extract more subtleties from it.

Pretty typical Laoshan green profile. A little nutty with notes of soybean, cream, and stewed vegetables. Not as robust as last year’s harvest.

Shibi is my favorite high mountain cultivar and a regular TTC purchase. But this particular harvest was a real dud. It had the familiar aromas of wildflowers, custard, and vanilla. The actual flavor however was weak and pretty bland. Don’t know if my sample was old or what but it didn’t even taste like the same Shibi oolong that I’ve come to know and love. Ended up cold brewing the rest of my stash.

I almost never buy rose scented tea. Not because I dislike the flavor but rather I can usually achieve the same thing by blending in a dried rosebud to any tea. This tea basically confirmed it.

The smell out of the bag is very faint with the barest whiff of rose, cherry, and almond. The brewed tea has a soft rose flavor that’s nice but also very similar to my Teavivre dried rosebuds. Can’t taste much of the underlying oolong. Where this tea really shines is cold brew. Here the greenness of the base oolong comes through complemented with a gentle touch of rose.

This could be a good tea for those who are into rose or floral scented teas that aren’t overpowering. I personally would just add a rosebud to regular oolong tea to obtain the same result but this is a nice option too if you want a pre-blended rose tea.

[Spring 2020 harvest]

Here’s another Yunnan Sourcing green tea that I rolled the dice on this spring. This one turned out to be my least favorite of the bunch.

The leaf appearance reminds me of eyelashes. Extremely thin, delicate pale green leaves covered with small flecks of white. Dry leaves have a pine and tree sap aroma that becomes pungent when dropped into a heated vessel.

I steeped it grandpa style using 180 F water in an 8oz mug with 1.3g of leaf initially, then upped to 2g as the flavor was too light. The brewed tea had some pine and eucalyptus aromas but tasted fairly nondescript. Light vegetal notes which were overpowered by the accompanying bitterness. Flavor was slightly better gongfued but more or less the same. Once again, more bitterness than flavor. Resorted to cold brewing it to finish up what’s left and it does okay as long it’s blended with a flavored tea. On its own, the cold brew isn’t great. Stubbornly bitter, drying, and tending towards astringency.

The cheapest matcha at Yuuki-Cha. I bought this one specifically for lattes as I don’t care much for straight matcha. Opening the pouch revealed a slightly yellow tinged fine green powder with a creamy spinach aroma. A few whisks of the chasen is all it took to whip up an incredible froth. Much frothier than any matcha I’ve ever tried. Adding milk turned the matcha bubbles into a velvety microfoam like a skilled barista would produce.

Even though it later got doctored with milk and sugar, I did the obligatory tasting of the straight tea. It had a bright, rich forest green color. Smooth and creamy with a thick mouthfeel. Notes of sautéed asparagus and a little spice. Sweeter and less earthy than matcha can sometimes be. And more importantly, it made an excellent matcha latte.

It’s nice to be back on Steepster again after a short layoff. Admittedly I’d gotten a little bored of this site and frustrated by all the spam and 503 errors. But news of the site’s sale has sparked my enthusiasm for Steepster once again. I know there are many questions surrounding Adagio’s takeover, but I, for one, welcome this small glimmer of hope after being stuck in a death spiral for so long.

Anyways, even though I’ve been away I’ve still been drinking tea and taking notes which I’ll be posting in the days to come. This was a tea I had raved about when I reviewed it on Steepster a few years ago. I remember it being incredibly fruity and sweet. This time though it wasn’t as impressive. It has the scent of fresh steamed spinach and a pleasant oceanic, grassy flavor that becomes murky and more savory on resteep. Enjoyable but lacks fullness and goes flat by the 3rd steep.

Instagram shot: https://www.instagram.com/p/CBiyIyygsPM/

2020 harvest. 1.8g / 13oz @ 185 F.

Last year’s Anji Bai Cha was a tea that was so good I used to dream about it. This year’s harvest is good but not as nuanced. It’s got that crisp freshness of romaine lettuce combined with a green pea sweetness, a lima bean like vegetal flavor with a slight peppery hint. Less grassy and more delicate than typical green teas. However, I do miss the subtleties of last year’s tea. Still an enjoyable tea though and a good one for throwing in thermos or brewing grandpa style which is how I like to brew it.

Instagram shot: https://www.instagram.com/p/CBD0TvkgGAf/