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Just finished sipping down my sample of this tea today. After green tea, the spring harvest of baozhong is my most anticipated release of the season. I love the heady florals and delicate sweetness of this tea. However locating some was a bit challenging this year as its been short on supply. Fortunately I was able to snag a few different varieties from Mountain Stream Teas.

This Heritage Baozhong is supposed to be an old school style of Baozhong that’s described as tasting somewhere between a milky baozhong and floral white tea with a thick mouthfeel. Taiwan Tea Crafts which sells its own Heritage Baozhong notes that traditionally, Baozhong processed in this style is slightly more oxidized and has rounder, more complex flavor.

I found these descriptors to be generally accurate. This was a buttery, mineral-y tea with an interesting interplay between sweet floral aromas and soupy/brothy flavors. The tea liquor feels full and viscous in the mouth and leaves behind a flowery aftertaste that lingers for a while. I got notes of lemongrass, lilacs, and honeysuckle. Underlying all this is a milkiness imparted by its Jin Xuan cultivar.

This was a pretty robust baozhong compared to the more delicate ones I’m used to. It not only holds up well to hotter water but rather demands it. My usual 185-190 F brewing temperature for baozhong didn’t cut it here. And it didn’t do well cold brewed either. Best results came from following Mountain Stream Teas directions using just under boiling water.

Spring 2019 harvest.

This has been my faithful companion during my morning commute this week. My mornings are pretty hectic as I always seem to be running late to work. I often end up skipping breakfast, but seldom skip tea. Unless I cold brew something the night before, I tend to reach for a no-fuss tea that I can quickly throw in my tumbler and dump hot water on it. But this is more than just a serviceable green tea. It’s a richly vegetal, hearty tea that’s wonderfully fragrant and refreshing.

Dry leaves have a fresh, sweet aroma of watercress and butter lettuce. The tea starts off with a gentle fruitiness, similar to Anji Bai Cha, but nuttier and more assertive. As it steeps, I pick up notes of crisp sugar snap peas and chestnut. The mouthfeel is full, buttery, and complex. There’s an ever so slight bitterness towards the end but nothing overbearing.

I’m pleasantly surprised at how robust this Long Jing is. Usually early picked tea is light and delicate, but this one has that in-your-face green taste that I love. Excellent quality tea all around.

This was a fairly standard green tea. It had some explosive baozhong like aromas in the bag but after resting for a bit, it settled into a typical green bean flavor. There were some light spinach notes, a hint of cream, and a little fruitiness along the way but otherwise it was generic tasting. Not a whole lot of body or depth in the way of flavor. It wasn’t bad or off-tasting, just didn’t have any real character to it.

Taiwan produces some excellent oolongs but in my experience, Taiwanese greens are lacking and don’t really measure up to their counterparts from mainland China and Japan. I’ve got another green tea sample from Taiwan Tea Crafts so here’s hoping it breaks the mold and proves me wrong.

Once in a while a tea comes along that challenges your preconceived notions about that category of tea. For me, this Taiwanese black redefines what black tea should taste like. It’s a magnificent tea, delightfully fruity with a smooth and highly refined taste.

The smell in the bag is heavenly; like tangy, fresh strawberries and dried cherries. A brown sugar aroma like appears after dropping the leaves into a warmed teapot. The first steep was sweet with fruity notes of dark berries and a light malty finish. Second steep was richer with more brown sugar sweetness and notes of bergamot and musk. Next two steeps were silky smooth and had a hint of white grapes.

This was an exquisite tea with fantastic aromatics and a refreshing quality that made for a very pleasant drinking experience. It’s quite different from the full bodied blacks I’m used to. I know Taiwanese blacks are highly regarded but the ones I’d tried up until now failed to impress. Having experienced this tea, I get the hype now. I must say I’m impressed with both of the teas I’ve sampled from The Jade Leaf. I wouldn’t have thought to use them for tea since they are known for teaware. Emilio sources some excellent tea and I’m grateful to have been able to try a couple of them.

Popped into Adagio the other day after a long time to shop for a new tea tumbler when I spotted this tea. The smell of it was incredible – full of juicy lychees and luscious rose. It reminded me of this yummy floral Persian ice cream I had in LA. Normally I’m not a big fan of flavored tea, and Adagio’s blends have been severely disappointing in the past. But curiosity got the better of me and the saleslady was nice enough to brew up a small sample for me over ice.

This had a sweet lychee flavor nicely balanced with a soft rose and hint of artichoke from the green tea base. Both flavors taste natural and nothing overpowers. Lychee is quite floral on its own so the rose complements it very well. The green tea gets kind of lost in this whole mixture though and what little I tasted of it, didn’t seem all that fresh. But that’s easily remedied by blending it with a straight green tea.

Surprised to see the low ratings for this tea. I sampled it yesterday at World Market and thought it was delicious. And that’s coming from someone who’s not exactly a fan of bagged black tea, sage, or berry flavoring. But the combination is really well executed in this tea.

The tea begins with a very natural blackberry flavor balanced with a mellow black tea base. The sage isn’t as easy to detect because its not up front and center. Instead it makes an appearance towards the end of the sip to impart a subtle herbal note that contrasts nicely with the fruitiness.

Bet this would make an awesome cold brew/iced tea.

Winter 2018 harvest.

The weather was finally nice enough to have a tea session outdoor on my patio the other day. This tea was the last of my Tea from Taiwan green oolong samplers and was the perfect tea for the occasion. The fresh air, smell of peonies wafting from my neighbors garden, and surrounding greenery perfectly captured the essence of this tea.

Upon opening the pouch, my nose was greeted with the smell of fresh vegetation, flowers, and apricot. A rinse released sweet, more distinct floral aromas of daffodils, lily, and honeysuckle. The first 5 steeps were delicate yet intensely floral with the aromas coming through nicely in the taste. Silky texture, sweet, and light bodied. As the session wore on, the flowery notes started to dwindle and a pear like fruitiness emerged. The tea became thicker, brighter, and I got some of that great high mountain taste.

I steeped 2g in my 50ml shibo and got 8 excellent infusions out of it. Steep times were 30s/45s/1m/2m/3m/5m/7m/10m. I brewed at around 185 F except for the last few steeps which were at or close to boiling. Even with the longer steep times, it was super smooth with zero astringency.

Here’s the second tea from my Yuuki-Cha shincha order. I usually buy just one tea during shincha season since a 100g bag lasts awhile but with so many interesting teas at Yuuki-Cha this year, I went a little crazy and picked up 2 different senchas, an asamushi and this fukamushi, as well as a kamairicha. So yeah, it’ll be a while before I purchase any more Japanese greens. Anyway, I decided to check out Chiran Sencha after seeing it everywhere on my IG feed.

This is a pretty good Sencha with the deep steamed grassy flavor typical of the fukamushi style. Dry leaves have a fruity and sweet umami aroma. Wet leaf smells like a fresh ocean breeze. The tea starts off grassy with bold vegetal notes of broccoli, edamame, and asparagus. It becomes more savory as it settles, finishing with a little chlorophyll. Second steep is something like a thin matcha. Dense green, both in color and taste, and has a wheatgrass-like taste. Third steep is similar but flatter. This tea infuses quickly so best to keep steeps short to minimize bitterness. Don’t get much umami from it although for that I should probably drop the temperature. That may also help bring out more sweetness as it’s a tad savory.

Like shincha #1, this is a very good, classic tasting tea but there’s nothing really memorable about it. It’s got that in-your-face grassiness I love yet lacks complexity. Still have 85g left so I’ll continue experimenting.

Man, it’s already June and the weather in Chicago is still wonky. Seems like we never quite recovered from the brutal -50 F windchills this past winter. It’s supposed to be summer now but here I am with the furnace on and wearing a sweater. WTH?

The unexpectedly cool weather calls for a roasty tea so I pulled out this sample I received with my recent Jade Leaf teaware order. I grandpa steeped 1.2g in an 8oz glass using 195 F water. The dry leaf had an appetizing smell of chocolate, toffee, and butterscotch. Wet leaf though didn’t have much aroma, kind of had the standard roasted oolong smell.

I got busy with other stuff which gave this a chance to steep good and long. The leaves unfurled to release an incredibly smooth texture and taste of flowers and caramel. Roast was gentle without any char and lent a sweet fruitiness to the tea. It was a tad lighter than I like but that’s likely because I slightly underleafed.

An excellent medium roast oolong, perfectly roasted to give it a nice warmth and sweetness. Eager to try this gongfu next time.

Still no luck after tinkering around with this tea. Upping the leaf quantity from 1.5g to 2.5g did bring out more flavor but the taste still left a lot to be desired. It’s brothy with notes of seaweed and green bean. And once again bitterness set in quickly despite lowering the temperature.

Am now convinced that it’s not me but the tea as it doesn’t respond well no matter how it’s brewed. It makes a decent cold brew though so that’s how the rest of my stash will be used.