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This was a marvelous Li shan and one of the better jade oolongs I’ve had in a while. The scent of the leaves is a real treat for the nose. The aroma is an intoxicating mix of hyacinth, daffodils, wild flowers, and melon. I kept smelling the gaiwan over and over again to take in all the loveliness. The brewed tea is a juicy, flowery nectar with notes of orchid, sweet pea, apricot, and jasmine. Later on, it settled into a nice sugarcane sweetness, some vegetal tones but still remained lush and floral. I steeped this about 7-8 times and it definitely could have been pushed further.

This is like the chicken noodle soup of black tea. It’s gentle and delicate, bordering on bland but enjoyable for what it is. Although its technically a black tea, it’s processed similarly to a oolong hence the name. The leaves are loosely rolled like an oolong and the steeped tea is a very light amber color. There’s almost no malt here and no bitterness. It’s got a sweet honeyed taste with notes of berries, rose, and buttercream. Very soft and light bodied.

I gongfued this but have a feeling western steeping may coax out a stronger flavor and perhaps the citrusy notes TTC mentions. Black tea aficionados will probably be bored by this tea however as a fan of light teas, I find this a good choice for relaxed casual drinking.

Call me weird but drinking a tea that not only tastes good, but also has bang for the buck adds a certain satisfaction to the experience. Though I enjoy fancy high mountain oolongs, they can be expensive and I’m always on the look out for good value teas. I love being surprised every once in a while by a humble jin xuan or some other inexpensive low elevation tea. One such tea was BTTC’s Old Style Dong Ding from a few years ago.

I picked this up in the hopes of finding a good daily drinker and maybe something more but unfortunately this one did not pass muster. This has a very basic oolong taste. Actually its vegetal taste makes it more like a green tea and it suffers from a lack of aromatics. There’s a honeyed sweetness to it but no real depth, texture, or mouthfeel to speak of. The washed out taste reminds me of the last steeping of a higher quality oolong. It does cold steep well so that’s how I’ll drink the rest of it. The old adage ‘you get what you pay for’ certainly applies here.

Sipdown.

Finally polished off the last of my Floating Leaves winter oolong samples. Hard to believe it took nearly 6 months to get through them all. I used to really tear through my green oolongs but I’ve started to pace myself with tea now. Too much tea drinking affected my enjoyment of it and felt like a chore sometimes. Limiting my intake to 1-2 teas a day has helped me learn to take my time and savor tea. Another side benefit of less tea drinking is it’s gotten my tea spending under control.

I’m a little torn about how to rate this tea. I’ve had a couple of enjoyable sessions and a handful that were lackluster. When in prime form, this is easily a 90+ tea. Delightfully floral with honeysuckle and orange blossoms balanced against warm grass in the background and a nectary sweetness. Occasional hints of melon and creamed corn. However it peaks early and there’s a noticeable drop in flavor by the 5th steep. My later sessions with this tea were just okay. I don’t know whether it went stale or I didn’t steep it correctly, but taste was flat and kind of boring.

Laoshan tea is hands down my favorite Chinese green tea. It has every element that I love in green tea – grass, florals, umami, sweetness, and fruity flavors – in perfect harmony. Verdant tea, which specializes in teas from Laoshan, has been my source for ages, but with their spring harvest being delayed this year, I decided to give Yunnan Sourcing a try. I’ve been curious about their Laoshan teas for a while now and got both the Imperial Grade and Classic Laoshan green teas.

This tea has the signature Laoshan soybean aroma. When the leaves are placed in a warmed pot, more aromas of warm grass, soymilk, green bean, and edamame emerge. Wet leaf smells like roasted vegetables. The first steep is a luscious mix of cream, soybean, fennel, and floral hints. Really smooth and refreshing. The second steeping brings out more vegetation and some toasted grains. The last two infusions are less nuanced but still smooth without any bitterness.

I use a 2.5g of leaf to 120ml water ratio to brew this tea and steep times of 25s/30s/40s/55s. Temperature control is a key factor in getting the most out of it. I used to be afraid to push green teas past 175 F, but I’ve learned that most quality teas have good heat tolerance. This tea went from good to divine when I raised the temperature just 5 degrees to 180 F.

Today I threw a pinch of leaves in the tumbler to take to work and the resulting brew was amazing. Super floral and fruity with an almost honey like sweetness. Even after steeping the leaves for a long time, it did not turn bitter.

I don’t know if it’s this particular harvest or the farm, but this Laoshan green was fantastic and still reigns supreme among Chinese greens for me. Looking forward to doing a head-to-head tasting of this with Verdant once my pre-order arrives.

This is a very spice heavy tea. In a blind smell test, one could easily mistake this for garam masala. There are strong notes of cinnamon, star anise, clove, and cardamom. It’s the kind of potent aroma that reminds me of walking into an Indian spice shop.

I prepared this both as a chai and steeped it the normal way following Rishi-Tea’s instructions. The chai turned out to be a complete fail. It smelled and tasted like roasted gram/chickpea flour. There was some cinnamon and an odd cayenne note but I couldn’t get past the weird chickpea flour taste and ended up chucking it after a few sips.

It fared a little better when brewed on its own. The spices were tamer and I could actually taste some of the rooibos base. The dominant notes were cinnamon, star anise, and tellicherry peppercorn in the finish. I didn’t really like the sharp peppery flavor though and had to add a little sweetener to take the edge off.

I think Rishi had the right idea with this blend but bad execution. The combination of spices doesn’t really work and overwhelms rather than complementing the tea. I haven’t dabbled in blends for a long time, but this inspires me to create my own chai blend using the 1 lbs of rooibos sitting in my cupboard.

Many of the reviews for the 2017 version of this tea at YunnanSourcing.com mentioned that it is pretty heavily roasted. That jives with my own experience with YS dan congs. So it was quite a surprise when this year’s crop turned out to be very green.

I steeped 4g of leaf in a 4oz gaiwan. The dry leaf had a delicious aroma of honey, apricot, flowers and baked bread. After a quick rinse, I got notes of sandalwood, wet rocks, and roasted peaches on the nose. The first steep tasted sublime. Juicy fruit nectar with TGY like florals. No char or roasting could be detected at all. Full mouthfeel with notes of honey and grape. I resteeped for 5 more infusions which brought out peachy notes but also a little bitterness. Nothing too heavy but probably an indication that I need to keep my steep times short.

This is the greenest Mi Lan Xiang I’ve ever had. Normally this type of dan cong has a roasted edge to it, but it’s barely detectable here. The taste and aroma of this tea resembles a TGY or duck shit oolong more than your typical Mi Lan Xiang. Recommended for fans of lighter oolongs.

Golden Monkey is the tea that awakened me to black tea after avoiding it for most of my life. The YS 2016 version was marvelous. Last year’s version was also good, though not as sweet. So this year I decided to upgrade to the Imperial grade stuff to see if was really worth it. Well after gongfuing around with this tea, I can say this is totally different from the standard grade version and not in a good way.

This tea resembles keemun in appearance with its dark curly leaf. There’s fewer gold-tipped leaves here than the regular grade version. On the nose, I get an almost pungent aroma of dried fruit, smoke, and malt. The tea brews to a nice reddish amber. The taste though was far removed from any other golden monkey tea I’ve ever had. It has a very basic black tea, dare I say Lipton-like flavor. I didn’t get any of the deep caramel and molasses notes I love. There was no sweetness or real nuance to it at all. Subsequent steeps tasted the same.

I’m still scratching my head at this tea. It wasn’t bad or anything, just flat and kind of boring. Maybe this was an off year or something, but it’s hard to believe this is golden monkey tea let alone the high grade stuff.

So my tea drinking has taken a hit recently with traveling, fasting in Ramadan, and the unseasonably hot weather. I’ve also cut out my nighttime tea ritual because it hasn’t helped my insomnia. It’s a little frustrating because I can’t get through all my spring teas as quickly as I want to.

This tea was a spur of the moment purchase during my visit to Murchie’s tea room in Victoria, BC. Normally I stay away from blends, but I couldn’t resist the amazing tropical aroma of this tea. The smell alone was worth the purchase. It bursts out with sweet aromas of mango and pineapple. When the leaves are dropped into a heated vessel, interesting new aromas of apple pie, maple, and cinnamon appear. I was bracing myself for something potpourri like, but was pleasantly surprised to discover a subtle tropical flavor instead. The grassiness comes through complemented by hints of apricot and mango. The second steep was mellower but still delicious. Cold brewing it the next day brought out even more yummy mango flavor.

I’m pretty sensitive to flavorings in general and this was the rare blend that I could drink on its own without having to cut it with a straight tea. Although I wasn’t thrilled when I learned about the artificial flavoring in it, it doesn’t taste fake and the flavor of this tea is true to its name. Happy to have found a substitute for the now retired Fruta Bomba from Teavana.

When I first tried this tea, I thought I had mistakenly brewed one of my cherry blossom scented teas. This is a straight tea with an astonishing cherry blossom like taste and aroma. It brews up light green, buttery smooth and clean without any bitterness. Grassiness is more subdued than other Japanese greens and there are dominant notes of sakura and umeboshi pickled plums. There’s a sweet and salty flavor to it that reminds me of biting into a sakura mochi.

This is a good tea with a rather atypical profile for a Japanese green. While I enjoyed it, it tastes too similar to the 3 sakura senchas I already own for me to consider getting more. Recommended if you’re looking for a Japanese green that’s a little different from the usual.