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2g in a small mug, grandpa steeped over the course of a day, mix of Poland spring and Brita filtered tap water at boiling

First aged oolong I’ve tried. infusions turn from woody, medicinal, and lightly bitter to stronger woody bitter and then to a strong plum (and that I’ve never noticed from any ripe puer before, so to have it confirmed as a note in an oolong was exciting even though I know this can be a distinct note in aged oolongs) before fading. Slight warming feeling. Smells sweet overall, with the occasional sweet (but not very long lasting) aftertaste. Wish I’d bought more; will have to savor the remaining 12g.

CLT Beneath an Emerald sea 2018
212f, 7.1g, 100mL gaiwan, trader Joe’s Pure New Zealand Artesian water
dry leaf: fruity in a dried hawthorn candy sort of way, slight floral/grassy aspect

5s rinse

wet leaf: slight savory, tiniest hint of smoke, fruity

5s: slight bitter, touch of vegetal, light sugar sweet on aftertaste.

7s: stronger bitterness upfront, sort of bland vegetables, and then a lightly sweet aftertaste. Something about it reminds me of something medicinal. Drying on front of tongue.

10s: stronger bitterness again. This will either encourage me to stop drinking young shengs or buy a kettle that does 5 degree increments instead of 10 or I could’ve just pour boiling water into cha hai before into gaiwan. Whatever. I had a light breakfast beforehand, but slight pain in upper right abdomen, so my stomach is still not used to too young sheng. once you get past the bitterness, a refreshing sort of crisp floral aftertaste follows. Nothing too intense, but sort of lingers in background. A sort of black pepper hint as well.
15s: I decided to put in the extra effort to pour into cha hai before gaiwan starting here so I don’t hate my stomach later. But since bitterness still there, not sure if that really helped much, if at all lol. Taste wise, has taken on a slight subtle floral note too. A touch of mint in the aftertaste. Overall, something reminds me of noodle soup w/ fresh carrots. Sort of an oddity.

21s: Bitterness w/ a bit of an orange peel-like edge. Session was entertaining enough for me, sure, but wouldn’t purchase any more after this sample is done. Bitterness here isn’t it offset by enough sweetness or other things that are more in line with my preferences for drinking now, and life has not settled down enough to the point where I could theoretically purchase cakes for aging long-term. Slight honey in taste.

26s: similar bitterness w/ a honeyed hint.

31s: like before, but lightened. Oddly enough, aftertaste here lingers noticeably longer than that of any previous steep. I ran out of the fancy Trader Joe’s New Zealand Artesian water, so back to Brita filtered tap and back to 212f.

35s: slight medicinal bitter, honeyed mint aftertaste.

45s: nondescript taste, but hint of sweetened mint in aftertaste. Sort of cooling.

2min: Bitter w/ fruity undertones. Predicted not too much more interesting from here on out, so off to the thermos.

thermos overnight: Light bitter w/ honeyed undertones. Nothing too exciting.

I know year of tea makes a difference, but this tea in particular out of CLT’s offerings came highly recommended (based on reviews of various years) but I can’t say I was blown away overall. For $/g (.235 if you buy the 200g mini-cake), it’s really not a bad value if you can handle or enjoy the bitter aspect.

brewed with Brita filtered tap, boiling, grandpa style in a glass. slight thickened texture. I’ve never been able to pick out distinct notes for any shou puer or ripe liu bao I’ve ever tried so I should probably stop being tempted to buy more. I think I remember reading a review of this at some point where the reviewer mentioned it tasted like sucking on bamboo chopsticks so I bought it out of curiosity. I’m slightly disappointed to report that the taste was not that of bamboo chopsticks.

Thanks Obritten for this sample!

2009 XZH Jingmai
7.3g, simple syrup water, 212 f, 100mL gaiwan

dry leaf: light smoke, hay, tinge of medicinal

1x 10s rinse

wet leaf: light smoke, heavy on dried fruits

5s: thickened texture. light upfront w/ vegetal hint, and a crisp sweetness on aftertaste.

8s: stronger. touch of bitter, sweet aftertaste. A darker hint in background.

10s: smoky and hit of bitter. Aftertaste is slightly floral & creamy in away. Slight medicinal touch & nutty in a sort of way as well.

10s: still sort of sharp + crisp sugary aftertaste.

13s: sharp initially, with undertones of a honeyed sweetness. Lasting dried fruit in aftertaste.

16s: lighter in sharpness, with a fruity, pineapple-like note in aftertaste that lingers. A sort of medicinal hint in immediate taste.

20s. light smoky medicinal w/ slight bitter note. Aftertaste has a slight herbal component to it, ringed by edges of sweetness.

25s: lightened medicinal. slight crisp on aftertaste.

30s: similar, lightened. A slight woody note present upfront.

35s: like water but add light wood & some florals. Maybe a hint of mushroom.

45s: A sweeter medicinal.

1 min.: light w/ some fruit + an edge.

2 min.: only a light woody note remaining.

thermos overnight: light bitter & woody. Decent aftertaste, though much lightened.

a bit relaxing. Was tired when brewing, and the tea didn’t really add to the energy, though the caffeine is certainly present since I woke up several times throughout the night. Whatever cha qi is, chemical composition of water seems to affect it to a fair extent. Why is it that people have noted that it’s not always noticeable unless you pay attention? Is it that it’s not present in most teas, that it’s not getting extracted, or that it’s there and we’re confusing the effects for something else? All of the above? How does subtlety, depth, and perception of effect contribute? In my 9-5 this summer, we’re all heavily invested in the reproducibility of experiments (and sometimes I have nightmares about triplicate and standard error measurements). That carries over to my hobbies sometimes, so I can be overly meticulous in noting specific parameters instead of “going with the flow”, as it were. Neither approach has inherent flaws, but I wish there was better characterizing of it all, despite some inherent subjectivity involved.

Because I’ve never had a consistently good sleep schedule (a work in progress until who knows when), I can’t ever seem to totally separate calming effect of tea from just taking time to brew in detail and being tired enough from just slowing down or just really enjoying a tea (particular oolongs I’ve had in the past come to mind). In my memory though, the 1990s Liu Bao from Three Bears, 2004 YQH Jinhao Chawang, and this tea are the only ones I’ve tried that seem to have an effect that’s not wholly attributable to caffeine. This tea has had the lightest effect of the three, but present nonetheless. I’ve been reflecting as the other day I was reading a note for the 1990s LB wherein another reviewer noticed feeling really calm, and I realized that’s something I noted as well in my original review. At the time, I thought it was merely just the taste and my own quirks in preferences for silly novelties like having teas older than I am, and that was the first time I had considered that I might’ve experienced cha qi without knowing. The YQH Jinhao Chawang is inherently quite an interesting tea, in that my sample seemed to have preserved much of the florals despite the age, but looking back, I don’t think my reaction was just to the taste alone.

Since only a minority of reviews note ratios and infusion times (it’s tedious and clogs up the review, I get it), it’s hard to know if my experiences are just due to not leafing heavily enough (which seems unlikely? I’m not brave enough to do 1:10 quite yet, and the caffeine you’d get from that is borderline overboard, at least to continue sustainably without developing /too/ much tolerance), or if I’m just dense (which could certainly be the case, but I also reserve a healthy level of skepticism for the reviewers who experience “face-melting cha qi” in just about every single review they leave). I don’t have any answers, but hope that as the Western puer scene continues to expand, that we’ll start finding them!

Anxi Oolong Huang Jin Gui Lan Hua Xiang, Spring 2020
Tea Joint
6g, 100 mL gaiwan, 212f
Brita filtered tap

This came as a free sample w/ my order from TJ a few months back, but I just got around to brewing it last night.

Dry leaf is creamy and sweet, in the light oolong sort of way that I associate w/ most Taiwanese oolongs I’ve tried.

3s rinse

wet leaf: A floral, but dry smell. Oddly enough, also reminiscent of egg tart.

7s: Light vegetal, floral sweetness.

12s: A well rounded sweetness. Nothing too interesting to my tastes. but not a bad tea at all.
Edges of mint aftertaste, just a hint.

17s: edges of mint + medicinal bitterness. Slight vegetal and floral sweetness as well. I can’t foresee enjoying continued careful steepings of this, so I’ll be cold-brewing the rest. Not really a fan of light roasted oolongs, but I’ll take the caffeine, and cold brews of just about anything generally turn out quite tolerable.

cold brew overnight: light floral, tiny bit of honey, and a dominating soapy note. Pretty boring as far as cold brewed oolongs go. Not sure how that bodes for the rest of my order from TJ. Had low expectations going in for this tea since the packet suggested a brewing temp. of 85C-90C so I expected bitterness or something, but this fell flat for me. To be fair, one could argue that cold brews don’t generally bring out the most interesting aspects of any teas, so I didn’t technically give it a completely fair shot, but judging from the cold brew, this tea might not have had too much to offer anyway.

Tea Drunk
Spring 2019 Wu Yi Shan Da Hong Pao

TL;DR: No, I didn’t buy this myself. And I’m glad I didn’t regift it, because this is a rather poor example of “quality” oolong.

212 f, Whole Foods distilled water roughly mixed (+-.005g for each ingredient) (consumer grade mg scales are finnicky) to Arby’s (Empirical tea) Simple Syrup water recipe.

Whole 8g packet

1x 5s rinse

dry leaf: smoke, and roasty, with caramel & dark chocolate notes, slight spices

wet leaf: sweet tinged smoke

5s: Bitter woody and slight medicinal. Something cinnamon-like, and edges/aftertaste is sweet then a slightly mint-edged vegetal. Brown sugar smell in empty cup.

5s: similar to before, with crisp edges & lightened bitterness.

7s: smoky, but lightened. Crushed mint & sugar finish per usual. Slight hint of dried fruit somewhere.

10s: similar, nothing exciting. Quite disappointing for the price tag. Far better teas out there for far cheaper.

18s: Nothing wrong w/ tea, but it has lightened significantly.

23s: Going to stop writing here. Poor longevity/performance downwards given how it’s dropped off thus far.

Based on the other two reviews here, there must’ve been a huge drop in quality vs. previous batches, or I just got horribly unlucky with a crappy pack. This is not a straight-up bad tea, but I refuse to believe that anyone sane is willing to shell out $28 for 8g of this more than once. It’s not that this tastes disgusting or whatever, but this is absolutely one of the worst performing oolongs I’ve ever steeped in terms of longevity, especially for something obviously not just lightly roasted, and has already been sitting for two years. Taste-wise, this is palatable, but not exceptional in a single way, be it mouthfeel, aroma, taste, aftertaste, or any other metric. The only reason I will probably remember this tea by is for how lame it was for the price. The numerical rating reflects my annoyance that I wasted my time mixing water for this tea and brewing this tea in particular, and since Steepster skews every rating to a high average anyway.

edit to add that this tea has probably some qi. Noticed a bit of cold sweat and chills today while drinking the last couple grams or so from a thermos at work, so the other time wasn’t an anomaly.

This is going to be an inherently flawed review due to the course of time over which it took place, but I’m posting it anyway for my own benefit, though it’s unlikely that I’ll be buying any more of this tea in particular. I started my first “real” 9-5 internship this summer (remote internships last summer cannot fully replicate the intensity of this) and it’s been far busier than I anticipated. Adult working life is no joke. I don’t have time to steep multiple infusions when I wake up and before work, and when I get back from work, I’m too tired or can’t have any more caffeine since it’d impact my already shoddy sleep quality. Weekends aren’t even particularly carefree, because there’s always things that seem to come up, and it’s hard to pass up rare moments to spend quality time with friends that just don’t happen over the course of the semesters, plus meal prep, etc. etc. I can’t pick random moments during the day to steep and write out notes because the lunch break timing is not really flexible. During the school year, I can pick my own times to take breaks, and everyone is too busy to hang out with anyway, so I can be a grouchy hermit and make tea while frantically completing readings (or pushing the readings until day before test or never).

Anyway, naive complaints about adjusting to adulting aside, onto the notes.

Both 6.5g, 100 mL gaiwan, 212f, 5s initial rinse

The first was with Whole Foods 365 spring water, the second with Whole Foods 365 distilled water, mixed with the Simple Syrup recipe from Arby from Empirical Tea. I tried my best, but consumer grade milligram scales are imperfect (I used grains setting and converted, since mine only does .001g sensitivity, so for one gallon, it was .225g baking soda instead of .221g, .1419g Epsom salt instead of .1415g, .046g gypsum salt instead of .0457g, and .100g instead of .0996g. I added 5 drops of silica, but TDS didn’t change (overall, landed at 83-85 ppm).

As I noted before, I’ve been sort of overwhelmed so both reviews took place over several days. I will note dates in each portion.

spring water:

dry leaf dried fruit smell

wet leaf: strong dried fruit w/ light hint of smoke

5s: lightly bland upfront, then full on fruity sweetness that fills the mouth and lingers slightly before dissipating. A touch of smoke that fades.

7s: stronger taste upfront. Aftertaste reminds me of those dried round haw flakes that I had a lot as a kid + classic dried fruit profile with a hit of sugar. Can feel a bit of heat in my back, but it’s also summer and 80F in my dorm room not sure if that’s the tea.

12s: An initial hint of bitter that turns into sweetness from before. Still heavy on the sugar aftertaste (yes, like straight sugar). Dried fruit profile beyond initial touch of bitterness. slightly drying in mouth and on tongue.

6.29: whoops. Let it sit a few days. 13s: a light smoke, with restrained sweetness lurking. I also had a sweet porridge beforehand, so can’t pick up as much. But there’s a bit of drying on cheeks, even as sweetness surrounds. Still strong raw sugar note.

20s: strong. wow. A hit of lurking bitterness surfaces. More of the dried fruit mixed in.
Drying continues. slight florals as well, then sugar. Some sweating on the way to work, but also very hot out, so who knows.

6.30: Aided in a mix of Poland spring bottled water since I ran out of the WF spring water.

16s: A light smoky bitter at the edges of dried fruits.

23s: something almost cherry-like amidst everything else. Initially a strong touch of bitter, but the sweetness and rest come through after.

20s: lightening in taste. something like dried fruit/cherries w/o the edge from before. Some drying and sugar aftertaste.

7.3: Not sure how relevant this review is anymore, but will continue.
25s: soft in a medicinal sort of way upfront that transitions onto a strong note with something sharp & sugar cubes in aftertaste. drying on tongue.

28s: Not too strong of flavor upfront, but aftertaste of sugar cubes as usual. something lightly of smokey dried berries in the taste initially.

30s: Almost immediately sweet upfront with a touch of smoke. Something in aftertaste is getting softer, almost cotton-candy like in a way. A touch of bitterness.

33s: starting to fade out. Nothing too notable w/r/t changes.

355. Much lightened. Still a light sugar in aftertaste, refreshing.

45s: tossing into thermos since nothing particular to note anymore. Maybe a sour sort of fruit peel edge, with some sugar in ending, but that’s it.

thermos overnight: warm & buttery initially, with undertones of an edge. classic thermos puer grainy profile, but that may have been influenced by my thermos.

with Arby’s Simple Syrup water:
My original intention was to do a direct comparison, but I didn’t realize how busy I’d be overall, and didn’t complete either review as I would’ve liked.

dry leaf still very fruity in the aged dried sheng sort of way.

wet leaf smells fairly smoky initially, then dried berries smell. Tight compression on the piece of sample, so maybe will take longer to show
flavors overall.

7s: Notably better texture, but not sure if that’s from the added silica. Similarly bland start as before, then something w/touch of fruit & apple peel turning into sugar-cubes aftertaste. May be too early to say, but not drying like steeps of this tea later last time.

10s: light smoky smell in gaiwan + lid. Sort of bland upfront, then sugary aftertaste that isn’t necessary
stronger than before, but seems to fill mouth more, in addition to not having drying feel of before. Also something of steamed vegetables in aftertaste.

15s: A light smoky vegetal. Similar sugar to aftertaste, but not as crisp. A more rounded sort of taste. something lightly herbal that escapes quickly. Dried berries.

several hours later: 20s: something sort of sharp upfront that quickly turns into sugary aftertaste.

23s: Quick hit of astringency and bitterness. Dried berries + something medicinal that lingers slightly. Sugary aftertaste present, but lighter. Some hint of sour, along w/ slight cool feeling in throat. Sugary aftertaste turns into something akin to mint maybe grassy.

28s: sharp + strong! turns into familiar sugar aftertaste. Something mint somewhere. Slightly drying on tongue, but that recedes fairly quick.

25s: smoky dried fruit. A hint of mint somewhere. Similar aftertaste to before, but mint on aftertaste.

30s: something like a honey-coated bitter, with edges of mint & crushed sugar, that goes from taste to lingering after.

33s: light bitter that recedes quickly. Ending edges are crisp sugar of before.

36g: young Sheng & warm w/ hints or spice taste that goes to sweet aftertaste

7/12: not that I should’ve been as surprised as I was, but the leaves had mold this morning when I remembered to get back to this. I would’ve liked to finish up the second review, but unfortunately will be unable to as I don’t think I’d purchase more of this. I will have to do more steepings with the Simple Syrup water recipe, but I have mixed thoughts on it. It definitely affected this tea, but in a way that sort of declawed the cat, so to speak. My parents don’t like me having too much young sheng (or any sheng, really) since they’re into all the TCM stuff, but imo, some of this tea’s charm lies in showcasing its edges juxtaposed to the crushed sugar cubes in the aftertaste. Simple Syrup brought out some different facets, but I don’t know if I’d necessarily prefer it against the original steeping.

2011 Xia Guan Jin Se Yin Xiang

Liquid Proust Teas

7.3g, 105 mL gaiwan, Brita filtered tap, 212f

dry leaves are pretty standard sheng smell

5s rinse

wet leaves are smoky with a hint of spice, soup, & dried fruit

15s: not much flavor, but a lightly peppery aftertaste. waiting for leaves to decompress some more.

15s: broth has a sort of grainy smell. slightly woody medicinal w/ a hint of citrus

20s x2: bitter upfront with hints of dried fruit later appearing. something vaguely citrus-y about it.

30s: leaves and broth both smell sweeter. Tea itself is bitter & brisk as usual. aftertaste picks up more of a fruity floral as well as a sort of cooling mint.

1 min: still strong on bitter notes that turn into a cool sweetness. Aftertaste had something of a soapy note

I got bored and tossed the rest into the thermos. Didn’t take notes on the result, and don’t remember what it was like, so probably as expected.

7.2g, 100 mL gaiwan, Brita filtered tap, 212f or just off the boil

5s rinse

dry aroma is a bit earthy

wet aroma just like a sheng, not much else I could pick up. tea smell has a bit of mushroom and age, but that could just be my cha hai starting to accumulate aged smells (oops)

5s: slightly dried fruity in the aftertaste. initial taste is a bit peppery, then slight sweet in taste and aftertaste.

3s: mildly sweet

5s: brew darkened. darker medicinal notes creep in, with hint of astringency and cool lingering feel.

10s: same as before. less sweet, more of a peppery bite in slight medicinal undertones

12s: bitterness is slight, but present.

20s: bitter

did some more steepings, but this one was iffy for me, as the bitterness was a bit much. Even the thermos brew overnight didn’t remove bitterness, but merely lightened it and thickened brew w/ slight bit of grainyness/peanut-y of thermos sheng. Probably needs more aging to take off more of the harsh edges.

posted on the wrong tea yesterday. Oops. This is for the Huang Ya. Updated the correct Gan Lu review.

3.0g, 100 mL Brita water, 180f-190f

no strong smell, but slight sweet and malty

30s: wet leaves smell of cooked tomato like sour and sweet, which is a little strange. tastes slightly sweet, slightly thick. slightly lingering undertone of tomato, but passes so fast it may as well not have happened.

30s 2nd infusion: similar

forgot to note exact time, but probably similar to before. 3rd infusion note: light astringency and bitterness. sharp toasty note.