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5.4g, 100 mL gaiwan

dry leaves have a slight sweet spice to them, as well as a slight sort of fruit in the way that some black teas seem to carry.

in prewarmed gaiwan, strong milk chocolate note.

wet leaves smell like any black tea leaves with a touch of sweet potato.

5s: classic slight yammy taste of black teas. Aftertaste is sweet and slightly lingering in a brown sugar sort of way. something also reminds me of celery.

10s: touch of bitterness w/ a sort of chocolate feel. A peppery hint.

15s and 20s: not much change.

stopped here. I have never been a fan of black teas (of the 红茶 sort) and this one didn’t change my mind. It’s the kind of thing where you know something is good quality-wise, but you just don’t like it anyway due to personal preferences. Tried it anyway since Sweetest Dew’s lineup is all worth trying, so overall, no regrets.

2.1g, 90 mL water, 180f

Meng Ding Gan Lu

leaves don’t have any strong smell to note, except maybe raisins or maybe that’s just the paper bag style that seems to give contents an odd smell. leaves in warmed gaiwan give off a slight warm, nutty smell.

1 min: weak

30s: strong beany taste w/ tannins, slight drying and astringency

1 min. 30s: more tannins

2 min: smoky note.

2 min. 30s: smoky

indefinite, cooled: tastes and feels a bit like a young sheng puer off the first steepings. Not sure what it was, but my stomach felt a bit funny afterwards and I connected the dots. Only really bitterness and sharp edged throughout though, and lacking in the complexity that a quality young sheng would have.

Maybe batch issues, or I got something different than the rest of the people reviewing on their site that seemed to have loved it. Plenty of great green teas out there; this is not one of them.

5.8g, 100 mL gaiwan

dry leaves smell like dried cranberries (Ocean Spray!) and a hint of dark chocolate

leaves in prewarmed gaiwan bring out strong toast/roast notes. still raisin and chocolate

wet leaves smell very smoky

5s rinse

5s: slight sweet & smoke that becomes a slight fruity aftertaste. empty cup smells like brown sugar from baked chocolate chip cookies. slight hint of bitterness.

7s: not super interesting

12s: more roasted

30s: soapy mint aftertaste. leaves also smell soapy.

10 min: still not much change so stopped pin cha here. slight osmanthus note on the lid. pretty disappointed by this one, especially since it started off well. soup never thickened for me, but that could be due to the local tap. Taste was pretty flat, which could be partly due to water, but also I’ve brewed plenty of teas fine with this water.

thermos overnight 212f w/ just remaining leaves from packet: dark hazelnut and roast. Quite good, though not sure if I’d repurchase.

100 mL gaiwan, 5.8g, 212f Brita filtered tap
5s rinse

dry leaves: not much scent

wet leaves: smoky, roast, dried fruits

5s: very light, slightly medicinal woody and leaves a lightly sweet aftertaste

15s: hint of bitterness. more medicinal and woody.

later infusions gain a citrus note.

Not sure why I didn’t make more detailed notes on this one, but seems like it was also during midterms season. Oh well.

Don’t remember the parameters I used, probably 8g to 100 mL, but I didn’t take specific notes because I only went through a few infusions and was not impressed (disclaimer: I don’t drink a ton of shou and personally lean towards lighter profiles). Classic shou profile, the only thing I remember is a distinctly herbal note at some point. Would not repurchase.

2003 CNNP HK Custom 8582
5.6g, 100 mL gaiwan, Brita filtered tap
212f throughout

2x 5s rinse

dry leaf smells of dirt and musty basement
wet leaves smell woody

3s: surprised by the dark color. brew smell has a hint of grain. light and slight sweet taste.

5s: color looks like a shou puer color-wise. A bit of a medicinal note to the taste. Slightly thickened broth. A slight earthy taste, with a tiny bit of cooling on aftertaste.

7s x2: slight bit of bitterness w/ the medicinal taste that moves to a peppery aftertaste

7s x3: aromatics of wet wood

10s x2: something bamboo-like, or perhaps just a lighter woodiness. still slight sweet delving into a slight pepper on finish.

12 x3: leaves have lost most of woody smell by this point. soup has lightened in color

20s x3: something reminds me of dried jujubes

still went on for a few steeps, though continually lightening after. Brewed this alongside midterms a few months back and going off old notes here. Very impressed by the longevity of this for the price; I do think it’s worth trying at least once.

2008 Golden Flowers Shu Liu Bao
Three Bears Tea

6.5g, 100mL gaiwan, 212f, filtered Brita
dry leaf has woody profile, but nothing else of note

1×5s rinse

wet leaves have a smoky char sort of hint

3s: nondescript flavor w woody hint
5s: decent woody. A bit flat and papery in a way. Shous are starting to grow on me vs. before, but I can’t pick out specifics and most still taste pretty similar to me, enough so that I wouldn’t be able to differentiate all the shous i’ve ever tried apart in a line-up (except the worst ones)

10s: similar to before, but stronge

15s and 20s: not much change

30s: lightening

1 min: gaining a sweet hint. kind of flat but also my favorite infusion so far. Hm.

2 min: similar to before and touching on the light broad wood taste of the aged 90s LB from ThreeBears. Not nearly as complex, but enjoyably pleasant nonetheless.

3 min: lightening. A hint of plum that I’m not sure is present or just my imagination

thermos: lightly grainy, woody, sort of sweet. Nothing too exciting

I haven’t had time to type up all my tasting notes lately so I’ve been writing them and keeping them scattered around my dorm for when I have time to upload (which is why notes are sometimes uploaded in large groups; no I don’t actually drink upwards of ten teas a day) since I’m a slow typer. Surprise, surprise, I lost the detailed notes for some, including this one. Luckily, I found the email draft I wrote up in an email I’ve been meaning to send the vendor though, so I’ll just paste that here. Sorry folks!

“I put all 8 grams into a 100 mL gaiwan (a bit more than usual, but usually I end up not knowing when to use the remaining ~1.5 grams from these loose leaf packets if I adhere to the standard 1:15 ratio) with brewing temps of water right off the boil and short steeping times. I usually do a 5s rinse step, but I happened to be lazy the other day and didn’t—and I’m glad I didn’t. This first steep drew out the sweetest aftertaste of any I noted vs. later steeps, and the dragonfruit-like note you noted is right on target for it. The roast on this oolong is excellent, and definitely on the more medium side compared to others I’ve tried. The wet leaf off the initial steep did hint at a darker roast perhaps than seems to come through in the tea, which I appreciated. Overall, definitely one of the most enjoyable oolongs I’ve tried, with shifting notes of a slight cooling mint and sweetness in the aftertaste, brown sugar/dark chocolate, some woodiness, and some light florals and fruitiness along with heavier aromatics.”

In case it wasn’t obvious from the email, this is definitely an oolong worth trying at least once, pricey as it is. I don’t know if the heavier roast faded based on storage or if the roast was not as heavy as described to begin with, but it’s a far more pleasant and palatable roast than some of the overroasted ones I’ve tried in the past.

Edit 7/13: I rechecked the Three Bears site and it looks like they’ve restocked. Not sure I can recommend as wholeheartedly at the current price point (nearly double the previous price if I’m remembering right), but worth trying I suppose. I’ll probably ration the rest of my tiny bag.

Late 1990s “Farmer Style” Heishi Mountain Large Tree Aged Raw Liu Bao

Reviews that are already on Three Bears’ site from the likes of legends such as Phyll Sheng should be enough to convince people (swung me enough to purchase a 50g pack since the larger sizes were out of stock even when I balked initially at why any Liu Bao should cost so much/g), but I’ll add my two cents here anyway. (I’ll also note that I’m a sucker for silly novelties/trivialities like having tea that’s older than I am.)

6.0g, 100 mL gaiwan, a mix of Poland spring and brita filtered water, 212f

dry leaves have a light dry stored smell, but that’s it. Lots of stems in here mixed in with the curled leaves, which was initially a bit offturning.

tea in prewarmed gaiwan didn’t enhance much in terms of aromatics

2x 5s rinse, plenty of saponins in the first so I did a second when I usually do just one. Smell of rinse has a strong medicinal hint, maybe angelica root/female ginseng (当归, something I remember my mom sticking into a bunch of broths at home)?

wet leaves have taken on a more medicinal hint, but I can’t fully place it either

gaiwan lid has a distinct warm sandalwood note (if I am to believe that the Tam Dao bottle I have represents true sandalwood), that I have never smelled in a tea before

7s: woody medicinal, almost something bitter, but not quite. Something lightly sweet that lingers. A slight cooling taste that lingers and fills mouth

10s: hint of something charred, but otherwise similar to before. something about this tea makes me want to sit and enjoy it slowly forever. not sure if it’s because it’s finals season and I’m just tired of everything though

15s: something about the lightly sweet, woody medicinal taste is deeply pleasant in a way I’ve never felt about well, drinking something ostensibly like a TCM concoction rather than for fun. words don’t quite do this justice.

20s: similar to before
30s:pleasant. a slight menthol lurking, leaving a soft peppery feeling in mouth

48s: lightening

1 min: sweeter, but losing deeper depth

2min: similar to before. still pleasant nonetheless.

3 min: light medicinal sweetness

thermos: grainy in that way of thermos’d aged sheng, with a hint of smoke and faded florals. Also woody medicinal notes, with the medicinal notes lingering slightly.

I don’t know if this is for everyone, since I doubt I would’ve enjoyed this particularly when I first started exploring teas and thought everything darker tasted like smoke and medicine (I was also in the terrible first time puer experience party where people end up avoiding puer for a long time afterwards due to trying bad puer initially). But generally, likes are harder to explain than dislikes, and this is likely the case here too. I can’t quite fully express why I feel this tea is so good, it just is. Definitely worth a shot if you like aged teas with a bit of depth in the woody medicinal notes.

Mei Jia Wu Long Jing
2020 Spring
Tea Urchin

3.4g, 250mL, 185f Brita filtered water
dry leaves smell fairly toasty
aroma in warmed gongdaobei (which I am using to brew because my highball glass shattered and I can’t gongfu a green well to save my life) is a tart fruity and also has a dimension eerily similar to artificial matcha flavored snacks

smell of the first brew has a slight floral hint. This brew is a nice light yellow, which is apparently a quality to look for in LJ.

2min 15s: vegetal with a hint of astringency and bitterness that fades into a sweet aftertaste, which unfortunately doesn’t last all too long, and ends leaving the mouth a little dry. Aftertaste definitely doesn’t compare to Tea Drunk’s 2018 LJ I tried earlier this year, even though this is supposed to be 2 years younger, and therefore fresher. Caveat is that this is very much on the cheaper end for LJ, and Tea Drunk is on the insane end. sure TD is true XiHu whatever, whatever. Nonetheless, I do think there’s better things to get if you’ve got the money for TD (not that my opinion matters on this, if you have the money, you can do whatever you want lol).

Later infusions are a bit sweeter, but lose aftertaste. not much else to add here. I’ll admit that I only purchased this since I was ordering a cake from Tea Urchin and I thought I might as well just spend what I’d have spent on the undiscounted cake trying out some of this. Overall, this wasn’t too exciting for what’s offered, even at the discounted price of $5 for 15g (or in my case, multiply that a few extra times). I’ll drink through rest of my order, but this was a gamble that I wish I’d spent on trying out extra puer samples from TU’s collection instead.