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Tealife.hk
Hualien County, Taiwan
Mi Xiang/honey aroma black tea
4g, 130mL gaiwan Poland spring bottled water (quarantine water edition provided by school hah)
196-198f water

After reading Jay’s descriptor on his own site, it’s worth noting that my pack was a gift and also opened and says packed 12-19-2020 so I’m not alone in not smelling much dry leaf aroma. I got a small note of dried plum but that’s about it. My review will be nowhere as flowery as Jay’s, but overall this was a fun experience! Kudos to Jay for the brewing parameters which I plan to continue to adopt for Taiwanese oolongs down the line. Brews are generally a golden brown, characteristic of 红茶.

Probably caught sugarcane, but confused it with the honey notes. Didn’t really catch the agarwood, cinnamon, umami, and savory meat that Jay notes but I’ve been away from black teas for a long while so if it wasn’t patently obvious I probably missed it. I don’t like 红茶 too much in general since to me most taste fairly similar.

45s first brew:
-leaves smell of smoke and honey which is interesting to say the least
-brew is pretty thick, which is apparently the minerality (i have never licked wet rocks and can only go off what the fine folks on teachat have described it as)?
-tastes lightly sweet and pleasant, a little bit of smokiness
30s second brew:
Leaves have basically the same smell, sweet potato note I associate w a lot of black teas is present
Light bitterness, slightly sour (acidic?) and floral notes present in taste. Pleasant aftertaste that is a bit drying but also refreshing
Still pretty thick brew
45s third brew:
Leaves same
Tastes more smoky again
1 min 15s 4th brew:
Gonna stop w the leaves because they’re the same and probably will continue that way
This brew has a more obvious sweet aftertaste than the previous ones
1 min 45s 5th brew: not much to note
2 min 15s 6th brew: nothing else, tastes like crisp water at this point, will stop here lol

After stopping gongfu, I tossed the leaves into a thermos with boiling water. I later drank it a few hours later and it tastes exactly like honey water, but watered down. If I hadn’t been the person brewing the tea, so a blind taste test, I would not know that it was tea. I let a dormmate do a blind taste test, and she also thought it was honey water (yay for Asian home remedies!). Still retains a slight thickness like earlier brews, with a slight drying aftertaste. This was my first mi Xiang tea I’ve ever tried, so I’m not sure if every Taiwanese Mi Xiang is like this or if this is top notch or whatever. At any rate, though I do not intend to purchase more since I’m not big on black teas, this was a fun experience and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.

10 months later edit: Well reading this from being much further along now is a little funny. It’s clear that I had the misfortune of only drinking bad oolongs from Western vendors from the start LOL. Live and learn. Changing my recommendation given what I now know, though leaving the review up.

4g, 130mL, gongfu gaiwan, brita water off the boil

Made this past midnight one night. Never mind the caffeine. Had an awful day and this was all I could think of wanting to do to alleviate mood. a bit of nose drip so probably didn’t catch everything.

Wet leaves smell of the standard slightly roasted smell, tiny bit of grassy and floral with a note of sweet smoke

Nice yellow to golden infusions

Initial quick steep was light and nice. Overdid the timing on the second, and along w light florals got a strong smokey bitter note that I was not a fan of. If you’ve ever had bitter steamed broccoli before (probably not on purpose, just by misfortune), it tastes exactly like that. Will admit that I had kiwi fruit just before starting this session so I’m not sure if there’s a sweet aftertaste or if it’s the kiwi still oops. Probably at least a bit can be attributed to the tea, but it’s definitely subtler, not very in your face. Later brews are pretty similar, probably shouldn’t have kept up with the water off the boil.

Though open Door Teas did say to use boiling water on the sample but on the site under 180, based on my personal oolong brewing experience, I would likely move that lower to about 195f-200f. At boiling, my brews were a touch more bitter than I would’ve preferred, even with gongfu controlling timing. I misplaced the remainder of my sample, so I won’t be able to redo, but if someone takes my recommendation, do let me know how you fare!

Been trying out some Taiwanese oolongs lately and after those, I do prefer Chinese for the most part. I like the little bite that the Chinese roasted oolongs have compared to the flatter (to me), more floral vegetal Taiwanese oolongs that I’ve tried so far.

That all being said, this is a relatively solid okay leaf quality with no frills oolong for anyone who likes or would like to try an oolong representative of the general category without breaking the bank to do so. would I personally keep a stash long term? Probably not since I like the sweetness (huigan if you want to be fancy I guess) in my oolongs to be a bit stronger and lighter bitter note, though preferences can change over time so we will see!

White2Tea Iron Arhat (铁罗汉)

4g in 100 ml Duanni pot

Filtered brita water off the boil

Dry leaves smell chocolatey and sort of inky but also some semblance of dried fruit notes

Wet leaves just smell like smoke

Infusion tastes lightly smokey with a sweet aftertaste

Some backstory. I’ve figured out by now that deeply roasted young yancha is just perhaps not for me. This note overall was pretty lame but I can’t seem to pick up the notes others get on these. I read all these beautiful descriptions of heavy roasted oolongs and yancha but whenever I try them for myself, I’m like “Man, this is some heavy smoke” and I can’t pick out much else. My parents got a Lao Cong Shui Xian that they love and my only thoughts on it were along the lines of “this is like drinking smoke, but medicinal tasting”. They no longer share their LCSX with me, haha. The best tea I can remember having is a Chinese yancha that was apparently packaged in 2006 and not opened by me until 2019 (a gift with 2 mini packs one of which I will always regret gifting away), and I suppose that with what I read about the smokey notes fading with time, made that the best thing I’ve ever tasted, except I can’t put my finger on why. Though I’ve been drinking teas all my life, I didn’t start writing detailed notes (and anyone who’s been gifted Chinese packaged teas will know why; many of them are packaged very nicely and yet provide little usable information on production and origin (let’s talk 100% legitimate info, it’s hard to escape fake marketing of which there is plenty of in tea and in general China) so it’s hard to tell apart the pyrite from the gold) really until I made my Steepster account and going bigger on my own purchases as I gained more interest in the brewing and culture. Because before, tea was a habit, not a hobby. A gram scale to standardize brews and gaiwan were the best bang for buck investments into the hobby I’ve made.

Anyway, I veered pretty far off the course, but overall I hope these reviews help some people, especially since many teas can be rather unremarkable and sellers can overhype like mad. Do the Ducklers legitimately taste the 30 notes they include on each tea? I don’t know (no hate, I love their (mostly) well-priced teaware but haven’t been blown away by any teas they offer), but I include what I do taste, and I would assume untrained palates are more like your average drinker. Yeah, drink whatever you like, and premium product for price whatever, but this is for fun, so I like the non-academic hobbyist aspect too. Hope Steepster’s able to get back to the olden days of less spam and more reviews, because when I can find reviews of teas I want to purchase, it’s nice especially as a student with a limited budget. Life’s for exploring after all. Teaforum, teachat, and r/tea are nice, but I do believe Steepster has the best setup for reviews (some things could use improvement and streamlining, but that applies to most of the world at large).

I veered off again. I’ll stop here and recommend this just for experiencing the unique and very pleasant aftertaste and now I get to claim that I’ve tried 3 of 4 big name Wuyi Yanchas hah. (da hong pao, Lao cong shui xian, and tie luo han). Maybe when I’m older and appreciate more smokey mellow things I’ll give rou gui a shot, but for now, I’ll save my money since I know I won’t like it in particular.

2020 nightlife mini 7g, brita water off the boil, gaiwan gongfu

Smells like floral leaves. Tastes of light honey from the first infusion. Lovely, wouldn’t hesitate to buy a full cake on my next order from W2T.

Okay unfortunately I have no more notes as I had to finish an errand and forgot the tea. I stuck the leaves in the fridge and added them to a thermos with boiling water a few days later (no i didn’t die drinking tea brewed from couple days stuck in the fridge tea, I survived and still wrote this review). The brew turned out a little bitter and slightly sour, but it was okay I suppose. I wish I had more, but I will definitely order a full cake next time from W2T! if I had pleasant thoughts on Tiltshift, I remember this on the initial steep was even more obviously sweet (because most white teas have that subtle sweetness, but this was a bit more in your face).

Got a small sample to try, but based on the pricing, I doubt I’d ever spring for it. Wasn’t super wowed by it? But overall, based on the price, wouldn’t really recommend it.

2016 Hai Lang Hao Lao Ban Zhang Gu Shu
Ancient Arbor Raw pu er
2016 老班章古树生普洱茶

5.8 g, 140 mL, Brita filtered water, 180f (figured out by now that this was probably too low)

Dry leaves standard sheng smell
Wet leaves have a sharp smokey/earthy note that reminds me of shu
Initial taste is a lightly bitter green that later gives a refreshing and slightly sweet mouthfeel

I suppose the lightly bitter and cooling sweet must be a standard sheng note that keeps reminding me of mint

The aftertaste sits in your mouth for quite a while and is pleasant. Other than that, I’m not sure I’m convinced on spending the money for a full cake of this.

Later infusions, wet leaves have a woody sweet note

Got this as a sample to try, but don’t think I’d purchase a full cake? Not super into shengs right now (both due to cost and experiences).

4.7g, 140 mL, gongfu, brita water, temps of 180-190f (which I thought was right for shengs oops but apparently ~200f is better?)

Dry leaves no special notes that I can tell of
Infusion has a slightly vegetal smell
Wet leaves smell like wet leaves of white tea

Taste is similar to a less sweet white tea mixed with green tea (astringent?) notes
Nice slightly lingering aftertaste, not particularly sweet initially, but pleasantly refreshing, that involves into something subtly sweet and a bit minty even

Longer infusions now
Wet leaves smell of mint
Tastes more like a green tea now, with infusions having a more drying mouth feel but similarly pleasant

140 mL, 7g, gongfu, brita filter water off the boil

Couldn’t smell anything particular in the dry leaves/mini cake.

Tasted like a specific TCM the whole way through (神曲: Chinese medicated leaven) that comes in little bricks that you boil. Given that I had to take this often when I was having stomach issues when I was younger, it doesn’t necessarily elicit any pleasant connections for me lol. No other observations, but definitely not something I’d order again.

Update: used the leaves for compost and was surprised to smell a strong passion fruit note three days later. Had it mixed with leftover W2T tiltshift leaves. This mini certainly tasted nothing like that, so not sure what that’s from but I thought the smell was interesting and pleasant. :)

2nd white tea I’ve tried. Pleasantly clean and mellow, slightly sweet. I’m not well versed enough to identify particular notes, which all seem to be pretty subtle, other than something honeydew melon-like. Gongfu, Brita filtered water, around 190f (crab’s eye!). Ended up prying the ball apart a couple steeps in because I was getting a little inpatient lol.

Update: did a few more steepings with this today. Got some vegetal notes like a green tea, but more floral in nature, along with some light honey notes. Quite lovely, and so I’m upping my rating. Wouldn’t hesitate to order this again in the future. I was using water almost right off the boil with gongfu steepings and it never got bitter, so much less maintenance than a green. Curious how this would hold up to grandpa style brews, since any greens I’ve tried grandpa have all gotten bitter, but I’m out of this for now.

Gongfu, filtered Brita water off the boil. Several shu puers later, I’ve figured out that I probably just don’t like Shu Pu ers, and it’s not an issue with the teas themselves (now to brew through the remainder of my W2T stash…). I don’t like earthy flavors, which draw medicinal associations for me, so I can never relate to the pretty descriptions. Not really sweet for me. Thicker mouthfeel typical of shus. Will try a grandpa brew tomorrow with the other half of the biscuit I ordered and update.

Update: Grandpa brew was not much different… if possible, perhaps even more bland than gongfu, which I didn’t expect. Not something I’d likely purchase again.

Laoshan Black Tea
He family spring 2020
Laoshan, Shandong, China
崂山红茶

5g, 130 mL, brita filtered water, water off the boil

Dry leaves: chocolate, raisin

10s first steep: brewed leaves smell a little burnt. Taste: a sweet floral, very pleasant, but also deep, reminds me of coffee without the acidity.

20s second steep: similar brewed leaves. Taste: aftertaste reminds me of Chinese dried jujube dates. No other thoughts.

No more notes, except sweet potatoes at some point. Online reviewers overall seem obsessed with LB, so I had really high expectations going in, and that probably dimmed my experience a bit. I’ve been spoiled by my aunt’s mystery pack that she sent me a while back, and that had something basically exactly like this with different packaging, so I’ve already had it or an eerily similar one in the past. It’s not a bad tea per se, just perhaps not for me. Didn’t bother with more exact notes, because everything that can be said has already been said.