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I dont know where I got this tea from. I cant seem to find any mention of this in an email receipt, and its in a plain black ziplock, so unfortunately I cant trace it. The grade was an FBOP which I am not used to as well.

Hints of honey, orange, citrus, rose, wood, nuts. But the predominant flavour is the sour astringent note that is present even when brewing at less than 75c. This leaves a drying in the mouth, which disappointed me a tad because I thought I had got my brewing of first flush Darjeeling down, but alas this tea didnt cut it.

I would like to find some good grade first flush this coming year, decent unbroken whole leaf to try as I do like good darjeeling. This wasnt quite it, and I have had some nice ones from Puttabong.

Re-review of this tea, after competing all my dark roast Oolongs against each other in a gongfu steep-off, I found this one to be quite a superior tea.

What I liked about it was the way after a few steeps some floral creaminess appeared that I missed in my first tastings. I’m unsure why I missed this flavour – as this tasted really very heavily mineral before.

The fact that it has a nice roast, not too much but still strong, and the change from roast to creamy floral made it a much more enjoyable experience, so I’ve upped the score a bit to reflect that. A few of the others just faded out instead of making a nice interesting change like this one.

This is the fancy AAA Imperial grade from YS tea club, and its very nice.

Clear, less creamy than some ive tried, very leafy in taste. Still mega floral aroma, but somehow ‘natural’ – it reminded me of fresh nature. Not vegetal like green tea, sweet and magical. I think part of the reason I love these Anxi or Formosa oolongs is the aroma & taste is so different from standard English green teas it always floors me.

You could really taste the freshness, and the aftertaste was really nice and lingering. Also it took a few steeps to rinse the flavour into something more savoury.

Really yummy.

Early steeps were strong tasting, I have been flashing them & i’m up to steep 8 or something and still using around 10 seconds. Buttttt, im not much of a ripe drinker/still in training/wondering how you lot do it.

There was a bite to the early steeps, almost bitter chocolate, but after steep 3 it got mellower, and after steep five I started to enjoy it more. I left the session and came back to it a few hours later and have been enjoying it a lot more. Very thick & heavy liquor. definitely getting some notes I like in the later steeps, but nothing really jumps out and lets me know what it is.

Yum. Found this in the bottom of my ‘big box’. I had been saving some, and I’m really glad I did. I bought it a couple of years ago when I had no experience with Taiwanese Oolong. And now I do. And I like this stuff.

This one is special because its essentially an Anxi, that has obviously been grown so well and is so tasty that Mr Jassid and his band of merry men just cant keep their hands off. So not only is Guan Yin tough and compassionate, shes also beautiful as well – (and probably annoyed with all the leafhoppers on her)

It actually comes fully branched & with red-leaf-edge intact, not Lime green like lots of the TGY, but olive green with brown and red.

But it packs a punch. Seriously a lot going on here. I will try to remember the train of thought after drinking some grandpa style – which I realised after is akin to glugging down a complex cocktail.

‘Tie Guan Yin Smell?, Floral, Caramel, Dongfang Meiren?, Honey, really thick honey on my tongue, wow its sour like Dongfanf Meiren woody taste, oh its Tie Guan Yin again, now its grapes, muscatel, darjeeling? No, raisins.. flowers… leaf.. vegetal.. cream, milk.. [Brain Melts]’

I literally had to scrabble to write down shorthand to contain what happened. And now ive spilt some on my picture that im colouring in. Damn. It needs gongfu to space out all this craziness.

Early steeps are sweet, sour, fragrant, deep & woody, and later steeps it turns into Jin Xuan/Milky with fragrance of TGY & the depth of OB & Muscat Grape Huiguan… even orange gets itself in there somehow.

Its a very nice interesting tea & I’m so glad I saved some. I will have to make another review when I Gong Fu some because Its a bit crazy when left to its own devices.

Dribble.

I really love this stuff, Ba Xian has been one of my favourites for years, any grade is fine with me. Also Mi Lan, Ya Shi, Xing Ren,… you get the idea.

This one is mellow, such a mellow roast. Pale, creamy like korma paste (almond?), really nice aftertaste . White Magnolia flowery scents, which mixes with the creamy/oily to make a lovely aroma & and super thick zen cha qi. Slight honey sweetness, slight fruity something. Later steeps the dimension of the taste changes, it thins but that reveals the nutty presence of the oil still winding its way through the brew. yums.

I actually found this a bit fussy with oversteeps

I actually daydream of having Kilos of different single bush Oolong. I could drink them all day. I wish Oolong wasnt so expensive! Currently on the search for adequate all-day drinkers if anyone knows of some good ones (any fragrance).