New Tasting Notes
Another two sessions with this precious tea before putting it to sleep. I think I’ll get a tong of this. The dusty aroma is even stronger now, using a pot containing a blend of blue clay and tuani. Even after being left overnight after 8 or 9 steeps, the tea continues to yield strong bodied liquor, perfect for the morning. Best purchase for a while? Maybe, will have to brew the 8892 to compare tonight.
Disappointing. This tastes more of candied ginger than anything else, and the Yunnan base is a very mildly flavored one. It’s nicely balanced—I’d love an “extra strength” version of this—but probably not for the real ginger fans.
I’ll try a longer steep next time, but as I already let this go for about six minutes by mistake, I don’t see much improvement being possible.
Yum! I’m not really getting any honey from this, but the apple flavor is very tasty and natural. It’s odd, though; I guess this tea is not particularly well-blended (or perhaps the flavors are too disparate to really go together), because it’s almost as if I’m drinking two separate things at once. There’s a kind of generic, brisk black tea—maybe an Assam?—and then, pow, apple!
Still delicious. This’d be excellent in fall, might work as a dessert tea now.
This was the 3rd steeping on these leaves. I let it brew 10 minutes (compared to 3 min for the first pass) so I’ll be discarding the leaves after this. This is a full-leaf tea, like most of the better oolongs, in my experience. The tea is pale greenish gold in my glass mug, neither too grassy-tasting nor astringent. Not as flowery as some oolongs, but mellow vegetal aroma is quite enjoyable.
