New Tasting Notes

I’ve almost given up on finding good roasted oolongs, but decided to try this one anyway since Ethan said that like me, he doesn’t enjoy prominent roast or charcoal in his tea. I steeped 6 g of leaf in 120 ml of 195F water for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus some long, uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of roasted nuts, butter, caramel, orchids, and other florals. The first steep has notes of grain, honey, roasted nuts, minerals, orchids, and soft florals. Steep two is quite floral, with orchid, honeysuckle, and spring flowers. The tea is rounded out with notes of grain, roasted nuts, butter, grass, and faint roast. The next couple steeps double down on the roasted nuts (walnuts and chestnuts, maybe?) and have more notes of caramel, grain, butter, and roast along with the florals. It’s worth noting that this tea hasn’t become overly roasty or sour. In subsequent steeps, the tea finally starts getting some sourness from the roast, though it’s nicely balanced with nutty, grassy, buttery, and floral flavours and some minerality. The final steeps are more noticeably roasted, but still hang on to the floral, nutty, and caramel notes that make this tea enjoyable.

This oolong is a pleasant surprise. While it’s definitely a roasted tea, the roast is nicely balanced with the floral qualities of the Alishan oolong in a way that complements it rather than overwhelming it. While I wouldn’t say it’s as magical as the sample of Dong Ding Derk gave me from Song, it’s a lot more affordable. It only goes to show there are good roasted teas out there if you are lucky enough to find them.

This ‘Rooibos Pecan Pie’ blend greets us with a warm embrace of almond essence, redolent of decadent confections. Indeed, it bears a resemblance to David’s Tea’s ‘Alpine Punch,’ a perfect winter rooibos nestled amongst snow-capped peaks. The taste, while undeniably charming, offers a fleeting indulgence—a delightful dalliance for the present moment, though perhaps not a blend I’ll buy continuously.

Day 3 of the Inoki calendar! This was a more elaborate blooming tea than I expected. It gave me fond memories of the first time I visited my partner when he was living in Taiwan – I drank so much blooming jasmine tea when I was there. I was just starting to get into tea and I would drink the bloom grandpa-style, just topping it off periodically. This is obviously a different floral note, but it has that same balance of floral note to vegetal green. Three solid steeps from this. The rose is definitely present but it’s not overwhelming the base. This was such a nice stroll down memory lane!

This raw/ripe blend definitely presents its ripe character over the raw, which was very subtle. Absent any astringency or bitterness, this yielded a very smooth & creamy infusion, with undertones of petrichor and fresh autumn leaf litter. No fishiness or dank wet basement notes. Inexpensive and quaffable, this would be a nice base for further blending with fruits, berries & nuts. Or just sip with your morning granola. Lots of caffeine hit me within 15 min of finishing my first cup, so beware (or take pleasure). Although from an “iron cake”, it was easy to flake off large leafsets. I used 5 g leaf in 8 oz boiling alpine spring water and discarded the first 10s wash, then steeped 30s, followed by 60s re-steeps. In my opinion, solid & inoffensive, but unimpressive since I got no special flavors out of it — not even of the tea varietal itself. I’ll rate this blend at 40, since my benchmark for 50 is Lipton teabags which at least offer some character of their base tea. I recommend you spend your money on something else.

Sipdown

One of my favorite Jasmine green teas, this was a gift from Melissa.

This goes great with food. It has just the right amount of palate clearing briskness without being sour or astringent to the point of making you pucker if you drink it on its own.

The strongest flavor is licorice. It’s quite sweet. There might be a bit of other stuff in there, but it’s really mostly that licorice. It’s not bad, but not something I would choose. It doesn’t need sweetener. Since this one is a bit boring, I find myself choosing it when I just need hydration and am not paying attention to flavor. I unsubscribed from their subscription box a while ago, and I think this was the last tea I had to finish!

What a superb tea! My bag of The Roaster’s Red is of the June 2024 harvest. And I brewed it western style, using much less leaf than directed. I look forward to a gongfu session to explore the progression of flavors, but there was plenty to unpack even here. The first impression was to notice the (not smokey) roasted character that comes from charcoal roasting. It was interesting and, since I dislike smokiness in tea, a relief. The roastiness soon gave way to very strong and smooth almost oolong floral flavors, with an extended finish lasting several minutes. As I read the description by Song, I did, indeed, sense the notes of blackcurrent, which then gave way to a long sensation of peach. This all from the first mouthful! The aroma in the cooling cup had potent notes of brown sugar, which matched the smooth, sweet sensations in my mouth. As the infusion continued to cool, the roastiness intensified and the fruity finish seemed to linger longer on the palate, suggesting that this might also make a terrific iced tea. I found that my first infusion of only about 1g leaf in 8 oz boiling spring water for 2 minutes was fruitier and smoother than my second session of 2.5g dry leaf, steeped longer. The longer, stronger session intensified all the flavors and aromas, becoming almost too roasty. I haven’t yet had the courage to brew it exactly as directed, which would be 5 g leaf in 5 oz water. The tea isn’t cheap, but its potency makes it a luxurious value. I’ll rate this as a 95 and highly recommend it!

I debated about adding this to my recent OBT order, but I still have half a tin of each (which makes a full tin combined), it was difficult to leave this out but OBThas so many good blends! Not too coconuty and not too vanilla, just the right amount of each. Hopefully a cupboard staple for me.

Tried this after getting a bag for free and it’s pretty good after adding in some milk and cinnamon to it. I don’t think it changed how tired I was but was a nice cup of tea!

Didn’t expect much from this one given I had never heard of it before. And indeed, at least on my first try, I am very unimpressed. It seems this is part of the FT series based on other websites selling the cake.

Anyways, this one is just very uninteresting. The smell is exactly like a Xiaguan tea, but the taste is nothing like the typical profile. Regardless of how good it is after a rest, it’s not worth the price at all. Though, I will try it one more time after letting it acclimate, and will adjust my rating appropriately.

Sharedown

My son has been cold steeping tea a lot lately so I offered to bring him a tea specifically created for that. There is only enough left for one carafe. Now I can move on and try broken Cloud Iced Tea. I have liked the first two I tried and I am pretty excited for that one!

Somebody once said that waiting for a major weather event that’s been local headline news for days is like being stalked by a killer turtle. Our turtle is due to arrive Tuesday—foot of snow; sub-zero temps. I don’t do even do the mild version of winter well, so something soothing is much needed this evening.

I haven’t written about this much—a fall acquisition from an out-of-town Fresh Market (Whole Foods lookalike), but I’m down to just a few bags. It is lavender heavy, but not like grandma’s talcum powder. I’m not sure there’s enough valerian in the blend to have much effect on my night’s sleep, but the overall effect soothing and makes me think of lilacs in the sunshine and honeybees browsing in my container garden.

Day 2 of the Inoki advent calendar. Made this gong fu, currently on steep 6 and still going strong. I’m going to have to stop after this and hope I can still sleep tonight XD

This is incredibly buttery, creamy with floral undertones and no harshness at all. Even this late steep still has a butter cookie quality to it. I’m inclined to agree with Roswell Strange that this might be flavored given how rich it is. That’s ok, this tea is delicious and I am finding it hard to care about whether it’s flavored right now.