New Tasting Notes

I’ve been having a cup or two in the evenings and I am still really enjoying myself.

Maple is what I’m noticing the most now, both in scent and flavor with ginger and cinnamon in the background. I do wish the ginger was standing out just a little bit more.

This isn’t an excellent tea, but it has been a lot of fun to drink, especially with this cold snap we’ve been getting. It brings up images of being curled up under a warm blanket while its cold, wet, and blustery outside.

It does not resteep well. The flavor is weaker on the 2nd, and the 3rd is just hopeful thinking more than anything else. But none of this is surprising for a flavored tea.

While not my thing personally, I can completely see this as a latte, steeped strongly, with maybe a hint of sweetener to enhance the maple.

I suspect this will be a rebuy next fall.

2025 sipdown no. 5

ashmanra generously sent me her last cup of this. I’ve been waiting for the right time to steep this up and there never seems to be a fully right time, but this past Sunday I submitted an application I’d been working on for weeks and although my to-do list still had plenty, Monday seemed like the perfect day for all that.

I followed her instructions carefully: rinsed with boiling water (~8-10 seconds), let the leaves steam in my mug with a wee lid for 2 minutes, then steeped with boiling water for 1 minute.

1st steep, 1 minute: The taste is very clean, wet, sandy soil. As the tea cools, there is the most subtle whisper of sweetness from mid-end of the sip.
2nd steep, 1 minute: Very similar to the first steep, just as delightful.
3rd steep, 1 minute: I stepped this up before dinner and by the time I got to it, it was cold. Nevertheless, very tasty and soil-like.
4th steep, 1 minute: Taste is starting to thin out, the next steep I’ll increase the time. Still very soil-like. The taste is remarkably similar to the first steep, with only the depth changing.
5th steep, 1 minute 30 seconds: Sweetly soil.
6th steep, 14 minutes: The tea was light in colour and thin the previous two steeps, so I let this steep until I became impatient. The soil is still quite pronounced. This has been a lovely tea!

Thanks ashmanra :)

I was pleasantly surprised by this tea. To appreciate it better I tried to smell the scent emanating from the leaves after the infusion, and I clearly smelled the mineral scent and that of the white-fleshed peach. I think I also felt a vague hint of white pepper in my mouth and a beautiful floral taste. I would also venture a minimum of citrus zest. Overall it seemed like a really excellent tea to me!

I think pretty much any oolong that had “sweet” and “milky” in the tasting notes is guaranteed to be my happy place. This was a little too light in flavor, especially for the suggested 1.5 min first steep time, at which point it was basically still water.

2022 mini

Really should stop expecting that I could make notes on anything on a Monday morning, regardless of how early I get into the office.

Mostly drunk cold because Monday, but I only have one mini left and I want to try to get something in.

Its ok. Not really my thing. Had an interesting flavor when it gets cold but I’m just not able to put a name to it. Gets a bit astringent when it gets cold too. I don’t think it was this noticeable when it was warm.

Sipdown! (31)

From the January subscription.

I had the pleasure of trying this in the advent calendar, so I already knew I liked it. It was nice to have a chance to try it a few more times, though! A very mellow and well-balanced blend, with a nice amount of smoke that isn’t overwhelming. The bergamot is subtle but adds a welcome brightness to the earthy base. I’m not sure I would order the full size, just because I have a somewhat similar blend in my cupboard already. But really enjoyed my three cups!

tastes like the blood of the victims of terrorism from the empire’s constant occupation

Bag from a TTB. This is much fruitier than I expected! The spearmint is pretty bright as well. The base is slightly murky, but not bad. I’m a fake sweetener fan, and even I can taste how strong it is here, so I’m sure that would bother some people. This isn’t bad, but it would need some tweaks for it to be better.

This Dan Cong is on the pricier side, but it delivers. It has a great complexity and depth overall.

The dry leaf aroma is nutty and flowery with additional hints of cookies and molasses. During the session, the smell gives a bunch of associations, such as purple corn, green pepper, Breckland thyme, and orchids.

The liquor itself is very fragrant as well, its smooth and tender character in the mouth quickly transforms into a strong presence with punch and astringency. The tea has a superb bitter and floral taste with notes of apple and sugarcane. Its aftertaste is also quite rich and mineral.

Last one that I may have overleafed, but it was very satisfying.

I usually go crazy for every Tieguanyin black I drink. Pretty much every review I’ve done of one from anywhere I rate a 90% minimum. This one, I need to get to know more. It’s very good and has a lot of layers, but was more brisk than I expected. I need to play more with the parameters.

The fruity and floral components are there western after 2:45 and maybe too many leaves, giving off more purple and orange fruit vibes compared to the red ones I’ve gotten from previous TGY blacks. Passionfruit, baked peach, and rose are their notes. I get the passionfruit and baked peach for sure. The rose, not yet. I get more gardenia personally.

The malt overpowered the other notes a little bit into a thick fruity and viscous drink. Sometimes, I got breakfast tea vibes from this one even though it’s medium in caffeine. That could be psychological since one of the reviewers is a breakfast and Earl Grey person that ranks this one above those two, and it has a lot of qualities in a good breakfast black. It’s malty with a fruity edge and a nice energy. This one has more muscle to the malt tones, whereas the other two teas I got were more luxurious. This one woke me up more.

Hence why I need to reevaluate the tea with less leaves. I likely put 8 grams in my pot, and got a briskier result that was not totally unwelcome. Some of the florals were kinda heady though, so I’m curious if they’ll be just as heady or oily when I use less leaves, tumbler style it, or gong fu it. Not regretting buying this one at all, though.

I’ve wanted to try this one for years, and this is easily one of the most decadent Taiwanese Black teas I’ve had yet. This is what I thought Sugar Glider would taste like.

I expected it to be sweet for sure, and maybe fruity like Nectar from Whispering Pines, but this stuff….is like a Lishan Black. Funnel Cake notes come up. It’s sooo sweet that I thought I added brown sugar to it. It’s what people want their vanilla blacks to taste like because it’s soo smooth and sooooo sweet, even though there’s no vanilla in it. It’s a sugar flavor bomb, and weirdly, it’s not fruity. Their notes do it justice. It’s like a vanilla extract sugar water concoction. I got 4 brews out of it western before it got more woody. The sandalwood, I can kinda see. Sometimes, I got kinda a bamboo feel in some of the wood notes. Malty though, a touch astringent, but barely. This one had no tannin in the taste.

I got a little tea drunk from this one after the Jin Jun Mei. I’m a light weight.

Craved Jin Jun Mei, and then I got a bunch with a few other black teas I stared at for over 2 years from this website. They just so happened to have them at the same time. FINALLY!

Insanely good. They describe it having pomegranate, caramel, and peated scotch notes, and I can get them. Every time I brewed this tea, it’s sweet, malty and buttery. I’ve western brewed it for 3 minutes a few sessions with a minimum rebrew of four to five really pushing it, and 2 tumbler fuel sessions. More leaves, more red, more color, more malt and cocoa/bready qualities. Less leaves= way more caramel notes bordering on toffee or peanut brittle. I usually don’t get pomegranate outright, but there’s a sweetness that reminds me more of rose. Definitely a red tasting vibe when brewing heavier.

Either way, I kind of wish I got more than 50 grams of this one. There are other really good quality blacks I’m going to describe, including Hugo’s Jin Jun Mei in comparison to this one-hence me not getting more. We’ll see how long it stays in stock. I think Jin Jun Mei style teas are my deep, cold winter pick.

My first sip of this was a bit off-putting, but once I got the right ratio of sweetener and soy milk in there, I found it pretty pleasant! Nothing made me think eggnog specifically, but the flavoring was a little mild and milky in a way that is in the direction of eggnog at least. The base wasn’t my favorite here. I’d order other Teeccino blends again before this one.

Sipdown

There are lots of dried apple cubes in the rich brown tea leaves and pretty calendula petals, with an aroma of apple and spices, including cinnamon, allspice, and vanilla.

The base is really nice for pairing with food and is malty with slight briskness, which indicates that it could handle milk and sugar if you wish. We drank ours plain. There is a bright tangy spark that evokes the cider aspect of the blend. It really delivers the taste that the name advertises!