Featured & New Tasting Notes

After months of no tea buying, I finally snapped and ordered a ton of teas. Heh, eeek!
But I am optimistic, and wanted to get some of the autumnal flavors in, getting an early start on that, so I grabbed up some beloved fall flavors, and also a few classics.
And, in my cupboard, Paris is a classic. Its fruity, without being a fruit salad, and a seasonless flavor.
I am very happy to have it back in the cupboard! And now, on to yoga.

Been so bad at logging teas lately, though I do have a long list of teas I’ve drank, including snippets of what I thought (in some cases). Maybe I’ll get to them, maybe I won’t. I am managing to drink through quite a bit of tea, though, which is good!

AND I got a new kettle, guys! My ever-wonderful boyfriend bought me a Black&Decker stainless steel variable temp kettle. (I picked that particular one after reading a bunch of kettle reviews). For the price, I’m super happy so far. It likes to beep a lot (when pressing buttons), and LOUDLY, which is annoying, but on the plus side, it beeps when the water is ready! Which is great. The lid doesn’t open as far as I would like, but really, it’s not that big of a deal. And it seems perhaps a touch slower to boil than I would expect, but to be fair, it was probably boiling water straight from the fridge at the time I measured (it took about 8 minutes for a full 1.7L). Anyways, I’m now into the world of variable-temp kettles! Exciting!

Anyhow, drank this prior to heading to the CNE yesterday. It was delicious. That is all.

This is one sweet tea. I get a variety of notes. There is an apricoty feeling to this sheng. Notes of stonefruits too. I broke in my new 50ml gaiwan for this tea so I was able to put it through a lot of steeps. After fourteen steeps I am feeling the effects of this tea. Normally with my larger gaiwans I would stop at eight steeps because I have to watch my caffeine levels. It’s very nice to have such a small gaiwan finally. My other gaiwans were at least 100ml and that is just too big to give a tea 14 steeps in one session. This is a tea I would definitely consider buying more of. I only wish it were a 357g cake instead of a 200g cake. This is one of the best shengs I have ever had.

I steeped this 14 times in a 50ml gaiwan with 3.7g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, 2 min, 2.5 min and 3 min.

Thanks Brenden! :D

Very clean shou, no fermentation flavors. Strong notes of caramel, cocoa.. slightly sweet. Didn’t last as long as I was hoping – only got about 8 steeps before the color faded, but still good flavor in the following steeps. Great entry-level shou for those who might be new to puerh. No off-putting flavors, delicious consistency.

Man, this tea is weird. It looks like your typical dark roasted oolong — long, spindly twists of black leaf — and it even kind of smells like it too, with a sweet, strong smell of buckwheat and burnt sugar.

The first taste was of something extremely alkaline on my tongue, like I splashed some sort of industrial chemical on it. On the back and sides of my tongue the taste became more floral, like honeysuckle or lilies, with an aftertaste like rose or osmanthus. The colour of the tea was amber like beer.

Over subsequent steeps I felt that the texture and taste on my tongue was like that of fabric: cotton, denim, linen, thickness covering my tongue. The floral honeysuckle/lily flavour was also there — there was none of the juicy, grassy sweetness that the smell of this tea promised.

Then it hit me. Industrial chemicals? Flowers? Fabric?

It tasted like the tea embodiment of a dryer sheet.

You know, those little wisps of perfumed, polymerized fabric you put into the dryer with freshly washed clothes to make them soft and non-static-cling-y.

What the fuck? I’m mystified, but also kind of horribly fascinated.

Full review at: http://booksandtea.ca/2015/08/white2tea-august-2015-subscription-box-clover-patch-oolong-and-2-da-hong-paos/

Sipdown. This is in the running for the most gentle, bready, smooth, wonder-filled, idiot-proof black tea I have ever loved. Need more!

This was a tea Christina generously sent to me. I have today off from work so could take my time learning how to brew this one. It’s not my first time having this type of tea and I’ve liked it in the past but find it a bit expensive compared to other teas.

Of course who couldn’t love the dry leaves of this type of tea. So flat & big and they smelled so fresh. I found Teasenz video on how to brew and followed their directions:

http://www.teasenz.com/tai-ping-hou-kui#.VeBJR5pRGpo

Here’s my cup:
https://instagram.com/p/67SW0rtDAP/?taken-by=ubacat

Okay, so I brew it in a cup but do I drink it in a cup? Doesn’t the leaves get over steeped? I gather I’m not supposed to drink from the cup since I time it two minutes so I transferred it to a pouring pitcher but it’s a messy business pouring from a cup.

It’s a beautiful light tea with green bean notes. It seems to have a bit of floral edge to it too. I don’t get much chestnut or buttery notes from this tea which is common in many Chinese greens. That makes this tea quite different and special. In the past I considered this tea too expensive but look at how much work goes into making it. I watched this video from Teavivre while drinking this tea:
http://www.teavivre.com/tea-videos/manual-making-method-of-tai-ping-hou-kui-green-tea-p-61/

I can really appreciate now this is a great tea to keep in stock for when I’m in the mood for something different and fancy. Thanks Christina for the sample.

I have played a lot of video games in my life, and I have been driven to fits of rage by many of them. Something that my dear fiance and I share is a tendency to get really ragey at our games, we just show them differently, where he is likely to just yell at a game, I take a page from the RageQuit book and get really imaginative with my vitriol. I bring this up because few games have made me rage as much as Terraria. Seriously, I hate the boss fights, I can have myself kitted up and buffed to the extreme and it never fails, I die at least half a dozen times before I get the ‘trick’ to killing a specific boss. Of course then I proceed to farm it mercilessly, giggling at my godlike power the whole time. Oh man, or that one time when you are mining and accidentally hit the TNT button instead of the pickaxe button and blow yourself up. It. Is. MADDENING! But I also love it because I can be a dark elf with a hoard of spider summons with a pet dinosaur who rides a unicorn while wearing feathery wings, gypsy robes, and a Spartan helmet. Skills.

Today’s tea from What-Cha is a funky little number, Thailand Sticky Rice ‘Khao Hom’ Oolong Tea, hailing from Thailand, this tea takes Jin Xuan and scents it with Nuo Mi Xiang Nen Ye, an herb from China whose leaves smell uncannily like sweet sticky rice. Used quite a bit with Puerh, (if you have ever seen sticky rice Puerh, this is the herb used) and I will be honest, mixed with Shou Pu, I find it utterly repugnant, usually because it is mixed with the really low grade fishy garbage and those are two things I do not want mixed. Ever. So I was really curious to try it in something else, specifically the glory that is Oolong. The aroma of this tea is something else, I advise not sticking your nose into these leaves, sniff from a distance because wow is it strong. Super sweet sticky rice notes with sweet cream, rice pudding, coconut milk, and an underlying almond nuttiness. So much sweetness, it is a little overwhelming.

So the first time I tried this tea I made the mistake of brewing it when I had a headache, one whiff of those brewed leaves and I needed to lie down, something about sticky rice scented teas make me feel really ill and dizzy if I have a headache (which is often) so I waited for a day when I had no headache to try the rest of the sample. It was a good idea because whoa, it is super strong, very sweet notes of rice pudding, caramel, flowers, green beans, grass, spinach…it is a bit of a cacophony, though oddly it blends well together. The liquid is more subtle thankfully, though not by much. That sticky rice scent is strong and sweet, notes of coconut milk, almonds, and rice pudding mix with a creamy underlying floral note.

I thought for a second, this could be one of those sensory overload things that happens to me with certain smells, so I got Ben to sniff it and he thought it smelled mild and sweet, where I thought it was like being face planted in pudding. The longer I sniffed it, the more I started developing a headache…oh dear. So, enough being nervous, I tasted it, it is smooth and sweet, and surprisingly cooling for an oolong. There are strong notes of cream, rice pudding, orchids, and warm milk. This moves on to caramelized sugar and a nutty aftertaste. There is however something ‘wrong’ about the rice taste, not wrong as in toxic or something like that…wrong as it tastes like rice but doesn’t. Like how stevia leaves are sweet but don’t taste like sugar, so when used as a substitute you can tell, it is uncanny and hard to process for some reason.

Second steep, the aroma at this point has permeated my tea area, which I am not entirely happy with. The taste is milder on the rice front, more of the underlying orchid and creamy notes of the Jin Xuan showing their color. The finish has a nutty rice note that lingers for some time. I called it quits after this steep sadly, the taste was quite pleasant, but the smell of the leaves was way too intense and killing my head, not to mention I spilled some on my tea table and just can’t get the smell out, whenever I get a whiff of it I am slammed with vertigo, it is safe to say that my sensory weirdness could not handle this herb. Clearly if I try to drink this tea again, I should do it with a nose plug, or maybe store the leaves in another room. It is a pity I had such a negative reaction to the aroma, the taste was really quite fascinating.

For blog and photos (and a link to a page entirely in Chinese about the fancy herb): http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/08/what-cha-thailand-sticky-rice-khao-hom.html

I think this is what I’m drinking. The package only says "Aged Oolong 95C mountaintea.com). So, I’m taking a guess. The little pebbles are a dark brown and slight oily skin. They are heavily compressed and give off a dry wood and roast scent. I placed a generous amount in my warmed gaiwan and gave em a shake. The smell is quite potent and heavily fruited. There is an underlying smoke aroma and prominent raisin tone. I washed the pebbles once and prepare for brewing. The flavor is unlike the aroma. The liquor is pale bronze and very sweet. The taste is very fruity and juicy, yet there is an underlying roast that lingers on the tongue. This brew has a “fruit by the foot” flavor hahah. It reminds me of my childhood snacks. This was very good, and a decent quality aged oolong. I’m glad that I didn’t judge a book by its cover on this, for the packaging was not that attractive.

Also, there is a lingering sweetness that does last for what seems like forever. I feel like I just had a bunch of pastries with berries in them :)

I initially liked this tea, but then suddenly every single time I brewed it, it was horribly bitter, which led me to avoid it for quite some time. Recently I started drinking it again, if nothing else just to use it up. The directions call for 1.5 tsp + 8oz @ 200 X 3min. Horribly bitter.
I tried a variety of parameters, and kept lowering the temperature, and FINALLY I’ve got it right, steeping it at 180 F for 3 minutes. Of course, I’m getting close to a sip down now, LOL, but at least I’ll enjoy those last couple of sessions, right?
This tastes like roasted brazil nuts today :)

the water in Ottawa is slightly different from the water back home, so while i’ve been enjoying this one, it’s not the super amazing delicious tea that it is in Toronto. Still good but i miss what i KNOW this one can taste like haha.

On the upside, i have managed to get a few sipdowns in while i’ve been here, and made good progress on drinking up a few of my older teas. I’ll be happy to get home tomorrow to be with my full cupboard. :)

Don’t like this harvest. I’ve tried to drink this version in multiple ways and all I get is dirt. I’m channeling my inner “omgsrsly” i think. Not the end of the world, but i have ZERO desire to drink the rest of this. So i’m not going to. A waste of tea but i am really not a fan of this harvest and i refuse to drink things that i don’t enjoy.

Original version of this was a 91 for me; this year is closer to a 54.

Wonderfully thick and rich.. Notes of earth and spice, a nice little kick. Smooth and creamy textured shou, mostly clear of unwanted fermentation flavors. I think this one would get better with even more age.
Thank you Brenden for this delicious sample :)

From the S&S TTB #2

Thanks to Rich for the generous addition to the TTB.

This tea is the reason I love sheng. The tea is rich and complex, with every one of at least 10 steeps showing a subtly different character.

The first steep (some would call this the rinse) was light but delicious with floral highlights. 2nd and 3rd were rich, complex, and powerful. Middle steeps (3,4,5) were woody and tannic, presumably suggesting an ability to age. After the 5th steep, the steeps became soft and round and sweet. The combination of the flavor and the cha qi leaves me sitting on the sofa with a smile on my lips.

Very nice. Mild, smooth, apple-y in initial steep. Second steep was a little sour but not in a bad way. The smell is very much a Fujian black though there isn’t any of the mild smoke I have gotten lately with teas from that region. Glad to have this on hand. It isn’t one I have to keep around but it will be enjoyed as an every day tea while it lasts!

3 Leaf Tea offered samples for review. I asked for this one in particular as I have never tried a tangerine pu’erh. The brewing instructions are for a western style brewed cup. 1 tsp of leaf and a cup of boiling water with a 3 minute steep.

The dry leaf is very pleasant to sniff. It is hay and fruit. The steeped leaf is barnyard but I know this seldom translates into the cup. The brew is almost ‘tea’ colored but a little more ruby tinted than your average orange pekoe.

The taste is dusty dry spiciness with a hint of tangerine zest. It is not astringent or bitter. There is a gentle but deep earthiness that confirms this is pu’erh. The second cup was pretty much like the first except maybe a touch more towards sweet. Goes down easily.

Not a deeply complex tea but a nice everyday sipper. Seems like a good base to play with your herbs and spices to see what you can invent.

So, I’ve had this one twice now. It’s very bread-y with a nice thickness, and there’s a cocoa element as well, but I’m not getting as much sweetness as I would like. I think if it had a nice honey note, that would make it a great tea. As it is, it lingers on the edge of cocoa bitterness. Maybe it’s delicious with some added sugar, but I’m not doing that with my Chinese black teas anymore. The other black tea I have from them, I believe it’s the ying de black tea, has a lot of honey sweetness…hmmm, I see an experiment mixing the two in my future!

I have (nearly) always been a Chinese black kinda girl. I do occasionally enjoy others as well, like I’m partial to a good Assam and I wouldn’t say no to a low-grown Ceylon or a particularly good Kenya, but deep down the Chinese blacks is where I ‘live’ preference-wise.

Taiwanese blacks are sort of the same family (political controversies not even taken into account) and they have lots of the same qualities. Like for example one of the things I like about the Chinese blacks is how they are nearly impossible to ruin. If you have a good leaf, you can steep it to kingdom come and it will still come out perfectly drinkable. Perhaps a little less nice than if you’d done it properly, granted, but it won’t be totally ruined. In comparison, if you did the same thing with an Assam or a Ceylon, it would be a highly unpleasant experience indeed.

I don’t have much experience with Taiwan, though. It’s one of those things, you see. You tell yourself you should explore this or that type or this or that area but just never really seem to get around to it. So when I got a newsletter from Yunnan Sourcing, announcing the opening of Taiwan Sourcing, I jumped at the chance immediately and got a small amount of each of the three blacks they offered. The first one was the one I posted about last time I posted. This is one of the other two.

This is actually saying a lot, as I have entered a phase where I’m less focused on having an enormous amount of tea choice at all time and wanting to try all the teas and all the shops and all the flavours and find the perfect this and the perfect that. This is what happens when you stop using a site for 8 months. In recent times I’ve rather thrown myself at embroidery and am more likely to be spending money on stitching supplies. (So many designs! So little time!)

Anyway, this tea is very minty when you smell it. So minty, you’d think there was mint in it, but there isn’t. There’s a great deal of camphor-y notes to it as well.

It’s slightly astringent when drinking it, especially as it cools down a bit, but not nearly so much as to bother those who don’t care for astringency, I don’t think. I mean, we’re not on an Indian teas level of astringency here. But a touch of it, yes. There’s a cinnamon-like aftertaste as mentioned in the description of it, but for me it’s primarily quite malty and dark tasting. It’s very nice.

OMG what is this oolong sorcery?!?!?! Clover Patch oolong?

This oolong has a potent aftertaste, probably the most potent tea so far. I think the entire block could smell my tea breath. It’s floral, fruity, citrus, buttery, linen, custard and wet leaf. Later infusions the aftertaste is stronger than the tea. I really enjoyed the tea, though I didn’t get many infusions. I would of sold my first born for more if it was more roasty and higher oxidized, but that’s just personal taste.

Full review on Oolong Owl. Review also has the other W2t club teas – Fresh and Aged Dahongpao http://oolongowl.com/august-white2tea-club-featuring-dahongpao-and-clover-patch-oolong-tea-review/

I’m starting to feel like the queen of Random Steepings, but I don’t know where else to put all of these subscription box reviews.

Today’s post is about London Tea Club. https://tealover.net/2015/08/london-tea-club-subscription-box/

Yes, I still have a small amount of this tea. I’ve been hoarding it for awhile, and today is the perfect day to enjoy some. I’ve reviewed it plenty of times, so that’s all I’m gonna say. It’s delicious.

noms! farewell gregory’s. I would totally pick you up again in the summer as a tasty fruit tea that i enjoy both hot and cold brewed. It’s got the tartness from the hibby but it’s not overpowering and it makes me a happy camper.

I’m going to be working from home next week for 4 days but “home” will be ottawa so i need to pack up some teas that i can spend some time with over the week. here’s hoping i can get a few sipdowns in!

First, my apologies to K S, who graciously shared a bit ages ago, and I have been remiss in expressing my thanks…because this is tasty! It also holds up well to mistreatment (the baggie got wedged behind a couple of tins and I didn’t know it was there).

I don’t do Darjeeling often, so when I do, I’m pleasantly surprised. This particular variety is one of the “grapiest” Darjeelings I’ve tried; after half a cup, my mouth feels like I’ve had fruit juice. It has a …mmm, not delicate, maybe elegant or refined personality and would, no doubt, taste better from Grandma’s teacups than my battered Tervis tumbler that has suddenly started to behave like a dribble glass.

This is a beautiful tea. This gongfu session will be one of my most memorable. I’m going to break this down to help describe this cake fully.

Dry Leaf:
This is truly prized maocha. The dry leaf consists of long and slender leaves. The stems are thick, and the leaf is large. These dark gold and bronze tendrils carry a sweet grape and lightly oiled leather scent. I took a deep inhale from my jar. This is an enticing aroma.

Warmed Leaf:
I warmed these treasures in my yixing. The aroma grew more in depth and became thick. A swift inhale brought me images of plump grapes, winter honey, and buckwheat syrup. This was going to be a tasteful brew.

Steeped Leaves:
I washed this once and prepared brewing. The leaves are massive and mostly intact. These long pale jade leaves become soft and sweet. They smell of stewed zucchini and have a thick vegetable aroma.

Finally, The Brew:
This is beyond fantastic! This drink is perfectly balanced. The brew starts with a thick honey sweetness. Then, it tips over into a light bitterness. The flavors of pepper and syrup combine. The major point of this brew, was its Qi. I’ve never felt anything like this. I’ve drank some aged sheng with a powerful kick, but this was an entirely different animal. The third steeping left me foggy, sweating, focused, and pumping with adrenaline. It was a mix between immense power and perfect serenity. The fifth steeping arose the question “can I really drink more…?” I managed to slowly continuing brewing. The brew became ever sweeter and smooth. The liquor remained a dull bronze color. I lost track of how many times I steeped these leaves. The qi walked along side me sip by sip. The flavor became completely floral in later steeping. The sips were like delicate orchids mixed with slight nectar. This is by far my favorite sheng so far. I’ve never encountered such a brilliant brew. I am so grateful to be able to try this, and I can’t wait to share this with others.

P.S. I wish the ratings could go past 100 xp

https://instagram.com/p/6i0scDTGUX/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

https://instagram.com/p/6i7jpUzGfC/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel