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2025 sipdown no. 33

I while ago I ran out of matcha from Teavivre and picked this up as a replacement. While this is a good matcha, I personally found the vegetal flavour a bit too pronounced. On the positive side: it’s smooth with minimal bitterness and decently creamy. It works in a pinch (and we easily finished off 100g), but I know there are matches out there I’d enjoy more.

Finishing this as a cold matcha latte with homemade lavender syrup and oat milk.

2025 sipdown no. 32

I sipped through 25g of this quite quickly – a sure sign of a tasty tea. I was quite intrigued with this being from an ecological reserve. There was a lovely sweetness to this tea that is unlike other Tawainese HM oolongs. The tasting notes say biscuits and pastry and I found this leaned toward a biscuit sweetness. Mixed with that distinctive high mountain, light, clean, breezy flavour. A really lovely tea and one I would order again.

I generally steeped this 3-4 times, all at 90° C.

A few sipdowns from January through June!

2025 sipdown no. 21 Stash Christmas in Paris
2025 sipdown no. 22 Nabo Hallon och Rosmarin
2025 sipdown no. 23 Chado Lavender Earl Grey
2025 sipdown no. 24 Yorkshire Tea Biscuit Brew
2025 sipdown no. 25 The Tea Girl Orange Chocolate
2025 sipdown no. 26 The Tea Girl Chocolate-Dipped Strawberry
2025 sipdown no. 27 Paper & Tea No 523 Berlin 2011
2025 sipdown no. 28 Mountain Stream Chocolate Wuyi Red Oolong
2025 sipdown no. 29 Farmerleaf Spring 2024 Jingmai Sun-dried Shengtai (Thanks Martin!)
2025 sipdown no. 30 Tea Girl Berried Treasure (sample size only, I may have picked up 50g XD)
2025 sipdown no. 31 What-Cha Taiwan Four Seasons Oolong

2025 sipdown no. 20

Really lovely EG. The bergamot was strong, but not overpowering. The Ceylon base was complementary and not overly finicky.

2025 sipdown no. 19

This is very close to a high mountain black with waffle-y sweetness and an incredibly smooth body. There’s little to no maltiness, though it creeps in slightly as the tea cools. This is delightfully sweet, so much so that I would choose this over the Mi Xiang black (in a dire situation where not both could be ordered). The resteep of this had a decent amount of flavour as well.

1st steep 2 minutes, 30 seconds
2nd steep 3 minutes, 30 seconds
3rd steep 4 minutes, 30 seconds

2025 sipdown no. 18

Cha Yi sent this as a sample in my order!

I was intrigued to see this oolong is from Japan. I mostly found this to have a creamy flavour with subtle florals (much more subtle than a Si Ji Chun). As the tea is almost fully cooled, more vegetal flavours come forward. Otherwise, it’s a very clean flavour and I quite enjoyed it. I would happily pick 50g of this one up.

The first cup was quite light in flavour as I lowered the steep time. I found the longer steep time allowed this tea to shine more.

1st steep 4 minutes
2nd steep 5 minutes

This tea has a near-equal balance of floral, cream, and sweetness. Delightful!

1st steep 2 minutes, 30 seconds
2nd steep 3 minutes, 30 seconds
3rd steep 4 minutes, 30 seconds

2025 sipdown no. 17

This TGY is smooth and vegetal (as described), with subtle hints of cream. A marked difference from the Cha Yi TGY in my next note. Happily, both were lovely.

1st steep 1 minutes, 30 seconds
2nd steep 2 minutes, 30 seconds
3rd steep 3 minutes, 30 seconds
4th steep 4 minutes, 30 seconds

2025 sipdown no. 16

A sample that came in my What-cha order!

I drank this without taking any notes, but it was lovely. Not interesting enough to order it myself, but I wouldn’t turn down a cup if offered one.

2025 sipdown no. 15

This tea is very cream-forward with sweet hay-like undertones. Florals come out more in the second steep (though not nearly as floral as Four Seasons). There’s still a creamy smoothness, balanced with the floral aspects. As it cools, more vegetal flavours come forward.

This one resteeps really well (I regularly did 4x Western steeps) and I’d happily re-order.