1445 Tasting Notes
I whisked a spoonful up in warm water and then mixed it up with some almond milk. It’s crazy, maybe even slightly horrifying, how much this tastes like buttery caramel popcorn. With extra butter.
Thanks, Cavocorax! Not all the flavoured matcha I’ve tried from Red Leaf accurately represent what they are named, but this one certainly does!
Flavors: Butter, Caramel
Preparation
Backlog. This made a good banana matcha smoothie, adding an extra degree of cream and sweetness. I’ll have to pick up a little more of this, since I’m below sustainable portions of flavoured matcha anyways.
Thanks, Cavocorax, for letting me try some of this!
Thought I was going to get “puerh” and ended up getting the world’s most glorious nut and raisin trail mix instead. I was not expecting that twist, but I don’t resent it at all.
Setting: a pretty big mug. Temperature: boiling. Time: 1 minute rinse (maybe that’s too long to be termed a “rinse”), 30 second steep. I’ll write a more serious note later.
Second steep of 40 seconds at first tasted more like olive oil and wood smoke, but took on sweet finish which made the earthy trail mix of my mind materialize again.
Flavors: Berries, Earth, Nuts, Olive Oil, Raisins, Spices
Preparation
mmm trail mix!
I read somewhere here 5 sec rinse couple min rest then 5/5/10/15 etc. I hope you don’t mind me telling this . This works pretty good for me for shu. Sheng is tricky. Short steeps always work.
Oh, no, I actually really appreciate the advice! It’s part of the reason I record the time/temp. and check everyone’s puerh notes. Sometimes I get lucky and it comes out tasting great despite the experimenting, like this one did, but I’ve wrecked a few too. Thank you :)
for shu cha I typically do 2 rinses,the second being long enough to draw just a little color out of the leaf…steep times will vary quite a bit from tea to tea,depending on leaf size,bing vs.loose,lao cha tou etc..
there really is no wrong or right way though…I tend to brew “heavy”,I like to overleaf oversteep most teas…it just comes down to personal preference..
@cryptickoi. i agree there is no right or wrong. im a beginner so its easier for me to do shortest steeps and see how flavors develop. i’m more in control. once i know more or less what to expect from this particular tea i can increase the time. so many people are turned off by pu because of long steeps. i still dont feel comfortable with sheng :(
I went to visit my parents for the week, expecting to try a bunch of new teas (mostly green and oolong), and then their temperature variable kettle decided to go kaput! I can’t help but feel it broke down just for me. Now we’re all using the pioneer copper stove kettle for boiling water. I recall something similar happening around this time last year too..
Pictured here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151486232145406&l=8ba0ae4cef
It’s quite the experience and adds a unique sensory profile to the water, but it’s not the kind of thing I want to use for my greener teas. That’s why amazingly tolerable black teas like this one exist, right?
Flavors: Chocolate, Cocoa, Malt, Roasted Barley
Preparation
eeek! I couldn’t live without my Breville variable temp kettle… hope you get a new kettle soon
Thanks! I hope so too. I think my parents are thinking of getting it replaced since the electric kettle wasn’t even a year old.
The copper kettle looks beautiful though :-)
The first time I tried this tea I wasn’t completely wowed, however these last two steeps today have been sweet, in so many amazing ways. I may need to keep this rich tea around.
Apparently I tasted citrus the first time around, but I’m not tasting that at all now- maybe there’s a note like a lemon in a meringue pie? It’s somewhat of a stretch though. It’s more like delicious sweet potatoes, cream, with a bit of syrup.
Flavors: Apricot, Cream, Honey, Sweet Potatoes
Preparation
Ah, hilarious. All I had to do was scroll down a bit to see your notes. Great minds…
I loooooove this one. It’s definitely one of my favorite whites, if not THE favorite. :D I find in addition to the cream notes, it tastes a lot like sweet corn. I made it at a much lower temperature mind you (185). Kind of curious to try it at boiling for comparison sake.
It was a lovely afternoon in the lower mainland for this tea. :P
It’s amazing to see the variety of flavours people pick up in this one; it’s a good incentive to buy lots and go crazy experimenting with it.
This was generously included as a sample in my Mandala order.
Today’s turning out to be a floral kind of day. I’m pleasantly surprised how heavy on the orchids this one is turning out to be. Besides flowers, there is a strong note of richly buttered grass. The finish is sour, with an increasingly sweet aftertaste. This combination of flavours creates one interesting cup.
I did a long rinse and some 30 second steeps in my tiny glass pot, using about 200F water. Puerh preparation techniques are currently a work in progress.
EDIT: After a 30 second rinse, I did a casual western mug steep for 1min and it came out incredibly rich and syrupy sweet.
Flavors: Butter, Grass, Orchids
Preparation
It only took a month, but my Wanja order is finally here! Yay for delayed tea!
Something in the dry leaf and liquor aroma makes me want to roll around like a cat on catnip.. except I’m not a cat so I did a lot of hopping and skipping around instead. After taking a sip, I did even more of that. Being caffeine sensitive is usually good for the spirit but bad for gaining a respectable public image.
This bright, vivid orange-brown cup is like floral silk and citrus rind. The finish is brisk but not drying. Second steep is even more floral silk, almost thick enough to be a thin cream.
I’m not sure I’d pick this over my favourite mouth shredder, the Wanja OP, but I’ve an ounce-length span to make that decision if I need to.
Flavors: Flowers, Orange Zest
Preparation
While I enjoyed the Shan First Flush, this one’s a complete miss for me. It has a delicious fruity note near the finish, but I’m not a fan of the amount of “marine” this tea throws at me. Or the metal taste. I think that last one is the biggest deal breaker for me; I don’t want to feel like I’ve been rolling pennies all day when I’m drinking tea.
I’m going to try some different steeping parameters, water, and palates (lucky roommates) before I move on.. hopefully my assessment as it stands now doesn’t stick!
Thanks, SFTGFOP, for another new green tea to try!
Flavors: Metallic, Ocean Breeze, Stonefruit
Preparation
Vegetal greens aren’t really my thing, but I really enjoyed the citrus notes in this. The whole flavour profile reminds me of eating lobster (or insert your preferred seafood), with a good squeezing of lemon and a dash of butter.
This isn’t the cup to win me over to Team Green, but I don’t mind drinking up two individual tea bags of it. Thanks, SFTGFOP, for sending this smoky smelling Myanmar tea my way!
Flavors: Lemon Zest
