116 Tasting Notes
A really nice green tea. Maybe a little bit too nice to become a favorite of mine. It has a nectar-like sweetness, but doesn’t feel quite as thick as some other sweet green teas I have been impressed with. Light pleasant floral-fruity osmanthus notes and a whisper of nuttiness, but so far lacking in any interesting quirks or twists to win me over. I’ll keep trying with this one. I’ve often changed my mind on a tea after a few brews.
Preparation
Well, had a Chritsmas-time bout with Covid in our family, and now I no longer have a sense of smell. Greatly impact my ability to appreciate/taste tea. All my teas are more or less the same for the time being. Boo! Glad I did not yet place the big Yunnan Sourcing order I was planning on making! Might wait a little while on that one and hopefully my senses will return.
Still drinking a lot of this tea, though, and I guess it does the trick under these circumstances.
I lost my sense of taste and smell last year around this time with Covid. I did my own version of olfactory retraining, just getting out some essential oils like lavender, peppermint, and orange that have very different scents, sniffing them deeply, and imagining the scent as I remembered it. My daughter and I both did this and both recovered our senses of taste and smell quickly. Ashman did not and took longer, but he also had a much worse case that we did.
I hope you can fully enjoy your teas and food very soon!
Thanks, Ashmanra! I’ve been sticking my nose in the various spice jars here at home and also taking sniffs of my jasmine tea to try and retrain my nose. I do seem to get faint whiffs of things, so hopefully it won’t be long in coming back.
Been drinking a lot of this one lately while I wait for my Yunnan Sourcing order to arrive, and it is growing on me. I’m noticing that this tea reminds me of persimmon! Bumping up my rating a little bit.
This tea is enjoyable, but not great. It seems like a basic Shui Hsien oolong (according to my very limited knowledge of Shui Hsien teas). You get a good amount of roastiness in the aroma and flavor, a nice orangish-amber color, a medium body, with flavors or honey, walnuts, some woody notes, and a slight tang. I’ll give it to them that maybe the flavor does linger somewhat. Very smooth and well-behaved, and nothing really seems to stand out much about this tea. Doesn’t seem have the delightful tart cherry notes or floral aspects I’ve found in other versions of this tea, so definitely not a favorite of mine.
I am surprised with the quality of the tea, as I expected it to be somewhat worse as a certified USDA organic tea. Nothing wrong with that in and of itself, but sometimes I understand organic certifications can be a way to make less salable tea varieties more salable. And I haven’t been impressed with some of the other organic teas I have tried.
Preparation
First time trying this and I find it to be a great black tea blend. Complex indeed. This is one of the best teas I have found for steeping multiple times western style. Had pretty good results with 2 min first steep / 3 min second steep / and five min third steep. If you are a kung-fu steeper, then ymmv.
First steep is a more malty bold black tea but evolves to take on more of a second flush Darjeeling character in the third steep. Second steep was most interesting. Not a bad experience!
I tend to drink more single-origin type teas, and I enjoy it when I can find more interesting and complex varieties. Not sure why I don’t drink more blended teas, as it stands to reason that there is potential for even more complexity in these types of teas. Once in a while I experiment with my own homemade blends, which is fun and often rewarding.
Preparation
Sweet with notes of rose and cedar – Tastes like how one of my shoe trees smells, but in a good way, LOL. Pleasant flavors which linger a bit. Very nice!
The leaf appearance is definitely a higher grade than the Formosa Oolong I had previously purchased from Harney and Sons, which was mechanically harvested and had lots of twiggy stuff, smaller pieces of broken leaf, and no noticeable bud material. This one has little or no twigs, larger leaf pieces and whole leaves, and even some small white buds.
Preparation
Second glance, there is some twiggy stuff but not too much.
Adding to my previous review. Still loving this tea after multiple sessions. Notes of peach and chocolate in the aroma. The peach translates well into the flavors, however not so much with the chocolate. This is fine by me, as I don’t always enjoy teas with strong chocolate notes.
This is priced similarly to the Huangshan Mao Feng which I purchased from goarteastore.com (“supreme” grade. The tea is similar in size, shape, and color, but it is less uniform in appearance. There seem to be less complete budsets, and a touch of random stemmy stuff. If I had to guess, this might be a step below in grade or maybe rejects from a higher grade. Aroma and flavor are similar, however this one has a little more of a “milky” quality in taste and isn’t quite as enjoyable. For roughly the same price, I would go with the other tea.
Preparation
I didn’t realize GRT sold as Huang Shan Mao Feng. The one from Teavivre and one from Harney are at the top of our list of favorite green teas.
Yes, I will have to try those when I get a chance. I think this variety could easily be a favorite for me if I could find one where the flavors are a bit more pronounced and with more of a lasting aftertaste.
I think most interesting about this both this tea from Grace Rare Teas and the competitor’s tea from goarteastore.com, is both offerings have a nice licorice-like note. Unusual quality in a tea, and something I really like.
Wish I could identify which region/style of tea this is. Foojoy doesn’t give this information. It is difficult to find and many of the Foojoy teas seem to be discontinued, so if I knew the variety of tea I could probably find similar stuff. The dry leaf appearance is very similar to Mao Feng and/or “Clouds and Mist” style teas I currently have, so maybe this is one of those varieties.
