23 Tasting Notes
Received as a free sample
Nice balance while keeping the punch. Little bit of sweetness and great hui gan. At the start of each year, I usually buy a cake or two from Farmerleaf. I enjoy how complex their sheng is and it always packs a punch. This year, they threw in a sample of this tea with my order and it was the star of the show. You get plenty of the green, young sheng flavor mixed in with some sourness and astringency like you’d have with fresh basil and mint. Those flavors linger on into that lasting sweetness that rounds out the experience. This is exactly what I want from a sheng.
Flavors: Astringent, Earthy, Grassy, Hay
Preparation
Lot: 1153
A really rich and tasty Taiwanese black tea. This one unfortunately went out of stock in a day it took me to write this out. Hopefully it will return again at some point. This tea is my goto for making iced tea. It’s a bit pricey, but the flavors are right on point. The smell is really rich, of chocolate, cherries, and oats. The brewed tea is tangy and sweet, like oatmeal made from toasted oats. Cold brewing this tea with a bit of lemon is absolutely divine.
Flavors: Cherry, Cocoa, Oats, Rich, Sweet
Preparation
The one tea that made me question why I try new teas. The first time I tried this tea, I wrote that it somehow strikes a perfect balance between the smokey pine flavors that other lapsang teas have with the caramel and tangy notes of my ideal black tea. It is sweet and twisted, like liquid candy that spent the day in the smoker at my local BBQ joint. The smell alone of the dry leaves is almost overwhelming.
Flavors: Caramel, Honey, Pine, Powdered Sugar, Sap, Smoke, Tannin