46 Tasting Notes
Prep: 100cc gaiwan, covered the bottom with leaf, had to take some out of my gaiwan when it expanded and overflowed one session. Tried boiling water and 190F water both.
Sessions with this tea: 5
Taste: Onions are the king of vegetables. This is soup made with celery and onion and maybe some sweetness of carrot. The thing is vegetal throughout, and is one of the most “soup” tasting teas I’ve ever had. It’s savory and buttery and I might drink it to compliment a meat dish. There was a tiny slice of lemon or maybe a bay leaf added as an afterthought, which imparts a glimpse of citrus. The aroma has some floral fragrance to it, but the taste had none of that. This is a hearty affair throughout. It maintained the flavor very well too, without too much evolution, and only faded after a long session.
Body: Holy moly, bring a spoon. This is thick and amazing feeling in how it coats your mouth. When steeped with boiling water this was very pleasant. Very light, airy energy from this tea.
Summary: I think this is a tea for people who do not enjoy the floral/fragrance end of the oolong spectrum. It’s not really roasty either, but is vegetal and savory and buttery to me. I probably will not buy this again, but I think there is a subset of the drinking population who would love this tea, as it is probably the boldest tea of that particular corner of the flavor spectrum which I have had.
Prep: 100cc gaiwan, full to brim (didn’t weigh), boiling water, 10s steeps until the color fades and then chase it
Sessions with this tea: 6+
Taste: Reading previous reviews I was like “what? plum? this is all roast” but then there it was. This is much heavier on the roast notes — fire and coal and spice — than what I’ve been drinking lately. And yes, this tiny nutty fruitiness with a sour note pokes a head out from steeps 4-6 or so, then fades back in. The nuttiness lingers like a slightly bitter pecan, and the last several steeps brings out more and more sweetness, which fades away slowly. My second session with it I appreciated the roast notes more, since I wasn’t drinking it immediately after a session with gaoshan.
Body: The thickness is good and offsets some of the high roast, if this were a thin body tea I think I would not like it. This had me salivating afterwards also, which was interesting. The energy hit me hard and I thought my head suddenly expanded in size.
Overall this is an enjoyable tea. The roast is a bit heavy-handed at the front, but ends up adding complexity rather than dumbing down the tea to roast notes. It has a nice evolution from savory and smoky to sweet, with that short-lived little sour fruit note in the middle.
Edit: I let the second half of my sample sit around a bit before finishing. Some of the roast notes died off, and the throatiness and body of the tea stands out a bit more. I think at this level, the roast is perfect for this tea, and there is good rou gui flavor. This is a very enjoyable tea overall. My only complaint is that it steeps out quickly, and I haven’t been in a position to try boiling it.
Prep: 60 or 100cc gaiwan, 5g, boiling water, at first 5s steeps, increasing to chase flavor
Sessions with this tea: 5
Taste: Some good roast flavor at first which then backs off, some dry cacao which is not as in your face as other teas, very smooth overall. The tea shines through after the roast backs off, slightly floral for the shui xian spectrum but not too sweet.
Body: Medium thickness to the mouthfeel, good mineral strength. Moderate energy, sits in my neck and upper chest.
Overall enjoyable tea and I’m looking forward to more of Tea Yuan’s offerings. This is in the middle of the shui xian spectrum for me. There are much sweeter and more fragrant versions out there, and there are also much drier and roastier. I don’t tend to like the extreme ends of the spectrum, so this tea is in a happy middle ground.
Prep: 60 or 100cc gaiwan, 4-8g, boiling water, start at 5, (10, 15, 20, 30, etc)
Sessions with this tea: 10+
Taste: Boom big caramel to start. Yes sweet potato comes into the picture, as well as some anise. The menthol starts really early and is very cooling and very good. After steep 4 or so the caramel drops out and it turns into a kinda incensy woody sweetness with anise, still with some potato note. Only the late steeps lose the potato note and give a hearty, woody, pine/cedar flavor.
Body: Very thick mouthfeel, slurpy good. Mild, calming energy. The cooling/menthol sensation starts early and gets really intense through the middle steepings. This also retains its body and steeps out a lot longer than I expected for a black tea.
Extremely enjoyable. I continue to love floating leaves offerings. I’m glad I bought a larger quantity of this and look forward to continued enjoyment.
Prep: usually 100cc gaiwan, enough leaf to cover the bottom, 190F or boiling water. I give it a long rinse steep plus 5 minutes of sitting with the lid on to allow the leaves to open. Then usually something like 10s, 30s, 30s, 40s, 40s, 60s, 60s, then add time as necessary to chase flavor. I have tried flashing/shorter steeps, and I have tried much much longer steeps as well, but I like this method ok.
Sessions with this tea: 6
Taste: Starts out mildly floral sweet, a vegetal note comes into later steeps. Has a very “open” feel to it. Longer steeps brought out more sweetness, shorter/hotter brought out more veg.
Body: Very thick mouthfeel, slurpy good. Mild, calming energy. Good for early morning I think.
Very enjoyable. I continue to love floating leaves offerings.
This was sent to me twice as a sample by W2T (thank you then, W2T packing elves), so I’ve had about 6 sessions and feel more comfortable reviewing it.
Prep: 60cc or 100cc gaiwan. I didn’t measure this out, just made a nice thick mound in my gaiwan. I tried this with boiling and 190F water. Steeps starting at 10s and going up to about 3 min. Also one session with less leaf and 2-4 minute steeps in a cup, western style attempt.
Sessions with this tea: 6
This is a very sweet, almost caro-syrupy/molasses tea to me. Roasty toasty malt notes with a heavy-handed cocoa flavor which showed up in both the aroma and the early steeps. The malty notes stuck around and steeps 5-8 were somewhat less intense with sweetness. I couldn’t seem to push much more out of this. This one is far too sweet for me to drink often, and if there were a category of “dessert teas” I would probably place this one there. I would probably recommend this tea for people who like black teas as a tea that has enough complexity and hits all the high notes to be enjoyable regularly, but I don’t see that it’s still for sale.
So I wanted to push myself to do these reviews because I want to force myself to be more objective about tea. I’ve been drinking for years and mainly I just chug, and find that when I talk to people I’m either like “I like this” or not but can’t say why. So anyways. I like this tea and I can’t say why, because every time I have it I just end up chugging it. It’s got a little bitterness which feels very “concentrated” somehow, but like I said I didn’t stop to think about why. Otherwise is sweet but not overpowering and not too floral. It has good thick mouthfeel. For some reason the energy it gives feels very “concentrated” also: didn’t give me jitters or make me feel teadrunk, but made me feel like I was going somewhere. Very affordable. 4 sessions so far.
Summary: Apricot-honey pudding hiding in teacup, but never feels like tea
Prep: 60cc gaiwan, 3-4g, boiling water, steeps starting at 10s and going up to about 3 min
Sessions with this tea: 3
Taste: As others have mentioned correctly, apricot honey dominates. Starts out with some astringency turning into sweetness, which then fades and is just mild sweet. A tiny bit floral and mildly mineral. Good aftertaste, lasts several hours. Is pleasant but kinda bland.
Body: Very thick mouthfeel. I don’t get much energy from this tea at all though. Or really any body feeling. If there hadn’t been hot water in my mouth I wouldn’t have known I was drinking tea.
Moderate, pleasant but will probably not buy a larger quantity of this one.
2011 Xing Ren Xiang Almond Aroma dancong, from Tea Habitat
Summary: I dunno if almond aroma or almond flower aroma, but I certainly convinced myself of the nuts
Prep: 100cc gaiwan, full of leaves, boiling flash infusions at first. After infusion 5, dropped temp to 190 and increased steeps out to chase flavor
Sessions with this tea: 2
Taste: Ok I convinced myself I got the almond flavor as soon as it gets in the mouth. Closed my nose, no almond. Opened my nose, almond. Maybe I’m crazy? Is very fleeting flavor though. I didn’t get a lot else from this tea, mildly floral, mildly nutty.
Body: light and smooth together, not as “bright” as I tend to think of dancongs
Not a beginner tea? I felt like I was tinkering a lot to draw out the essence. Maybe I need more sessions with it.
Summary: Easygoing but really good dancong
Prep: 100cc gaiwan full to brim with dry leaf, boiling water, flash infusions at first. About 10-15sec for 4 and 5, and then dropped temp to 190F and steeped out as long as necessary to chase the flavor.
Sessions with this tea: 6
Taste: I don’t understand the flavor, because I’ve not had anything really comparable. At first I wanted to say lemon-lime like 7-up. Plus it had that effervescent and high fragrance feeling of dancong. Then it settled down to like fresh pear with some spices mixed in. It was fresh and floral the whole way without being overly sweet, which is nice.
Body: medium, effervescent feeling, bright. Really delayed buzzing energy.
This tea steeped out for a really long time. I would say this is relatively beginner friendly, but the price! Also I don’t know if this one is still available.
