289 Tasting Notes

drank 2017 Natural Redhead by white2tea
289 tasting notes

I have tried this Tea twice and it has not gone well. It is kind of flat and thin and has a cardboard taste even when heavily leafed. Wondering what others think who have tried it? Did I get a bad cake or is this just how it is?

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

89

If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought this was a Laoshan Black Tea. It tastes of chocolate and malt. I was surprised at how small the leaves are given that it is a wild grown tea. It is quite tasty.

Sil

Interesting!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

90

A very nice Dayi raw. I’d even put this one up against some of the boutique pu erhs and I would venture to guess it would hold up well in comparison. The liquor is gold. It is fairly sweet, with some honey and Lucky Charms notes. A very easy drinker with just a touch of bitterness. King Tea sells this for $32 for a full size cake, I think this one is well worth the price and a good one to shove away for the future.

mrmopar

The price is still down on eBay as well. Good value. I remember the 2006 one..

tea123

Care to share which boutique tea you are thinking of?

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

91

Finally, a middle-aged tea that I really enjoy! This must have been very dry-stored, I would even venture to guess this is how most of us in the U.S. will see our cakes age. Or maybe some of its character comes from the fact that it is a brick, and tightly compressed, rather than a cake. The color is deep gold-amber. There is absolutely no whiff of that mushroomy flavor that inevitably prevails in much of the aged pu erh I’ve had. It is zingy, sweet, a little fruity, with just a faint hint of leather/tobacco/smoke. Good astringency, and super charged qi. This hits the mark for me after a long time of searching and trying different aged pu’s. Hoping the brick doesn’t differ too much from this sample as I plan to order one…

Yang-chu

What raws have you had that were “mushroomy” that come to mind?

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

90
drank Zui Ni Hong by gylxtea
289 tasting notes

Received a second set of nearly free samples from glyxtea yesterday! They will send free samples to you, too (check the discussion forums). While they send mostly pu erh, I got one sample of black tea. It is a really nice tea. Beautiful leaves. On the first sip, it is almost like a taiwanese Ruby 18 – minty! As the flavor settles, I find it to be like a cross between a Taiwan black and a Yunnan black. Some malty sweet potato mixed with minty goodness. Overall a very nice tea.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

88
drank 2017 Bang Dong by gylxtea
289 tasting notes

Quite the qi on this one! This is another very fine tea from glyxtea. It’s the second one I’ve tried so far. One thing that stands out is that both have had excellent broth color and clarity. This one has some super qi – I am getting hot and prickly at just the third steep, and I think my face is turning red. The tea is strong, but also light and crisp, with some high note bitterness throughout. It is also buttery, like young shengs often are, which I take to be a sign of good processing. Overall a very nice tea.

mrmopar

I really like this one too.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

89
drank Lao Jian Shan 2017 by gylxtea
289 tasting notes

This is an excellent tea. It is fairly light, crisp, and dry, with some good bitterness. The leaf quality is very good, and the broth is crystal clear. It is a very nice tea, and I thank Glyxtea for sending me a free sample.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

89

I purchased a sample of this based on the positive reviews. The leaves are huge, I could barely fit them in my pot. The tea brews a very thick broth, with excellent clarity. The buttery-ness of young sheng is present early on. The flavor is pretty good, I would say it has heavy base notes with very little top notes. In other words, it is thick and heavy and strong tasting, but light on more subtle notes, like fruit or citrus. It also has very little bitterness, just a touch. For me, that is a minus, as it is not aggressive enough for my tastes. Bottom line is that the quality of this tea is excellent, and it lasted longer than I could drink. It is very sturdy. Qi was mellow.

tanluwils

Interesting! I purchased two cakes because I found it to be fantastically bitter and have great qi. It’s hard for me to pin down distinct flavor notes for this one, as it’s still evolving quickly in my tupperware pumidor, but I like where it’s heading.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

87

So I found a sample of this that I traded for with mrmopar maybe two years ago. It was stored in my pumidor in a Mylar zip lock sample bag. Interestingly, I suspect this created a mini micro climate that sped up the aging process. The brew was very dark, basically shu dark. Very strong qi.

It tastes of mushroom, hints of fruit, and other agey type flavors. I think this is a good example of a humid stored tea done on the dry side. I’m not sure how much I like it. I don’t care for the mushroom flavor that these types of aged teas have. I wonder if I can age that out of it? I suspect not. But it is a very reasonably priced semi aged semi humid stored factory tea. Good to have on your bucket list for education sake.

I also ordered a new sample of this from YS. I will see if it is any different than my sample aged at home. That should prove interesting…

Cwyn

Very interesting! I’m curious to know what you think of the new sample. Mr. Mopar’s teas are aged very well and perhaps it just got further along in the bag. I suspect that the profile will change with airing. Sheng continues to change, and maybe that flavor note you’re not fond of will too.

ashmanra

Hi, Rich! For some reason you don’t appear as a contact when I tried to send you a message. I see you review puerh a lot, and a friend has recently joined to learn about tea and is especially interested in puerh. Would you mind following Comm Guy so he can find your reviews easily? Thank you!

Rich

Hello! I just followed you, that should help. I don’t know how to find comm guy to follow him, though.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Profile

Location

Buffalo, NY

Following These People

Moderator Tools

Mark as Spammer