39 Tasting Notes

I cold brewed it for almost a day this time. It tastes much closer to its dry aroma this way than it has any time I’ve brewed it hot, but I think I left it too long.

Flavors: Bitter, Dark Chocolate, Roasted, Wood

Bluegreen

That’s interesting. I really liked how this tea tasted for me but I liked the dry leaf smell even more. I will certainly try your method.

RyanG

I liked it at first, but got bored quickly. It’s not very complex and is mostly just aromatic. I’m experimenting with reroasting it now and really like the results so far.

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I roasted a couple sessions’ worth of Teavivre’s Taiwan Monkey Picked Tieguanyin a little further a few days ago, just because. Here’s session #1; #2 will be in a couple months to compare after it’s rested a bit.

In the first few infusions, the nuttiness of this tea is definitely intensified by the roasting, but it also changed from a more generic roasty, nutty flavor to a specific almond note. There’s something almost Dancong-like in this that I can’t identify. While the tea wasn’t spicy at all before, there’s now a hint of spice in the finish. It’s not strong enough to tell what it is. There’s also a mild sweet potato note. The creamy mouthfeel doesn’t seem to have changed.

It seems to lose flavor sooner, which is the opposite of what i expected. Brewing for at least a minute produces a cup of creamy sweetness with little flavor except roast by the fifth infusion. Hopefully as the new roast settles this will improve.

Flavors: Almond, Plum, Roasted, Spices, Sweet Potatoes

derk

How did you roast the tea?

RyanG

Oven at 200 (as low as mine goes) with the door slightly open to keep it from getting too hot and burning the tea. I can’t remember how long I roasted it, I paid more attention to how roasted it smelled and looked than time.

derk

I haven’t had the desire to re/roast any tea until I read your review. I might have to give it a try next time I’m in the woods for a few weeks. Cast iron wok over a low heat, low smoke fire.

RyanG

What are you planning on roasting? I’m finding that 200 degrees works well, and leaving the door open was unnecessary. 200 for 40 minutes has become my standard roast for this tea and especially Teavivre’s Huang Guanyin, which became exactly what I wanted after the roast. That’s how I’ll do the rest of what I roast of those two. I tried roasting some of the Huang Guanyin for an hour and a half and it was too roasted and mostly lost the chocolate. I don’t know how any of this information would translate to your method and whatever you want to roast (obviously it depends on how roasted it is to begin with and how roasted you want it to be), but hopefully this helps some.

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Although the roast isn’t heavy, it’s enough that the bright floral aroma of a green Taiwanese oolong has been deepened slightly, blending well with the nutty note brought out by the roast. Once the leaves open up in my gaiwan, it’s easy to see the two teas that make up this blend. Some of the leaves are a little smaller and more heavily oxidized, while the others are larger, nicer looking, more typically Taiwanese pairs of greener leaves, leaving no ambiguity as to which ones are Gui Fei and which are Jade.

While the mouthfeel is a bit thin at first, it does thicken up later and sticks to the back of my throat, which combined with the floral and honey notes gives the impression of wildflower honey. It’s quite fruity as well, with a pleasantly sour lemony note early on and various stone fruits coming and going throughout the session, peaches and apricots being the most obvious. Cinnamon shows up in the first half of the session, while the second half gets more woody. The last infusion has a wonderful finish of honeyed peaches that doesn’t want to end.

If my description makes this sound like a powerful flavor bomb, don’t get the wrong idea. It’s not. The experience is more in the aroma and the sweet, long lasting aftertaste than the flavor when it’s in your mouth, so I wouldn’t suggest this to someone who can only appreciate a tea with a strong flavor.

Don’t be afraid to pour just boiled water and brew this for a very, very long time. Unlike a lot of oolongs, especially Dancongs, this tastes best with long infusions. The mouthfeel thickens, it gets sweeter, more aromatic, more complex, and the sweet honey, fruity, floral aftertaste lasts longer.

Flavors: Cinnamon, Floral, Honey, Lemon, Peach, Roasted Nuts, Wood

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I usually use my gaiwan to brew white tea, but still I use a small amount and steep it for longer times. This time I tried actually brewing it gongfu style with a large amount of leaves and short infusions. I also tried some longer infusions just as an experiment, and it still never got bitter or astringent. I’ve come to the conclusion that white tea doesn’t care what you do to it. It’s not delicate or fragile at all despite its reputation. Put whatever amount of leaves you want in whatever brewing device is closest to you and pour whatever temperature water you feel like over it and drink it after a randomly determined length of time and it will taste good.

This particular tea is basically the Keemun of white tea: tangy fruity, wine-like flavors, full mouthfeel (could just be the amount of leaves I used this time), and spicy finish.

Flavors: Autumn Leaf Pile, Cinnamon, Cranberry, Creamy, Dried Fruit, Herbs, Red Wine, Spices, Strawberry, Wood

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I got an ounce of some generically named “Darjeeling” (so probably a blend of estates and flushes) at a coffee shop yesterday and I’ve been drinking it all day trying to figure out how to get more flavor out of it. It’s very mild and I think it’s getting stale, but the flavor it does have I’d describe as fruity, woody, and mildly spicy (I’ve been noticing this in a lot of tea lately). It has a pretty typical Darjeeling character. There’s nothing unusual in body, astringency, etc. It probably would have been pretty good a year ago, but now it’s a bit bland.

Flavors: Fruity, Spices, Wood

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For some reason, I got an ounce of an Assam from the Mangalam Estate a few months ago at a tea shop. I rarely drink Assam because I generally prefer to make Chinese black tea in my gaiwan. I finished the Keemun I got at the same time a while ago (I really need more Keemun), while I still have enough left for a few cups of this.

This is different from what I think of as the typical Assam. I brewed it quite strongly, but it lacks the tannic bite I expect from Assam, despite being a broken grade. Instead, the texture reminds me of a smooth, full-bodied Ceylon, like something from the Kenilworth Estate. It has notes of caramel, sweet potatoes, malt, and cinnamon, and finishes with enough different spices that adding milk and sugar would probably taste like masala chai. I’ve never had such a spicy unflavored tea. It’s not just the slight peppery sharpness at the back of your throat that so many other teas have. This tea literally tastes like I added spices while I was brewing it, like I started making masala chai and then quit halfway through. This works much better than it seems like it should, and I actually really enjoy it. The spiciness lingers for a few minutes after the last sip.

Flavors: Caramel, Cinnamon, Malt, Spices, Sweet Potatoes

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This is an intensely fragrant tea, smelling like very dark chocolate and flowers. The taste is, for the most part, very different from the dry aroma: roasted, charcoal, and tobacco flavors mixed with savory grains, plus a mild sharpness at the back of my throat that reminds me of black pepper. Sometimes I get some fruity notes out of this tea, but not this time. The mouthfeel starts out thick and sticks to the back of my throat, but it gets thin fairly quickly and starts feeling more rough and roasty. Early infusions have a minty cooling sensation in the finish that I usually only get in green oolongs. It’s still present in later infusions, but it’s more subtle.

I have mixed feelings about this tea. I prefer oolongs that are roasted but don’t actually smell or taste very roasty, so I’m not a fan of how dominant the roast notes are here, and the mouthfeel thins out a little too quickly. I was also disappointed when I got this that nothing I did produced tea with a taste or aroma that compared to that of the dry leaves. However, I have had good sessions with this tea, when it tastes sweeter and more fruity. If you like roasty tasting oolongs, this is a good value, but it’s not really my kind of tea.

Flavors: Dark Chocolate, Floral, Grain, Pepper, Tobacco

derk

Sounds similar to my experience with huang guan yin and also a jin mu dan from a different vendor. Can’t say I enjoy those cultivars.

RyanG

I haven’t had a lot of Wuyi oolongs, so I don’t have opinions on cultivars yet. Honestly, the other ones I’ve had weren’t much better. I don’t know if I just don’t like Wuyi oolongs or if I would need to try a higher quality one to understand them.

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This starts out very mellow for such a young sheng. Despite the strong aroma of black pepper as soon as hot water was poured over it, the first several infusions were very smooth; later infusions were darker orange in color, like I’d expect from a sheng with more age, but tasted more like a typical young sheng. It’s slightly astringent right after swallowing, but the hui gan makes up for that by slowly refilling my mouth with sweetness and somehow making me feel more hydrated a couple minutes after finishing the cup than I did immediately after. This effect fades later in the session. The mouthfeel is soft and smooth, but not in a creamy way, more like a Keemun than a high mountain oolong. This changes to a thinner, sharper texture later on with more tannins. I lost track of how many infusions I got out of it, but it was probably at least a dozen.

This isn’t the most complex sheng I’ve had, but that also means it’s more consistent. After a few sessions I feel like I know what to expect from it. The flavors are mostly on the grassy, vegetal, and herbal side, with savory, earthy mushrooms, a plum-like sweetness, and a bit of a peppery bite keeping it from tasting too much like green tea.

Late in the session, a calm, euphoric energy hit me suddenly. I don’t know what causes the “tea drunk” sensation, but there’s definitely something to this tea that feels very different from a caffeine overdose (trust me, I know that feeling too well and dislike it immensely).

I don’t know enough about puerh to be able to say how this will age, but at the current price, this is a great deal and I’ll probably buy a cake.

Flavors: Grass, Green Bell Peppers, Mushrooms, Pepper, Plum, Vegetal

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Good, balanced Dancong with everything I want from this type of tea: the unique floral aroma as well as the sweet fruitiness, enough notes of various other things (spices, sweet potatoes, etc.) to make it complex enough to be interesting and constantly evolving, and the thick, creamy texture that’s probably half of what I love about Dancong (as well as sheng puerh). It’s quite sensitive to what tea to water ratio you use, a characteristic I took advantage of this time by using a smaller amount of tea and varying the amount of water I poured in my gaiwan. Unlike some other more affordable oolongs, it seemed to resteep forever as well. I got over 10 infusions from it today. I’m now out of Dancong, unfortunately. Not sure if I’ll reorder this or try something else first.

Flavors: Creamy, Floral, Herbs, Lemon, Peach, Spices, Sweet Potatoes

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Bio

I mostly drink roasted oolongs, Chinese black tea, Darjeeling, and occasionally sheng puerh, aged white tea, or Japanese green tea. Assam, Ceylon, etc., don’t interest me much, and I don’t like flavored tea except Earl Grey and chai.

I don’t think rating tea is very helpful when everyone rates on a different scale and looks for different things in tea, so I will probably never rate anything I review.

Aside from tea, I also like single origin coffee, wine, and craft beer. Other interests include listening to and making music, music-related electronics, sci-fi and fantasy, writing, and cooking.

Location

Michigan

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