123 Tasting Notes
I almost never have teabags in my apartment but I am currently stuck at home for the next couple of weeks and my parents have a gigantic amount of teabags. So I thought I would review some and try to restrain from sounding like a loose tea snob. This darjeeling isn’t terrible considering its twinnings but its still pretty bland with a flat muscatel flavor. It has a slight sweetness but it borders on tasting like dust. I drink it straight, milk and sugar would just make it a glorified milkshake in my mind. Meh.
This is a simple nice oolong with a wonderful roasted nut flavor at the end of every sip. It almost tastes like roasted corn at a summer picnic. It doesn’t have the sweetness or vegetal taste of lighter greener oolongs and is perfect when you want a little more bite to your oolong. I love trying teas from places other then china and india and this tea can definitely stand on its own when compared to chinese oolongs. After seeing lord of the rings I’m sure New Zealand has many perfect places to grow and process tea. Very nice.
First steeping is sweet and vegetal with a slight nutty taste. 2nd steeping has a lot more floral flavors and has a lot more crispness. Its a very reliable tie guan yin and has both the lightness of a green tea and the richness of an oolong. Its also in my shelf next to my bag of verdant tea tieguanyin, which couldn’t be more different. Both are fantastic teas but CTG is lighter while Verdant had a richer spicier taste. I love both and plan to buy both in the future when I run out.
This is my first experience with matcha besides genmaicha/matcha blends. I read the directions and saw that it recommended a half teaspoon and I promptly ignored that and dumped a hefty teaspoon into my mug. That was stupid. The matcha has sifted to the bottom and I’ve been adding more and more hot water to my mug so its kinda like I’m imitating multiples steepings. I know a whisk is usually used as well as a sifter so I might think of getting those. The tea itself is quite nice despite my mistakes, its vegetal and sweet and just tastes healthy. It reminds me of the tea version of naked green machine juice but a lot less sweet.
I got this pu-erh in a very generous sampler box from Teavivre. This pu-erh has a much more pronounced leather taste as opposed to soil taste and less sweet then most. I love drinking it after dinner and find it incredibly relaxing. A one minute steep brought out the interesting leather flavor while a second steeping at two minutes has a sharp cooking chocolate taste. Nice late night tea.
Compared to my other shu pu-erh from adagio this one is a lot more interesting. Sweeter and lighter in the first steep (after rinse) but still rich and complex, a slight brown sugar quality. This pu-erh also does not smell like rot but instead has a sweeter mustier smell. Further steepings are more of the same and the leaves do not evolve too much. Last steep was ten minutes and there was no bitterness at all. Not a bad pu-erh but I’m still not a huge fan of shu pu-erh
After Big Red Robe and their autumn tie guan yin I’m falling in love with all of verdant teas. This is one of best yunnan’s I’ve had. Instead of pepper being the overriding flavor the first steeping is creamy with an aftertaste of vanilla bean gelato and cinnamon. The tea is very forgiving and can handle longer steeps in which the flavor expands even more. 2nd steeping has that chocolate milk taste which is really interesting. This tea has a lightness and stamina of a dark oolong which I really like.
I wouldn’t normally think that Fairway loose tea would be anything special but for the price this is one nice keemun. I love Fairway and always miss it when I leave the NY area. This keemun is smooth with a slight chocolate aftertaste, not the richest keemun I’ve ever had but its a great everyday tea.
I did take a camel ride in the middle east once but I’m not sure I could tell you what their breath smelled like. This tea with its shitake mushroom and peat smell might come pretty close. I did a 30 second first steep. First steep is light and soupy with a hint of caviar at the end. 2nd infusion 45 seconds and much darker, thicker and soupier with a sharper aftertaste.
This oolong has a nice mineral aftertaste just like the other rock oolongs I’ve had. I taste a little bit of the honey but the peach is very faint. It has an interesting grittiness that the other wuyi oolongs didn’t have, almost sandy. The roasted flavor is great and comes through strongly without being overpowering.
