361 Tasting Notes
My TTC order arrived!!! And just so there aren’t any secrets… I ordered samples of every black yea. Yes, ALL of them. I mean, if it’s free shipping for samples over $25, I might as well try them all!!! (The only one I didn’t get was the 30 year aged one as I tried a sample from Sil and it wasn’t for me.)
I tried this one first as it is described as the lightest. I like light tea in the afternoon. Super dark (Assam) in the AM with cream and honey, then a fujian or laoshan or rizhao in the late morning, then a nice light black tea in the afternoon. Just a pattern I’ve noticed about myself lately. Anyway…
The tea!! Sweet! Cinnamony, sweetpotato/pumpkiny! Actually, I’m not sure if I could tell the difference between this and Butiki’s Taiwanese Wild Mountain Black. I’ll taste them side by side at some point. Right now as Taiwanese teas are new to me, they all kind of taste the same, but i’m sure i’ll start picking up on some differences soon enough. But bottom line, i’m really enjoying this one. Glad I tried it first!
hahahahaha i love their sample sizes! and the packaging :) I picked up my order today as well so yay for that! my first order was the same as yours – samples of every black tea. This time i got larger amounts of a bunch of them…that i was going to share with you and terri haha
that’s funny, you did the same thing with yezi teas. I grabbed a larger quantity to send you guys for the next go round, and then read your review of one of the teas I was going to send and was like, doh! We are just so eager to try ALL of the teas :-)
My TTC order included some blacks, & some of the aged oolongs.
As for sharing teas we may have already tried, oh well, right? As long as it’s tea we like, it’s all good!
TB – i think that was the free sample they sent. I tried to pick samples that weren’t the ones you said you were going to be sending heh
Yeah, they are super generous with samples! But I have plenty more teas up my sleeve to send, I’m always thinking about 3 boxes ahead :-)
About a month ago, I inquired about a tea at a shop on aliexpress.com. The shop, at the time, was primarily a LED lighting store, but had a random tea section that carried a Rizhao tea I enjoy. When I mentioned how much I like Rizhao tea to the shop owner, Martin, he started telling me about his father-in-law’s tea plantation and was eager for me to try it. We chatted via the chat interface on aliexpress about our mutual love of tea and our tea friendship began. Since that time, he switched his store from being primarily lighting, to being a tea shop with a random lighting section. He continually asked for feedback and took to heart my recommendations. He is a very knowledgeable tea seller and eager to share his knowledge and love of tea with anyone who wants to know.
Anyway… This is the green tea from his father in law’s plantation. And the best green tea I’ve ever had. It’s so fresh. The taste is very similar in it’s bean flavor to Laoshan Green. In fact, when they’re hot they are very similar. But as they cool the Rizhao is less buttery and spinachy, and instead finishes with a cinnamon sugar caramel flavor, it’s super interesting. I made some Laoshan Green immediately after to test the differences and while I still love the savoriness of LG, I really love the sweet finish of the Rhizao.
I plan on ordering more soon and would be happy to send a few samples around. I’d really like to help him out. It can be overwhelming to sift through all the crap on aliexpress, if you want a place to start, check it out!
Did you send any our way? If not let me know whe you go to place your next order…
That is so cool! This shop is definitely on my list for when I start making purchases again.
I love it when you are looking in a store either online, or in person, and it is a store nothing to do with tea, but they have a surprise stock of tea to sell. This is usually where I find the best and most unique teas.
Sil- I haven’t sent the box on yet, most likely will hit the mail tomorrow. And yep, I’m throwing in some of this for you guys to try. I can send you a little extra for you if you want to share some around with the canadian folk.
Dinosara- He doesn’t sell much Rizhao Black tea yet. My favorite source for that so far is: http://www.aliexpress.com/store/225551 She is also in Rizhao city. She has about 8-10 rizhao black teas on her site and she can tell you which season each is picked and if it was 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. That’s how the pricing is set up. It’s kind of hard to decipher so just ask her.
Lala- Yeah, the shop I told Dinosara about is a t-shirt shop. Funny.
Thanks for the tip! It’s always astounding to me the amazing tea you find in odd places!
TB – that would be up to the crew here. If it gets to me before you place your next order i might get you to add some extras. You know me..love to try new teas heh
The link in your review leads to a 404. Would you be able to link to the shop directly? I tried searching for “Sun C-Tea Shop” but it only comes up with Body Shop stuff. :)
Weird, I just clicked the link earlier and looked at it! The shop’s page must be down.
I asked him to add some yixing ware to his shop, so he is totally updating everything. He is incredibly responsive and thorough. I’ll post when it comes back. It’s now 1am there so won’t be until tonight.
cough tea animals…
Hi everyone, it looks like he has his teas back up. You can find the shop at http://www.aliexpress.com/store/731315
That’s the specific tea from his father in laws plantation
thanks TB and yyz
Finally finished off my bag of this that is well over a year old. I really enjoyed it. It’s aptly named. It’s a classic rich black tea that, in my opinion, is best with cream and honey. I would probably reorder this (and may in the future) but I have so many morning black teas I need to get through before I even think of buying more. Especially teas I drink with milk and honey. They all end up tasting pretty similar anyway. Now unique black teas I drink plain, I can always squeeze one more in my cupboard …
I desperately want to love this tea. Or even, just like it a lot. But I can’t seem to get there. There are so many aspects that i love, the rich dark chocolate, the malt, the roast, the sweet… but there is one flavor in there that just kills it for me. I don’t know if I’d describe it as earthy, or mushroomy or maybe even blue cheesy (I don’t like blue, goat, stinky cheese), just funky. It is a note that is also present in Golden Fleece and therefore I don’t like golden fleece much either. I brewed this gongfu to see if I could isolate the flavor, but nope, it’s just there. In every steep. Ugh. So much potential.
This tea is one of Terri’s contributions to the BBBB. I had no expectations, good or bad for this as it’s a totally new kind of tea. I brewed it up gongfu style as Terri mentioned in her note that she wanted to try it that way. This is a great gongfu tea. Each steeping is decidedly different than the previous. The first was very sweet with a hint of the basic Yunnan flavors. The second was savory, almost like herb chicken (I know, wacky). The third so far is very strong honey and Yunnan again. This is a fun tea! Kind of like tea roulette! Never know what the next flavor is going to be! I’m curious how this brews up western style. I’ll try that next time, but I think this is probably best as gongfu. Thanks Terri!
Wow. All I can say is wow. After drinking the aged tea I wanted something sweet to end my taiwainese tasting day and debated between wild mountain black and this one. I ended up with this one only because I haven’t had it in a while. I brewed it gongfu for the first time ever. The first steep seriously took my breath away. Smells and tastes like butter, honey, and peaches. So sweet and juicy. Oh my. Taiwan… you have truly won me over today. I was a pretty die hard china fan, but I can open up my heart for you.
Side note… I’ve been using this tiny little strainer that Meiqin from Yezi sent me as a free gift to pour my gongfu teas through and I am in love with it. Before I was using just a basic tea strainer or kitchen strainer. This thing is so fine that absolutely no particles get through so the cup is clear liquid. Thanks again Meiqin!
Another sample from Sil. This is a pretty interesting aged tea. Much sweeter than I’m used to! Still very earthy, but not fish at all. I’ll make it through a few more steeps, but I still haven’t developed a love for the aged teas yet. Thanks Sil for letting me try it!
hmmm i don’t think this one was up when i placed my order heh
It’s really good. I can send you a sample next box. It’s super grapy-peachy up front and then as it cools tastes a little more like the yuchi mountain one. And a little more rich and complex. Yeah, I’ll send you some :-)