TeaEarleGreyHot Send Message

Rediscovering these delicious TRES cultivars grown in Taiwan. This time I brewed 2.5g of Brandy Oolong / Ruby 18 / Red Jade in 8oz 90°C spring water. Ditto everything I wrote on it 4 yr ago. Still rates as 100 and is my #1 favorite tea. Worth every penny. ’Nuff said.

I’ve taken a break from this tea, which I previously adored, and it’s set there for a few years in its mylar bag in my tea cabinet. Tealyra does not track lot numbers or production dates for this tea (or most others), but it does bear a “best by” date of June 2022. So it’s safe to say I’ve had it for 3-4 years.

And I STILL adore this tea! It is the standard-bearer of the “assamica flavor and aroma”, despite being grown in Taiwan [It’s actually a bit unclear whether it is the hybrid TTES #18 as suggested by the Tealyra description, or the assamic varietal from Jaipur, TTES #8 as implied by its name. For details on these designations, see https://teapedia.org/en/Cultivar#Taiwan ] Note that Tealyra also sells a “Brandy Oolong Ruby 18” which is equally delicious and almost indistinguishable from Black Beauty, depending upon the lot number.

I steeped 3-4 g in 8oz boiling alpine spring water for 4 min. but the deep rich brown color had fully developed in 2 min. and the huge leaves had fully relaxed. The aroma brings a smile to my face, a unique combination of brown sugar, malt and raisin. The flavor was devoid of astringency even when oversteeped, very smooth, sweet, and initially with a minty cooling sensation despite being piping hot. There is a hint of honey, too. As I sipped along on it, the minty quality dissipated, but the other elements remained and I noted and enjoyed the extended finish (aftertaste) as I wrote these notes. By the time it had cooled down to tepidness, the aroma and finish dominated, suggesting that it might be splendid as an iced beverage. Note that I never add milk to tea, though others seem to think assams benefit from it. I could see it would be nice if sweetened, but didn’t feel the need to do so. I still rate it as a perfect 100.

Well, now, I’ve had this Changtai raw/sheng for a couple years in my dark tea cabinet at 62 %RH, making it now 18 yrs old. Let’s see how it tastes today! The leaf in this cake is in large pieces, 1-2 inches long, and not too tightly compressed, so it was easy to pick off 5 g.

Gave it a quick rinse of 5s under hot tap water, then 5s more with boiling spring water. Successive infusions in 3 oz boiling alpine spring water:
15s- Golden orange soup, withered tea on the nose. Slightly tannic in the first sip, with notes of wood and malt coating the tongue and mouth.
20s- Same, but a little smoother.
30s- The tea leaf flavor is picking up here.
45s- Same golden orange soup, but the tannic notes are declining, to reveal some astringency and a longer smooth finish. No defects, but no other flavor notes either.
—[paused an hour, boiled more water and continued infusing]—
30s- Same golden orange soup, tea, wood, hint of chamomile taste.
90s- Same golden orange soup, returning astringency while other flavors decline.
2min- Ditto.
3min- Ditto.
Overall, while this isn’t a bad tea, it is a disappointment. Going back into storage for a few more years. I have better tea to drink.

My tin of this Uva Highlands tea is now over five years old, and I find today that I like it more than I did previously. Either it has gotten stale, or improved with age… You decide! Or perhaps this reflects my switch to using alpine spring water instead of murky tapwater. So I’m boosting my rating by ten points. The leaf is deep chocolatey-brown in color, and composed of broken particles a few mm in diameter, and swelling to about twice that post-steep. They do not appear to have been rolled as a typical CTC product. I used a rounded teaspoonful of tea in a stainless steel infusion basket and 10 ounces of boiling spring water, steeping for four minutes in my mug, western style.

The result was a medium brown, clear liquor. I still detect the characteristic wintergreen aroma on the nose and on the tongue at the start of each sip. But the tea is very strong, astringent, and slightly bitter. Overall, I am enjoying it, but have decided I just don’t like the wintergreen notes. Beyond that, I find a long cedar-wood finish, consisting primarily of what I call the characteristic Ceylon flavor, distinct from the Assamic flavor and others that you might assign to tea types and cultivars, such as China Black, Long Jing, etc. I think it may be interesting to try a steeping at reduced temperature to see if I can knock-down the astringency and bitter notes, allowing the other traits to emerge.

This 2019 Ba Da Mountain ripe Puer from YS is an “older brother” to the 2020 material which I previously reviewed. It is very similar to the 2020, but not quite as complex in its flavors. YS’s description is pretty accurate. I really like it (which is good since I have a full cake of it).

I gongfu’d this session across 12 steepings of 30 seconds each, in succession, using hot alpine spring water well-off the boil (measured at 85°C), poured on 5g leaf in 3 ounce porcelain espresso cups (pre rinsed in the same water for 10 sec), using a stainless steel infusion basket. The earliest infusions were very dark brown liquors, lightening as I proceeded. See them all in the attached photo, going diagonally from left to right. You can see that a few jumped in intensity, because the wet leaf rested a minute between steepings as I heated more water (#6) and fetched more cups (#9). The flavor and aroma were remarkably consistent across all 12 infusions.

It is possible that additional flavors and slight bitterness might have been noticible had I used boiling water, as usual for Pu’erhs, but I was wanting to try and achieve a higher level of smoothness in this session. And I think it was successful in that! In the future I’ll go back to western-style steeping because the effort of all this just isn’t justified by the result (nevermind all the washing-up!)

Found this at the bottom of an office file box, in a zipper baggie. No idea where I got it, or when: 3–8 yrs ago. These are simple, string-tag tea bags, containing ground or milled chamomile flower particles. Brewed 1 bag in 8 oz boiling alpine spring water for 4 min. Nice aroma of chamomile. Taste is somewhat diminished as compared to fresh, whole chamomile obtained elsewhere, possibly due to age or processing or cultivar and terroir. BUT it is still potent and relaxing after a long day of sipping a bunch of other teas! Nice long finish, too. No off-flavor imparted by the (paper) bag or string. I’m sure it was inexpensive and I had only kept the front panel of the box, as pictured. As a straight single-herb tisane, the flavor is unidimensional but, if one wanted a simple chamomile tisane, this could hit the spot. PS: looking up the tea company, I see they are located in Croatia some 60 km from Zagreb. How exciting! They say the Croatian chamomile is the best in the world :-)

Just the basic Long Jing offered by Tealyra, not “westlake” or “supreme” or any of the other superlatives that they occasionally market. And over the years, I’ve found this to be just as good as their fancier versions anyway, though those are long gone from my tea cupboard. This 100 g mylar bag has been sealed up in my darkened tea cabinet for about two years. Nice long unbroken, brittle flat blades of tea leaf, with an almost waxy feel to them.

Today I over-infused 2.5 g in 16 oz boiling spring water for a half hour. You could call that Wild-Western Style! And I ended up with two cups of quaffable (golden yellow) green tea having a little astringent bite (“wild”) and plenty of the very typical Dragon Well vegetal flavor and aroma. Savory, nutty (more like pecan, less like walnut or hazelnut), grassy with hint of steamed edamame, nice long finish… exactly what we expect from a cuppa Long Jing! If I’d stopped the steep at 6 minutes it would have been perfect! And, modestly priced, while being unfussy at the same time. Satisfying!

So, I think this may be the same product as listed and reviewed by others 7–8 yr ago at:
http://steepster.com/teas/beautiful-taiwan-tea-company/72057-red-jade-highest-quality

This was the expected wiry strands of large, intact black tea leaves of the famous hybrid variety grown in Nantou County, Taiwan. BUT mine were not labeled as “highest quality” nor as an oolong. Maybe it has to do with the production year? Mine was the Summer 2020 harvest, and I bought it 3 yr ago, so the BTTC description might have been different then as well, but I didn’t think to capture it back then.

I steeped 2.5 g in 4 oz alpine spring water at 90°C for 2 min, 4 times in succession. Great malty aroma, flavors of malt, brown sugar, mineral and assamic heritage that nicely complemented my breakfast of Lucky Charms cereal (oat puffs with marshmallow bits). Not bitter or astringent, and not as pleasing as other TRES #18 teas I’ve had, but still very good. I finished off the leaves with additional steepings with boiling water, to get another two cups of good tea.

“What’s that flattened gold bag on the bottom shelf of the tea cabinet?? It’s the last 5g of Taiwanese tieguanyin that I bought some 6 years ago from BTTC! Let’s finish it off.” So I dumped the 5.25 g into the basket of my 16oz western-style teapot, poured in boiling alpine spring water, and let it steep for 6 minutes.

Labeled as “TIEGUANYIN Roasted Muzha, 2016” I believe it is the same product others have reviewed here, as several mention it being roasted, despite not having it in the title, and at present even the BTTC description doesn’t mention roasting. My first cupful was sooo flavorful! I cannot even begin to describe, but derk, eastkyguy, and others have done a wonderful job of capturing the essence of this tea in their notes here. I enjoy the extended aftertaste, lack of bitterness, and smooth richness of the brew! While I’m not a fan of roasted tea, in this case the roastiness isn’t overpowering and adds a depth of rich umami to the tea, elevating the complexity. My second cupful was drawn from the pot after the leaves had continued soaking for 30 min and was WAY overpowering, with an edge of bitterness and a landslide of mineral flavor. I rescued it by adding a half volume of fresh water, and continued sipping with pleasure. Later this rainy, gloomy day I will steep some authentic, non-roasted tieguanyin for comparison!