Togo Send Message

The leaves of this tea are quite dark for a white tea (it is supposed to be 10+ years old after all) and don’t smell very strong when dry. After the rinse, I get mostly fruity and medicinal aromas, with a strong blackberry and black currant quality. Despite the fact that I store it with sheng, the bouquet acually reminds me more of shou.

The taste has similar qualities, it is strong and well-rounded. I like the interplay of sweet & savoury, fruity & earthy flavours. I would characterize it as both robust and refreshing, which is a little unusual and very welcome. The aftertaste also displays some nutty notes, which, together with the sweetness and earthiness, remind me of ripe pu-erh again.

Mouthfeel also plays an important part in making the tea quite refreshing. It is crisp, cooling, numbing and slightly buttery.

Surprisingly, I didn’t find this Shou Mei to perform too well by simmering. Standard infusions (with near boiling water) seemed more balanced to me.

[2016 harvest, third pluck]

This is a sample from the TTB, thanks Skysamurai for including it. I have never considered ordering Korean teas, since they are so expensive. Therefore, I am very happy I could have tried this one.

It is labelled as a red tea (which is why I categorized it as a black tea), although the 2018 harvest seems to be marketed as a yellow tea on the website. I am not sure if the processing changed, but this one is definitely more similar to hongcha than huangcha, as far as I can tell. It brews dark orange liquor and the leaves are almost fully oxidized, there is just a touch of green hue left to them.

The smell is very interesting. It’s a mix of marine, floral and woody (kind of like barrel aged) aromas – quite a unique combination to be honest. Taste is very nice – mineral, sweet and delicate. I get notes of dried fruit, almond, wet rocks and seaweed. The bitterness is somewhat reminiscent of Wuyi oolongs, but here it’s much more in the background, hidden beneath the strong sweetness. In the aftertaste, I get a very prominent chocolate/cocoa bean note followed by slight maltiness. It’s interesting that these typical hong cha notes only emerge now. The body is good too, albeit not too memorable.

Overall, this is a very nice and unique tea, still retaining some complexity and pungency even 2 years after harvest and despite non-ideal storing conditions.

The first thing I can smell from the dry leaves is somewhat ‘sour’ aroma of matcha and lime leaves. After the rinse it is still a little green, but much less so. The dominant smells are those of nuts (walnuts in particular) and burnt sugar with some cream and grape vine in the background. In the empty cup I mostly smell caramel.

The mouthfeel is not great unfortunately. I tried to do both smaller (~4g per 100ml) and bigger (~7.5g per 100ml) leaf to water ratios to test it out and in both cases it was fairly thin. I would characterize it as bubbly and astringent, obviously the infusions with a lot of leaf were much more pronounced on both accounts. After swallowing, I get a strong cooling sensation in the throat as well

Taste-wise I like it, but I wouldn’t say it’s spectacular in any regard. It has a caramel sweetness, ash/fire bitterness, and finishes on a slightly sour note. The astringency takes the center stage most of the time though. The aftertaste is neither strong nor long. It starts off a bit sour and bitter and then turns into and a mix of sweet notes with dry grass.

I found the tea to last really long overall. The 7.5g sample yielded about 1.5 litres in the end, and that’s with me trying to push several infusions beyond what I would normally do, in order to see how the tea reacts. The price is not too high, so if you don’t mind an astringent tea, it might be a good choice.

Like I said that MMU01 is not suitable for Koicha, this one is actually the opposite, I think it shines even better as Koicha. The flavours are enhanced and sharper, so it’s realy powerful, but at the same time still very balanced and super smooth. The taste is a mix of fruity, umami, sweet, tangy, and grassy with just a hint of bitterness. There are a lot of layers to be uncovered there.

The taste of this matcha is just not really for me I guess. The bitterness is really strong to the point it resembles sourness, something like you can achieve with 95% or darker chocolate. The mouthfeel is also not nearly as smooth as with MMU02 and MMU03.

Despite all that, it’s enjoyable overall, just not on par with the other two. The nice long grassy and sweet aftertaste helps too of course.

This tea has one of the strongest dry leaf aromas I have encountered in a sheng – mostly smells of honey and cookies. After the rinse, the aromas change dramatically to smoky & earthy ones, and strangely enough the wet leaves don’t actually have such a pungent smell anymore. They give off aromas like egg shells, bbq sauce and celery root.

The taste is very strong and bitter right up front in the first few infusions (make sure you keep your initial steeps short). The quinine like bitterness quickly transforms into sweetness though. Other than that, it is a mineral tea with some notes of moss, dry grass and cranberry. The aftertaste starts off sweet but becomes slightly salty afterwards. In late infusions (above 10) I also get the standard tobacco and mushroom flavours, the former actually really strong in the aftertaste.

The liquor has medium thickness and is mouth-watering, oily and a touch powdery. It is also quite warming in the throat. The most memorable aspect of the tea is definitely the cha qi though. It hits really hard, this is not a tea to drink while working. I had to lie down after 3 infusions already.

The leaves are young (small) and still very green, attesting to the dry storage of the tea. It still has quite a way to go in terms of aging. I wish the mouthfeel was thicker overall. Because of the pungent taste, steeping more aggressively doesn’t seem to be a viable option to improve that. But ok, I can accept that this tea is not about the mouthfeel, rather the ‘mindfeel’ and, to a lesser extent, the strong taste. The longetivity is quite good too. Right now I am on steep 14 or so (each one of which was 90-100ml and the first few I should have done shorter tbh), and it seems like it will last for a few more at least.

I am not really surprised by the mixed reception of this tea, but personally I like it a lot. It is subtle and complex in both smell and taste, it has a long and evolving aftertaste and great mouthfeel. What’s more, it also increases my awareness without any caffeine rush. I am really in love with the purple varietals.

Throughout the session the leaves turn from brown with a purple hue to a mix of brown and dark green. They seem like a good quality and firm leaves.

I didn’t really pay close attention to the aromas and flavours, maybe I will add a more complete account of those from another session. The flavours that I did notice include butter and a surprising coriander (seed) bitterness in the finish. Early infusions were more floral, while the latter ones rather nutty and somewhat sheng-like. The aftertaste was slightly sour, spicy and warming with a strong fragrance.

The mouthfeel of initial infusions was mouth-watering, creamy and developed into a little astringent in the mouth. In later infusions, from about the fourth one, the mouthfeel became thick and oily, further deepening the resemblance of raw pu-erh.

A decent albeit quite light bodied Baozhong. The mouthfeel is super light, the liquid seems to almost vanish soon after it hits mouth. Once it cools down, it becomes a little bit more velvety. The smell seems fairly complex, but not so appealing to me personally. I noticed a strange mix of aromas, although not necessarily all at the same time – papaya, coconut milk, caramelized onion and citrus. The taste is floral in the first few infusions, with sweet and sour undertones. Interestingly, the aftertaste actually becomes quite savoury. The later steeps are much more grassy and citrusy overall. It’s a good tea once in a while, but not my favourite.

First thing I noticed is an unusual smell of the dry leaves, which somehow reminds me of old leather. Wet leaf scent also has that quality, together with a tobacco note. The leaves are actually quite broken up, but there is no dust really. The tea brews a very clear liquor. It is quite fruity with a short bitterness at the back of the mouth. The mouthfeel is interesting, even though not as thick as I would expect. It starts off coating, but becomes a bit powdery and dry in the finish. The aftertaste is fairly acidic and only a touch astringent.

Overall, the tea somehow strikes nice balance between being delicate and powerful. It is tasty and clearly of good quality. Nevertheless, I feel like the price is too high. Maybe I am just not the one to properly appreciate a premium Keemun black tea though.

As others have mentioned, this is an astringent tea. I can imagine myself choosing to go for a tea like this from time to time, but probably not too often. The smell is dominated by toffee and tomato vine aromas. The taste is quite citrusy with a good balance of sweetness and bitterness. Surprisingly, the bitterness really comes to the fore in the aftertaste. I wouldn’t say it’s unpleasant necessarily, but it took me a bit by surprise. The body is good, but not spectacular I’d say. Overall, I didn’t find too much about this tea that would make me want to revisit it.