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I am not so impressed with the breadth this tea offers. It has good longevity and fragrance, but nothing out of this world. Also, the texture is somewhat boring in my opinion. It is still pretty tasty to drink, just not a tea I would bring out for special occassions.

The aroma reminds me of orange blossoms and caramel the most. Taste is sweet and malty with a pronounced coffee bitterness. Afttertaste is then a bit sour and pretty fragrant.

A decent aged tea, that offers a good value.

The aroma is woody and floral initially. After the rinse, I can smell mostly peat, but also bean sprouts, camphor. It is noticably aged and a bit spicy.

Mouthfeel is oily and a bit bubbly, quite a bit better than in the entry level aged raw pu-erh one can get. The taste is particularly warm, but also sweet, mineral, herbaceous, and bitter. Sometimes I get even spicy, sour and woody hints in the profile. There are flavours of dry grass, malt, mushrooms, beetroot, and fireplace.

The aftertaste is clearly sweeter. There are notes of honey, yeast, and nuts that come to the foreground.

My today’s session with the Rooster King was less sweet and tangy than some of my earlier notes suggest. It tastes more nutty and savoury, with a very present earthiness and flavours of cocoa and sweet potatoes.

The aroma is quite interesting, dry leaves smell of soil and cherries. The latter also appears in the empty cup scent, which is somewhat flowery and at times reminds me of orchids. The wet leaf smell is very different. The main notes are celery root and chocolate, and these are very much present in the aftertaste as well.

I sometimes find Yi Wu sheng to lack a bit of depth, or bitterness; but this one has both. The taste profile is indeed quite floral and mineral with an elegant bitterness and spiciness, as one would hope for. There are also some sour notes, and a sweet grassy aftertaste that reminds me of sencha a bit. While the flavours are common for a tea from this area, there isn’t nearly as much of the honey sweetness that one may be expecting. I don’t really mind that. The main hesitation I have about it has to do with the mouthfeel that is not the smoothest or the thickest. I really like the cooling and cleansing sensation after drinking though.

I really like this black tea, its complexity adds a nice layer to the woody menthol profile that I look for when reaching for a Ruby 18 tea.

The dry leaf aroma is minty and meaty at first, then in a preheated gaiwan I get various notes such as white asparagus, cannabis, and gasoline. Surprisingly, the smell is also a little grassy and floral. Once the leaves are wet, their aroma reminds me of eucalyptus, wild honey, durian, and cookies.

The taste is mineral and sweet, and mentholy. There are notes of cinnamon, tree bark, nectarine. When brewed stronger, it can get astringent and woody. The latter half of the session is marked also by increased bitterness and a spicy finish. The aftertaste is a bit numbing and definitely long-lasting. It is somewhat sour relative to the tea taste and has a whiskey undertone to it.

This is a sweet, fruity yancha with a woody bitterness and flavours of sour cherry, nectar, paper, and beeswax. I really like its bubbly and astringent mouthfeel.

In terms of aromas, the tea greets you with a spicy and perfumy mix of cloves, cinnamon, vanilla, and ebony.

Nice Yi Wu tea, but, like many similar fresh pu-erh teas, not worth the price for me.

It has a creamy mouthfeel and a very sweet floral and pungent profile with notes of citrus fruits, fish, argan oil and apples. The aroma reminds me of forest, cake and peat. This is surely something only for those who like their pu-erh sweet.

I visited Wroclaw recently and was pleasantly surprised to find the superb “Czajownia” tea house in the town. After spending a few hours there, I also brought back a couple of Korean teas.

This one is a high quality green tea with very tender leaves. The taste is smooth and pungent with enough complexity. Its flavour profile ranges from vegetal to grassy, but it has lots of other stuff going on which makes it a very engaging brew – you can find marine, fruity and floral notes for sure, with a pleasant nutty, citrusy and almost spicy aftertaste.

It is not cheap, but also not crazy expensive for Korean standards, I can definitely recommend it.

Having tried many YS pu-erh productions from about 2017 onwards, I was also curious about some of their earlier teas that are still in stock. Many seem quite expensive. This one feels almost too cheap, but I am not sure what is the sourced material here.

In any case, I found the tea to be quite nice, but I would barely call it semi-aged in its current state 12 years after production. It has a lot of sweetness and a floral character. There is nevertheless good bitterness and pungency, and a super smooth mouthfeel. The cha qi seemed somewhat caffeine heavy for my liking.

Dry leaf aroma is nutty and it reminds me of honey and orange blossoms. After the rinse, the smell is mineral and very elegant in a sense, with hints of cognac, lemongrass, and sage.

The first steep starts mild, mineral and grassy with a honey flavour. Second is more bitter, herbaceous and sweet overall. The aftertaste is floral and yeasty, but there is also a nutty almond flavour.

Here’s a complex Dan Cong with a superb cha qi, it is heady and quite meditative. Apart from that, I also love its bitterness leyers and the funky mouthfeel.

At first, it smells of baked fruit, but after the rinse I find many other notes. It is a sweet, spicy aroma with hints of flowers, mochi, brick houses, incense and kohlrabi.

The first infusion is somewhat simple and particularly comforting. It has a strong mineral presence, a soft mouthfeel and an ever-changing aftertaste. Second steep further underscores the mineral and comforting character. It is more sweet and sour, with notes of rosemary, caramel, and rose water. The aftertaste is very cooling and floral with a hint of licorice.

Third steep is more pungent. It brings a numbing spicy mouthfeel reminiscent of sichuan pepper, as well as flavours of fish broth and tree bark. Next I find also an earthiness and especially bitterness of beetroots, but also sweeter notes of persimmon and sugar beet.

Towards the end of the session, the bitter-sweet character becomes more dominant. There are notes of baked apples, oats, and lilac among many others.