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I’ve recommended this tea several times already. It’s simply a great buy. Very affordable and lots of depth of flavor. I don’t know if you are going to find a better deal out there, particularly if you are looking for tea with some age on it.

I noticed some Menghai characteristics in its flavor profile, notably some sharp and spicy herbal notes that, with age, have developed into some wonderful tobacco and fruit notes. The dry storage has preserved some youthful herbal notes that work wonderfully well with the aged flavors. Great personality on this one.

There is a lot of depth here. Great balance of flavors. And it’s $40 for 500g! Pick one up before I buy all the rest!
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Dry leaf: sweet pipe tobacco, stable, rich prune and dried dark fruit. In preheated vessel – some tart raspberry and spice notes arrive.

Smell: pipe tobacco, stable, rich prune and dried dark fruit, dried green herbal (sassafras, parsley), cola

Taste: pipe tobacco, stable, herbal (sassafras, parsley), prune, clove, allspice, raisin, lemongrass, coriander

Took me a bit to figure this one out. I messed up one gongfu session with it – I think I underleafed. Tried Western style and was unimpressed. Finally, I stuffed as many leaves into my gaiwan as I could, and now its personality is starting to shine. This little guy needs plenty of leaf! A 60ml gaiwan is perfect for such teas, especially when you are frugal (cheap) like me.

Overall, the Cliff’s Notes version of this tea is that it is a nutty black tea. Actually, it sort of smacks you in the face with nuttiness, especially in the first few infusions. I like teas with that kind of power.

Beyond the nuttiness, it has quite a bit of complexity and definitely separates itself from other black teas. it has some interesting fruit notes as well as interesting sweet notes, with hints of caramel, brown sugar, bruleed marshmallow. Every once in a while, it has a very nice tartness to it, but it sort of comes as a surprise – it is not always there and it arrives at random times.

I’m getting to appreciate this tea more and more. It just shows that fiddling around with your brewing parameters will usually pay off with teas that aren’t coming out right.
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Dry leaf: raw walnut; musty, dried dark fruit (raisin, date), some tangy red fruit (red currant); hints of baking spice and milk chocolate. In preheated vessel: some roasted almond nuttiness, tangy fruit more prominent (red currant, mandarin orange)

Smell: roasted almond, cherry wood, bruleed marshmallow

Taste:
Arrival – roasted almond, cherry wood
Development – cherry compote/pie filling, bruleed marshmallow, dark caramel
Finish – all flavors get wiped out
Aftertaste – light red fruit (raspberry, cherry), hint of caramel and brown sugar sweetness, woody notes remain. Some hints of melon (honeydew, cantaloupe).

Two interesting points on this tea:
1. Follow their recommended brewing parameters, which is Western-style with low temps. (185F recommended)

2. If you go rogue and try gong-fu style, you will encounter flavors not unlike Parmesan cheese. No joke. Salty, creamy, savory. Weird.

OK, so after my Parmesan cheese encounter and after having decided to maybe just follow the instructions CLEARLY PRINTED on the packet, my verdict is that the tea is OK.

The caramel notes are tasty, and the orchid/floral/fruity thing is good, but really, I prefer more prominent flavors. The lack of a strong aftertaste was a bit annoying. It’s a very soft tea for sure.
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Dry leaf: musty red currant, dried apricot, coriander, floral (orchid, I guess!), hints of orange-chocolate. In preheated vessel – oily roasted almond nuttiness appears.

Smell – roast almond, orange, apricot, some salty/savory/creamy notes present

Taste – salted caramel, toffee, almond, coriander, orange blossom (or orchid, who knows). Aftertaste is almost non-existent; very light floral/citrus.

This is much like a scented/flavored tea. It’s less about the flavor of the tea leaf itself and more about the quality of the added scent/flavor. The base tea is good, but fairly understated. It cannot compete with the overt smoke flavors that are there.

So, with that in mind, I would say that if you are after a smoky, savory tea experience, this tea does fairly well. The smoke flavor is rich and savory – not ashy or burnt. Notes of smoked meat and campfire log, with some notes of maple and brown sugar like you would find in smoked meat. Honestly, if you’ve ever had Cracker Barrel sausage patties (a Midwest classic), or even just hickory-smoked bacon, then you know what this tea tastes like.

All that said, it is tasty, if the flavors above are what you are after. Try drinking it outside too – the smoky richness really opens up in the fresh air.

Not at all something I would drink all the time, but it is a quality product.
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Dry leaf: hickory smoked bacon, campfire logs. In preheated vessel – hickory smoke, smoked sausage, hints of maple syrup and brown sugar.

Smell: hickory smoke, smoked sausage (less overt than dry leaf), woody, some red fruit notes, hint of dried apricot, black tea blend

Taste: hickory smoked sausage with some maple notes, roasted almonds. Aftertaste is light and smoky.

Comparing this to the winter 2016 unroasted Yushan available from BTTC.

So, what’s the difference in terms of taste? First, there is a definite charcoal flavor in the roasted version. Think charcoal briquette. It’s not unpleasant, but it’s there.

Second, the floral, vegetal, and herbal notes in the arrival of the unroasted version are not there. The arrival of the roasted version is a vague nuttiness with the phenolic notes of the charcoal roast. The salty umami of the unroasted version is also muted in the roasted version.

Finally, the finish and aftertaste are slightly different. The unroasted has a thick fruitiness while the roasted has a bit more tang to it – more citrus and lemongrass notes, even a little medicinal notes in it.

So, overall, it seems the roast does not add much to it. The nuttiness is vague and does not develop on the palate. The charcoal notes are interesting, but not delicious. The more interesting notes of the green version are muted or not present.

I’ve noticed this with several roasted Taiwanese teas, with the roasted versions being more ho-hum than the greens. The strange thing is that I love me some Wu Yi oolongs, and generally don’t drink much green oolong. But, as far as Taiwanese teas are concerned, the green versions have significantly more depth.
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Dry leaf: peanut shell, dry chocolate, cocoa powder, Mexican chocolate, dill, parsley. In preheated vessel: more nuttiness and syrupy honey sweetness present.

Smell: charcoal briquette, soy/lima bean, buttery and sweet veg – sort of like glazed carrots

Taste: roast nut, peanut shell, charcoal, marine saltiness and umami. Some cilantro and parsley notes. Citrus, lemongrass, cherry, and cherry cough drop (Smith Brothers) in aftertaste.

[Review of 2016 winter harvest]

This is quite a complex tea. It starts off with sort of the usual herbal/vegetal things you have with green oolongs, then, WHAM! You get hit with some serious savory notes. There was a strong marine saltiness that showed up. Not unpleasant, but very strong and very present. As salt does, however, it highlighted the top notes and made the sweetness pop in the after taste.

If you have ever put salt on honeydew melon to help highlight the flavors and sweetness, then you will really dig this tea. Same kind of experience going on.

So, have I ever put salt on melon like some kind of weirdo? Heck yeah, and it’s awesome. This tea is unapologetic in its flavors, which I like, and it rewards you with a prolonged, serious fruity aftertaste. Great experience.
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Dry leaf: very herbal – dill, parsley, coriander, hints of floral-honey notes. In preheated vessel – roasted corn and vegetal notes appear, thick honey and honeysuckle sweetness.

Smell: coriander, dill, sea water/salt/marine, honeydew melon, hints of peach

Taste:
ARRIVAL – herbal – dill, parsley, vegetal/floral
DEVELOPMENT – salty, marine umami, nori. The saltiness is not a background note, it is full-on salt flavor in the mouth. Melon notes develop
FINISH – salted honeydew melon, mint
AFTERTASTE – thick with honeydew melon, fresh peach, and peach-flavored gummy candy. Lemongrass and coconut. Mint herbal hangs around for a while too.

Traveling around Japan with my tastebuds again. Checking out their oolongs! Thanks to Liquid Proust for the awesome group buy.

Maybe it’s the power of suggestion, but the tea just seems very much like a sencha. Not in flavor, of course, but in production. It reaches out to the tea drinker with a very composed, articulate flavor profile whose primary flavors have a controlled development and whose background flavors come very neatly up to the front in the finish and aftertaste. Maybe I just picture the Japanese way of doing things while drinking this tea – very neat, very orderly, and quality-assured. In any event, this tea lives up to those expectations.

Overall, a delicious tea. A nice, chocolately sweetness is present throughout, but it is not cloyingly sweet. Very restrained, controlled, and composed. Also, if you are not a huge fan of roastiness or overt nuttiness, this is a good choice.

Price is good – about $7 for 50g. Has a bit more longevity than the other Japanese oolong (Kagoshima) that I tried. Excellent purchase.
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Dry leaf: peanut shell, milk chocolate, cocoa powder, chocolate fudge. In preheated vessel – more peanut shell and roasted nut, some dry chocolate notes and red fruit.

Smell: roasted nut, peanut shell, notes of Mexican chocolate and dry baking spice, some hints of red currant

Taste: dry nuttiness, roast almonds, peanut shell, some dry baking spice notes, sticky rice sweetness and savoriness, hints of molasses and chocolate fudge. Aftertaste of dark syrup sweetness and red fruit. Returning chocolate fudge aftertaste (not heavy, but a strong hint of this flavor.)

Definitely interesting to see what kind of dark oolongs Japan produces. The flavor reminded me of Tie Luo Han Chinese oolong. Roasty and nutty, with some cocoa and fruit notes. Most noticeable, however, is that interesting pleasant sourness that TLH has (I called it “blue raspberry” in my TLH review – basically an underripe raspberry or sweet grapefruit flavor that produces a very pleasant sweet/sour flavor). Anyway, very engaging flavor profile – plenty of complexity.

However, it does lack the staying power of Tie Luo Han. After infusion #4, it started petering out. The leaves are small and give up their flavor very quickly. Keep steep times short for the first three infusions, and don’t bother rinsing it.

It would be interesting to brew this up at lower temps and longer steep times just to see what would happen. The leaves remind me of soft, delicate sencha leaves. Treating them with more finesse could yield interesting results. But, I only had 7g, so I brewed it like a hardy oolong and didn’t use kid gloves!

All that said, the price is right. Just over $5 for 50g. So, well worth purchasing, in my opinion. Certainly if you are drinking a bunch of sencha, this would be a welcome change of pace.
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Dry leaf: dark cocoa, nutty, peanut shell, hints of cinnamon, red fruit, and citrus pith. In preheated vessel: strong roast nut and chocolate

Smell: Mexican chocolate, roasted peanut, dried red fruit

Taste: roasted pecan and almond, chocolate, cherry-infused milk chocolate, dried strawberries. Finish has chocolate cherry cordial, dried strawberries, underripe raspberries, and sweet grapefruit. Pleasant fruitiness and sweet/sour in aftertaste.

So, I was about to write a fairly dismissive review of this tea. I’ve gone through half a cake, and have also designated it as a daily drinker due to its age and its inexpensive price tag. But I never really looked forward to it – it was always a little bland.

But, it needed a fair review, so I sat down, threw a FISTFUL of leaves in a gaiwan, and steeped that sucker hard to get all the flavor I could out of it.

And you know what? It developed a bit more personality. Still on the lighter end of things, but tasty.

It’s still definitely a Yiwu. I know that this is absolutely a budget Yiwu (so you get what you get), but it still just has those light, woody, kind of sweet, kind of floral notes that just are too irritatingly subtle for me. It’s like a mouth full of background flavors that you have to sit and search for, rather than having primary, bold flavors that build on your palate. Such has been my experience with budget and non-budget Yiwu teas alike…

So, if you enjoy a more contemplative cup, this is a good choice. If you are a Yiwu fan, this is certainly a nice budget option. But, if you are just looking for a cheap puerh with some decent age on it, I would recommend YS’s 2007 Bo Nan Mountain “Yun Wu Yuan Cha” or 2007 CNNP “8891 Red Label.” Those have a bit more personality, in my very humble opinion.
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Dry leaf: honey/honeysuckle sweetness, woody, sweet tobacco leaf, dried dark fruit – raisin/prune. In preheated vessel – syrupy prune/raisin sweetness, sweet tobacco

Smell: tobacco leaf, date, raisin, woody

Taste:
Arrival is woody, straw, and hay; some green tobacco leaf.
Development is light woody smokiness and black tea blend. Some pleasant astringency. Body develops with an interesting combo of woodiness and creaminess.
Finish is bland. Get some cardboard-like notes and a palate-clearing astringency.
Aftertaste is very light. Light sweetness – marshmallow, flan; some light floral; some light lemongrass.

[Review of either spring or winter 2016 batch]

A toasty little tea. It’s like you’re sitting around a campfire, and one person is roasting some pecans and another is lighting marshmallows on fire and blowing them out just in time to achieve that flambe-marshmallow goodness. Put toasted pecans and flambeed marshmallows together, and I would say you have this tea.

There are a few other notes in there, especially some red fruit. It’s quite a rich experience. The nuttiness is noticeable from the get-go. However, the sweetness of the marshmallow, toffee,and caramel notes balances the roasted nuttiness quite well.

A wonderful, interesting experience. A bit expensive (for me) for a black tea, but the quality is excellent. Also, the sweet notes in this tea are unlike any other black tea I have tried.
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Dry leaf – grassy, dry floral, like dried flowers; some darker notes – black currant, hints of dry chocolate. In preheated vessel – nutty caramel, roast pecans, rich buttery caramel, some red berry notes

Smell – roasted pecans, buttery caramel, toffee chocolate bar, red currant, fresh cherry

Taste – heavily roasted almonds and pecans, fire-toasted (blackened) marshmallow, buttery caramel, hints red currant and fresh cherry (particularly in aftertaste)