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Gongfu!
I feel like I’m always so prepared for this tea to be much, much more bitter, astringent, and aggressive punchy than it actually is. It’s true that it does have some upfront bitterness in a slightly more green and medicinal way and that there’s a consistent astringency throughout most of the session. However, I find both to be incredibly well balanced, and to me, it reads as medicinal in an almost soothing way with a sort of tranquil fuzziness to the mouthfeel. I can’t think of a better way to describe it than that static electricity feeling of a limb falling asleep – before the pain of it waking up has started to set in. Floral notes creep from the undertones to the finish, and I get such a lovely but mild note of raspberries in the back half of the sip. Not tart or juicy, but smooth and mellow and very well integrated with the flowery notes peeking through and the sweetness that fills the palate after the bitterness has passed.Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DHwjc-Gy_Bi/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhJx5sYUyDg&ab_channel=TheHowl%26TheHum-Topic
Personally I find the dark, molasses-like sweetness and biscuit and caramel notes of the black really outweighs the oolong, though there are undertones of raisins, plum, and baked sweet potatoes that could arguably come from either tea in this delightfully experimental blend. The overall brew is so thick and syrupy, and somehow all the tasting notes click together to give off a sort of Stroopwafel vibe. It’s really lovely!
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DHRLwapJjYB/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FklT0OQZKA&abchannel=TheArcadianWild-Topic
From CameronB! Thanks again! Such a tiny fruit, it’s about enough for three Western steeps of tea. Of course, I throw some peel in the infuser, along with the actual tea. Sadly, the black tea is so incredibly light flavored to me, it’s just not something I want to steep up. The orange really takes over, even though that is quite light too. The orange that does appear in the flavor is very much like a rind flavor. It’s just a bit sad that a tea that isn’t really that great would be put through the trouble of being stuffed inside a tiny orange. Luckily, this isn’t a big orange, and was just enough for me to sample to know that this isn’t the tea for me. :)
Steep #1 // 15 minutes after boiling // 2-3 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep
Gongfu!
Started my morning with one of the best heicha tea sessions I’ve had in a very, very long time. It’s so thick and rich in cooling menthol and camphor notes, with a punch of medicinal and forest-y flavour, and really tingly, mouth numbing spice undertones of clove, cassia oil, and black cardamom alongside bittersweet dark chocolate. Despite all of that, the mouthfeel is really creamy. It’s just so flavourful but with such a visceral mouth sensation and body feel. I don’t know if I’ve been this glowy and tea drunk feeling in a while…
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DGgq63PSr7h/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i39g22RiTqA&ab_channel=CigarettesAfterSex
A nice white tea that has quite a rustic character with a strong dry grass/hay presence to it. I like its smooth colloidal mouthfeel in particular.
The taste is sweet and vegetal with mild bitterness and flavours of gardenia, burdock, peanuts, and tree bark.
Flavors: Bark, Bitter, Burdock, Candy, Dry Grass, Gardenias, Hay, Peanut, Smooth, Sweet, Vegetal
Preparation
This tea is now sold out unfortunately, but if it comes back in stock, I would highly recommend it. With the inflated prices of Oriental Beauty in recent years, it is hard to come around such a great example at this price.
The tea has a lot of depth and complexity and is more robust than some of the Taiwanese high grades. The dry leaf aroma is super sweet with notes of flowers, nectar, beeswax, and maple syrup. Wet leaves then smell very perfumy. There are notes of petrichor, soap, rose, and forest floor.
The taste is generally very sweet. Floral and woody notes dominate, with fruity ones in close succession. There is, however, also a sort of mineral, savoury undercurrent, as well as mild bitterness, which helps to keep it a thoroughly engaging session. Some specific flavours I noticed include peach, charcoal, and sugarcane. The aftertaste is very long, a bit drying and refreshing.
The tea has a medium body and a pretty soft mouthfeel, it is not super thick, but very pleasant to drink.
Flavors: Beeswax, Bitter, Charcoal, Drying, Floral, Flowers, Forest Floor, Fruity, Maple Syrup, Mineral, Nectar, Peach, Perfume, Petrichor, Pungent, Rose, Soap, Soft, Sugarcane, Sweet, Wood
Preparation
Gongfu!
Breaking in this beautiful baby blue shibo from Arbeeceramics this afternoon with a tea session of 2023 Black Rabbit paired with some fresh, local strawberries!! This Yiwu black tea is so bright and tangy with a nice full body and really syrupy, saturated red fruits that go hand in hand with the ripe berries I was nibbling on throughout the session. I mostly taste cherries, raspberry, and b9th red and black currants with undertones of honey, oak wood, and leather. On the nose I get vanilla, though I didn’t notice it so much in the taste. Definitely exactly the explosion of fresh fruit notes I was hoping for when I pulled out this sample today!
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFbTxEjyWLt/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DswTFD9A3jY&ab_channel=AllyEvenson
Grandpa Style!
I’m still on a little bit of a sticky rice kick, so I’m brewing up one of these cute little coins from a recent order. This ripe pu’erh is infused with nuomixiang (aka sticky rice herb), which gives it such a cozy and comforting flavour of glutinous rice. While I imagine this will be amazing as a gongfu session, I’m drinking this grandpa-style and it absolutely slaps. Starchy, smooth, and almost a little bit creamy with undertones of coconut, vanilla, and even pandan alongside a very full-bodied and robust foundation of earthy pu’erh. The balance is really good, and I appreciate the way the sticky rice flavour plays off the undertones of sweet brown dates, petrichor, and molasses in the shou pu’erh. Delish!
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFS6WvQpt7W/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDoKZ9WeyR0&ab_channel=MICKEYDARLING
Gongfu!
I love pretty much every smoked tea that I can get my hands on, from the most brash and aggressive tasting teas to ones with the more fleeting and subtle whisps, so when I saw that Bitterleaf was offering Lapsang Souchong from Tongmuguan (aka THE place to get traditionally smoked lapsang from), I was unquestionably on board. It is very, very good.
As far as the level of pine smoke goes, I would say this is more of a medium intensity erring ever so slightly on the softer side. It’s smooth and sultry, without a hint of bitterness or astringency to it. The black tea itself is also very fragrant with a really sweet floral aroma of sakura blossoms and sweet red stonefruits; very cherry-like. Medium to full-bodied, and so very layered. Soft blankets of smoke, rose, and sakura in the top notes, with a gentle mid sip of ripe and tangy red cherry cherry and strawberry, all with a delicate woody finish and lingering aftertaste of darkly sweet black licorice. I expected something good, but I wasn’t totally prepared for something THIS good.
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFVqTLLSTVm/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57cJ5LDaAHk&ab_channel=CalinRed
Gongfu!
The aged version of this tea, Goddess Roast, has become a favourite of mine, so I wanted to give it a taste even though I don’t typically gravitate towards greener TGY like this one. This was really incredible, though. Maybe one of the more fresh tasting and aromatic tieguanyin that I’ve had the pleasure of tasting, and the leaves were so incredibly bright green! Medium bodied with a very buttery feeling and soft liquor and a profile that felt like an explosion of flowers blooming in my mouth. Magnolia, jasmine, peony, lilac, violet, and even gardenia – all laced with a light sugarcane sweetness. It also seemed to brew for forever. I’m definitely so glad I decided to give itba try because that was such a good first impression!
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFJPY0gSGIr/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTsyAcEgisU&ab_channel=BetterNoiseMusic
Gongfu!
An early morning session from yesterday. Obviously, a very warm and cozy tasting tea with such a smooth and creamy flavour. However, the black tea itself is also incredibly rich and full bodied with a very deep, darkly sweet chocolate note to it. Even though they’re usually made with coconut, something about the combination of chocolate and sticky rice is making me think of the haystack cookies that we sometimes made growing up – especially during summers with my grandparents. Definitely a nostalgic and comforting tea on several levels.
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DH4S6kIydJU/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi9j9ogqr4E&ab_channel=Yaeji
Sipping on this while reading a new graphic novel! This limited series is Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees, which was pitched to me by a friend as Animal Crossing with serial killers and, yeah, that’s pretty spot on. I’m just eating up the vibe of the pastel and water colour illustrations crossed with such dark subject matter. But, it’s also maybe the coziest murder mystery I’ve ever read, so it definitely needed an equally cozy tea to pair with it. Queue this sticky rice dianhong: full bodied but so, so starchy and creamy with really distinct notes of glutinous rice, coconut milk, and a gentle pillow of malt and cocoa to end the sip on. I really, really like sticky rice herb infused teas in general (especially ripe pu’erh), but this is my first time trying it with a black tea and it’s just ticking every single box on the “comfort tea” list for me. I mean, wow. This just works SO WELL. Between the comic and the tea, I’m hard pressed to think of a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFBSgyuSVc2/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W38MtB0SgI&ab_channel=MagicCityHippies
This tea has a great pungent taste, which is indeed very floral. I also love the aromas, they remind me of forest, nettle, peat, and also Mao Feng green tea.
The first infusion is sweet and bitter with strong forest vibes and a biting, spicy aftertaste. The second one bring vegetal notes (moss) and woody bitterness (pine). The aftertaste present really good huigan, as well as some apple note and a strong savoury minerality. Overall I get a sensation that makes me want to drink water in between the tea.
There is a strong clarifying energy to the whole experience. However, I found the mouthfeel to be a bit uninteresting for a tea at this price.
Flavors: Apple, Bitter, Forest Floor, Herbs, Mineral, Moss, Peat, Pine, Pineapple, Pungent, Spicy, Sweet, Tea, Vegetal, Wood
Grandpa Style!
This is a pretty tightly compressed white tea, but I actually found that worked really well for this brewing method and allowed for a bit more flavour development than you would normally see with this method as the dragonball went from partially to fully opened up over the afternoon. Smooth and clean finishing all throughout, but with an almost butterscotch-like sweetness at the start with floral overtones before getting a bit more savory/brothy near the end with a soft of general autumnal kind of feel. A little miso tasting at times in a really nice way. I would be really curious what tasting notes would come from brewing this gongfu. Though, with the compression, it’s definitely the type of tea you would need a lot of time/patience to fully enjoy steeped that way. On the flip side, I almost never brew white tea grandpa-style, but would 100% see this as something I’d happily make again with this method!
Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/DE8QWxxyhSg/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE9FC02NzLU&ab_channel=TheHubbards
This Dan Cong is on the pricier side, but it delivers. It has a great complexity and depth overall.
The dry leaf aroma is nutty and flowery with additional hints of cookies and molasses. During the session, the smell gives a bunch of associations, such as purple corn, green pepper, Breckland thyme, and orchids.
The liquor itself is very fragrant as well, its smooth and tender character in the mouth quickly transforms into a strong presence with punch and astringency. The tea has a superb bitter and floral taste with notes of apple and sugarcane. Its aftertaste is also quite rich and mineral.
Flavors: Apple, Astringent, Bitter, Cookie, Corn Husk, Floral, Flowers, Green Pepper, Herbal, Mineral, Molasses, Nutty, Orchid, Pungent, Smooth, Sugarcane, Thyme
I don’t recall ever having a yellow tea before. This is really delicious. Like buttered sweet corn. Very easy to drink. The information Bitterleaf provided on how this is processed is also quite interesting:
The process of men huang involves wrapping the leaves in cloth or paper (in this tea’s case, paper) and allowing them to sit, facilitating further non-enzymatic oxidation. This labour intensive step is what produces this tea’s yellow colour and smooth, sweet character, while at the same time diminishing bitterness and vegetal qualities.
Flavors: Butter, Sweet Corn
