Educational TTB 2

(4m): Nose is cooked fruit, slightly vegetive. Taste is the same. Very astringent without being bitter.

“3 grams of tea in 4 oz water. Start w/ 20 s rinse. 1st (4 oz/20s): Taste is a mix of fruit and wood. Taste starts with fruit and ends with wood. Finish is very long. Flavors are interesting: very complex; not unpleasant, but not overly positive either. 2nd (4 oz/20s):Less fruit; more forest floor, with hints of spice. The long, powerful finish reminds me of a green tea (grassy straw). 3rd (4 oz/20s): light nose with hints of smoke. Flavor seems to be hiding when I sip but opens up into a big finish that is smoky with hints of straw. <90 minute break> 4th (4 oz/30s): Light straw flavor similar to a green tea. There is an undercurrent of forest-floor that comes out in the finish. 5th (4oz, 2 min): Last pots were weak, so I’ll go long for the last steep. The woody/smoky flavors are back. Finish is mostly forest-floor, with a hint of bitterness.

I enjoyed tasting this tea, but my rating is based more on the intellectual pleasure than from enjoying the taste of the tea. While some of the flavors were pleasant, others were a bit off-putting (though never unpleasant)."

Thanks to Stacy at Butiki Tea for putting this box together

Nice solid green in a grassy style. Good body. Nothing special.

Burnt aroma is somewhat unpleasant but there are other, more pleasant aromas lurking in the background. The flavors are tar and leather with an unpleasant, bitter finish. I’m usually a sucker for an interesting tea, and this tea is certainly interesting, but it’s just not for me.

Not at all what I expected from a Chinese green tea. Strong aroma of tropical fruit. The taste mixes the tropical fruit with grassy flavors. Relatively short, clean finish. This is a light, refreshing tea, and I am really enjoying it.

Thanks to Stacy at Butiki Tea for putting this box together

I’m kind of burning out on the fancy teas, so decided I’d like to just have a strong breakfast tea. This should fill the bill.

It is surprisingly good. The aroma has powerful molasses notes with just a hint of chocolate. I enjoy spelling it so much it is hard to start sipping. The flavor is more tar than molasses. Good, but not great. I usually add sugar to my breakfast teas but this didn’t need it: strong, but not at all harsh or bitter, though there is a bit of tannin in the finish.

I added some nutra-sweet, and the tarry taste became more like molasses, and I liked the taste as much as the nose. All in all a very fine tea. I’m thinking I need to start exploring African teas, which I’ve pretty much ignored up to this point. This reminds me of Yorkshire Gold, which also has strong molasses and it the tea I used at work when I need to carry a tea bag to a meeting.

A word of caution: I weigh my teas rather than using a tea-spoon, and this is at least twice as dense as normal loose-leaf teas. Try using just half a teaspoon. I also used a shorter steep time due to the fine CTC particles.

Thanks to *Stacy at Butiki Tea* for putting this box together

First tea of the day. I’m making slower progress with the TTB than I anticipated. A big part of the problem is that I feel compelled to re-steep many of the teas, especially the Pu-erh and oolong. Today, I will make matters worse by trying a modified gaiwan approach. I use my small glass teapot to steep 6 oz at a time, using 3 grams of tea and 60 second steep times. This is my usual approach for oolong, though I often use a Western-style of 1.5 grams in 6 oz, with one re-steep, which is what I usually do with TTB tastings, in order to not use too much tea.

1st steep (70 s): light fruity nose and taste. 2nd (1 m): Rich nose is more spicy than fruity. Taste starts grassy but spice increases towards the finish. 3rd (60 s): The leaves were fully unfurled, so I expected lots of flavor, but it’s really light and disappointing. What flavor there is I like. 4th (2 m): See if extra steep time helps. The tea has more favor, but lacks complexity.

Overall, this was a disappointing tea. AliShan #1 was excellent and I was hoping for an even better experience. It wasn’t meant to be.

Thanks to *Stacy at Butiki Tea* for putting this box together.

I have a fairly low opinion of Nilgiri tea, and this didn’t do anything to change that opinion. I was pleasantly surprised by the initial taste, which was clean and bright, but the flavor descended into a tannic, bitter finish. Each sip seemed to turn bitter a little bit faster. I added sweetener, but that didn’t help much.

Spicy grass aroma and taste. Rich mouth-feel. Good finish.

I think I’m getting burned out on the TTB. I should write more, but to be honest, this is just a nice quality oolong, with middle-of-the-road flavors. Well-made, but doesn’t stand out in a crowd.

Thanks to *Stacy at Butiki Tea* for putting this box together. It’s been a wonderful experience, and I’ve still got a lot of teas to drink. I’m finding it difficult to follow my original plan of tasting all the pu-erh, then all the green, etc. Instead, I’m finding it better to to a couple of a given style, then jump to something else.

Soft aroma has malt and a hint of fruit. The taste is rich with only a bit of tannin. Not terribly complex, but really good.
Thanks to *Stacy at Butiki Tea* for putting this box together

Strong spice aroma and taste. Rich and dark with a hint of molasses. Good but straightforward.

“Discarded 20 s rinse.
First steep : I meant to only do 3 oz for 1.5 grams, but my usual pour is 6 and I was on autopilot this morning. I then tried to make up for it by doing a 45 s steep; totally confusing. This means the tea is probaby weak by Pu-Erh standards. The nose is light and earthy with a hint of fruit. Not sure how to describe the taste; leather isn’t right but it’s as close as I can come. THere is definitely a tarry taste at the finish, which is long but not very powerful.
2nd steep: 3 oz, 70 sec. This is much more powerful. The nose is earthy and herbal. Taste is black pepper.
3rd (3 oz, 1 min, 200 deg): Nose similar to 2nd. Taste is lighter and more fruity.
4th (3 oz, 1 min, 200 deg): Soft, fruity nose with hint of spice. Tastes of tar.
This was very interesting, but the flavors don’t appeal to me. Seems like more trouble than it was worth.”

Powerful aroma of veggies. Taste is powerful, with grassy/veggie flavors. Good finish is a bit too astringent for my taste. This seems like a good tea, but I’m not really into the veggie flavor.

It may have been a mistake to start the day with a green tea. I’m finding it difficult to find much flavor in this cup. The nose had hints of veggies and grass. The taste is clean, with straw and grass flavors. The finish is a bit more astringent than I like, but otherwise OK.

The dry tea has a clever spiral-wrapped shape. The disadvantage of this style is that it takes a long time to unwind. I gave it 2 extra minutes to steep from my usual 3 minutes. Weak nose. Rich straw/grass flavor. Some spice appears in the finish, which is long but not very powerful. Nice, but unspectacular. To be honest, the only distinguishing character is how it looks.
Thanks to *Stacy at Butiki Tea* for putting this box together

Soft grassy/spicy taste. Rich, buttery taste, magnificent finish.

I need a break from the Pu-Erh, so decided to start in on the green tea. This has a nice soft nose: straw with a hint of veggies. The taste is clean and simple: mostly grass and straw. Good mouth-feel. Good finish. This is my favorite style of green tea; a perfect break from the pu-erh.

“I used 1.6 grams in 3 oz water. 1 minute steep following 20 sec rinse. The nose is lovely: soft and fruity. Soft round flavor continues the fruit. This is great! Now I start to understand what all the excitement about Pu-erh is all about. Excellent finish. After a few sips I began to notice an earthy bitterness in the finish. This bitterness grew, spoiling the tea for me. This dragged my rating from about 91 to where it wound up.
Second steep (212 deg) adds a bit of grass to the fruit in the aroma. Taste is grassy, and more austere. Again, the bitterness grows as I drink. Perhaps this is why gaiwans are so popular with Pu-erh drinkers?
Third steep (200 deg): Nose is becoming dark and earthy but I still smell fruit and grass. Still very powerful. Not much bitterness in the taste, but it shows up powerfully in the finish, which is long enough to mix into the taste on subsequent sips.”
Thanks to Stacy at Butiki Tea for putting this box together

The leaves are extremely dark for a “green” tea. Darker than any Darjeeling I’ve ever had; almost black. No real difference in color between this and the plain purple tea. Smells like a green tea: grass and veggies. Tastes green as well. This tea has a great mouth-feel: big and rich. I don’t really notice the veggies in the taste, which I consider a good thing. Long, rich finish. I should time the finish: it goes on for minutes. As I drink, I am noticing a growing astringency; Not unpleasant but strong enough to overcome the nice body of the tea.

Long, dark green leaves. Almost black. Rich plum aroma. Strong stone fruit taste, but with a vegetable undercurrent that I find unpleasant. The finish is more veggie than fruit. I really wish I could love this tea. It is very complex, which is usually a big plus for me, but I really dislike veggie-tasting teas. I suspect that others on Steepster might really find this appealing.

Fine grain; almost but not quite CTC. Soft fruity aroma with hints of stone fruit and spice. Tastes of tar, with hints of fruit and spice. Quite complex; becomes somewhat bitter at the end. An interesting tea that might serve as a strong breakfast tea. I liked the complexity, but not the bitterness. Adding nutrasweet seemed to bring out the fruit, but didn’t really cover the bitterness.

The dry color is green, not silver. Soft straw aroma with hints of flowers. Powerful taste, but more like a green tea than a white. Long finish. Each sip seemed a bit more rich and complex. I really like this one. As I got further down in the cup, I noticed a hint of bitterness, which held the score out of the 90s. In terms of style, this seems more like a quality green tea than a silver needle.

The dry color is green, not silver. Weak nose. The initial aste is grassy without much body or strength. The finish is special: rich and long. As I drank, each sip added to the existing finish to produce a powerful, interesting taste. Not as good as most other silver needles I’ve tried, but indicative of the style.

I had to try this one. Forgive me for forgetting which box it came from!

I love Japanese greens but I’ve never had a Japanese black! I was unsure on steeping temp so I went a little lower than I would for another unknown black, just to be safe.

Not sure if I underleafed or if this one is suffering from its age? I feel like there is a lot of potential here and I would really love it if it was just a tad stronger tasting. It is a mild, somewhat nutty definitely black tasting tea, with some vegetal/mineral/sea elements that I enjoy in my Japanese greens. This is definitely something I would like to explore further. Bring on the Japanese blacks!!