Farmerleaf

Sample from Farmerleaf, brewed in gaiwan.

First 2 steeps unimpressive, it felt faded. It developed much better character in the following steeps once the leaves opened up.
Feels a bit younger than the age the tag suggests but is still interesting and not too sharp. Fruity, flowery, moderate bitterness that kicks back a nice huigan aftertaste. Comforting, tonic, mild cha qi.

This one leans to the delicate and balanced side of the sheng spectrum. Though generally speaking is a good tea I don’t believe I’ll be ordering a cake. I’d like to contrast it with a further aged version and see where it goes.

SIPDOWN 6
Oh well, another sipdown. And probably my first puerh sipdown. Quite happy with it; but not that great considering I bought it two years ago and only sample.

I decided for gongfu and made 6 or 7 steeps with various steeping time from 15 seconds to 3 minutes. I noticed again chocolate notes, not much of the vanilla today; very thick liquor here though. Comforting first steeps, but the last ones were somehow heavy for my stomach and it is a bit upset. It isn’t somehow complex too, which is quite sad, but well I paid a 3 USD per 20 grams sample.

I wish for more complexity in this session.

Decided to brew pu-erh in gaiwan again, I need to calm down and this somehow works well to me. Not just tea, but sitting and enjoying the cuppa.

I prepared 5 grams in 85 ml gaiwan, boiling water in thermos. Quick rinse (10 seconds), letting humidity for 5 minutes to entry the chunk of tea.

First steep was ten seconds long and it brewed so dark… bit oily brew. The taste was quite boring, typical shu flavour, woody, no notes of chocolate I noticed last time.
Second one was with 5 seconds extra, brewed even darker, the taste is nice and mellow, but again that typical shu, without any complexity. I haven’t reached that soup is ultra thick and will coat your mouth throughout the session, just like a good old Irish stout! yet too. But it looks like that for sure. Some sweet notes bit reminding vanilla appears.

Third one, 25 seconds. It’s not that dark! Dark mahogany colour right now, clear.
Indeed some sweet notes are there. Not sure about the vanilla, but sweet. What is sweet, but somehow mild? Not sugary sweet? Is it that notes of chocolates I noticed other day?

Another. 30 seconds.
Smooth shu. There are no rough notes. Decent.

45 seconds. I am drinking it somehow fast. Do I hurry? Noo! Why then? Anyway, it’s so nice, mellow, easydrinking.

Another 45 seconds long steep. Did I bite dark chocolate? No, it is just a tea.

Praying for justice and calm heads in US, I hope that methods of police will change too. I don’t consider normal kneeing on someone’s neck. Moreover when he was trying to breath. I don’t say that riots will solve anything, but honestly I am not surprised. What else they can do? Should they remain silent? I am afraid that is what they want.

I am the first one to write a tasting note? And this tea is actually gone!

Anyway, quick (+- 10 seconds) rinse of 6 grams of tea in my 85 ml gaiwan. That is 1 gram for 14 ml of boiling water in thermos.

1st steep, as usual, was 15 seconds long.
It pours light brown colour. Rinse and first steep has got generic shu aroma, in taste mellow, not-metallic, rather sweet side of chocolate.

2nd steep, 30 seconds
Mellow, still sweet chocolate taste. Not very complex taste. But full-bodied for sure.

3rd, 45 seconds
It becames darker, so does in taste, more like dark chocolate now.

4th, 60 seconds
Full bodied, nice to drink. I do not think it will change flavours, so I will keep drinking. They claim it can be up to 12 steeps, so – I guess it can be true. But I would not write about every single steep.

It is good, but maybe I expected something bit more complex.

A sipdown! (M: 4, Y: 50)
Just logging the sipdown. 4 years 5 months since placed order.

Oh dear! I still have this one, though I have ordered only 20g sample… on April 15, 2019! Or, actually it isn’t listed in my order list, so I don’t know if it was a free gift or how I get this? Strange…

But it is long time since I have ordered from Farmerleaf. After I have restorted my teas, I decided not to order any more teas. I have received a box from Leafhopper this week as well; so I have indeed loads of tea to drink. Way more than I want to have. So, a lots of drinking tea ahead to reduce this awful number.

I took this one, as I was craving a sheng today morning and decided to brew it western. 4 grams; 300 ml, almost boiling water. Two steeps. First one was around 3-4 minutes and it was very smooth, fruity sheng with notes of apricots and peaches, minerality seems to be gone; as well the drying notes and astringency. Highly enjoyed, with high caffeine level (as derk noticed from a bit I sent her) and thus great for sleepy gloomy Sunday morning.

Second steep was, sadly, awfully long. I actually forgot I prepared it and started with the sorting. When I have realised this fault, it could be steeping for 15 minutes, maybe 20!

It has got qualities mentioned above, but the aftertaste was highly and awfully astringent.

And now a tea I am drinking while writing. That works best.

I did 10 seconds rinse, then let leaves absorb the humidity for 10-15 minutes and then started with 10 seconds long steep.

1st steep, 10 seconds
What a nice mounthfeel. Smooth, almost velvety, with taste of stonefruits, again as I mentioned before, peaches and apricots. No bitterness, little astringency

2nd steep, 20 seconds
Brew is light green, in taste more astringency; but still very smooth. Taste more green, bit hay.

3rd steep, 30 seconds
Astringency withdrew, smooth taste. Again some fruits appear, bit woody. Tends to sween notes a bit.

4th steep, 40 seconds
Hmm, stonefruits! Maybe little bit citrusy.

5th steep, 50 seconds
Again astringency creeps a bit. Indeed citrusy with hints of floral notes.

And I will say goodbye to this tasting note as I don’t like long ones, but it keeps giving. Easydrinking sheng for simple and unexperienced puerh tea drinkers as I am. It is though very nice to drink puerh after long time. Or actually any tea in gaiwan.

Another go.

15 seconds rinse
Floral, stone fruits, mineral. Not really bad. Probably stonefruits as apricot / peach, mentioned by others in previous years. Medium astringency.

1st / 30 seconds.
Quite mineral and astringent, not much of fruity notes. Quite drying and long mouthfeel.

2nd / 30 seconds.
As first 30 seconds were quite strong, I decided to make second brew with same time. Yep, it is milder. Bit fruitier. Good steep.

3rd / 45 seconds
This is really nicely balanced between astingency and sweetness. Finishing this steep awfully cold, because I was checking new cars with my dad.

4th / 1 minute
This is following previous note, that it is nice balanced. No cars this time :D

5th / 1:15
It´s same…
I will make more and more brews, but I guess it will be same. Maybe weaker, maybe stronger. Who knows… Just great amount of steeps, I do not want to count it. I am lazy man.

Well, it seems I have aged this tea a bit. Maybe a bit more than I should…

Prepared gong-fu, 3 grams, 85 ml water.

Vegetal, stonefruits, kind of sweet, peas, no or almost none astringency. Haven’t noticed the floral notes I wrote in previous notes.

Leaves after all the steeps I made (that should be around 8-9, as I have ran out of my thermos) are wonderful, some are bit bug bitten, but almost all of them are whole. If I had bigger gaiwan, they will expand fully.

Considering it was that exclusive, I am glad that it has aged pretty well, mellowed the taste and astringency is gone as well. It reminds me another tea I had (Mandalay Spring by Nous Tea but it is from Burma). Maybe the varietal is same or very similar? Keeping the 78 as it isn’t that great, even it is bit better than fresh.

I took two grams of this maocha today and prepared grandpa.
Turned out very seaweed, salty, vegetal with first sips. Then it turns more vegetal-green and little bit of floral notes. It is quite caffeine-boosting, as I had it in 4 pm and now it is 6 and something and still feel it.

It is not maybe greatest tea (it is after all from Thailand), but certainly nice experience trying so fresh tea (although now it is older than first try).

As I do not have much of it, I hope I will save it and see how it develops with aging.

Finally! The storms and rain comes, so finally, temperatures drop. It is about 25°C, cloudy, finally breatable air :D.

Anyway, I have decided for this tea (now gone, well only 2 kg batch was made, so I unexpect seeing other tasting notes)

As I have just 20 g of it, I decided to make it different way than today. Only 3 grams for my 85 gaiwan. Boiling water used (duh, maybe lower temperature would be better).

I make about 10 seconds (shorter) rinse, burnt my fingers a bit, preheated gaiwan preheated cup.

It gets really vegetal notes with little smell of floral notes. But it is not DF floral, like explosion of flowers, rather hidden in vegetals.

Pours light green, rather white. Clear naturally. In taste it is full bodied, with nice mouthfeel and bit vegetal too. It reminds me bit of dancong oolong (I did not have much oolongs in my life yet). Those notes were for first steep, about 10 seconds long (only!).

For second steep I doubled the steep time. Pours more distinctive colour, but still very light.
There is some sweetness. Hidden in vegetal taste. Weird, unique, but tasty. Long mouthfeel.

Added another 10 seconds for third steep. (I will do it all the time this session)
Floral notes are way more present. It is present in aroma way more too. Refreshing sweetness.

40 seconds.
It is nicely fragant for sure. Light tea. Refreshing. Floral. Just very nice, you know!

50 seconds
I think it is slowly gone. Lost bit of flavour.

60 seconds
it means 6th steep. Last one. Have to do things, then going for summerjob. Definitely gone. It is not so floral as it was earlier.

Definitely good tea to try, maybe I will age it a bit and we will see how it develops.

Summer 2018 harvest

Well, lazy morning again.
I do not want to do anything, so I decided to do a gong fu with another new tea. As I never had a compressed white tea, I took this one.

Clean up the gaiwan (oh, come on, I even left leaves in water and forgot it for two days). Dang! Clean up the cup. Boil water to thermos.

And 15 seconds rinse. 5 grams of tea.

It woke up some aromas. Hard to describe, but closest one would be probably raisins? Is it even possible? Certainly it is some sweet aroma.

1st steep is 15 seconds long (as usual for me).
In taste it is mild, but nothing really distinctive.

2nd, much longer – forgot about it a bit. Around 45 seconds.
I was counting and then I thought, oh I am already on fourty.
It won’t be bad, I was complaining it was not distinctive for first steep. It get some floral notes. More thick too. In aroma of wet leaf I notice something refreshing, like a mint.
Yep, it is floral and nicely round. Little astringecy is there, but not really making it bad.

3rd, 1 minute
Cake chunk broke completely. It is loose leaf now. Haha.
Pours golden, with slighlty woody aroma. In taste it is nice, thick tea, kind of honey smoothness.

4th, 75 seconds
It is really bold now. But still so nice smooth, little, almost unnoticable astringency. No bitterness.

And following ones (adding 15 seconds)
are quite similar. It is not very complex tea in tastes, but easydrinking, warming cuppa.

Food pairing: Vanilla yoghurt for breakfast, haha. Not enough. Bread with salami.

I decided to gongfu in the evening, so I picked this one. Quick (10s) rinse, not boiling water.

Took first smell and I feel completely confused. Cut grass — sure. But flower notes for sure, meadow, some fruits, probably figs!? Stonefruits a bit too.

First steep 12 seconds
The brew aroma isn’t that strong as wet leaves from gaiwan. It is stonefruits, bit grass seed in scent.
Taste is quite flat yet, again with grassy notes with little fruity aftertaste. Bit herbaceous as well.

Second steep 18 seconds
Aroma is stronger, I get more floral notes. Lilac a bit and orchids. Taste is again bit of grassy, with floral-fruity notes. Herbaceous notes gone.

Third steep 25 seconds
Hints of lilac, orchids, jasmine? It is going to different flower profiles? Taste is pretty much same as previous steep.

Fourth steep 30 seconds
Turned bitter a bit. Vegetal a lot. Not much of those wonderful floral notes that were there before.

Fifth steep 30 seconds
This time it is milder with bit more fruity notes. I feel somehow it is filling me, but I need to eat something as well. I feel quite boosted with positive energy, like this tea is something I needed after this long week.

Sixth steep 40 seconds
I think this tea is over. Yes, it could deliver more, but my thermos is empty, tea is somehow bit weak, but again lots of flower notes, with some stonefruits. Kinda astringent too. There were fruit notes again.

Overall, I bet it is not that high quality as it could be. But for evenings like this and for almost a novice (not anymore, I know), it’s nice. Would get more for the price, as 20 grams sample (I think it was more though) was for nice 3 USD. Ageing for year and half probably smoothed it a bit as well. Good for the price!

Togo, as it is gone from Farmerleaf and you would like to try it, we could agree on some swap, I would love what someone, who have so great tasting notes in detail, taste :) You could me write your contact on Steepster message, I can read them, but can’t reply :/

I took this tea in my gaiwan today morning.

It was more vegetal than I remember from grandpa brewing. Grassy as well, little sweetness, bit of astringency. Brews easily, I did not care much about steeping times, just when I thought it will be ready, I spilled the tea into a cup. It was good. Nothing really fancy, or some scents or aromas development, just easydrinking tea with nice taste. Reminding me bit green teas, but that is probably bit expected.

Overall, it is nice tea (especially for the price).

Some dust from bag, grandpa, around 4-5 grams.

Why grandpa you ask?
Well, I am kind of lazy. And in Monday I should have exam, but I decided to prepare more – so, 19th August is new date. I still have two attempts remaining. So, I guess I need to study :P
Moreover, I do not know if I slept badly or what was wrong, but I woke up and everything hurts. Shoulders, arms, legs… weird start of the day.
But: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRYvuS9OxdA

Haha, okay lyrics do not really mean how I feel, but the name of the song :D

To the tea:
Liquor is green-yellow, bit cloudy. Lots of leaves actually, few stems too, I kept everything in. Oh, look at the size of the this leaf! That one particular was indeed quite big – 5×2 cm maybe? And so nicely green, no bites, not even too fried one.

It smells bit vegetal, mowed grass (I know how it smells :D) and tastes pretty similar. Grassy, easydrinking tea. And it was quite sweet, maybe kind of peas? Overall, I have enjoyed it and for the price! 3 dollars for 25 grams sample?

SIPDOWN 75
Goodbye tasty tea! You will be missed. I am considering another order at Farmerleaf. Maybe one day… again.

But to the tea. Well, it is delicious black tea, with the notes that derk noticed. I am blaming myself not trying this tea in long time, and it seems it has changed its character a lot during two years I have it around. I completely get the malty base, but with citrus — grapefruit twist. Light astringency casued by the dust I had in. I have used slightly colder water as well.

I hope that it will return one day. They have autumn version available, maybe I should give it a try too. But once I will run out of the most teas in my cupoboard. Since New Year 75 sipdowns is quite impressive, but still there is lots of to drink.

I have again prepared this wonderful tea, and although it is year and half old, it is still one of the most perfect orthodox tea I had and still have something left. I guess next year, if availbable, I will order another.

It’s mild, but still the black tea notes are present. The maltiness, some of citrusy notes (I finally noticed them). And some stonefruits. I really like that even preparation grandpa isn’t bad thing for this tea, as it just remains mild and never bitter. Not even the end of the cuppa!

I see I had this tea, when I was writing tasting note 200. Now I am on 760 (my house number, what a coincidence) and I just… I just don’t care about the number. I just like seeing the “likes” and some comments now and then.

So nice, and easydrinking tea.

Prepared grandpa, one pinch and one smaller pinch, 300 ml glass cup.

Turned same as always. I guess this is my favourite black tea. I could drink it all the time. It’s nicely malty, but not just that, it doesn’t turn bitter and leaves are big and so nice to watch.

Upping a rating from 90 to 96.

Weirdly, I have only half of this left and… one tasting note?

Well, and few hours backlog; I hate it. I could not go so much into details, because, I just forget them.

Anyway, prepared grandpa, two pinches of tea – no accurate measurment, just boiled water.

Turned out very nice, this time with some stone fruits notes, malty, but still very light tea! Typical black tea flavours appear there as well and what amazes me the most, is that I was steeping it for 45 minutes and it was still delicious without any bitterness.

Anybody wants to make New Year swap (I will include this tea :) )? Just for fun. First two come, first two seved basis. I could not afford more right now.

I have decided (same as yesterday morning) to make this tea grandpa style. So, four-five grams of tea, 300 ml of hot water (was boiling 3-5 minutes before I used it). So I guess it can have about 90°C.

Anyway, my cup is fulll of leaf now. It is making dark gold, of course bit cloudy – as no rinse was performed, with aroma of sweet malt, but bit spicy and bit of forest honey.

In taste it is light, but still somehow full-bodied tea. Nothing too much to write about, as it is just black tea :) but certainly it is smooth, enjoyable, easydrinking tea with low and nice price tag . Okay, it has got medium malty flavour with hints of spices!

Edit: My Tasting note No. 200 !!! Woohoo!

This is very sad SIPDOWN. I am not really sure when I will place another order on Farmerleaf, as the shipping even not during corona crisis was very slow and moreover I had to pick it in Prague in customs post office, pay customs fees and so on.

It has “aged” pretty well. Noticed mostly malt and leather notes, brisk and little tangy flavours. It was coating my mouth with velvet feel, it was wonderfully smooth, haven’t noticed much tannic today.

Gonna miss you Yingpan Shan. You were worth the money. Maybe underpriced.

Apparently this tea lost its nutty flavour it got when fresh.

But still, it is exceptional black tea which don’t turn bitter even prepared grandpa with freshly boiled water.

Yes, that’s how I prepared it! Took two pinches into my favourite tall glass cup, and… boiling water in.

It was more malty than usual, although still very fine tea; simple drinker today. I was not paying too much attention too today. Now, I have one tea for one last cup or last gaiwan. Or I will send it elsewhere? I am haven’t decided yet. Maybe I should pick another pouch as it is still quite cheap (2 US dollars per 20 grams, or 6 US dollars per 100 g) Hmm, decisions, decisions… I still remember how I was nervous last time and getting it home. Is it worth it?

Gong-fu time, I have not did it for long time.
4 grams, 85 ml gaiwan.

I was not very precise in steeping times, so it all was in 10 seconds – 90 seconds period. Spiciness was gone, it turned out very malty. But it was great. I liked the taste. Then some sweetness. And in the end, it was like red fruits tea. Interesting development, honestly I miss a bit the spices I had with first steeps in spring-summer, but the red fruits notes were interesting as well. Although I have not listened to it while drinking, here is a song pairing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q89Urbqe7QA – as it was stuck in my head.

Enjoy the song. Enjoy your tea. Enjoy the life.

I took it bit stronger today. 5-6 grams per 300 ml grandpa style.

My parents were enjoying the coffee, while I was enjoying great tea.
It is still same as previous notes I wrote. We were talking about lots of things. Some job is needed in garden, so – actually I am bit avoiding it by writing this tasting note. Meh, I really do not want to do anything, just staying at home, listening to music and relaxing. Not this time I guess.

And guess what! As we were sitting on the patio, we have a little bit of flowers there including few sunflowers. A goldfinch arrived and started to eat the seeds. He was there for 10-15 minutes and enjoying it apparently! It was so nice. So nice as this tea.

PS: I know this is rather diary entry than tasting note.