Good Tea

Began with a brief rinse followed by a minute of steeping. The rinse was a bit fishy in aroma but after the first steep old civil war stone and wood house revealed itself. The mouth feel is incredibly smooth. It coats your mouth like a silk blanket. Thick. Speaking of which, satin or silk sheets are probably the hardest to sleep on. Too slippery. The liquor color is very, very dark, like coffee. Deep forest notes. Wet woods. Dry desert woods. Malt o meal?

March 2022 Sipdown Challenge — A tea that makes you happy

Like a meadow. Wildflowers, straw and flax notes are backed up by a muted dried spicy-leafy-herbacous tone and the taste of a light clover honey. The tea sips astringent and becomes sweet and viscous as it moves which allows the honey to swell, but the astringency breaks through especially under the tongue.

Thank you Martin for the sample! It was my first Georgian white tea. A good tea to brace my senses and get me more in line with this daylight savings time shift. Now to make the most of my 3-day weekend :)

86? 96!
I have this tea from… ehem… very long time, order was placed in May 2021. I tried it once, closed the bag with strong clipper and opened just once again when sending a sample to derk.

I have decided to fullfill ashmanra’s sipdown prompt — A tea for joyful solitude and meditation because this tea seems best to me for that prompt.

I decided to gongfu it this time, using 8 grams (a little overleafed maybe?) for my 125 ml gaiwan, which was full with leaf. When I infused the leaf for first time, the volume of leaf is half; however still very full gaiwan. So, I guess I never used whole volume of my gaiwan in this session.

I did in total 8 steeps, from 10 seconds long to 40 seconds, with very small increments and only the last one was the watery one.

In between I got very meadow like tea, with hints of herbals (thyme comes to mind), honey notes, a little astringency peeks out as well. The liquor is very viscous, as derk noticed, not much hay, but straw this time.

As of fruity notes, I can point out some stonefruits, however they aren’t much present. There is also yellow melon note a little bit.

I was drinking this tea while studying again, so not so much joyful, but for sure solitude. For those who do meditations, I believe this one could work for them as well. It has got some relaxing properties I assume.

Another finally opened pouch.
But I am sitting here and trying to write a tasting note and… nada. I feel so off-track recently when it comes to tea. The leaves are looking so beatuful, the pictures are true to reality. Wild grown, organic, white tea from Georgia is something unique I just had to order, even it is one of the most expensive teas I have in my collection.

I did two western steeps. First one was rather long, so it gets quite a thick texture, but filled with nice peachy note and a bit of other stonefruits. Then some minerality appears. It was quite an unique experience. I even used maybe too much leaf, about 4-5 grams (my accurate scale ran out of batteries).

Second steep, of same leaves, is very different though and honestly probably even better. It was a bit shorter steep, around only 3 minutes (maybe even that was too much) and a bit colder water maybe as well. It get some herbal note I think, but not offensive in any way, maybe honeyish a bit as well. It is more floral as well. Are those meadow flowers? Proabably so.

A sipdown! (M: 6, Y: 14) Prompt: A least favorite tea I guess.

Okay, I am pretty sure there will be prompt your oldest white tea which would be a great fit, but decided to brew this ball today evening. It was dismal almost two years ago, so finally I decided to gongfu this 10 years old ball. Leafhopper have another ball, I believe, so I hope I am not only one, who finds it disappointing.

I have been using quite hot water, partially as an accident (overheated water, almost boiling) and secondly, I did really long rinse to make the ball fall apart. I even used my fingers to prying it open, which I managed during just before third steep.

But well, taste-wise and aroma-wise it is still very same, though it has been in sealed bag. I never got so dark orange colour as pictured, no matter how long I have been steeping (I have stopped with three minutes mark). Time down there is average steeping time.

It is just plain nothing. There is some hay notes, some weird and muted sweet notes. It’s like drinking steeped hay with drop of honey, which was dissolved in glass of hot water before.

Previous rating was 54. Now, after gongfu steeping, which did not help, I will decrease. Because this was not worth it. I had cheaper loose leaf, which was even better. Or, had some flavour, which could be displeasing, but had it. This was plain… nothing.

I have bought three of those balls. And today, I finally bit the bullet and tried first one.

I like aged white teas. Pressed white teas. But this… this was sadly a dismal.

I took one of that balls and prepared in grandpa way. I know it isn’t the best for all the flavour profiles and delicate steepings, but it was… old.

I know, it’s 8 years old tea. But it was weak in flavours. There weren’t any fresh taste, naturally. No peaches, no stonefruits, nothing from those. It was like a washed out black tea. It was smooth though. But so boring. Not sure if I want to try second in gongfu or both I should send to Leafhopper who was looking for white teas… or just let it be and see if another day is a better day. But for the price, I am not impressed.

A sipdown! (M: 15, Y: 77) 15 sipdowns in one month? I think it is record for me!

Anyway, I have used last 5 grams I had. Dry leaves aroma was that strong, sheng astringent note, very drying. I did 15 seconds long rinse, which I have tossed; I found out that the leaves are easy to pry from each other, so I had a whole bottom of gaiwan filled with leaves. A good start. Wet leaves had that astringent note too, which was something I wasn’t really pleased about.

I did following steeps — 7/15/20/30/45/60/a few longer ones.

My apprehensions were wrong. It was (and I dunno how, maybe I have a good storage) very mellow, grassy, mellow tea without any astringency (that appeared only in the long steeps); with hints of stonefruits… apricots and plums (a bit raw ones) the most, florals (meadow flowers) and also some refreshing note was there. I was always happy and looking forward to next steep and all of them were just so great.

As I wrote, it has highly surprised me. Because previous attempts were just rather harsh, bitter and astringent. Last session was like completely different tea and actually, I feel I will miss this tea a bit. I am considering trying more teas from Bingdao (or Bing Dao) village, to find out if all are so astringent at first and after 9 years they will mellow.

Prepared western, 3g for 300 ml.

Bingdao area. It says nothing to me. As always. So… need to study more puerhs and their location. Will it be better than my Jinggu experience? Will it be worse? It is sheng from 2014, so quite old. No idea if it is too old or aged well. This company is new for me, too. So kinda blind buy from me. Old trees. Does it change anything?

I took the leaves out of heat wrapped foil wrapping and… it was mineral. Like too much mineral. Then, some other notes. Is it peachy-fruity? Weird! Soft aroma then… maybe it needed to breath out a bit I guess.

Anyway, I took 3 grams of that loose part of this tea, haven’t took any chunks. I think I have steeped it for 4 minutes maybe? I am not really sure to be honest. Either way, it was just right as I got very nice fruity puerh with peach note and some kind of mineral aftertaste. It was smooth with little, but needed astringency. Long and nice mouthfeel. Can’t wait to gongfu it.

Decided to gongfu this tea today. 4 grams / 125 ml gaiwan.

I am not much able to tell the difference in flavour profile. Maybe it was a bit more chocolate-y, but as I have prepared 5 steps 20-45 seconds long as they suggest, it was fading quite quickly and overall it was quite woody, with typical shu profile. After fifth steep it was like a woody water.

While it wasn’t a bad tea, it wasn’t anything I would order in a cake profile or bigger quantity.

Hmm. For some reason I haven’t put this in my virtual cupboard. Anyway… this is the tea from the company I have ordered from and it was a free gift — so thank you to Prague!

I was looking for this one, but as shu puerhs aren’t my thing usually, I decided not to order it. I have received a loose leaf sample of this instead of thick chunks.

Western, 4 grams, 300 ml
It is decent, though not anyhow unique. Quite woody and sweet, but not much complex flavour profile.

I did two steeps, one in yesterday afternoon and second this morning. Both were pretty much same and both were quite thick too. A nice surprise in conclusion.

SIPDOWN (I lost my track doing the spreadsheet of drunk teas, so no number; and I can’t catch it back up)

Today, with remaining 2 grams (not even) it was better. The notes were fairly same, but weaker and overall it was pretty much classic black tea.

It wasn’t that bitter, but still some off notes were there too. Can’t pick them up much, but certainly it wasn’t truly pleasing tea. Happy to have it sipped down to be honest.

Hi everyone (waves). Week long hiatus because of my thesis. Thesis done (hopefully). Deadline on Friday. “I like to live dangerously!”

Anyway, I decided to try a new shop for me and I just decided to give a several new teas. I was craving buying new teas, but not from subsciption. Genuine, pure teas…

And as I wanted some pure black, I decided to order this one. Not only to mention that typo in the name… my pouch is saying 2nd Flush 2015. Not happy to see it much, but it was cheap tea. Truly, very cheap tea. That 15 grams sample was cheaper than a beer here. And beer is cheap.

Anyway, took two teaspoons and my 300 ml mug.

It’s described as very malty tea with raisins, honey and licorice flavour, but honestly… (it’s because age?) it was rather like a malty and tobacco. With strong tannic aftertaste. Raisins, in my opinion are different, and honey… no way, sadly.

Overall, it was quite mediocre tea. Far from Mokalbari Assam (but as well completely different area). And that biiter aftertaste isn’t a thing to look forward as well. Well, at least it was cheap and just a small sample. Not every tea is a winning tea.