Jesse's Teahouse

TTB 2025. I had a gongfu session with a mini brick. The brick was tightly compressed and took a few steeps to fully open up. I lost count of the number of steeps I did, but I feel like it was at least 10. The taste was very mild in the first few steeps. After the leaves opened up, I got a fruitiness that reminded me more of a very basic sheng than a white tea. I experimented with different temperatures and steep times to see if I could get more out of it, but there just wasn’t much compexity to it beyond the shenglike fruitiness.

2025 TTB #6

This box is heavy on flavored blends (not that I’m complaining!) but this straight black tea jumped out to me, as I haven’t had many “red” teas (not even sure of what defines that?) and Jesse’s Teahouse is also a new brand to me. The dry leaf was pretty! Tight little curls of mahogany brown leaves and a nice winey aroma. Unfortunately, I ended up on a 40-minute work call while drinking this, so wasn’t able to give it as much attention as I would have preferred. From what I recall, it was bittersweet and fruity and a bit drying on the palate. I tend to prefer a more robust, malty black tea, so I’ll probably be putting this one back in the box for someone else to enjoy.

My partner’s sister bought this for him for Christmas, which was nice, but he’s not a big tea guy. He says, “Smells like grass/dirt. Tastes like duller genmaicha.” I found the flavor a tiny bit funky, but in a pleasant way. It’s not something I’d really want again, but it was nice enough with sugar and milk.

Tea Thoughts Winter Countdown: Day 14

Hmm! I’m honestly not super familiar with chrysanthemum, and I suspect this is not the most high-quality place to start — but still fun! I was getting some kind of wet rag, chamomile notes when I sniffed the freshly brewed tisane, but thankfully there’s none of that in the cup. It’s mildly floral, with some hay notes, and then a cooling menthol effect at the end. Not sure I’m getting much from the goji berries, but maybe they’ll show up in my second steep!

Day 14 of the Tea Thoughts winter countdown box. Savory and lightly sweet, with a very mild goji note. Interesting cooling sensation after the sip, which I wasn’t expecting. I did the first steep at 3 minutes and that was a bit light for me, but this 5-minute second steep is working for me. I might try for a third…

ETA: Got a third solid steep out of this today.

Adventageddon Day 14

I bowl brewed this one.

I swear that between all these advents I’ve probably had more chrysanthemum in the last two weeks than in the rest of the year combined. Interestingly, I seem to be kind of growing a bit of a taste for it. The more cups I have the more I’m really appreciating that sort of black pepper sort of quality.

That said, I have to say that this one definitely didn’t seem to be as nice a quality as what’s been included by Inoki in their advent, and the goji berries in the little packet basically didn’t contribute jack shit flavour wise. But, I suppose there’s an argument to be made that maybe they have some functional benefits. Maybe.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDkyWWISpLo/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsqU6n7BJnQ&ab_channel=TeenagePriest

The aroma of this tea has you almost burning your nose to get a whiff. It’s great—wildflower honey, a hint of tobacco. The flavor carries through with the honey, which is the main attraction of this tea. There’s a bit of bitterness if you brew it too hard while chasing the honey. Soft and luxurious mouthfeel too. Overall it’s mostly a one trick pony, but it does that one trick pretty well. It’s honey water—texturally, flavor, and aroma-wise. I’m not sure if the aroma has me tricked into thinking it’s sweet, but I think it is at least. Good tea and worth sharing.

My first introduction to aged mandarin peel was in the form of a pu`erh orange. I hated it. I was expecting a similar experience with three treasures but instead found this one to work. The flavors are well-incorporated with nothing really standing out other than the citrus—but at least it’s not standing out and waving its arms trying to steal the show. You get that funky medicinal flavor that evolves towards bitter, but also the balancing herbal sweetness from the aged white tea. This is a good tea to share—it’s distinctly weird in a good way and something far from what non-teaheads would be used to.

This one is temperamental. Brewing parameters are pretty important to get a delicious result out of this sheng, but when you get it right it’s pretty darn good. The cha qi is also invigorating and uplifting without being jittery. Notes of leather, latex, smoke, honey, and lychee. After every sip your tongue becomes a battleground of sweet and astringent which lingers for minutes until they fade away, neither side having won the battle.

It’s so good. A summer tea has no right to be this delicious.
This one can get 10 steeps easy too, which is rare for a white. You could probably get 20 to be honest. The herbal quality is lingering, soup is thick, and there are notes of wildflower honey that transport you to a warm, sunny spring day.
Cram your gaiwan or pot full of leaves. You can’t oversteep this—it just becomes more incredible the harder you brew it.