Moychay

The dry leaf weirdly has miso as the dominant aroma with soy sauce, cloves, nuts and camphor wood as background aroma. The wet leaf has a honey with cardamom note to it and unripened bananas too. The real brews are very aromatic with notes of honey, rose, honeysuckle, nuts, milk and surprisingly waxy corn and peanut butter! It also has a indescribable taste that is present in all Gaba teas I’ve had. The brews were amber in color and the texture is full, thick and creamy. The leaves were brown with a red hue, a very unique color for a taiwan high mountain oolong. I used the Gongfu tea method to brew this tea with a porcelain gaiwan as brewing vessel.

It has a pretty good huigan…. TO BE CONTINUED

This tea is way more substantial than Moychay’s description implies and handles boiling water like it was born for it. Reminds me of pressed Fujian white teas so much more than I’d think. Really a treat, especially when the leaves are boiled after being exhausted gongfu.

Thanks for this awesome share, Martin!

While this was a small sample-from-a-sample, just 2.5g of leaf gave me a clear picture of this tea. It’s indestructible — boiling water and long steeps do no harm. It tastes so much like an oxidized and aging Fujian white that if I hadn’t known this was grown in the Netherlands (assuming, since there’s no description for the tea), I’d be none the wiser. Darker character, sweet and dry but not drying, this is a pure expression of Camellia sinensis. Very neat!

Thanks so much for my first Dutch tea, Martin!!

I have 3 different Georgian white teas and each one is different on their own.

I don’t want to call this one the most unique. But it is, definitely, unique. Pressed white teas are not common, moreover outside China!

So, I had to buy this. But I assume the main reason was… Georgia origin. Thick leaves, layered on each other. Easy to pry, but so hard to make exact weight. Leaves are wonderful.

Anyway, I tried 8.5 grams brewed gongfu (125 ml gaiwan) with 95°C water in the start of the session. Vendor suggests 8 g/100 ml; so a bit different ratio.

After rinse there were lovely birch aromas, slightly woody, slightly herbaceous and slightly woody. But bright wood scents, like birch is. I was surprised to see my agreement with the description by vendor.

I did several steeps, with various times. 20-60 seconds, first being shorter, naturally.

The flavours are… so interesting. Well, first of all, quite viscous. Secondly, the notes are creamy, slightly woody again, but that was definitely a good flavour! Meadow notes. Florals.

To be honest, even though I am writing this note right after I finished the session, I am not able to pick up the correct words. It is so nice, but hard to say how it is like.
The mouthfeel isn’t so long, but the unique notes repays it greatly.

Tried this tea for first time with western steeping method, though apparently the gongfu is much better. It’s recommended on the bag (a huge one as it is very fluffy), but as well as in the description of tea.

It is a tea from Nannoushan, Menghai and last year harvest. I have been aware of harvest year before buying it but decided for that anyway as I actually almost ran out of white teas, which are perfect in hot days. They are thing of the past too, as mornings are indeed autumn like and afternoons are still warm, but not hot.

I took for my steeping method 5 grams which filled my strainer absolutely, filled the mug with a few minutes rested boiling water (definitely not measured) and well I can really agree with the description again.

White grape colour of the brew, with somehow berry-like aroma and floral, meadow notes. I disagree with fresh notes but yep, it’s year old tea. Also some notes of spices… green ones as a bit of cardamom, green peppercorns are there, if searched for.

Flavour was, suprisingly quite fruity as noticed by vendor too; sweetish and smooth. Very mouthcoating, and long aftertaste.

Wonderful tea, with much to explore in gongfu steeping. Certainly going to try next time!

A friend brewed this tea and it was really nice. It is very dark, and has deep woody flavors. You can taste and feel the time. This tea is felt in the head and body really quickly, it gave a very deep and meditative feeling of relaxation and calmness. Remarkable. Too bad this kind of tea is absolutely unaffordable if you would want to drink it on a regular basis…

Very creamy, milky and also sweet. It also has a waxy corn and popcorn flavor. A very very nice tea. I used the gongfucha method with a porcelain gaiwan to brew this tea.

The dry leaf was woodsy, nutty with charcoal notes. The steeps were extremely floral, extremely fruit and fresh and had long lasting finishes. I used the Chaozhou gongfu brewing method with a Chaozhou teapot as brewing vessel to brew this particular tea.

I vaguely remember the flavors of this tea because it’s been too long since I had this tea. I remember it had roasted notes and intense fruity and floral notes. It was an absolutely delicious tea and that I absolutely do remember!

This tea feels light and clean, and slightly aromatic with citrusy and light spicy associations. It feels thin, watery even, and for me, quite boring. Is it too subtle for me? I don’t know. For me it would not be worth this kind of price.

Very nice and lovable dianhong. Sweet, spicy-flowery, somewhat peaty with nicely substantial mouthfeel. Just very satisfying in that particular way in which only hongchas can satisfy. Sadly it loses a bit of edge after the first brew.

Another shai hong cake. This is an interesting one. It brews a really dark red. It is thick-textured, aromawise it isn’t really strong and at first glance it might even seem a bit empty because it has no high aromatic notes, but then there is a depth to it that is just really nice. It has a smooth, deep and round dried fruits aspect that comforts and satisfies.

It is a drinkable Shou Pu erh tea. The tea cake is 100 grams. Nice mellow taste with earthy and soily notes with hints of Chinese herbs with all steeps. Hints of licorice from 3rd steep till 7th steep, honeysuckle on 1st steep and woody on 2nd till 7th steep, camphor wood on 2nd steep. Smooth and thick texture.

An odd tea. The wet leaves smelled so sour and chemical I worried something was wrong with it, but the brewed tea is perfectly nice. I leafed it pretty hard so maybe that’s exaggerating the strange aspects. The liquid is sticky and both very sweet and very sour, like cotton candy dipped in balsamic vinegar, with a refreshing floral aftertaste. I wouldn’t drink it every day but it’s a fun change of pace.

Unfortunately I think this one was roasted too long. There’s a nice floral aftertaste, but it’s hard to taste anything over the roast, and either I accidentally underleafed it or the flavor is very thin and mild overall.

I’m honestly shocked how good this sencha is, given that Japanese tea is not at all Moychay’s specialty. Nice thick texture, and the flavor is intense but not at all bitter; kind of one-note sweet grass, but I don’t mind that. It can stand up to boiling water, too, and the price (as with most things at Moychay) is very reasonable.

Sipdown

A few months ago, a friend had been gifted two teas from Moychay, and unfortunately, was allergic to ginseng. They asked if I wanted to take the tea off their hands—I, of course said that I would. I’ll admit that I’ve not had ginseng often. Maybe twice in my life. I’m indifferent to the flavor, but I don’t go out of my way to grab it.

Nicely satisfied my craving for shu today, but nothing particularly unique about this tea. Very woody (physically, too, loosely compressed with lots of stems), with a little bit of a sweet aftertaste. The price is certainly right, though.

1st impressions: As I’ve come to expect fom Moychay shu, there area a high number of stems mixed in with relatively cheap material. Smell – Nuo Mi Xiang (sticky rice herb); Taste – Bakery, nutty, woody, not sweet. They claim it doesn’t have Nuo Mi Xiang added to it, but there are obvious notes of it and a fair number of leaves that are not camellia sinensis.

Drink down: Decent texture, think enough to notice. Not terribly sweet, which is a nice change for shu. I am not opposed to sticky rice herb in shu. I don’t always want that profile, but it is enjoyable occasionally. I find it works better to go lighter on the leaf and I wish I had done that now. It is a bit overpowering.

Final thoughts: Dark, thick, rich. Cheap at ~$18 for 357mg (2021). If you dig the sticky rice herb thing and don’t mind the less complex shu it is paired with, this is a great buy. As for me, I don’t like the profile enough to merit keeping a cake around, but am happy with the chunk I’ll keep in storage.

Final Anhua heicha sample from Moychay. I’ve not had all of them, but all the ones that interested me. This looks like an inoculated heicha rather than natural jin hua formation.

1st impressions: The tea smells of tart berries with a woody background. The raspberry ketone note takes the lead on flavor. There is a synthetic like character to it (but this compound does occur naturally). The is also some apple skin like things happening in the background. There is also an off putting green bitterness in the background.

Drink down: The more I drink this the more I think of the skin of red delicious apples. That pithy, dry herbal, fruitiness. Brews up pretty dark. Nothing of note for the texture. A little mouth drying. No real body feeling. Not very energizing.

Pretty meh. Apple peels. The more you brew it, the more that sums the tea up.

2018 material/2020 pressing of supposedly Menghai material. (I say supposedly because, well… I wasn’t there)

1st impressions: Wet leaves at start smell of bakery notes and a bit of fruitiness. A fair bit of cedar woodiness (pencil shavings). After a rinse, the first brew is still kinda cloudy, but looks like it’ll clear up. Bright and sweet on the tip of the tongue with some good bitterness coming in on the back of the tongue. The cherry wood and background bitterness are the primary notes of the first run.

Drink down: The bitterness turned into a nice dark chocolate note. Overall the flavor it good for a dark choc/cherry wood type shu, but I wish it was filled out a bit more. Some nice spice notes are present in the middle steeps. The leaves are pretty chopped/broken up. There is some blending going on with different levels of fermentation and leaf size.

Final thoughts: At $22 for 357mg, this would make an excellent daily drinker. I may buy a cake to break up and mix with some chenpi I’m aging. The texture is decently oily. It brews out for an average number of times for shu (longer than most Moychay teas I’ve had). It is missing some of the creaminess or fully woodiness that I’d like, but its ok. Sweet up front with some bitterness.