Silk Road Teas

It’s done, it’s done! I have tasted and written a note about all of the teas in my Steepster cupboard! Huzzah!

And I’m still on track to make my sipdown stretch goal for February. Now, of course, I do have about 16 pu erh samples left to taste and maybe one or two random others. But when I started this taste-everything-in-the-cupboard adventure, it seemed incredibly daunting. And now it’s done.

And this tea is an interesting note to end on. I didn’t have it listed in the cupboard until last weekend when I discovered I hadn’t put it in there. And there is precious little information available about it online.

I had thought it was a sheng because of the “greencake” reference, but then when I opened up the cake, I found a Menghai Tea Factory description of Yunnan Chitsu Pingcha inside. When I Googled that, I was pretty sure it was a shu.

The cake itself didn’t give away much when I sniffed it. It was sort of that chocolate tree thing, but not clearly so — and it could have been earthy mushroom just as easily. If I was more of a sophisticate with pu ehr, I probably would have gotten clued in through the leaves, which were big and broad and flaked off the cake easily.

But after rinsing at boiling and letting the leaves rest 15 minutes, I went ahead and did the first steep as a shu, at 10 seconds.

It was then pretty easy to figure out this was a sheng. Lighter colored liquor than the espresso color of shu, rather an orange-gold (apricot? amber?) color, and a definite rich, buttery, caramel-espresso note in the aroma.

The first steep was pretty intense because it was 10 seconds rather than 5. Thereafter, I backtracked, and did 5/5/7/7/10/20/30/40/60 in the gaiwan.

And now I believe I am experiencing what it is like to be a little tea-drunk. Tipsy, really. I’m a little light headed after 20 steeps of sheng between this and the last. A weird, but pleasant feeling.

This is a tasty tea — actually I find it very similar to the last one I had today in terms of flavor, but without the fruity note. It is also less astringent, and has a really nice sweet aftertaste, which is what the note inside the wrapping said it would have.

I think I’ve become a pu erh convert, though honestly, I think I am far less likely to be forgiving of a pu erh I don’t like than any other sort of tea. The ones I’ve enjoyed are really enjoyable. The ones I haven’t are…. well, among the worst tea experiences I have had.

Happy Chinese New Year all. :D

Classic aromas, classic taste. Interesting name. I like it lol.

It has a super dark liquor, thick and almost looks like black syrup. The taste though was surprisingly mellow although rich, full-bodied. I was apprehensive at first looking at it. It’s smooth, earthy, mushrooms, little sweetness, typical fermentation notes, light leather. No fishiness, no bitterness. Lots of flavor throughout, no serious change in notes from steep to steep, just steady and pleasant… But am stopping here, for now, it’s 2 a.m. hehe

Daily drinker.

Yixing gaiwan, mini tuocha, 212°F, 110ml, rinsed twice, 6 steeps: 5s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 35s

Thank you Derk! :D

Is this black tea exciting? Not really.

Is it appreciated by my Red Rose loving parents? Yes, it absolutely is.

This one might be perfect for casual black tea drinking when you don’t want to break into your fancier and frillier stash, as well as for guests who want tea but aren’t used to loose leaf or who think the title “Yunnan Pure Bud Golden Snail” is a bit intimidating to start.. Although, I find the Snail wins people over regardless of their prior concerns and biases (such an amazing tea; why is it not in stock and why am I on a tea buying hiatus?).

Finished off this sample with another go at gongfu, this time using 4.5g/212F/6 steeps and also a western steep with 3g/195F/2 steeps.

For gongfu, the boiling water didn’t seem to effect the tastes at all. In terms of texture, the astringency was not effected and the liquor thickened up some. The tea did open up quicker, this time on the second steep. The leaf can steep for upwards of 10 minutes for the last few infusions without developing off flavors. I’d suggest brewing this tea at boiling instead of the Silk Road recommended 195F.

Western was a wreck though at 195F and the most dominant quality was that tartness in the back of the mouth that’s also prominent in tieguanyin oolong. Not something I appreciate shrug

Dropping the rating. It just doesn’t do it for me.

5g, 100mL teapot, 195F, no rinse, 5 steeps of 30/45/60/75/90s

Somehow this sample I picked up form the bulk tea section of the co-op ended up in a jar at home that formerly housed onion powder?!? You can guess what the dry nuggets smelled like :/ They weren’t entirely cloaked by that odor and I could smell some toastiness underneath. Warmed leaf also smelled toasty.

The onion powder scenting didn’t come through in taste. The tea was pretty mellow for the first 3 steeps with light toasty, peachy, honey and fruit flowers tastes. Clear tawny hue, light-bodied with some astringency. Aftertastes were also light but hung around for a while. Not much aroma. With the fourth steep, the flavors really came forward with additions of apricot, lemon, minerals, wood and cream and some fluffy lactic acid tartness around the salivary glands. Fifth steep and it was done.

Given that the tastes didn’t really open up until the fourth steep, I’m thinking this tea might do well with a longer western infusion. I’d also like to increase the temperature to see how the tea responds, hopefully without gaining more astringency.

The pearls have a lovely light jasmine scent in the tin.

After steeping, they make a very pale yellow liquor that is clear, and smells deliciously of juicy jasmine flowers.

The flavor is mild, but a lovely jasmine that has some juiciness to it and isn’t painted on or at all artificial tasting. The tea has no bitterness, and adds a nice greenness to the flavor without in any way dominating it.

And it goes really well with leftover turkey.

It turns out I had to leaf it harder.

Western again: 4g this time, 8oz, upped to 205F, 2 steeps at 2m30/4m.

The dry leaf, which I didn’t mention before, is very chopped and isn’t too fragrant but does smell of bittersweet chocolate and berry. The brewed tea is deeply orange-red and very evocative of autumn. It still smells like lipstick, red wine, malt and citrus (orange?), now with an addition of oats. Tastes fruitier than with 2g and the oat and citrus in the scent come through in the mouth. Still also has a note of autumn leaf. The most noticeable differences are a moderate mineral tone and slight touch of bitterness that give the tea some depth.

It’s decent daily drinking material. I’m out of it now but there’s still some tweaking to be done with the brewing parameters.

I have no idea if this is the right tea. I purchased some Silk Road Teas ‘Keemun’ from the bulk section of the co-op. Usually the co-op labels the teas thoroughly but I couldn’t find plain old Keemun on the Silk Road website so I’m dropping this here.

With that out of the way, prepared western with 2g, 8oz, 200F, 3/5m, this tea tastes like the smell of lipstick, autumn leaf and some berry. Smells better than it tastes with notes of red wine, malt and citrus. Actually, the aroma kind of smells like lipstick, too. I happen to like the smell of lipstick but can’t say I enjoy drinking it.

I think I have to play around with it more and adjust the rating accordingly.

Moving through the teas I picked up yesterday.

3g, 60mL, 195F, flash rinse followed by 8 steeps at 10/15/20/25/30/40/50/60s.

The dry leaf smelled kind of light with notes of spinach, white floral, cream and sugarcane. The liquor started quite fragrant and was light- to medium-bodied with toasted rice, a brightness like citrus and some astringency. The second steep (lol I said belied – removed) suggested the flavors of the rest of the session with buttery toasted rice and corn, tartness, a slight metallic tone and a pretty strong aftertaste of buttery cooked peaches/apricots and generic sourness that lasts. Bottom of the cup scent of sugarcane. The astringency and tartness continued to grow to unenjoyable levels, so I cut it off after a 1-minute brew.

This was my first Mao Xie and could be my last but I’ll have no problem finishing the rest of the bag since it’s a small amount. I guess I’m just not too much a fan of rolled Chinese oolong, but somebody who appreciates their profile more than I do might also enjoy this one.

I need some advice from green tea drinkers on what to try next. What’s your go-to green tea these days?

I’m getting a little excited because I’m pretty close to having at least tasted all of the green teas in my stash. Not counting matcha, that is.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I’ll be sipping them all down any time soon, but it does mean I can start thinking about what I might want to get more of and what else I might want to try.

I’d love to have input on what I ought to try when I’m close enough to order, which should be in the next few months at this rate.

So again I ask — what is your go-to green tea? What shouldn’t I miss when I come out of lock down?

I have been enjoying the Silk Road teas in my stash. This one has a sweet, hay-like fragrance in the dry leaf that replicates itself in the steeped tea’s aroma. The tea is golden yellow and clear. It has a sort of rosy tint that is interesting.

The tea has a vegetal flavor that reminds me of asparagus. I just had some for lunch, and it was amusing to be reminded of my lunch so quickly after drinking this tea. I swear, it was funnier than I made it sound.

The aftertaste is nutty, a little like raw almonds.

It’s a gentle, happy green tea.

Sipdown no. 3 of October 2019 (no. 102 of 2019 total, no. 590 grand total).

It continued to be flavorful in a nutty, grassy sort of way through to the end of its tenure as my go to take it to work tea. The original note was spot on.

Almost to the bottom of another green tea, so getting in a first tasting note for this one. Law of conservation and all that.

The dry leaves smell like hay, or dried grass. It’s a much more appealing smell than it sounds.

After steeping, there’s a lightly nutty fragrance. I am getting no grass, no vegetal scent. The tea is a medium golden color and mostly clear.

How can a tea with so little aroma have so much flavor? Isn’t the sense of taste like 90 percent the sense of smell? I’m surprised, in a good way.

But what does it taste like? That is the hard part. A little nutty, a little vegetal. The nutty flavor is mild, like Brazil nuts. The vegetal flavor is also mild, and not anywhere near the juicy vegetable run off flavor. I’m not sure it’s asparagus. Maybe more like a flavorful lettuce.

It strikes me as the kind of flavor that will grow on me over time.

In the tin, this has a naturally sweet smell and a darkly vegetal one as well that is quite rich and appetizing. A bit like spinach, but with an interesting spicy note.

At my standard green tea temp, this yields a pale yellow colored tea, with a sweet green pea smell. I might try this a tad hotter — the label suggests 185F instead of 175F. Next time.

The flavor is lovely. A general sweet, vegetal flavor without tasting like cooked vegetable run off. It has a nuttiness that tends toward almond.

Looking forward to trying this again slightly hotter to see what that does.

The strong fragrance of the tea is immediately noticeable upon taking the first sip. The tea as an initial bitterness, however this quickly gives way to a lingering, bittersweet flavor when swallowed.

Sipdown no. 68 of 2018 (no. 424 total).

Tried the last of this this morning at a lower temperature (185F) and a shorter steep time (4 minutes).

Prepared this way, it’s a completely different tea. Virtually colorless liquor, very little aroma, and I can’t taste much other than hot water and the chocolate muffin I had for breakfast.

I don’t know why this comes as a surprise to me (but it does). It’s typical of my experience with white teas. Unless I steep them like herbals, I get a big fat nada.

Continuing with the breaking open of white teas that I’ve had for a while but never before opened or tasted, given that I’ve at least tasted most of my unflavored black teas to the point where it’s hard to dig out the last few untasted ones.

I skipped right to the steeping method I used with the Silver Needles from Tea Trekker — boiling at 7 minutes. I noticed that everyone else who has written notes on this tea has steeped at a lower temperature and mostly for less time. I have a lot of this so I’ll be able to try different methods.

The dry leaves smell earthy and a bit odd, and plastic-y which I suspect has nothing to do with the tea and everything to do with the container it was in.

After steeping, there’s still some earthiness but none of the weird drowned plant smell that I sometimes get from plain white peony. Instead there’s a kind of a sweet, honeydew note. The color is light gold and clear. As a side note, steeping at low temps often results in colorless or near colorless white tea for me, and I feel comforted by the fact that higher temperatures bring out some color in the liquor. It’s probably just psychological, but it makes me feel like the tea is going to have more flavor.

The flavor is a bit plantier than the aroma and there’s a quality to the flavor that reminds me of trees. More leaves than wood, but there wasn’t a leaves flavor option.

I’ll experiment with it more, but I have the usual white tea problem with this one. I’m not sure I am tasting it as it was intended to be made. In the past, I’ve not considered plain white peony particularly tasty or interesting though I’ve had some nice blends with it as a base. That’s true here, too. I preferred the silver needle, once I was able to get any sort of flavor out of it.

I’m running out of straight black (or unflavored black blends) to try! This is somewhat disturbing, because I thought that the majority of my tea collection was black unflavored tea and I can’t figure out whether the majority is oolong at this point or flavored black tea. I’m not motivated to count the teas in my cupboard. Too much to do today.

This one is really hitting the spot today. The smell coming out of the bag after cracking it open is chocolatey and tree-like. Chocolate covered tree?

The steeped tea has a baked goods, bready aroma that turns into a dark fruity one. I’m smelling blackberries here. The smokiness that keemuns often have here smells to me like toastiness instead. There’s a depth to the aroma that is pleasing, though it’s not what I’d call malty. The tea is clear, and lighter in color than I expected — a sort of amber, or light honey color.

The smoke comes out in the flavor, though it’s not overpowering and certainly not enough to be lapsang-like. It’s a smooth tea, medium-light bodied, and with a sweetness to the sip that is honey-like. It doesn’t taste winey to me; more like toasty bread with a hint of berry.

Very nice indeed. I’m glad to support a (sort of local) company like Silk Road.

Bought this in the bulk section at Whole Foods and can’t find much info about it online. Not on the SR website, although there is a note that they have many “private estate” teas of varying types not on their site. It is sold for $99 a pound at Whole Foods and I mistakenly poured myself a much larger than a 1-2 cup worth bag that came out to $5, which isn’t the end of the world, but definately wasn’t what I was intending. I must have gotten it mixed up with the more economical breakfast tea.
This looked to be a black tea, but the taste is much lighter than that. It is almost oolong like with it’s floral scent and light color. It has a sweetness to it on the sip and finish with hints of honey passing through. There might be some apricot mingling in the sip. The honey is so light and perfect on the finish. It makes me think that this is what TWG was clumsily going for with their overly artificial honey tea. It looses a little bit of it’s magic as it cools, but it is still good. I’m slowly realizing why the price tag was so high. This has got to be an oolong, no way is it a black tea. I’ll have to try lower temp next time with oolong in mind.

A Good Earl Grey. This has a good base and isn’t over-flavored; a little malty.

The packaging isn’t individually sealed sachets but rather one foil bag for all the sachets – I think its been a month or two since I opened it so the last sachets aren’t as fresh as the first ones; the tea is still good just not as fresh as the first one. I’ll have to review this one again once I get a new box.

Having the last cup of this sample. Very buttery and smooth. Rich sensation at the end of the sip with a sweetness left in my mouth. If I was in the mood for an oolong, this would be a really nice one to turn to.

Went to Whole Foods today and found a small bulk tea selection. I’m not a super big oolong fan, but was curious as to why this tea was almost $100 a pound so I came home with two servings worth. I’m on my second steeping. It was a little grassy tasting at first, but the more I sip, the more that fades. A little hay in the front of the sip. It is well rounded and has a slightly sweet feel, but not quite sweet taste. There is one part of the sip that has a hint of flatness that I attribute to oolongs, but it passes quickly. The aftertaste has a hint of caramel. This is probably the most I have enjoyed a non flavored oolong, but I’m still not wowed by it. I imagine others who have the palate for oolongs would find it much more interesting. If this was an Irish whiskey, I’d probably be really into the flavors. Oolong soaked Irish whiskey? Hmmmm…. that is something to ponder.

Sipdown (638)!

Very murky/weird and sort of gross tasting final cup of this; I think it was just a whole lot of ginger and cocoa powder that were left in the bottom of the tin. Really not a whole lot in the way of pear. Final feelings about this tea are kind of “meh”. Like, I don’t regret buying it but would I repeat the experience? Probably not.

Cold Brew!

This was a very good cold brew, but also a weird one because it almost didn’t have any sort of familiarity to the different times I’ve tried this tea hot. I mean, it tasted SO ROBUSTLY of succulent, juicy/dewy Anjou pears and had very, very little ginger/chocolate at all. However, I’m a sucker for pear and I actually like that it was such a simple, pure pear flavour. A little vanilla creaminess, sure, but mostly just pear.

Now I’m tired though; so gonna sip on the last little bits of this brew and then have a nap.

Hot cup, with some hazelnut creamer.

I’ve been experimenting a little bit with this creamer, but to be honest I really don’t like it. It’s got a very strong, sweet flavour and no matter how little I seem to use it always masks the flavor of the teas that make me like the tea less than I would drinking it straight or even just with milk. In the case of this tea, it masks any and all vanilla and ginger notes and what I’m left with is a chocolate hazelnut profile with tiny, wee little hints of pear in the finish.

Nope.