Song Tea & Ceramics

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Recent Tasting Notes

80

Among my favorites, this winter sprout tastes unmistakably like cotton candy. Not that it’s super sweet; it’s literally the flavor of cotton candy. And it’s very forgiving of temperature, even given how green it is. I used to be very careful with cooling the water to 205, but I’ve found you can just throw boiling water on and get what are arguably more interesting experiences out of it.

Flavors: Cotton Candy

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 1 min, 0 sec 6 g 5 OZ / 160 ML

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I received this tea as a sample. Thank you, Song Tea! Sniffing the dry leaf made me think of Nag Champa incense. It didn’t truly smell like Nag Champa, but made me think of it.

The theme with this tea overall is “evocative” – there are no obvious flavors, just haunting notes. It is elegant.

Notes that come to mind are muscovado, cocoa, caramel, again, incense.

It is very warming. At the end of the cup, a pleasurable tang appears.

It was beautiful.

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92

I bought this after a tasting of both this and its aged 1992 harvest, assuming this was the lesser of the two because it seemed to have sharper edges. The dry leaves have only a faint scent of malty chocolate, even when warmed.

Skipped rinse.

1st infusion: (1:45)
This infusion, standing alone, merits 95 points. It tastes creamy, rich, and sweet like a baked good (but not too sugary sweet like Song’s Shan Lin Xi Winter Sprout). There are notes of milk chocolate and graham cracker. The texture is insanely smooth, light, delicious yet unpretentious. I can’t wait to try this in an Yixing teapot.

2nd infusion: (2:05)
Smells roasty and comforting, like a malty milky beverage. Less sweet than 1st infusion, but equally smooth.

3rd infusion: (2:15)
Leaves are a beautiful coppery purple-green colour. They smell metallic, but liquor smells milky and buttery.

Flavors: Butter, Chocolate, Graham Cracker, Malt, Milk

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94

Tasted this directly after its 2015 sibling, Formosa Yancha. The 1992 has an incredible dry leaf scent of musky raisins and savoury seaweed, though we didn’t taste much of that in the tea.

Redder liquor and the taste was slightly sweeter and a lot smoother overall than the younger one. But due to this one being twice the price (coming to about $7 per brewing session), I ended up buying the younger one anyway. Maybe if I keep it for long enough…

Flavors: Raisins, Seaweed

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72

A solid Dragon Well, but seems to be prized more for its subtlety and I like my Dragon Wells ferociously lively, nutty, and flavourful. This one is more like an uber delicate, subtle white tea (probably because the cultivar is related to Anji Baicha). At $88 for 2 oz, totally not worth it to me there are far tastier Longjings out there. But Song is for the tea enthusiast who wants something out of the ordinary so if you’re tired of typical Longjings you might get a kick out of this.

Flavors: Chestnut, Floral

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This tea has a complex, sophisticated set of flavors. Definitely some dark sugar, but I would go with the more mineral and grainy taste of sucanat rather than muscovado. Candied lemon peel at the back of the sip, and eggy custard at the middle. Really, really enjoying it. I keep sniffing my empty cup between steeps.

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85

This is for people who have the time and inclination to savour a gradually unfurling tea journey. This Buddha’s Hand can last probably over ten infusions. It has some of the most tightly rolled leaves in Song Tea’s collection. It is also one of the most beautiful smelling teas I have had the pleasure of experiencing: a roasty chocolate that gives way to caramelized fruity notes. Unfortunately, the taste is blunter than its fragrance, so take care to brew with a light hand. Some infusions of this tasted like dark bitter coffee. Later infusions are brighter and fruitier. Overall a wonderful, complex, darker tea for a long afternoon in.

Flavors: Dark Chocolate, Smoke

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83

This tea was sweet like a baked good, hits you in the face with wonderful notes of brown sugar, cornbread, caramel, etc. The downside is it only survives 2 or 3 infusions. I can see why it has a cult following, especially among Westerners with more of a sweet tooth. (2016 harvest)

Flavors: Brown Sugar, Caramel, Kettle Corn

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89

This is the winter sprout from 2014 (I need to note this as Song currently has their 2015 winter sprout available). Subtle oolong flavor with a slight sweetness to it, almost berry-like. I suppose this is the kettle corn flavor they mention in their notes, but it’s coming across as more of a fruity sweetness to me. Very mild, delicate flavor, and the scent of the dry leaves is lovely. I had several steepings, I think maybe five or six, and the flavor held up well, not transforming really, but just intensifying a little with each steep. Could be because I kept increasing brewing time.

Preparation
4 g 3 OZ / 100 ML

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57

Strong intense smell, complex flavour. Says it has noted of lemongrass, muscovado sugar, and lemon custard but I don’t think I managed to catch all of that. It’s not a beginner’s red tea, in fact one of their most premium ones, but I actually preferred the simpler red tea “Eighteen” from the same store.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 1 min, 0 sec 5 g 5 OZ / 150 ML

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64

This oolong smells amazing—notes of orchid, and buttery sweet rice mochi. Compared to its fragrance, its taste is a bit bland and anticlimactic although it is still nice, subtle and herbal.

Flavors: Butter, Cake

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80

Wow, a completely 180˚ from my first impression of this tea. I feel like I brewed it stronger at home and that made all the difference. This is the 2016 harvest of the Lishan Winter Sprout. Warm leaves smell so deliciously savoury and fragrant like something that would draw me at a gourmet food fair––olive oil popcorn.

1st infusion: (1:00)
Liquor is the bright yellow-green colour of olive oil. Savoury and oily fragrance like umami seaweed seasoning, or vegetable broth.

2nd infusion: (1:10)
Savoury spinach vegetable broth. I wish it were more floral, maybe I’m craving something like a Tieguanyin.

3rd: (2:00)
Liquor is still bright olive-oil yellow. More vegetable broth, slightly salty. The first steeping was the best, when it still tasted buttery.

Flavors: Olive Oil, Popcorn, Salty, Seaweed, Vegetable Broth

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 1 min, 0 sec 6 g 5 OZ / 150 ML

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80

I remember this tasting pretty vegetal, grassy and unmemorable for me. I personally would not buy it, but my partner, who is more of a tea connoisseur himself, liked this the most of all the teas we tasted at Song that day.

Flavors: Vegetal

Preparation
5 g 5 OZ / 150 ML

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63

Very subtle, floral, unobjectionable tea. On some sips it tasted pretty close to water though. We tasted two infusions.

Flavors: Floral

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 1 min, 30 sec 4 g 5 OZ / 150 ML

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87
drank Eighteen by Song Tea & Ceramics
261 tasting notes

Gosh, I keep changing my mind about this tea. Today I brewed it with a lighter hand as I remembered it could get pretty bitter. I brewed it in my new 160ml 脂白 (“white as fat”) gaiwan set––beautiful design, misleading name?––and it blew my mind, tasting like sophisticated caramel with woody and cherry tones, very little bitterness.

Not sure if the thickness of the gaiwan (it got really scalding hot sometimes) had anything to do with it, but I will try it in the same gaiwan again and see if I get consistent results.

1st infusion: 202˚F, 0:55

2nd infusion: 203˚F, 1:25

3rd infusion: 204˚F, 2:00

“Eighteen” is not easy to brew, better to take a lighter hand than the recommended brewing parameters but when it’s done right gosh this tea is ambrosial and I would absolutely buy this again from Song (and maybe try its older brother, Twenty-One).

Rating: 85

Flavors: Caramel, Cherry, Dark Chocolate, Wood

Preparation
4 g 5 OZ / 160 ML

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87
drank Eighteen by Song Tea & Ceramics
261 tasting notes

Forgot to review this tea ever since I got my precision temperature kettle. Brewed at 203˚F as recommended.

1st infusion: (1:00)
Wet leaves give off a strong delicious scent of brown sugar along with the richer cherry notes. The taste is quite bitter like silky cacao chocolate with some spice, but I remember the sweetness comes out in the later infusions.

2nd infusion: (1:30)
Still bitter chocolate, but smoother.

3rd infusion: (1:50)
Sweet and smooth, can taste the slight maraschino cherry notes.

Rating: 77

Flavors: Brown Sugar, Cherry, Dark Chocolate, Spicy

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 1 min, 0 sec 4 g 5 OZ / 150 ML

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87
drank Eighteen by Song Tea & Ceramics
261 tasting notes

This second time brewing Eighteen, I lowered the temperature (waited 1 minute after boiling) and steeped it for a shorter time (1 minute, adding 15 seconds with each infusion).

First infusion: Smells wonderful. Still tastes a bit bitter, but the bitterness disappears when I pair it with my blueberry scone and it becomes a nice drinkable breakfast tea.

Second infusion: Perfection. No trace of bitterness any longer.

Third infusion: Similar to my first tasting of this tea, the fruitiness / sweetness is mostly gone and there’s just a fragrant vegetal tea scent remaining in the leaves and liquid.

Flavors: Cherry

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 1 min, 15 sec 3 g 5 OZ / 150 ML

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87
drank Eighteen by Song Tea & Ceramics
261 tasting notes

Note to self: For first infusion, brew this tea at 203˚F for 1 minute only.

This tea smells divine. 1st infusion smelled strongly of deep, woody, spicy maraschino cherry notes. Tasted of slightly bitter cherries, and really bitter when I drank it while eating an apple.

2nd infusion smelled more like spicy cardamom or nutmeg. Tasted bitter, I think I brewed it too hot and for too long.

3rd infusion I cooled the water a little more and brewed for 1:30 and it tasted fine even with the sweet doughnut. The leaves are beginning to smell vegetal without any more of the spicy cherry scent though.

I’ll have to try this again after I buy my temperature-control kettle.

Flavors: Cherry, Cherry Wood

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 1 min, 15 sec 4 g 5 OZ / 150 ML

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96

Arguably one of the most sophisticated teas I have had the pleasure to try. I received this as a gift and decided to try it in three steepings, per the previous review. It did not disappoint, although I had drastically different, pleasant notes!

On the first steeping, I noticed tingly, mentholated noted alongside the pine and grassy flavors of the oolong, less creaminess and more of a citrus-forward scent and flavor, with notes of tangerine, yuzu, kefir lime, and green grass on the nose. The flavor was abuzz and left my tongue on fire with a panoply of flavors that lasted on the palate for a while. Per the instructions, I steeped this for one minute with 6g at 205 degrees.

I steeped my second round for two minutes and noticed more gentle flavors that aligned more with the tasting notes on the package- spun sugar, light pickled ginger at the forefront with a slight herbaceous flavor on the back palate and a hint of Asian spices. Still strong on the second steeping although I was conservative with my measurements as this is a tea I wish to savor.

The third steeping was more aggressively saline than the last two. It loses most of the sweetness from the first two steepings but retains the light vegetal flavors characteristic of the leaves- spinach, broccoli, and a light brown sugar note. Each sip is round and full. I don’t know if using a slightly more modified concentration of water to tea would accommodate for more steepings, but for this amount it was a highly pleasurable experience. This is a tea I will enjoy for a long time to come- a definite bucket list steep.

Flavors: Broccoli, Brown Sugar, Cinnamon, Ginger, Grass, Lime, Menthol, Orange Zest, Spices, Spinach

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 1 min, 0 sec 6 g 32 OZ / 946 ML

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97

The scent of these large rolled tea leaves is fruity, nutty, and creamy. Shan Lin Xi is my favorite region for rolled oolong, so I’m excited to try this winter picked variety. An initial infusion really opens up the aroma of the leaves, and it’s incredibly fragrant, with plentiful bouquets of flower scents and a very forward plum aroma.

The first infusion is very rich and sweet, the predominant fruit note being of nectarine with a long lingering passion fruit flavor. At the front of the sip is also a creamy nutty taste that reminds me of pecan.

The second infusion has more of the evergreen forest notes I usually pick up in Shan Lin Xi, while the taste is still creamy and quite floral now. The aftertaste is peachy. The aroma is floral and camphor.

The third infusion is much more mellowed, with a honeyed taste and a bit of a camphor or clove note in the back of the throat. This infusion is a really enjoyable an subtle wind-down from the bursting and fragrant second infusion.

The fourth infusion has receded to a much more subtle creamy flavor with a lingering floral aftertaste. The fifth is even more subtle, and sweeter.

I don’t see this tea pushing out many more infusions with substantial flavor, but every one of them has been top notch. It tastes so clean. This is one of the best rolled oolong teas I’ve had!

Flavors: Camphor, Creamy, Flowers, Honey, Passion Fruit, Pecan, Pine

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 0 min, 45 sec 4 g 3 OZ / 100 ML
Red Fennekin

Sounds amazing :O

Single Origin Teas

Glad you enjoyed it!

Lion

This tea also taught me what a difference a brewing vessel can make. I brewed this the first time in a 80ml sized white jade porcelain gaiwan, almost eggshell thin. When I tried some more of this tea in a small 100ml gongfu teapot with slightly thicker walls, it came out with really muddled flavors and a dryer texture. The overall effect is sort of just “nutty, vegetal” with a bit of astringency in the finish. Had I brewed it this way to begin with, I’d have thought it wasn’t very good tea. Don’t let anyone tell you Gongfu brewing is easy! It can really produce very different results depending on your approach.

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92
drank Fragrant Leaf by Song Tea & Ceramics
306 tasting notes

These wiry dark green leaves certainly are fragrant. The scent of the dry leaves in a warm gaiwan reminds me of almond cookies, or what I’d imagine a fortune cookie to smell like fresh from the oven. My favorite green tea happens to be from Fujian, like these leaves, so I’m excited.

This tea starts out quite sweet on the initial infusion, always a good sign with green teas. It definitely has a dew flavor to it, as described by the vendor. It reminds me of the water from within a cucumber or melon. It’s also very smooth going down.

On the second infusion, it’s still really sweet with a distinct cucumber-melon flavor, though there’s also something light in the background resembling roasted corn. Compared to the Gan Lu I just tried from Song Tea, this tea retained a lot more sweetness in the second infusion and didn’t get as intensely vegetal.

On the third infusion I’m getting some notes of nutmeg and hazelnut. The flavor is really unfolding nicely here, and it’s still nicely sweet and clean. By the fourth or fifth infusion the flavor is piddling out a bit, but this was a nice tea experience and yielded some great infusions.

Flavors: Almond, Cucumber, Hazelnut, Honeydew, Nutmeg, Sweet

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 0 min, 15 sec
BigDaddy

They have a nice selection.

Terri HarpLady

I just looked at their teawares this morning…I’m in love with a teapot that I can’t afford ;)

Lion

I have to stay away from teawares right now. I had to unsubscribe from one of my favorite tea shop’s mailing list today because every time I get an email I end up spending half a paycheck at their shop. Hahaha.

Terri HarpLady

I totally get it! :)

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81
drank Gan Lu by Song Tea & Ceramics
306 tasting notes

These green tea buds from Sichuan are the prettiest green tea leaves I’ve ever seen. They are so fluffy with little white hairs and so light and fragile. The scent is sweet and nutty, in fact it reminds me of a warm bun filled with taro paste.

The flavor is smooth, very vegetal, to be expected from green tea, with notes of snap peas, nuts, and a slightly smoky, earthy finish. The liquid feels very smooth in the mouth. The flavor is very mouth filling and saturates the throat. I really enjoy the smooth, sweet character of this tea. It matches the billowy appearance of the leaves, though once wet they smell much more strong than the brew, a smoky and green bean like affair.

The second infusion of this tea is certainly more dominated by vegetal and smoky flavors. It even tastes woody or like bark now too. It’s still sweet, but the sweetness is an accompaniment rather than the main feature.

On the third infusion, the flavor is more intensely vegetal and earthy, but still with the lingering sweetness. It’s quite an intense tea for one that started out so mellow. Very rich. By the fourth infusion it is sweeter and more mellow again, but there’s a hint of bitterness. I’m almost certain the rise and fall in flavor intensity is due to my own brewing style and had I steeped lighter on the second and third infusions they’d probably have been quite mellow as well.

Overall, I enjoy this tea. I think it represents a fine quality, but it does have a bit of that bitter/smoky flavor that some tea lovers avoid green tea because of. It’s similar to the notes you’ll get in a lot of young sheng Puer.

Flavors: Earth, Nutty, Smoke, Sweet, Taro Root, Vegetal

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 0 min, 15 sec

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96

For an experimental cultivar this is over the top unctuous. Song’s description is in itself so spot on the only thing I can add is that the mouthfeel is heavy, like light maple syrup and with good rock notes coming in later infusion. I brewed this in a standard gaiwan and the color is off the chain golden. The medium roast and high oxidation make this a very clean tea drinking experience. Glad I skipped the urge to only buy a small amount and got a big bag. My friends I served it to had an other world tea, for sure.

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 0 min, 30 sec 8 g 125 OZ / 3696 ML

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