Trident Booksellers and Cafe Boulder Colorado

I tumblered 2 grams, and it was nicely floral. It had some veggie notes, yet I got yellow carrot as one of them with the melon, lavender hints, osmanthus, and sweetness. Interesting.

Rating between a 87-92. I decided to western brew style it because I felt lazy.

I rinsed it, and the rinse was extra sweet and buttery, but a little bit cool from the 195 temp. I amped up the kettle to 200-205, and aimed to steep it for two minutes. I let it sit, and after about 30 seconds I poured some into my cup to check its progress. It was sweet buttery and melony. I gave it another ten seconds, and same thing with more of the lavender floral. I thought I waited another minute into what ended up being two, I poured some more out to check, and it was vegetal edging on broccoli and cabbage, so I “saved” what I could by dumping it out.

The vegetal notes took over! I should remember that hotter water makes the tea develop faster. I poured some room temperature water in the mug to cut down on the vegetal notes and the slight grassy astringency, and it was good. Still sweet, buttery, creamy, and heavy on the melon, but the dill note was the strongest. I looked at the mug again, and I think I put closer to 5 grams instead of the 3 I assumed I did. There were some smaller leaves I couldn’t see.

Oh well, I took that as a lesson about this particular tea, so I dropped the temp back to 185-190 and let it only sit for between 1-2 minutes. The vegetal notes resided back, and the honeydew melon was back in place as the main flavor. I’m going to have to use 2 grams instead for western next time-I underestimated how powerful it would be.

I’m pretty happy with this one so far western, but gong fu is the way to go with this Li Shan. I have not decided if I want to tumbler it or not because it’s a little bit too vegetal for longer steeping, and if I do, I cannot exceed 2 grams. The veggie notes are making me lean more toward an 88 for a rating despite this being a higher quality tea, but my parameters in what makes a tea I prefer is versatility, so I am docking a few points for now. I will likely raise the rating back up later on, so we’ll see how it goes in other styles.

I know this is a critical good review, but I am a little bit more harsh this time around because I am liking some of the other teas they have more, especially the Long Feng and Shan Lin Xi….nevermind the notes I didn’t like were absolutely my fault. I still recommend Trident because they basically have a full catalogue that only focuses on the good teas. It’s by no means overwhelming, but it’s pretty damn complete.

Quickie note:
I’m going to have to double check the bag, but I think it’s a 2021 one. Lilacs, Dill, Honeydew were the notes online, but Lavender, Melon, and Buttery were the notes on the bag. I was going to save it to plow through older tea first, but I came back from the Lavender Festival at Blake’s Apple Orchard, and needed something to pair with the lavender fudge and lavender lemon pepper chicken wings I got.

This was a pretty good match since the profile was pretty consistent with the food pairings. I gong fu’d it, and this is one of the more floral lishans I’ve had. I didn’t get too much of the citrus or pineapple notes I usually associate with the varietal, but I got plenty of honeydew melon with the distinctly gaoshan oolong green and buttery body notes. This one is on the fresher side of green, but not overpoweringly vegetal. It actually compared significantly with eating raw lavender leaves, and the lavender notes really hit in steep 2-5, but fade afterwards. The flavor remains strong even at the 10 steep, which was an overly long grandpa brew towards the end, but good.

The thing that stood out to me was the melon/lavender combo and the wetting mouthfeel. It’s not as thick as other Lishans, but the flavor rises in the mouth and continues into the aftertaste-which is another reason why I compared it in my head to eating raw lavender leaves because there is a resemblance to the nice burn and cooling effect from the oils in the teas hot temperature. Could be why dill was in one of the notes. Trident’s other high mountain oolongs tend to be on the heavy sweet/floral soft body side, and this one was the softest of the bunch I’ve had.

As per usual, I’m not rating it yet despite really liking it. It’s not the most forward Lishan I’ve had and ranks on the softer end. This oolong kind of resembles Tillerman’s Lishan and even Mountain Stream’s higher end lishans in it’s florals, and packs in the higher end of my tea stash so far.

I should have added this last year. I have too much of this 2019 Tea, and have neglected it.

2.5, 3, 5 minutes western, not a lot of strength. It sits in a weird crossroads between being a white tea and an oolong, with the bag being labeled oolong. It used to be under the white tea section on the website, and don’t sell it at the moment. I know that technically, white is further from the oxidation of an oolong on the spectrum, but the flavor profile is in the middle too combining primarily fruity and floral elements.

A few oolongs from the Himalayan mountain range I’ve had tend to have a lot of the qualities of first flush or even second flush blacks, other bai haos, and on the rare occasion, oolong. If were to drink this one blind, I’d guess white. White grapes is extremely prominent in aroma and flavor, almost like white grape juice, with some lilacs in hints and wafting in the aroma. The aftertaste is crisply vegetal like peas as written, with a cooling effect on the tongue in the aftertaste like freshly cut cucumbers. Sometimes it swings more on the fruity end like riesling with a little bit of dryness that’s pretty nice.

I’m curious to see what other people think or experience, but has anyone else ever got the sweats from Himalayan Teas? I like Darjeeling, but I find myself sweating with the white and green teas from the area more than I do with most blacks. Any time I’ve had this tea, it’s made me a little sweaty, somewhat jittery. Granted, I DRINK A LOT OF TEA, so it could be the caffeine left over from other tea, but even when I’ve done this solo on a day, I’ve gotten the sweats.

So overall, I like the refreshing flavor profile of this tea and would highly have to recommend it for white tea lovers that like a fuller and defined profile without sacrificing its more gentle florals, but this one hits me pretty hard on the detox end.

I’ve only got a few grams of this left and am almost done with it. It sold out pretty quick on the Trident Website, and I’m ashamed I didn’t get more. It’s easily one of the smoothest and butteriest tea I have in my stash right now, balanced by some sweet melon and complex floral notes that edge between lilac, plumeria, and other tropical flowers. It’s also versatile in tumbler, western and gong fu, though it can require more leaf or slightly longer steeping times gong fu.

I’m pretty close to rating this a hundred because I never get tired of it, and I think the $12 an oz though expensive is actually not bad for a tea from this mountain. I highly recommend it if you can snag some. It is also a more expensive oolong convert for sure.

Thank you Trident!

Insanely good and refreshing Long Feng. I got 9 great brews out of it gong fu yesterday, and was hooked. It had the pineapple skin, snap peas, and lemongrass sour floral notes I like, but this particular tea was extremely soft with its vegetals and more floral, and very sweet. The tulip and green apple notes were extremely present with some lettuce and melon in the notes. I can also see the fresh baked bread component-I’ve borrowed “scone” from eco-cha to describe the vegetals before, and it has a warm buttered bread mouthfeel in the texture that’s incredibly with the sweet and lightly tart notes.

I was hugging myself after drinking this, and I was actually late to a workout because of the euphoria of how much I enjoyed this tea. Should have gotten more of this one. More notes to come hopefully.

Sip down of nearly 15-20 grams. I did three brews each. It’s faded a bit, still like apple skins and orchids, less caramel in taste, moreso in color. This one was good, but I’m happy to get through it.

This is yet another tea I didn’t add in time enough last year before the site ran out of stock on it. I got this as one of the oolongs from a giant splurge I did on Trident’s tea selection last year, and this is one of the ones I’d rank on the higher end.

I got this one because I still had over 300 grams of different dancongs left, including 8 immortals, Iris Orchid, Mi Lan Xiang, Ya Shi, and so on, and I’ve had red leaf only one other time. The note descriptions were also unique: Red Apple, Orchids, and Caramel. I’ve never gotten a caramel note from a Dancong personally, but this one was really interesting flavor and aroma wise because it actually had some caramel in the profile. Gong fu is the way to go, though, since it can pack a punch.

It does have the trademark dancong bitterness in later steeps, but the earlier steeps had a lot of caramel to it that was extremely smooth. I’m not used to this kind of oolong having a more western palette of flavors over tropical ones, but its nice. Later steeps become more intensely mineral based and acidic, having a little bit of a bamboo woodiness. It is from 2018, so it has settled a little bit, but it can be a bit too bitter to drink super often despite how much I like it. It also gets me a little too tea drunk. Forehead is definitely sweety…I can feel my tonsils.

Compared to other dancongs, it is a happy fruity medium in oxidation. I didn’t have a lot of tea today-but it’s giving me a little bit of headache. I got a tea drunk headache last time I had it, which is why I still haven’t finished it. I might swap or pass this one along because I want to see what more people think of it. I still love the aroma and flavor, but it can be intense for my sensitive stomach.

As a growing fan of Lapsang Souchong, I was delighted to find this one in my swap package from Daylon. I’d never heard of Trident Tea, which has a large selection of stuff I’d like to buy if my cupboard was smaller and they shipped to Canada. I steeped roughly 5 g of tea in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of jasmine, other flowers, and malt. The first steep has notes of jasmine, malt, caramel, and grass. I kind of regret not using my 85 ml teapot to get a more concentrated flavour. The second steep gives me other flowers, maybe orchid and rose, plus more caramel, hints of chocolate, and that sappy note Daylon mentioned. I get oakwood in the third and fourth steeps, which makes for a slightly strange combination with the florals. The tea comes off as a bit drying and tannic, but I like the balance between the sweet caramel and florals and the heavier wood and malt. I get brown sugar and more caramel in the next couple rounds. The session fades into malt, brown sugar, tannins, wood, and minerals.

This tea is sweet and floral without being perfumey, which makes it a winner in my books. I wasn’t quite as taken with it as Daylon, mainly because it was a little drying and the florals faded somewhat quickly. Still, I’ll add Trident to the long list of companies I’d consider buying from in the future.

Got this as one of the first teas in 2020 I got, though a 2019 harvest. I was sold on the florals and needed some Baozhong in my life.

Jasmine, Arugala, Lemon-Lime were the notes on the site, and I was impressed. This was the first Trident Tea I finished off as a summer tea. The lemon notes were very nice, and prominent in mid and later steeps. It was also durable, whether gong fu or grandpa. Very floral, aromatic, and satisfying.

Recommend this to fans of this style and for those who need something reliable, but affordable.

Got this last year for autumn and summer. I wanted to compare it to the three others I got and overspent my money on. The emphasis on the florals intrigued me on it. I either love Oriental Beauties for their autumn feel, or they can be too drying.

This is not a drying one, but I think I will have to pay attention more in a proper gong fu session instead of a backlog. It’s flavor is heathered and smooth, and not as drying as some others, but not as forward with its flavor. It is forward in the aroma, though. I like it, but I need to leave another cliff hanger. We’ll see what else comes out of it.

Well, I’m going to take a break. I’m actually getting caught up on some of the notes I needed to, but there will be more in the future.

Backlog:

I have the 2019 or 2020 harvest. Heavy white grape, and jolly rancher flavor. I occasionally got watermelon, amids the linen and spicy herbaceaous notes I get from Darjeelings. And of course, honey aftertaste.

I still have some left, and I thought I wrote about this last year, but I figured I’d add it again. Though the current season has some different notes, I can definitively recommend this one to tea nerds because of how easy it is to drink, and because of its distinct flavor. I also think this would be very easy on a newbie’s palette, and might acclimate them to the rougher aspects of a first flush before getting into them.

I will also say that this tea strikes me as a cross between a white tea and an oolong. It’s very refreshing, and one of the more oolong tasting Darjeelings I’ve had yet.

Got this for tea nerd reasons. I’ve been looking for a Red Thunder oolong, and this was waiting and well there.

Not as expensive as some of Trident’s others, this tea is a crowd pleaser. It leans more into black territory, but it’s oolongy enough to resemble a quality Oriental Beauty. I have the 2019 harvest, and it’s got “Malt, floral and honey.” The description I uploaded is more specific, but more floral. Either way, it’s very muscatel with heavy red grape flavor, some red apple personally. I have mostly done western and tumbler style, so I personally get more malt and fruit notes. It’s floral, but not overly so. It also lacks the autumn leaf notes I usually associate with Darjeelings, which is nice change of pace.

I need to do a gong fu note on this one, but it’s pretty good. I want to take my time before I rush it. It’s not making me sing likely due to my green oolong mood during spring. Otherwise, it’s easy to recommend and fends well for itself against other Red Thunders I’ve had. I’m not sure the exact audience of this one yet, but I don’t think it would be hard to sell.

Same flavor notes applied up above, but I’m ready to make a decision on it. It’s very similar to White2tea’s Fruitbomb, albeit older and a little bit more floral. I didn’t realise it’s a 2019 tea, so I need to finish it and or send it to Leafhopper quickly. This is one the teas I intended for the swap, but I hope it’s good enough when it gets to you Leafhopper.

It’s mellowed out a little bit, having a little bit more malt. Honey and blackberry are really obvious with the rosy scent, taste, and even thick texture. There is a little bit of woodiness too, but it’s really pleasant. I can see someone picking up on some tropical fruits every once in a while, because there is something that strikes my palette as guava here and there. It does do well Tumbler style, but it’s best suited for light western or gong fu.

It’s got a bit of a caffeine kick, which is probably why I’m not rating it as higher. I can feel my sinuses and gums after I drink it. So really, this tea has the qi. Unfortunately, it can kick my butt. I still highly recommend this one to anyone really-hits all the flavor notes a newer drinker would be sold by, and has enough complexity and qualities for a tea snob.

Got this one because I didn’t think I’d be getting any tea from Wuyi Origin or White2tea anytime soon. I saw a few descriptions of what I think was this tea on those respective pages, and if I ever got the chance to try Fruit Bomb, I wanted to see how this compared.

I’ve only done this in a failed gong fu attempt, and western so far. Blackberrys is what I always get with malt, sugar, and…honey. I’m starting to get tired of that note. I got the rose in the gong fu session, but then it got too light and thin. There’s gotta be reason why it lost it’s lustre early… I think I oversteeped it on brew 4. This one was not as complex and surprisingly, it wasn’t as sweet as the Floral Lapsang. Again, I think I drank this one in a rush, so I will have to come back to it.

It’s good and approachable for a newcomer, but I’m not settled on this tea yet. This is the last of the black I needed to write for Trident, but I’m just starting for rest of the stuff I got. There are a few oolongs and whites that are out of stock now that I will not be able to upload a picture of…unless I intagram them myself. Luckily, they put their tasting notes on the bags so I can have a better idea for comparison.

Backlog:

Pretty damn similar to the oolong version. I’ve had Black Dan Congs before and they tend to be similar to Black Tie Guan Gins or Wuyi blacks, and of course, are on the sweeter floral spectrum I barely leave. This one follows suit, and again, the notes are valid. The orchid is not quite as pronounced as the fruity notes, especially the honey and cherry. The tea hits heavy in the first two brews western and Gong Fu, and then really lightens out. Grandpa was a little too heavy and sweet.

This is a very good tea, but I think I’m not doing it justice. At least it’s recorded before it disappears from the database.

Backlog/sipdown from last night:

One of my favorite oolongs so far. The Trident oolongs are knockouts.

All their notes are very on point, but I will add on top of clarified butter, melon,lilacs, snap peas, and honeydew, this teas is frickin’ aromatic. I’d also add peachy, but very “orange” and yellow in the fruits. Steep 2 gong fu is it’s high mark, and it goes up in troughs with its notes. It alternates from green and buttery, to densely fruity and floral bordering on dessert or fruity pudding. Most of the notes are the same whether western, gong fu, or even grandpa, but I personally find that the fruit notes are more even grandpa, but there is a lot more depth and variety gong fu. It occasionally gets flat, but it’s high marks make it more worth it.

I’m a sucker for candy like flavor and aroma. I was really sad to see this go as I hoarded it off. I was half tempted to get more…but I have too much tea, and I am a hypocrite. I ended up getting more tea anyway of stuff I haven’t tried yet.

More teas to write down. I thought I added the Darjeeling White Oolong and their Shanllinxi notes, but I could be wrong. Or they may have been deleted. The Darjeeling tastes like Watermelon and grape jollyranchers, and white grape juice. The ShanLinXi was heavy with lavender bordering on flavoring, but it was natural. Oddly, not too vegetal. I know, being quick and swift the backlog.

I hope you enjoy reading this anyway. All the teas I’ve mentioned are sweet ones good for connoisseur and newbie alike.

Loved this tea, and Sipdown!

This tea is one of the lighter Jin Jun Mei’s I’ve had, and it’s filled to the brim with golden fuzzy trichomes. I swear I dumped a 3 of a teaspoon of golden dust into my Manual Gaiwan. So pretty…

So here’s more of an update on the tea as I’ve had it so far. I’ve only been able to get the denser chocolate or cocoa notes if I really up the leaf levels, especially above 5 grams or a 1 g to 1 oz ratio closer to 7-8 grams for 5 oz longer steeps gong fu, or even more. On it’s own, it’s primarily sweet, malty, yam heavy, lightly toasty, honeysuckle, and floral pine with a little bit of a brassy note, some dried fruit like dried white raisins. Most sessions have been tumbler hauls, so I haven’t really gong fu’d it as much as I’d like, but since this tea has gotten a little softer over time, I’ve grandpa’d or western steeped it more often.

My rating remains the same, though I can see myself rating it higher. Trident’s service in coupling with the price range and flavor of the tea make me come back to it pretty often. Essentially, it’s my bougie tumbler drinker.

I also have many more black teas to finish off that I’m having a hard time getting through. Some of them I’ve hoarded avoided opening because I want to keep them as long as possible, but I’m going to have to.

Has anyone else found that golden, or more bud based black teas tend to not last as long as their black counterparts? Any personal experience or tea pro knowledge would be awesome!

Backlog

When I went through a golden bud black tea phase. What-Cha ran out of their Jin Jun Mei, so I ordered more from this site.

I still have some of this one, and though it’s not quite as rosy or complex as What-Cha’s, it’s very satisfying. Like most teas I pick, it’s been good western, gong fu, and grandpa. More floral than I’m used to for some JinJunMei, but still heavy with the typical Fujian chocolate malt notes. I’m not sure about how their notes compare to mine, but I find a lot of changing in the malt notes and more pine in later steeps. Not sure about “dried fruit notes” yet, but I have gotten some honey-fructose sugars in some tastes. Fairly durable for a JinJunMei too.

I really like this one, but I need to write about it again when I’m focusing on it rather than powering through backlogs.

Backlog: A sample provided with an order of a tea I should have bought more of.

I assumed this one would be vegetal, but it wasn’t. It actually was sweeter and more well rounded than the regular Lapsang. It was very sweet gong fur and western, and the oak and jasmine were prominent, followed by really refreshing minty aftertaste that was sweet-no bitterness or leafy ness. This tea was just as jasmine heavy as one of my scented blacks-which is impressive. I also got caramel in its body, and the texture was as smooth as any expensive tea I get. Tree gum kept on coming to mind for this one, nevermind the tea was very smooth and easy to drink.

There was more to this tea outside of the three notes, but I was really surprised by how distinct each of the flavors were, and how well they worked together. This was like a great malt liquor or scotch, and every flavor worked well with it. I almost bought more of this one, and I should have…but I have a lot of Wuyi black right now anyway. And I bought more of other teas that I should not have spent money on. Anyway.

I am going to write more Trident teas and blacks, but out of all the black Trident Teas, this one was my favorite because it combines some of my favorite flavors into something unexpected. It’s a natural tea, but man is it so good. I had to give Leafhopper a taste of this one because it really stands out for me.

I was very tempted to add this one to Leafhoppers trade. I’m figuring this one out still because it can be flat gong fu. Very light on the bordering of being oolongy for me. The florals are almost soapy, but not unnatural. The lavender and orange rind definitely strike me, and its heavily viscous, but very light in the body. I slightly prefer this one grandpa/western because it’s denser and thicker that way. It does not last as long as other Tong Mu’s I’ve had, but its unique. I think I can get more out of it easily though if I take the time to study it.

So, this is going to be the beginning of a really long backlog. Over the summer last year, I was freaked out about ordering teas from overseas due to shipping limits and the pandemic, so I reached out to a friend living in the same area as this coffee shop. She said there was a bunch of teahouses near where she lived, so I planned out stops of a visit and stumbled upon this one. It’s a coffee/teahouse/bar/bookstore in one. It was after my own heart. She didn’t hear about it, and she started going. I also splurged a lot on this place because of their selection, and I wanted to support this kind of business.

This was from my second mega order of black teas, and I wanted to put something down before it was removed from the site. I don’t have more to add than what was written, but this is a very hearty Assam, even gong fu. Thick with leather, tannin, and milk chocolate notes. Heavy and brisk too. I don’t have more to add than that right now, but it’s a breakfast style tea sure to please. I’m have tempted to send this one to you over, Whiteantlers because it seems like it would be up you alley. I’ll write more on this one in the future.

Onto the other notes!