What-Cha

I received my order from What-Cha today! After several reather bad days, it was really nice to have something like this to perk me up. And it’s cold and blustery out there, more like November than March, so tea is just want I wanted.

I decided to try this one first. It is the sample Alistair sent along, and he noted this is a new tea. It was harvested less than a month ago, on Feb 14 in Bihar India.

It’s malty, and rich, and bracing. This would be the sort of tea you want in the morning, to wake you up. I get a little bit of bitter at the end of the sip. I might try my next cup with a dollop of maple syrup. If you like a robust tea with lots of flavor and malt, i think you will love this one.

Edited to Add: Re-steeped. It’s even better! I also made toffee chip cookies and ate them fresh out of the oven, with the toffee soft and gooey. This tea is an absolutely perfect drink with these cookies. It’s a little smoother, still flavorful but the slight bitterness at the end of the sip is gone. Wonder if I over leafed it or over steeped it the first time? Upping my rating from 75 to 80.

This is liquid gold! I opened my package and reveled still fresh and downy gold and black buds. These leaves had a strong aroma of spiced honey and black currant. I brewed these aromatic beauties in my french press. The steeped leaves kept the spiced scent and gave up the sweets. My cup gave off the scent of a beautiful orchid. This brew tastes of sweet honey, muscatel, and white grapes. The liquor carries a dominate fruit tone alongside maple syrup. This was a perfect morning brew. I wish I had more of this.

https://instagram.com/p/0nJIVazGcl/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

This is just such a neat tea. Maybe the largest leaf of any I have ever seen. It tastes of apricot and peonies in a mountain stream. In later steeps add in plums. It is smooth and mellow with just a hint of bite trying to peek through. To me it is almost like something from Nepal instead of Africa. It is a white tea, so it is on the subtle end. This is the first tea I have brewed in two weeks that I felt like paying attention to detail. Hopefully I am on the road to well. Tea – how I have missed you.

Can’t post a review on the blog until the 23rd as my data plan hit the limit and it won’t let me upload pictures until the new cycle.

Anyway, this tea is pretty off the rails cool. What it has in common with other white tea is it is subtle and mellow. That’s pretty much it. I’ve had 100g bags of tea that barely took up the volume of this 10g sample. Seriously, the leaf is huge and not rolled or twisted. They are brown like fall. There is no silver haired buds to be found. I agree with one of the reviewers, it is almost like we are being punked, until you sniff it. The dry scent is fruity and malty. Nice.

I steeped this at 176F for 3 1/2 minutes. It gives you a beer colored brew. The taste is apricots drenched in fresh mountain streams. It is slightly malty. I catch lovely floral notes of peonies. It is so mellow and lightly sweet.

I sense more resemblance to a light black tea than to a white. Now, stout black tea lovers will most likely never make that connection because it is such a subtle tea. The cooler it got the more I loved the taste. It had almost a wine like bouquet with the floral notes. The trouble I had with it was that at room temperature it becomes a gulping tea as I found it that refreshing.

If you enjoy a mild meditative tea, this one from Africa should not be missed. If you more inclined to enjoy big bold flavors or highly roasted notes, then you are probably going to be underwhelmed. Me personally, I don’t ever crave highly roasted oolongs, or chai. I am pretty picky about flavored teas. I want to taste the base, unless it is something desserty or intentionally overpowered like H&S Hot Cinnamon Spice, or pretty much any good Earl Grey.

This is quite nice. The dry scent is deeply straw and horse. The taste is lightly smoky but not objectionably so – the scent of smoke in the steeped liquor is stronger than the taste. The horse is still there – like the scent of a horse that has been running. Also a smooth, buttery richness. Very nice. Not sure I’d keep it on hand, but a very good cup.

It is a sleepy kinda day today, chilly and rainy, a real ‘spring day’ to me. I think it might be because I spent half of my life in the northeast, but to me, spring means lots of rain showers and being able to go out in the world wearing fluffy sweaters and only one pair of pants, I might even dare going out in a skirt or not wearing a hat! It is honestly some of my favorite weather, perfect for hot tea, enjoying nature, and snuggling under a blanket. A good day for mushroom hunting or doing artsy things, whichever my mood prefers.

Today’s tea came to me from India, by way of England, because getting boxes from other countries makes me immensely happy. Darjeeling 2nd Flush 2014 Rohini Clonal Special Tippy Black Tea from What-Cha comes from the Rohini Tea Estate in Kurseong Valley, which is quite beautiful if you go look at pictures, very lush and green. This tea is not quite lush and green, but slightly fuzzy and rich brown, as a 2nd flush should be. Hehe, in my notebook I list the aroma first as ‘whoa!’ and then actually describe it! The tea starts with a touch of tobacco and malt, and then moves on to raisins and rich, sweet, molasses. I do enjoy the level of richness that these leaves have, and the tobacco note is unusual but quite pleasant.

Into the steeping apparatus the leaves have gone, for a happy steeping time. After they steep the now steaming and soggy leaves have a much sweeter aroma, with notes of molasses, malt, fruit (specifically raisins and dried flowers) and a finish of honey and distant flowers. The liquid is creamy sweet with notes of muscadines, honey, and autumn leaves. Oddly the aroma of the liquid reminds me of sunshine and warmth, it imparts a laziness to my brain.

This tea is delightfully rich and smooth, but I am such a sucker for Darjeeling, I have developed a bit of an addiction to them, and I am constantly waffling between which flush is my favorite. The thing I love most about it is how it reminds me of summer, the best parts of summer, with 2nd flush bringing memories of lazy late summer where everything takes on a golden tone. The taste starts off with a blend of muscadines and scuppernongs with a tiny bit of raisin, this moves on to toasted nuts, autumn leaves, and a really pleasant and surprising orange blossom finish. It is very warm and soothing, much like sitting in a patch of sunlight.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/03/what-cha-darjeeling-2nd-flush-2014.html

I received this as a sample with an order in the fall, and since I’m not a big flavored tea drinker, have left it unmolested in my tea cabinet until this morning. Why this morning? Who knows. Perhaps just because it’s not Friday, and I needed a bit of extra sunshine because, hey, Tuesday. :)

The dry dark twisty leaves are gently scented with an almost orange blossom fragrance. After steeping for the recommended 3 minutes, The fragrance of bergamot was almost unnoticeable to me…but the first sip brought the bergamot again. The base of this tea is very smooth and delicate…a perfect dance partner for the light bergamot that floats in the profile notes of light malt. This is a medium bodied Earl Grey that has little astringency and a lovely mouthfeel. A genteel and refined tea for a leisure afternoon with a great book, a cat and a packet of butter cookies. (A grand compliment, to be sure!)

Vietnam Wild Mountain Mist Silver Needle White Tea
Origin: Soui Giang, Yen Bai Province, Vietnam
Elevation: 1200m+

Dry Leaves: The leaves are fairly typical of Silver Needle teas, although they were surprisingly crisp most Silver Needles that I have had has been very pliable and soft. Besides that for the most part these leaves are fairly uniform, I did notice the occasional fuzzy leaf, but for the most part the leaves are lightly twisted and have a pleasant pine needle smell.

Temperature: 176oF
Brewing Time: One Minute (adding one minute each subsequent infusion)
Aroma: Pine and Citrus
Flavor: Melon, Smoke and Vanilla
Tasting Notes: Wow. This is quite a strange tea, even though the packaging clearly sells it has a gentle smoke taste, I was not really expecting it; like the Red Buffalo, this taste like a purple tea.

I could see myself buying this again even though for 50g at $16 (at the time of writing) it is a little expensive; I have not encountered any smoky silver needles before. Normally I am not a fan of unscented silver needles, but those smoky notes make this tea really interesting. At first I wanted to say that this was my favorite of the three teas I looked at today, but I don’t often drink white teas and I always feel Oolongs have an unfair advantage over all teas since it has an incredible range of tastes; although the pricing isn’t that unusual, Teavivre has two silver Needles for $17.90 for 50g (at the time of writing this) of a comparable quality.

[The rest of the review is at http://rah-tea.blogspot.com/2014/12/what-cha-discover-vietnam-part-1.html)

Vietnam Flowery Oolong
Origin: Moc Chau, Son La Province, Vietnam
Elevation: 1000m

Dry Leaves: The leaves looked fairly typical of floral oolongs although there was quite a bit of stems showing which was nice. In my experience the floral oolongs with stems tend to be of a higher quality than the floral oolongs that are just leaves (think Beautiful Taiwan Tea’s DaYuLing). Although the pellets were really small.

Temperature: 194oF
Brewing Time: One Minute (adding one minute each subsequent infusion)
Aroma: Floral
Flavor: Floral, Honey and Raw Sugar Cane
Tasting Notes: This is definitely a filler tea. I don’t mean this in a bad way, but it is a very non-offensive tea that I could easily see this blended in with a Taiwanese High Mountain Oolong. I’ve been hearing for years that Taiwanese farmers mix their oolongs with cheaper teas of equal quality from Vietnam and Thailand, and never really believed it until now.

While this is a very good flowery oolong, I am not sure if I would buy it again even though it is easily worth the $9.60 (as of writing this), but it has a lot of tough competition in this price range. I know Alistair has sourced some High Mountain Oolongs recently and I am curious how this compares to them. I can easily say that this is my favorite of these three regardless while I like more complex teas, this was quite nice. I said before that this is filler tea and I was considering trying to be more diplomatic about it, but I decided against doing so. While the leaves may have been rolled way too pass as a Taiwanese Oolong, it is the perfect tea to blend with more expensive teas without changing the taste. In fact I used my leftover leaves and mixed equal parts with Beautiful Taiwan Teas DaYuLing and a nonpareil DaYuLing that I got from Teavivre and I honestly could not tell the What-Cha/BTT Flowery DaYuLing & What-Cha/Teavivre Nonparel-Flowery-DaYuLing from the unblended DaYuLings.

[More at http://rah-tea.blogspot.com/2014/12/what-cha-discover-vietnam-part-1.html]

Vietnam Red Buffalo Oolong
Origin: Moc Chau, Son La Province, Vietnam
Elevation: 1000m+

Dry Leaves: This was the tea that was the most interesting, for some reason it reminds me of a dark roast TGY. It has a lot more red and browns then the picture suggests, although the leaves are predominantly black.

Temperature: 194oF
Brewing Time: One Minute (adding thirty seconds each subsequent infusion)
Aroma: Charcoal and Oak
Flavor: Charcoal, Smoke, Floral, Honey, Cinnamon and Malty
Tasting Notes: I didn’t like this at first, it felt too much like a dark TGY. While I am not a big fan of darker oolongs, but with each sip it grew on me. The initial charcoal taste was a little off-putting, at first I couldn’t taste anything else, but I started to taste a smoky honey taste. It is a little reminiscent of a purple tea; it has a nice smoky edge that gets stronger with each subsequent steeping while the charcoal taste grows weaker. This has a nice staying power; I got seven infusions out of this before I started to notice a considerable loss of flavor.

This was the tea that I was the most excited for, even though I prefer greener oolongs, and while it is not my favorite it is quite nice. It did take me a couple steepings to appreciate this tea, but at $9.60 for 50g it is definitely worth it. I may or may not buy this again, I don’t like having a lot of dark teas, but I could see myself buying this again if I don’t care for the new Indonesian TGY has sourced.

[More Vietnamese teas at http://rah-tea.blogspot.com/2014/12/what-cha-discover-vietnam-part-1.html)

Korea Dong Cheon Daejak 2013 Sparrow’s Tongue ‘Jakseol’ Green Tea
Origin: Dong Cheon, Hwagae Valley, Hadong, Korea
Harvest: Daejak (Fourth flush)
Temperature: 158oF (increasing five degrees each subsequent infusion)
Brewing Time: One Minute (plus an additional minute for each subsequent infusion)
Aroma: Corn and Grassy
Flavor: Corn and Grassy

Tasting Notes: While it is the simplest of the three, it stays very nice and stays relatively the same in subsequent infusions. I got thirteen infusions out of this and was quite satisfied with it before it started to lose flavor. I stopped at the fifteenth infusion, it might have had more to give, but I had stuff to do and I can’t spend the whole day drinking tea (much to my chagrin). I generally like trying more complex teas whose flavors wax and wane, but this was very nice daily drinker. This is the kind of tea that you’ll never feel an overwhelming urge for, but it is the type of tea that you can drink whenever. I am not saying to avoid this tea, but it is a very subtle tea that is not the type to dazzle you initially, but is the type that you find you really enjoy the more you drink. It sort of reminds me of the person we all know who you overlook and not realize how close you are to. At the time of writing this it cost $9.20 for 50g and it is definitely worth the price, for this very modest price it is a very introduction to Korean greens, it isn’t something that will amaze you, but it will certainly be comfortable to drink.

[Bonus Tea Flowers at http://rah-tea.blogspot.com/2014/12/what-chas-discover-korea-2013-green-tea.html)

Korea Dong Cheon Sejak 2013 Sparrow’s Tongue ‘Jakseol’ Green Tea
Origin: Dong Cheon, Hwagae Valley, Hadong, Korea
Harvest: Sejak (Second flush)
Temperature: 140oF (increasing five degrees each subsequent infusion)
Brewing Time: One Minute (plus an additional minute for each subsequent infusion)
Aroma: Roasted Corn, Grassy and slight wildflower
Flavor: Corn, Grassy, Lightly Roasted and Woodsy

Tasting Notes: This was the first of the three Korean greens I tried and I was kind of surprised that a Sejak is less expensive than a Jungjak. Although it is a very nice tea, the Jungjak was made with more care, but I digress. I liked this tea. It might be the one I would pick the most out of the three. I am not often a fan of roasted and woodsy teas, but I found that this had a very nice roast on it. I got eight infusions out of the leaves before it started to lose flavor. I drank until the thirteenth infusion though, it still had some left in the leaves, but it had become very thin by then. At the time of writing this is sold for $17.60 for 50g and is worth the price.

[Bonus Tea Flowers at http://rah-tea.blogspot.com/2014/12/what-chas-discover-korea-2013-green-tea.html)

Korea Jukro Jungjak 2013 Sparrow’s Tongue ‘Jakseol’ Green Tea
Origin: Jukro Tea Company, Hwagae Valley, Hadong, Korea
Harvest: Jungjak (Third flush)
Temperature: 160oF (increasing five degrees each subsequent infusion)
Brewing Time: One Minute (plus an additional minute for each subsequent infusion)
Aroma: Grassy, Floral and Cooked Spinach
Flavor: Corn, Grassy, Buttery and Ocean Air

Tasting Notes: You can tell it was made with love and handpicked, definitely the star of the three. This tastes like a yasaeng-cha (wild tea). It had a nice mouthfeel, it doesn’t feel that different from the other two teas, but there is certainly something there that I can’t quite put my finger on. It reminds me a little of a Japanese green, but it still is distinctly Korean. This is the most complex of the three and is definitely worth the price. At the time of writing this it was being sold at $20.80 for 50g and is easily worth that price. While it is the tea I have the least to say, it is my favorite of the three. It is deceptively simple, I wasn’t that impressed with my first infusion, but in my second I started to recognize the various flavors in this tea.

From Sil via the GCTTB3.

This dry tea smells very fresh and clean. I am getting very light hints of malty cocoa and maybe vanilla. Slightly sweet. The leaves are quite large and long, making it hard to scoop out of the bag with my tea spoon. So I instead just poured enough out that seemed to be a good amount to brew for one cup.

The brewed tea is very smooth. The liquor is thick. Definitely creamy but no cloying. There is a very light citrus flavour. The slight bitterness of the citrus is in contrast with the creamy flavour but they somehow work together. I am not getting any cocoa or vanilla flavours that I got in the smell. The black tea base is smooth with no bitterness or astringency. There is a slight roastiness to the tea.

This is a very good tea. Thanks Sil. I am curious as to why it is called Georgia Old Lady though…

I’m not really sure how to describe this tea. I don’t think it tastes at all like chocolate, not even a little, although it leaves a little bit of a chocolate sensation in the mouth. It’s kind of earthy, with an odd taste that reminds me of Jerusalem artichokes (aka sun chokes). It also reminds me a bit of sunflower greens. It’s not bad, just very different & kind of wild tasting. Nothing wrong with that! Thanks again to my steep-sister Sil for the opportunity to sample!

I am so nervous! I finally grew a pair (and admitted that it was tolerably complete) and entered my Scourge army into the monthly painting contest on the Dropzone Forums. I have been told numerous times that my army is awesome, and I am very pleased with how it came out, but I will be going against professionals and seasoned painter, this is my first army (well I did finish them, and decided I wanted a different scheme so I stripped them and started over, so second?) I feel like it is such a glaring pile of newb mistakes. But on the other hand I am one of those people that obsesses over details and never really calls a project complete….so maybe I should stop worrying? Wish me luck! This is my first time putting my painting really ‘out there’ so it is a little terrifying.

Ok, I have managed to calm myself down enough to write a blog about tea! A tea that looks like a pile of mulch! What-Cha’s Malawi Bvumbwe Peony White Tea is a tea that if I was not more knowledgeable, I would think I am being trolled. I have seen some gloriously fluffy Bai Mu Dan, but this tea takes the cake with its massive whole leaves, and instead of being the usual shades of green these leaves are brown and dried, like autumn leaves. The Satemwa Tea Estate in Malawi never ceases to amaze me with its unusual teas (remember the Antler tea?) So, the aroma of these leaves is anything but dry and smell-less (as some giant dried autumn looking leaves can be) they are in fact leafy and a bit loamy smelling, but the real show stopper is the honey drizzled peach sweetness and touch of fresh growing vegetation and hay. This tea reminds me of the edge of summer into fall, it has that warmth of summer with the crispy leafiness of fall.

Leaves this size do not fit in my normal gaiwan, so I used my green gaiwan-ish thing. Technically this thing is a gaiwan, but it also is called a travel gaiwan or easy gaiwan, I thought that its built in strainer in the lid and short-wide profile would make for a good pseudo houhin until I can get a real one (or a shiboridashi, a girl can dream) they fit perfectly inside the wide gaiwan. When they are wet they become beautifully mottled colored, and oooh the aroma is nice. Notes of sun warmed hay, scuppernongs, and apricots, so delightfully sweet and fruity! The liquid is a veritable summer picnic of fruit, with melon, apricot, peaches, honey, and a distinct note of sun warmed alfalfa and grass.

The first steep tastes like a field and fruit, it is sweet and full of sun drenched life, warm wildflowers, alfalfa (like the grass not the salad sprouts) with a finish of dried apricots and melon. This tea is delightfully sweet and has a cooling effect, which would make this an excellent summer tea me thinks. Even though it has a cooling effect, it also has a very relaxing lazy feel to it, like I want to sip it while lounging under a shady tree on a warm day.

Yes, I definitely went for a second steep, and this one I decided to give it a long steep, I steeped it for a whopping ten minutes. I really like pushing the boundaries with white tea because I have found that it takes a lot to screw up the taste, and usually what you get is something bland rather than bitter. The aroma of the second steep is really muscatel and has a tiny hint of honey and hay. Steeping it really long brings out the muscatel notes, along with rich honey and apricots, oh man it is so rich and sweet, almost like a dessert! This might be one of my new favorite White Peony teas (why is it that almost all my favorite White Teas come from Africa now?) it is just so rich and sweet, plus the leaves are so fun!

For blog, photos (and a link to my Scourge album): http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/03/what-cha-malawi-bvumbwe-peony-white-tea.html

This was my travel mug that went with me to work way too early this morning. I don’t often take a travel tea with me since it isn’t ever cool enough to drink before I get to work anyway. If I got up more than 15 minutes before leaving the house, it would be a different story, I know. :)

But this worked well to start my day. Still fantastically good. Smooth and malty and hard not to gulp.

Western style, big mug, sweet T-Rex but this is awesome tea! Smooth, thick, sweet, gorgeous leaves, superior scent both dry and steeped liquor. One of the maltiest teas I’ve ever had. This is just a superior tea. Whoever processes does a phenomenal job and the plants must be excellent to produce this kind of a tea. Gorgeous. There is absolutely nothing bad I can say about this. If it ever goes away I will be heartbroken.

Oh, and a picture of my little work tea pot. Developing some nice color after a short time.

http://tinyurl.com/z33bxld

So… this is a sipdown. On the permanent wish list this one goes. I’m getting a little sour note at the end of the sip on the 2nd infusion doing this gongfu style that I didn’t get doing it Western style. But that’s far from a downside. So, so good. Smooth, malty, sweetness, molasses, om nom nom.

This is a seriously tasty tea. So incredibly smooth, rich, malty… everything that makes a tea nom-nom-nommy for me lately. :) I feel so amazingly spoiled by having access to a resource like Steepster to help me build and snobbify my tea palate. :)

This is pretty good. Lightly citrusy notes, hints of cocoa, sweetish with a little mineral in the background as it cools. Not sure I’d order it over some other What-Cha offerings but I have enjoyed this cup for sure. Thanks, Maddy Barone for the swap!

This is a very interesting tea, very light and sweet for a black tea. I did two steeps of 16 ounces each, 2 minutes and 15 seconds the first time, and 10 minutes the second time. It was so light the first time that I wanted to see what happened with a longer steep…it was still nice and sweet, no bitterness or astringency whatsoever. For whatever reason, I drank both cups in approximately 3 minutes, haha. I’m a fast drinker, but never that fast…I guess it was the mildness of the tea. Very enjoyable! Thank you for the sample, Nicole!

Another tea sample from my tea sister Sil.
I can’t figure out how to describe this one! It’s a very sweet & mellow kind of tea, but that isn’t to say that it lacks potency, because the flavor is very rich! There is absolutely no astringency whatsoever. I’m picking up an intriguing mix of flavors. tobacco & a sherry-like grape sweetness in the first steep. The second steep leans more to a savory buttery winter squash & toasted pepitas kind of palette. Both were delicious.

This is a pleasant & really kind of soothing cup. The second steep had peach undertones, at least from my perspective :)
Thanks Sil for the chance to sample it!