Yezi Tea
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The new 2014 batch. AMAZING.
I just ordered an ounce. I need to have a cup. Your sample a while back is what got me hooked.
It’s really, really good! It tastes like caramel and cinnamon with a bit of smoke. The only astringency is upfront, subtle, and very short lived. The liquor is so clear. Honestly, I never knew that I could like Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong until I had Yezi’s… and now, this batch just blows me away. All of this talk… I think I’m going to brew up some more! :) I hope that you enjoy it! I can only imagine how good it will taste when it has aged a year.
Where did you get it? It sounds like the king of ZSXZ I like: faintly smoked, but still delicate.
Just read: Yezi Tea. A pity that shipping to Europe cost as much as the tea. I would have liked to compare it with mine: http://www.nannuoshan.org/collections/black/products/zheng-shan-xiao-zhong
Very new experience to me. I put off trying this sample, since I’m not a green drinker, and wanted to do it justice. The aroma is remarkable, and the flavor astonishingly smooth. Mildly astringent, but buttery and warm. yum.
Preparation
This is one seriously floral oolong. It’s very light, very sweet, almost entirely devoid of savory notes. It’s got that unidentifiable jasmine-but-not-jasmine thing going on, floral-wise—I shared this sample with my mom, and she said the floral note (which I’ve gotten in lots of other green oolongs, although never quite to this extent) is honeysuckle, so there you go. Although I’m generally all for floral, I’m finding it a bit much here. I’m used to TGYs being more savory and having a bit more depth, and I do prefer them that way.
In a shocking break from my usual, I did NOT brew this one western style—I actually followed Yezi’s instructions. It’s nice to brew like this once in a (very long) while I suppose, but mostly I was reminded of why I do prefer western style. I just really like settling in with a large (or even mid-sized) cup of tea and relaxing; I don’t find all the measuring and timing and general activity enjoyable. Anyway, this time I did four steeps, and I can’t say I noticed a ton of difference from steep to steep. I feel bad for not loving this tea, but I just didn’t. I can tell the quality is high, though, and I can see someone with different oolong preferences really enjoying it. Thanks for the sample, Nicole_Martin!
I’ve been boring for what feels like months now, where I just want to dwell a bit on old favorites every day and rediscover why I fell in love with them in the first place. Means a dearth of logging but wonderful tea time as some I feel I almost appreciate more upon revisit. This is a good example. What an excellent tea. This morning was slow going for no good reason at all, and one of those where you wake up having to do approximately a billion little tasks before you can even make your first cuppa. When I finally had a second to do so I wanted it to be failproof satisfying and this fit the bill and how. I’ve had something like 6 cups—I figured I’d waited so long I deserved to do this in the gaiwan and set myself free for 15 minutes, whee—and it’s still going strong, smooth and sweet and clean but rich bordering on hearty. Present but refined. Delicious. Teas that offer so much flavor and depth in a matter of seconds when it comes to steep time still amaze me.
You could never be boring. Also, you’re totally fancy.
oh you! i love the idea of “fancy” becoming an injoke. :D
i am amazed someone who sees me prattle on on FB about hair buns and cat puke can say such a thing. but grateful too. <3 goodness knows it’s quite a shock coming from a lady who jetsets and gets her hair did splendidly and can talk theory and feminism with the best of ‘em. it’s been a pleasure running into you on the internets. (:
Aww. Aww. AWW!
oh, my heart ate my comment. this is what text cache is for!
oh you! i love the idea of “fancy” becoming an injoke. :D
i am amazed someone who sees me prattle on on FB about hair buns and cat puke can say such a thing. but grateful too. (heart) goodness knows it’s quite a shock coming from a lady who jetsets and gets her hair did splendidly and can talk theory and feminism with the best of ‘em. it’s been a pleasure running into you on the internets. (:
…ok. internet group hug with bouncy curls. ha!
OMG I DIDN’T THINK IT COULD GET MORE BEAUTIFUL BUT IT JUST DID
teaspoons all round!
You want to be the big teaspoon, the small teaspoon, or the middle teaspoon, keychange?
… is wondering whether the hair buns and cat puke were somehow related? Heh.
Best pet related hair styling product EVER.
I cannot stop laughing. Thanks, Anna.
Yes, this is how I like to introduce myself to new people on Steepster, Cheri – cat puke jokes!
In case you can’t see my profile picture, it’s one of my furry kids. In fact, he’s the pukey one. I know all about cat puke and cat puke jokes.
just last night i found out something i kind of wish i could unknow, that all those bouffanty ‘40s hairstyles were accomplished with the use of something known as a “hair rat”—women collected their shed hairs and made them into a little sponge like filler for their up ’dos! i mention this weirdness because now i’m imagining cat puke as a result of one finding one’s hair rat and taking it as a snack. eugh.
cat puke. it’s what brings people together. that or an immature/gross sense of humor.
haahaha, “the pukey one”…oh feline terms of endearment.
Does every home with more than one cat have “pukey one”? And here I thought we were the only ones.
I think so, yes.
I think every home with no cat also has a “pukey one”, to be honest.
Our two share the pukey duty equally it seems. Luckily they don’t do it very often. Mostly during shedding season.
ours share it too. unluckily all the time during shedding season. and worst of all, their favorite time of day to do it is while we’re asleep at night at like 3am, either right on the bed or right where i put my feet when i get out of bed. :b the first time that happened, husband was in the shower and heard a loud curse word from the bedroom when half awake i stepped in it. now i know to check before getting out of bed. oh cats. “you’re lucky you’re cute!” i only-half-jokingly tease at them.
Our pukey one is majorly pukey. The others do it much more rarely. We took him to the vet and the vet said there’s really no medical explanation. I suspect bulemia.
A friend was just telling me that she read somewhere that if you raise up their food bowl up about 6" or so, so that they don’t have to bend over all the way to eat, and it helps with the puking. She said it worked for her. I’m thinking about trying it. Pukey Penny was puking only occasionally for a while, but he’s back to puking a lot again.
Interesting. We’ll have to try that.
yeah, thanks for the tip! i will try that…
It could be over-eating, maybe. Luna has done that when she was younger, eating far far too quickly and then the whole thing came up again and you could easily see how some of the pellets had just been swallowed whole. They have a ‘food maze’ now, where I pour both their portions in at the top and then they have to use their paws to get the food out. Slows down the eating pace a lot and entertains the cats. It’s a bit noisy while they eat, but it’s cute to watch.
“Good for you you’re so cute!” Oh I know that statement well. It was directed at Luna when she attempted DIY surgery by removing all her stitches two days after having been spayed so that we had to go and have her re-stitched. By the emergency vet. On a Saturday evening. In the next town over. By taxi. And pick her up again the next morning. By taxi. (We didn’t have a car then and public transport would have taken three times as long) That little adventure cost almost as much as the intial spaying and ear tatooing of two cats!
Wow, this is really good. I can’t get over how naturally sweet it is. And it has this wonderful quality of feeling, bizarrely enough, both light and clean as well as bold and rich. It’s hard to explain. But this is beautiful. Often Steepster collectively feels like it prizes smooth black Chinese teas above all, and while I’ve enjoyed the zillions I’ve tried I get bored by a kind of…sameness to the most favored ones. This is a class apart though—for once no sweet potato! Really digging this.
Preparation
I’ve been sipping down teas in anticipation of Black Friday, and decided it was time to try this sample from Yezi Tea. I used the entire 3 grams in 6 oz of water in a series of 60 second steeps.
1st steep: Nose is soft and spicy with hints of straw. Flavor is light and grassy with milky texture. Finish seems more powerful than the taste. As the tea cooled the flavor opened up and became quite buttery, but the spice disappeared.
2nd steep: the nose is more grass than straw, with just a hint of spice. A bit more powerful than the first steep. The first sip just exploded in my mouth: tremendous power! It has an incredibly rich mouth-feel, with flavors dominated by straw and grass, with undertones of spice. The taste transitions smoothly into a long, powerful finish.
3rd steep was less powerful than the second. Mildly spicy nose. Same flavors, but much less buttery texture in the mouth. Finish is still good, but not quite as good as the second steep.
Many thanks to Yezi Tea for providing the sample
