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GCTTB4

I remember I first had this tea over a year ago when the GCTTB3 came around, so when this tea was still in the 4th round, I thought I’d keep it for myself.

I made an iced pitcher of this, and boy is the hibiscus strong! It needs more sugar to balance out. Not a bad tea, but not what I remember enjoying. I’ll finish off the remainder soon.

GCTTB

I took one teabag of this tea from the box a few months ago and decided to have it this morning. I think it was stale, though, since there was an unpleasant mishmash of flavours that I couldn’t identify. I wasn’t a huge fan of this, but hey, one less tea in the cupboard!

Gongfu session!

I haven’t had any puerh in a while, so I was excited to try this. My first impression is somewhat positive, but I was paying attention to all of the previous notes talking about how vanilla/sweet this was, so I was unexpected when the bitterness started to show up on the third steep.

I brewed 6g in my gaiwan using water just off the boil. Had a BIIIIG teapot on hand (probably about 5 cups) but I think I only did about 10 steeps. 5-second rinse, then 10/15/20/20/25/30 – after that I didn’t keep track as much.

The first steep was fairly neutral tasting, but the second steep was more fruity and I got tart hints of apricot. The third steep was where the bitterness started coming in, and around steep 5/6 I started feeling this menthol/eucalyptus/tingling feeling in my throat.

I think that if I squint I can kinda taste the vanilla/honey/cake notes that other people here have mentioned, but I’m not quite there yet. I think I’m going to let this sit a bit more before I have it again.

On the plus side, there were HUGE leaves and buds in my brew! I even took a photo: https://instagram.com/p/7JlgnfxIea/

I’ve been steeping this on and off over the day while at work. The third steep is kind of tart!

This is generally nice and malty, but not knock-your-socks-off amazing. I’ve got about 1 more serving’s worth of leaf left.

Sipdown!

I made the rest of this tea in my iced tea pitcher and added some lemon-flavoured honey. I deliberately overleafed to get a strong flavour, and this way I could really taste the rooibos. I can smell the rose and mango, but couldn’t taste it that much. Ah well, I may restock this next summer.

I got a cup of this with some agave nectar added to go this evening. The flavour was milder than I expected. I tasted mostly nutmeg and cream, with a hint of cinnamon as I progressed through the cup. It was nice, but I know that when I buy teas from David’s Tea that I can never make them taste as good at home as they do in the store.

Sipdown!

I’ll probably resteep this once or twice today. I like the smell of this, but I’ve got so much tea to deal with that I’ll just bid this one a fond farewell for now.

I used up the whole sample of this tea that Ubacat sent me – about 2 tablespoons.

And boy, was it a great idea! I love the way this tea smells. It’s got a deeper scent than other buckwheat I’ve tried. This one smells like cocoa and honey, actually – like a Crunch chocolate bar, the kind of chocolate that has rice crisps inside it.

This extends to the brewed tea. A lovely golden liquor with notes of honey, puffed rice, and roasted seame seeds. This is pretty awesome! I’ll see if I can get a second steep out of it.

The Aged DHP was a lot smoother overall than the fresh. The dry leaves were long, dark, and spindly, and they smelled like wood, cigarettes, and roastedness. I also smelled a hint of something salty at the back of my nose, like soy sauce.

After a 5-second rinse with 90°C water, the smell of the leaves deepened into cigars and charred wood, but I didn’t get the burnt sugar/burnt pie crust sensation that I got from the Fresh DHP.

The first steep resulted in tea that was an ochre colour — much redder than the Fresh DHP. The fragrance was light, but sharper and woodier than the fresh stuff. Again, I couldn’t sense any burnt notes. This tea was definitely smoother, but there was a more alkaline aftertaste, especially on the backs and sides of my tongue.

[…]

What I find interesting is that White2Tea described this tea as “mineral.” I can see that, though I think what they consider “mineral” was what I was describing as flowers/sandalwood.

Full review at http://booksandtea.ca/2015/08/white2tea-august-2015-subscription-box-clover-patch-oolong-and-2-da-hong-paos/

The Fresh DHP is made of black, gnarled nuggets of tea leaf. Dry, they smell of paper; there’s also a skunky sort of smell that reminds me of weed, unfortunately. I took about 3.8 grams of dry leaf and put them in a gaiwan. After rinsing them in 90°C water for 5 seconds, the smell deepened and the whole thing smelled fresh and wet with notes of graham cracker, blackened sugar, and burnt pie crust. The first steep was 10 seconds; the second, third, fourth, and fifth were 15, 20, 25, and 50 seconds respectively.

This didn’t taste as harsh as I was expecting. There was an orchid note there along with the note I’m learning to associate with roasted oolongs: green, wet, and sticky, like someone’s just cut into the heart of a plant and the wound is now welling with sap. There was a surprisingly soft aftertaste here like grass and orchids, along with that burnt sugar/pie crust note.

Full review at http://booksandtea.ca/2015/08/white2tea-august-2015-subscription-box-clover-patch-oolong-and-2-da-hong-paos/