1749 Tasting Notes
Used the right amount of leaves for the right time. Again, florals you would associate with luxury soaps, but this time, the florals were light and balanced with the snap pea green vegetal taste. I finally got a little bit more creaminess later on. I am glad to have some for today and some for later. Oddly, I can see this tea being just as good for the summer as it is right now in the winter. That’s what a good oolong can do anyway :) I do wonder how the Yu Lan Xiang compares.
Another review with pretty close notes to what I get: Butter, Fruity, Malt, and White Raisins. It also had the usual dry basil smell and taste that I associate with Darjeelings. I got two solid cups, and one third lighter cup western starting out at two minutes fifteen seconds, 6 oz of water, one medium teaspoon. I loved that this was a lighter black. Thanks Evol!
Impulse buy. I dig cocoa shells and cardamom, plus I’ve never had a coffee fruit tea. This is heavily marketed as a pick me up alternative from coffee and some teas, but mostly black coffee. Given the blend, I figured it might taste good, help with my cold, and was worth a shot.
The taste is not too bad, but it is way too close to the Smooth Move herbal tea with cocoa shells. Surprisingly enough, this tea is better for me to just let it sit at the bottom of a cup, thermo, or tumbler. I was able to get a tad bit more nuance from it. I like the cocoa shells, but since I did not add honey to it, the tea was a flatter herbal. I could definitely pick up on the cardamom, but it was sloshed a little into the elderberry and licorice root. The coffee fruit has a very light taste that you can barely tell is there. Cascara, or the shell, is like a cross between cherry and vanilla, but is very light and wispy as a flavor with very little sweetness. I will definitely try it again with some honey.
I did enjoy a few aspects of it: the energy it gave clarity and focus more than anything else. A few people on here can get that from certain oolongs, matcha’s, and white teas, but this one is really balanced. Think of the effect of gingko without the mega pump of circulation going into your head. The herbs were also noticeable enough to alert my senses with mild pleasure. So for me, this tea delivered on it’s market promise. I also like that it is almost impossible to over steep.
I personally think it would be better with some vanilla added to the mix to bring out the chocolate flavor more because the shells alone make the water cocoa-y and muddy. In my limited experience with blends, vanilla really brings out chocolate tastes. I might change my mind when I sweeten it, but my western pallet says otherwise when it comes to chocolate. The price is also a bit high for an herbal-$7.99 for a box of 10! I wonder how expensive sachets are… Despite my dismay, I have project fuel and study fuel for the next few days.
Cocoa, Malt, Plums, Smoke, Vanilla, and Muscatel are all pretty good descriptors, though I would add “Leather” to the mix. Malt, Leather, Smoke, and Cocoa are the best adjectives in my opinion. I am loving the brewed leaf smell, though it reminds me of the blends its often mixed with like English Breakfast and some rose blends. It is also very smooth and has a solid amount of natural sweetness, but dry bitter-sweetness like cocoa.
Evol, you might gasp, but I decided to power steep the entire sample Gong Fu. It actually turned out really nice with super short steeps. Cocoa almost every time. First was 14 due to timing of pouring, and the second 5, 7, 8, 10 and then stop. I actually liked this tea more cooled down closer to 170 F instead of 180 F since I caught more of the nuances with that temperature. The last steep was more malt than anything else with the fading cocoa and leather.
I feel a little buzzed and weighty after this one. A little bit of pressure on my skull…I am mildly tea drunk or too frickin’ drunk of caffeine lol. I did randomly look up that this has a higher concentration of geraniol, an alcohol in the essential oil of roses among other plants. That is what makes me think this is a bit rosy. I don’t know if it is contributing to the mild delirium.
As much as I as I enjoyed the smoke and the cocoa, I am not sure I would drink this often. I pretty much have the same opinion about Keemums in that they are good teas if I am in the mood for mega malt and if it’s good quality. This one comes to that mark for me ’cause of cocoa and leather, but it might not for others. I liked the body a little bit more than the Nepal, but the honey note in the Nepal off sets its dryness. Again, thank you so much Evol! Now, for some water!
Evol sample, thank you!
I wondered if this was right since the tips were more gold making me wonder if it was a union, but the dry cocoa powder and peach seed smell of the leaves make me feel otherwise. Like I said before, Nepal needs more love. This is a good case as to why and was a good pick for me.
I brewed gong fu and the qualities were closer to a Yunnan black in a mega powdery cocoa mouth feel and taste with a dried and roasted fruit finish. It reminds me of a Darjeeling in the dryness, but since I’ve had Nepalese teas before, it’s really a Nepal dryness that I associate with the terroir. Picking up a bit of a honey aftertaste as well. Malty overall, and a bit dry, but very pleasant.
Excellent. I’m feeling very self-congratulatory now following my own instincts on this. If we ever do another swap, I’ll just ignore your specific preferences, beyond general guidelines, of course, altogether and send you things that I think you should try, just because.
I’m glad you liked this one.
You know I like to try new things. :) I could not drink all these blacks all the time though. Oolongs are easier for me to power than blacks though I can handle around two hong cha sessions in a given day. I think that might decrease with time. Some greens can be way harder though.
One oolong can be an all day long thing for me. Blacks are less of a commitment: two steeps and I’m done, most of the time. I can be a bit fickle too, going through my phases of mostly this or mostly that.
You know I am teasing you.
Yeah XD
It’s so awesome to have a roommate open to trying tea…and listening to my lecturing about terroir. I got him to try a Bao Zhong and he really liked it. This was all the while we were watching Legend of Kora. He wanted to get through the series since he was a huge fan of the original Avatar. I liked the original more of course, but I warned him that Kora could have been better if the execution of its ideas were better. It infused so many political ideas central to East Asian “modern” history and had interesting dialogues about spirituality and industrialism, but they were not developed to their full potential. The true Iro, Andrew, had to listen to me rant about this on Facebook lol.
So with my roommate’s liking of the Bao Zhong, I used this tea to push him a little further in the world of oolongs. He liked it, but was satisfied with one cup. Fortunately I brewed the remaining leaves even better bringing out a little bit more of the honey floral notes. I saved the rest for this morning and put it in the fridge – which I should not have done to preserve flavor consistency- but the cup certainly was not bad for the sleepy morning. I’m at least alert enough now for a few push ups before the full morning workout. Arms, chest , or legs with a pinched nerve….hmm…
It’s so awesome to have a roommate open to trying tea…and listening to my lecturing about terroir.
omigosh, does he know what exactly he is agreeing to? :)
He has a pretty good idea. He’s seen my collection. I get tea to share so he’ll mooch off of me lol. He has more self restraint than the average American and is more strict with his caffeine than the usual business or finance major. He prefer’s fruity herbals for the most part, but the fruitiness would sell him to the oolong. He is well aware of my own problem with it, however, and I think he’ll just consider trying oolong with a roommate as another part of his college education.
Last hawkband1 sample to try, I have all of them to keep! I’ve always wanted to try a dan cong from Bitterleaf, and I’ve wanted to try their hong chas. Thanks to hawkband1, I get to try it.
I’m not sure if this is the higher grade leaf, but I think it might be the regular one based on the image. I’m not too picky about leaf grade and I love me some Dan Cong especially if it is from a good source.
Gong fu as instructed on the website, maybe less leaf. The honey taste and fragrance was strong on this one with the orchid floral, some definite fruitiness that leans more towards apricot and grape than grapefruit. The grapefruit is still there. Who knows, imaginary approximations are always fun. Second steep had a honey-oatmeal like taste that I thought was pretty coal. I don’t always get oat notes and they are fairly welcomed.
This was a pretty typical Dan Cong, but a high quality one. I think I’d let a newbie try, but this is for someone trying oolongs for oolongs specifically.
Backlog:
Thank you so much Evol! I kept on staring at this for months going “Do I want this herbal? It smells so good…never mind I’m having some chamomile…Well, I should finally try this-oh, look, I need to finish of my green rooibos!…I’m going to get some-crap! High bloodsugar. This might not be a good idea-but the sugar is only in the sprinkles! But flavored tea on a high bloodsugar makes my stomach cramp…”
And finally, I needed an herbal last night. There are only few hours before my last semester begins at Michigan State. Despite technically going back for my student teaching the following year, that will be more like “work”. This will be the year that I will graduate. It’s like being at the last two chapters of a book. Luckily, there will be a few months before the release of the sequel. Unfortunately, this book is about to end and there will be time before the next installment. Let’s hope that character development is more interesting, and that there are less characters written off. Thus the sheer existential stress said that going without caffiene was the better option…never mind I drank a Dan Cong three hours before at 8:00 PM.
The tea was pretty lovely for comfort. More like pancakes and maple syrup than pure cakes, the red rooibos worked pretty well. Then again, I’ve had a vanilla rooibos with rock sugar one time and it tasted like a vanilla flavored and creamed coffee. Red rooibos, you are so elusively woody yet desserty at the same time. I got three solid cups, the thirds lighter. I am going to check it again this morning to see if I can brew one more cup. To think I was watching The Crown on Netflix when I drank this.
Awesome! Glad you liked it. So you did find the remainder—yay! When I was picking up some of the ones I thought you might like or ones that I thought you needed to try just because, the DTs person helping me asked why I was getting so many in such small amounts, so I told her I had a tea friend across the border who didn’t have a DTs store handy. She loved that. It made her day.
I find rooibos loses the woodiness if you steep it at a lower temperature, like oolong or green for example. Sometimes when I lose my rhythm with this one after the first cup, I just pour water into the leaf and cold steep for the next day. This one also makes a great latte, if you are into that sort of thing.I don’t always drink this one, but it is nice to have on occasions you crave it.
I did go through most of the oolongs. The coconut was my favorite of them. :) Monks blend was also interesting (I think you commented on that one). I kept them at home for my home stash and for the winter. I’m taking them all back to school with me to write the rest of the notes out. Luckily, I kept the bags as my little list to see what I have and have not written. :)
I drink tea lattes sometimes, not often. I like do them myself unless I really like the barista if I’m buying it from a cafe. I do like the instant chai packets from India because they usually have the right milk-tea-spice ratio. And they were usually around 80 calories. I like to steam the milk or creamer for I add the tea. Red rooibos makes some really great tea lattes, though I rarely drink them ’cause health nut lol.
Yeah, the coconut one is a winner. I look forward to the rest of your notes whenever you get around to it. There are some good ones left when you discover them.
Lattes are currently out for me as I am not drinking milk as per naturopath. Kinda miss it. Not familiar with the instant chai.
Don’t normally do instant anything. I’ve got my own snob tendencies.
Instants are hit or misses. I do NOT like instant coffees, but the tea packets I buy from local oriental stores are pretty good.
Go to know. Any brand names I should look out for?
Quick Tea was the name that of the chai’s I was talking about. Some people on amazon liked this one and other people really didn’t because it tasted fake to them. For me, it did not taste nearly as fake as the other instant tea mixes I’ve had like the Tazo or the David Rio mixes. Either Gino was the other instant brand that I liked offering jasmine and lavender(black tea) with cream. Probably would go against the not dairy thing though.
Thanks!
I’ve stared at this tea on Steepster for a while and I’ve yet again been iffy about it because of price. Here’s to trading, sampling, and hawkband1! This was very similar to a jasmine black but obviously more citrusy with the tangerine peel. The tangerine blossom was nice and the hong cha was very smooth. The tea only had a hint of astringency. It was fairly similar in each cup gong fu after short steeps, but they were the same variations that I associate with a black tea. A little bit of the snobby “caramel” note in there, but the tangerine and its blossom dominate.
I am glad that there is some citrus with the florals in the black tea. I’m iffy about jasmine blacks since they can be a little bit strong for me personally. They are good with cream and sugar however. And to totally contradict that same statement, my mom used to put orange blossoms in her tea to scent it/flavor individual cups of green and black tea. Hence why I liked this tea though I do not think I would purchase my own amount of it. I’m glad to sample it and it is really good.
