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Didn’t come back to it. I’m drinking the Milk Oolong today with its fabric softener creamy aroma and well rounded green cream butter flavor, and finished the High Mountain quickly.

Quickie backlogs:
Lemongrass- lovely, great to cook with and drink. I needed to up the leaf more than two teaspoons to get full flavor, but incredibly smooth.

Ceylon-smooth and high quality, but quintessentially matly black tea. Not my favorite, but I’m snob when it comes to black teas. A lot of Ceylons and Yunnans are described as being chocolatey or bordering on dark chocolate, but for me, Fujian Teas fit that category more. Still lovely, and I recommend it for people looking for a really balanced breakfast style tea.

I still recommend Teawala for tea education. The instagram is also really cool to follow.

Adding more to it. The more I’ve had this open for, the more it’s relaxed. It’s actually well suited to the spring summer weather.

I get most of the same notes, but the tea is a lot softer and fruitier in a soft yellow liquor. There’s more pineapple, apricot and slight sourness this time bordering on apple. By association, my brain makes me think of the apple coleslaw at tropical smoothie. Guess I’d add carrot and kale to the notes then. I’m almost tempted to put vinegar in the notes for some reason because of it’s funk. Maybe it’s just me.

I really like this one and it’s fruitiness/fresh veggies vibes. Cutting the time short really helps cut down the more vegetal qualities bringing out the fresher ones, and so does backing off on the leaf. Going too intense on it makes the tea kale-sour broccoli tasting.

Andrew has said he actually thinks this is a better tea, but we’ll see when I get the GABA Milk for comparison. He posted a video talking about how mad he gets that it’s the more popular one because people are really into flavor when he really wants to get them into tea education. We shall see.

Hoarded this 2021 sample til the mood struck me. I steeped it up about twice so far in short 15 and 20 second steeps, and it’s heavy on the baked pear and syrupy thick texture, but light on the roast and woady profile this time. Now, even steep three at 15 sec, and four at 30 sec, there’s a sweetness that leans almost in a vanilla or maple direction. Steep three was a little bit woodier, but four fruitier with the fancy poached or baked pear flavor again. Steep 5, forgot the time-maybe less than a minute, aroma remaining. The charcoal creeps up a bit, but so does some minerals, vaguely cinnamon (by association and imagination), and rock sugar. Oh yeah, didn’t I mentioned a cooked version of a pear yet?

Either way it keeps coming and its a nice break from the frequent greener oolongs I’ve had. I still prefer to drink the greener oolongs more often for some reason, despite the cinders I’ve flecked from my wallets well scorched hole. Oddly though, my palette like fruitier tones and higher oxidized oolongs tend to be in fact fruitier than green ones, but I go back to the green ones.

Sometimes, the higher oxidised oolongs are actually too sweet for me, edging for cloying. I know most people wouldn’t use that word for red oolongs and I’d argue they are a little bit better suited to a western palette in some ways, but it’s the weird border into fructose, honey or syrup that makes me think they are. I’d be curious if anyone else has the same kind of experience. I know I’m hypocritical because I like vanilla, floral, chocolate, or fruit leaning black, white, and oolong teas, but I’d be happy to know I’m not the only one. Maybe it’s just my western palette preferring those teas.

I still recommend this one though. It’s quite good. I still agree with most of the earlier notes written, and the newer ones drawing the dill and spice comparisons. It’s like a savory baked fruit desert or starter.

Light brew yesterday, still a great 5 cups. 4th and 5th were weaker, but aroma going strong. I’ve just opened my last 50 grams of it, and am now starting to have diet addict freakout. I know this was limited, and weather permitting, I’m hopeful it might return. There’s a distinctly canola oil like vibe with the fruity qualities of the tea that I absolutely love, and it’s definitely my favorite black tea in my stash right now. I actually started looking into Green Terrace’s to hold me off and see how it compares, but they’re Paypal isn’t working. So I may have to reach out for help or be more responsible by finishing this slowly.

Sipdown, and upping the rating. I don’t remember what I did differently, but kept things shorter at 15, and then 30 seconds so far. Orange is coming out with the geranium and rose, having a herbaceous finish for me. I’m enjoying it more.

Not quite sure what to rate it, but Gong Fu seems to work best. I get more dimension in the malt notes as it cools down and with each flash steep. Sometimes I get chocolate, sometimes I get rye, bread, yeast, and so on. Rich, dense, yet balanced and easy going. I easily see adding cream and sugar to it, but I it’s really more of a work recovery tea.

Yeah, I’m upping the rating. This is easily one of the best Tie Guan Yins with a little bit more oxidation and light roast I’ve had yet. When it gets dryer, it still is fruity and woody like a peach core. Short steeps at first are immensely buttery, and the second and third steeps blossom into gardenia and then something sweeter and fruitier. I keep coming back to it even in spring. Overall, it’s more of a winter early spring tea, but it’s so well rounded that I can see myself drinking it most of the year except summer or in a very hot place. I love perennially it either way.

I liked this one a little bit more than the Big Leaf. Like most Yashi’s, it’s very smooth, floral, and creamy. Hugo got really fancy into their foodie-esque tasting notes drawing comparisons to Pet-Nat and Rambutan amidst a dry profile. It’s a dryer tea for sure and doesn’t lean into a honey taste like a lot of Dancongs, but it was very balanced. I personally got the rambutan clearly with florals and an almond “essence” like flavoring, and I get a rose dry wine profile in taste in color. There’s almost a blushy peach or pinkish hue to it.

This one didn’t last beyond five cups gong fu in 15, 30, 45, 60, 75 with 180 F before getting bitter. Earlier steeps lacked any astringency or bitterness, but later steeps got some with a rising woody profile.

I like this one and recommend it, though I’m not gaga over it. It’s balance does impress me highly, and I think people who are into Yashi’s or regular tea nerds would enjoy it.

Backlog. I didn’t have too much of this sample, and I liked the idea of it, though was a little underwhelmed. This tea is greener than the usual big leaf and resembled the recent greener styles of Dancong. Yes, the tea was viscous and prominently floral, but a little bit underwhelming. I alternated between 15 sec to 30 sec increments until longer steeps hovering around 2 minutes at the end.

Here’s my impression: I didn’t really get aromatic Nag Champa vibes, though I got creamy, spicy, flower stems, grass, vanilla, soybean, almond, and that’s about it with some floral astringency and bitterness.

Maybe I didn’t brew it right-who knows. I personally recommend their Wuyi collection like their version of Panlan Robe or Qilan if you are getting into their oolong teas over this one. I highly enjoyed Lin’s Red more, and liked Lin’s Duck more, which surprised me because I usually prefer lighter teas. I still recommend Hugo because they have gotten some impressive experimental teas from their collaboration work, and this one is good if you are looking into what a greener dancong can taste like. Reading their description, this really is more of an experts tea. Their warning for people who like fresh spring tea is a good one, and I definitely get a scented salt or saline quality overall.

Yeah, this is still a favorite. I’m getting everything I wrote before, and now I’ll go as far as write “cookie”.