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Thank you Derk! I was really into this one!

This tea is incense, but in tea form. I can see some people being a little bit off put, but the tea could have been more overwhelming easily. I’m impressed with how the sandalwood actually smoothens out the rougher edges of the anise. I also tasted the honeysuckle in hints in the body and texture. I think the cardamom might make it soapy for some; I think it enhances the Sandalwood. The oolong actually borders more on the cocoa side, but overall, it’s roasty/toasty and minerally.

I actually would have paired this one with Dune as a geek pairing because it has a mystical and contemplative vibe, and azure is the color of the Fremen’s eyes. Only problem is the lacking of cinnamon, since Melange is described as being like cinnamon.

I will likely finish this one as winter melts into spring. The spice must flow…

Thank you so much, Derk!

This is one of the teas I hesitate with whenever I want to try it. Opening it up, and using about half of the sample to maybe 3-5 grams, smoke and pine qualities come from the bag. Reminds me of a Lapsang as expected, but softer.

Brewing it up gong fu and in shorter 20 second incremented brews, smoke was prominent in the first one. Cedar came to mind in every brew for me, and the leading floral that contrasted with the autumn qualities was honeysuckle and usual white tea peony. Later steeps got sweeter and more floral.

I enjoyed the complexity of this one. I wouldn’t want to have it as a staple, but my inner tea nerd is happy. Funny enough, my mom is going to Ohio and my girlfriend is coming back from Ohio, so it’s serendipitous I drank this one.

I went for it first because it was the Baozhong like one. Brewing it up, it struck me as being closer to a first flush darjeeling than a Taiwanese oolong. It had a thick body, beautiful leaves like a Baozhong, and some florals that remind me of Jin Xuan and Baozhong, especially in texture, but the profile was heavier with umami for me. I kept on getting the same kind of notes that I get in Gyurkos and First Flushes, like a little bit of apricot and strawberry hints, but lots of greener ones like soy, edamame, cream, fresh grass, gardenia, and drying astringency. I had hard time getting past the 5th cup gong fu. I liked it, but it was a little bit astringent and almost too green for me.

Thank you Derk for all the teas!

I started with the oolong, but started with this one blind. I picked it out because I’m somewhat familiar with Tsushima due to video game popculture, and made the choice for this reason.

Parameters-30, 20, 40, 50, and 60. I need to do a disclaimer first: I tend to find Japanese blacks very sweet, but very grassy or woodsy with a complex dryness. Sometimes I like it, and other times I don’t. Going into this one, the first steep was sweet and aromatic, making me think of anything colored brown and hot pink, though the liquid was a bright light red. I personally thought of cherry blossom, roses and fall leaves, cherries, almond, and lots of wood. The second steep had a little bit more fruit in the form of satsuma orange with a cooling acidic rise into a tannic finish. The last few steeps were generally almondy, woody, and floral again with the cherry blossom.

Interestingly enough, the description for this one said Lychee. I can kinda see that, but it wasn’t fructose-y enough for my palette to go in the direction. I know cherry blossoms is the most basic white person response, but it did remind me of salted cherry blossoms in tea.

I don’t think I’m going to rate it, but I will say it was a fun tasting experience. I don’t love it since it’s a little bit too tannic for me, but I really like the kind of profile it had. More of a tea nerds kind of tea though rather than a newbie tea.

A month ago, I finally decided to put in an order for three teas from The Tea. Given I ordered days just before conflict escalated in Poland’s neighbors, I am grateful I got some and pray for things to change, and hopefully, I can figure something out for my students to help support those in conflict.

Leafhopper highly recommended this one, and I got two oolongs in smaller samples with 50 grams of this bad boy. At first, it was very similar to What-Cha’s Wild Tongmu tea, but the third and fourth steep had a rounded and pronounced pineapple and lychee flavors that made me forget that I was drinking a black tea. For moment, I sipped it falsely thinking it was a Shanlinxi. It’s still maltier and sweeter than one textured by a longan, with a bit of a rise in astringency that hits my palette with some acidity. There were hardly any vegetal qualities except maybe wood. Like Togo said, it’s smooth with a cooling and warming effect at the same time. I did not realise that was already written when I posted the note! Either way, it’s an incredible Example of a Wuyi/Lapsang Black that tastes like cooked fresh pineapple, and I’m thrilled to write more about it.

I gifted the rest of this tea over 5 years ago, and she still kept it after a while. We are enjoying it as we lesson plan and grading this morning, the memories are coming back. I’m not sure if J-Tea still sells this one, but it was good enough to tempt me into getting more Drunken Green Dragon and some of their other goodies….I don’t need more tea, I don’t need more tea, I don’t need more tea…

If you’re more curious about how this tea tastes, I nailed it over the head in my previous two reviews on this one. The bourbon brings out fruity and sweeter elements in it, while the tea provides a cherry wood backbone. Still nice to this day.

Impulse buy when this was released. I got two samples of it, and I likely this one intensely more than the Candy Leaf Houjicha. I was able to coax out some caramel of that one in really short steeps, but it mostly tasted like nori and burnt seaweed. This twiggy specimen, however, didn’t fail to disappoint with an extremely balanced roast making it toasty and buttery by green tea standards. Butterscotch was on point, and my brain kept on forming associations with alfalfa, toasted buckwheat, wheatgrass, almond, and more savory, nutty, and buttery things. It still has some green characteristics of grassiness, but it’s subdued.

This tea is actually what I hoped what Candy Leaf tasted like, and I recommend it for people just getting into Houjicha. The houjicha possesses enough dessert qualities for a sweet craving western audience, and this one is almost in a coffee convert category in terms of taste. There were certain qualities that actually reminded me of their Dahongpao in terms of roast and savoriness I deeply enjoyed.

So far, I’ve only brewed it once beginning with 30 seconds, 40, 45, and then whatever the heck I felt like. Earlier steeps are denser in flavor and texture, but the tea smoothen and thins out pretty quickly while having enough flavor to make up for the loss in mouthfeel. I could easily see this tea in a chocolate or very mild chai blend with nuts, though overall, this is great on its own. I’ve written up a few more tasting notes at the bottom, and I look forward to gradually finishing it off.

MMMMMmmmmm so glad I have a 100 grams of this. I was deeply satisfied in this deceptive cold, so comforting and chocolaty.

Sip down. One of the better Alishan Jin Xuans I’ve had-I’m glad What-Cha got to source it. This tea stood its own against the Alishan, and while I prefered the Alishan a little more, I could easily see people liking this one better because it’s a cleaner tasting tea. Happy I got to try it-now to reorder and retry the Shanlinxi’s which I haven’t had in a while the next time I make a What-Cha order. I’m still going through my other ones first.