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Not my favorite kind of herbal tea. Something about the combination of chamomile, mint, hibiscus and lemongrass drives me away from similar mixes. Luckily only a teaspoon left.

It is very fresh and cooling with a hint of sweetness. It made a thoughtful gift from my work father and his wife upon their return from Hawaii a few months ago.

Sipdown and glad to have this out of my stash.

Less mustardy than the other times but still too much going on. 16 ingredients with no flavorings added. The goji-elderberry-caceo-vanillla combination weirds me out.

Alright! Penultimate tea from Cameron.

Kiki incoming.

“Oh? Ohhhh it tastes like Maypo. Unbelivable. The commercial with a little coybow, the baby that the arm of the father… the spoon, the airplane, the father was feeding the baby who said ‘I want my Maypo.’ You know, I searched for Maypo, you know I went to all the mom and pop shops with all those grungy things on their shelves, but I finally found it at the Safeway by Jim’s over there but it was called something else before. You know I opened the box and I though it smelled like heaven. I bought all the boxes they had and then I burned out on it. I figured I was getting too fat on it. This tea is really unbelievable.

‘I Want My Maypo.’ Let me try another sip. Oh, I dropped some on the cat. Oh, I keep burping up the flavor. I give it an 8."

I guess Maypo is a breakfast cereal from Kiki’s generation. She loves this tea and wants me to buy more.

Jacques sitting at the table with us thinks it smells like Aunt Jemima. He’d give it a 1 because the smell is the epitome of processed foods.

Pretty average Menghai sheng pu’er, meaning it lacks definition but still retains the stonefruit character and requisite bitterness (which coms on quite slowly). The other two ‘pure’ BanPen sheng I’ve had are both very different from this and from each other.

This reminds me a lot of King Tea Mall’s 2018 Spring ZiQi sheng, which iss a blend of BanPen (MengHai) and YiWu. Blending can create a tea that might otherwise be lacking. This definitely lasted longer than the ZiQi.

The fully engorged wet leaf sure does look healthy.

Maybe a good step for beginners out of the most basic young sheng.

Zhang ping shui xian teas don’t hold the best record for me, the worst one yet being that black tea I didn’t drink last week because it smelled like a tire fire.

I’ve not kept notes on this. The little pillow wass a little over 8g of tea, so I steeped it in a 150mL gaiwan over the course of yesterday while studying and I’m finishing it off this morning.

The dry leaf had a mild toast aroma with red currants and nutmeg. Once warmed, it retained those notes with the addition of sweetness and plenty of dense, succulent florals like gardenia and lily.

It started off silky smooth and delicately creamy with a sweet, rock sugary spring water taste that came not on the sip but bloomed as it passed over the tongue. Very clean mineral finish with gentle mouthwatering. As steeps progressed, the toastiness came through and was joined by candied hazelnuts, the florals of the warmed leaf, pear, stonefruit and subtle nutmeg. Very round and smooth flavors, in a delicate oolong profile.

This one is an oolong from a group buy 3 years ago and it’s the best zhang ping shui xian oolong I’ve had so far. Others have been too clunky or drying to appreciate. This seems like a light- to medium-roasted tea that has had time to mellow and allow the toasty flavor to fully integrate with the rest of the profile. It kind of tastes like a dong ding maybe mixed with some fruity silver needles. I’d recommend it if I knew where it came from.

I think? this was a freebie provided a few orders ago.

Dry leaf in the bag has the strong floral aroma other Old Ways Tea’s hongcha — sunflower and orchid plus a nut butter and eggshell undertone. Once in my hand, I smell the same florals, malted barley, old wooden furniture and a tangy cranberry tone.

Warming the leaf brings, in addition to the florals, nut butter and cranberry, aromas of oatmeal cookie and artichoke. Hm. I don’t like that vegetal note.

The aroma is woody, vegetal and sour like canned artichoke hearts on wooden furniture.

The taste is very, hm, vegetal tangy, rather savory-leather. No sweetness is present for me. A mild alkalinity stays at the back of the back of the mouth and in the throat, where a strange bitterness also arises.

Despite drinking several more steeps, I ended my notes here. Can’t say I’m a fan of this one, even though Roswell Strange and Togo seemed to really enjoy it. I feel like the tea fell from it’s dry leaf aromatic grace once brewed. The strong artichoke vibe , or I can see olive as Togo mentions, was very strange. It’s like a disjointed amalgamation of an aging sheng, a first flush Darjeeling and a Wuyi red tea. Oh well. I’m glad other people are enjoying it!

Dry leaf smells like cooked walnut with lesser buffalo grass. Had grandpa in my shou stein, it was very clay-slate-mineral forward with a leather note that pushed against the minerality. Slight floral high note. There was hint of sweetness at first, but the savory, mineral character overtook my palate. I feel like there’s something missing, whether it’s a pronounced mouthful or something to connect the flavors that are complementary but also competing at the same time. This shou is actually a pretty easy drinker but not something I’d gravitate toward.

Thank you for sharing, White Antlers :)

Considering :

1) This was a depths-of-the-breakroom-cabinet score,
2) The tea has been there since I began working with the company over 2 years ago,
3) The last review for this tea was 6 years ago,

This must be pretty old. I decided to try it anyway.

It’s pretty good. It smells like a fall candle subtly spiced. Sweet chamomile-apple, papery from the teabag, a little cinnamon and very mild clove and cardamom. The sweetness transitions to a perfumey taste mid-mouth followed by a light tang in the back. I’m going to abscond with the rest of the box and put it in the tea drawer in my work corner where it will not gather dust.

For a similar tea, I prefer CuppaGeek’s Spiced Fall Evenings.

Now for another goishicha, a specialty fermented Japanese tea. I will be comparing this to the 2015 goischicha I had recently.

I’m not sure how old this is but I do know it’s younger than 2015.

In the dry leaf, I get pungent notes of red wine, candied lemon peel, old wooden furniture, soy sauce and fermented lemon peel.

Once brewed, the tea is sour as expected. Lemon juice with a thin body and a drying taste-quality that’s similar to sucking on straw, wood and leather. Very mild note of fermented soybean and equally mild mushroom. There’s also a hint of lactobacillus, which I think is the main bacteria responsible for fermenting this type of tea. And there is something I want to call dandelion flowers but which is more in line with the smell of a meadow — goldenrod comes to mind. Seaweed undertone.

Maybe it’s factors related to processing or maybe it’s age/storage, but the 2015 goishicha had a moderate medicinal character that this is lacking. This feels more rough around the edges and like it could benefit from sitting undisturbed for at least several more years. I’m enjoying it well enough. Both are works in progress; the 2015 version, though, is a superior tea in comparison.

Next time I see a goishicha around, I will scoop up a large quantity to store, large enough that I won’t feel pressured to drink it for some time. It’s an intriguing style of tea that I hope will produce a very medicinal brew with time.

Using the Trader Joe’s mountain spring water from Mt. Shasta and this isn’t as good as with my home tap water. An earthy character comes to the fore, old wood furniture, dried cut grass, nut skins. More grounding, more bitter, not as thick but also not drying as it was with home tape water. I wonder what experienced sencha drinkers would think. I still like it quite a bit but will probably keep the rest for when I go back home.

Rustic.