12 Tasting Notes
This is a good tea. It’s kind of like black tea, but without much of the harsh stuff that is found in black tea. Also, this tea doesn’t have any of the ‘tippy’ taste found in tippy black tea, which is good since i dont like that taste much compared with older leaves. So, even if you hate the typical black tea, i would still recommend you try this since it’s quite different from the prototypical Chinese or Indian types of black tea.
It reminds me of Taiwanese black oolong (aka red oolong). Like many oolong teas, there’s no bitterness/astringency whatsoever. Perhaps this tea is better than the Taiwan black oolong i have? (It’s from Norbu Tea). But, i need to do a side-by-side comparison.
Incidentally, Yunnan Sourcing sells this tea too. And, if it’s the exact same tea (qualitywise), then you could buy cheaper from them instead of Tea Trekker. (But, i dont know if they are the same grade. I’ve noticed that Tea Trekker has some better quality oolongs.) Anyway, you should probably read the reviews of Yunnan Sourcing’s version, too.
Bought some of the 2016.
This is fine. It’s a very jadelike oolong. Not my favorite style of tea. But, I used to like this kind of tea years ago. It’s comparable with jade tieguanyin style teas. It’s cheaper than those ones, so it’s a better deal.
However, if you like jade oolongs, personally, I would look to Taiwan for those.
It’s a pretty good tea. However, it’s very light. Maybe, not everyone will appreciate that quality. I guess it’s more hay-like than grassy in taste. Anyway, I think it’s a good tea, but I actually prefer other green teas much better.
Tea Trekker says they try to get products that have less charcoal taste since that’s what Americans like. Well, I would have preferred to get the more Chinese-like product. But, you got sell what the public buys.
I bought the 2017 harvest.
I’ve gone back and forth on this tea. When I first tried it, I was surprised. It was rather spicy for a green tea – compared to the other Chinese greens I’ve had before. I wasn’t sure that I liked it. However, I bought a good bit of it, so I just continued to drink it. Now, I think it’s pretty good. It really shows the variety of green tea types found in China. It’s very interesting. Perhaps it’s just when you get tea close to its genetic origins (Yunnan), you get greater variety of tastes. It’s inexpensive as well compared to the famous teas.
This was my first yellow tea. Well, i was disappointed. It tastes like green tea but with most of the ‘green’ removed. I actually really like whatever that ‘green’ is. So, it was missing.
Maybe this is not my style of tea. However, i would try a different yellow tea just to try it.
just a note: Tea Trekker recommends like 4–5 minutes. I did it at least that but probably more like 6 or 7 minutes. I think you could just leave in the cup you drink from. I didnt use so many leaves. I havent tried it gongfu yet. Might be interesting to do so.