257 Tasting Notes

95
drank Anhui Yellow Flower by TeaSource
257 tasting notes

The dry leaf smells like a spice shop. I smell spearmint and caraway seed. The moss green colored leaves look naturally dried with nothing else done to them, minimal processing.
The liquor didn’t gain color until around 4 minutes at 165F. The tea is like white tea, a very light color tint to the water. A very light yellow green.
The flavor is spearmint with a touch of caraway seed just like the leaves smell. I like this because it is subtle. I do not detect the roasted corn notes that Tea Source did so I would be interested in what temp they used because their brew suggestions say between 160-180. I bet they went lots higher than I did. I will try higher temps next time.
Nonetheless, I’m glad I brewed this low and slow because it tastes very nice!! Similar to a mint touched white tea and a good one for the cupboard.

Second Steeping — Kept it at 165 and brewed 5 minutes. There are just small amounts of mint now but still light, cleansing, and refreshing. I am getting a bit of tannin to my tongue now. I think a second steeping is all I would do for this leaf.
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7/25/14
Had a little of this today. Very mild and light. Like a green tea in scent and appearance and touches of white tea qualities. Flavor is mostly vegetal I guess but it is so light and subtle.

Flavors: Vegetal

Preparation
165 °F / 73 °C 4 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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94

The dry leaves are golden and dark black/brown twisty threads that smell of orange, malt, cocoa.
The liquor smells sweet like stewed fruit, honey, cocoa,,,smells so heavenly.
I tasted this at two minutes and it was really delicious and still see-thru so I took it to another minute. It gave the tea a dark coffee look after that and the flavor was a deep, rich sorghum. I liked both two minutes and three minutes but I think I liked two minutes for this one the best.

Second Steeping—I gave the leaves another steep and stopped at two minutes. Yum Yum this brought out more malt and vanilla to the flavors.

Flavors: Cocoa, Honey, Malt, Orange Zest, Stewed Fruits, Vanilla

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 3 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
boychik

wow sounds so good:)

Lee

It was good,,,it was a sample size,, I should have gotten more :( lol

boychik

have you tried fr Teavivre?

Lee

When I ordered from them I was not as “in” to black tea and so I thought I liked Da Hong Pao for a darker tea. I now realize that I love the golden leaves and Yunnans so much!! Along with my white & green teas :)

boychik

teavivre is amazing in quality and price wise. And they have such an awesome sales in July(anniversary like 30-40% off) and Black Friday. unbelievable …

boychik

i can send you a sample

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100
drank 88th Night Shincha by TeaSource
257 tasting notes

I love the special day they pick this tea and how prized it is.
The dry leaves smell minty , not vegetal. I think this might be my first Shincha so I only know how Gyokuro is and they look very similar with the grass-like thin strands.
It has the light spring-green colored liquor that is my favorite color. The wet leaves look like chopped green spinach or herbs.
The liquor has a faint scent of vanilla then lima bean and green spring pea come in stronger.
The flavor is really excellent. It has the slightest vanilla flavor as well with lima bean, pea, and a buttery mouth feel and note. There is an umami end with a salt note. This is Springalicious!!!!!!!! An excellent one for my cupboard.
This tea is exactly as described by Tea Source which I like. I like to know that I can trust the tasting notes and will buy from them again some time.

I read about Shincha and it means “new tea” and is the first picked, that it is that year’s earliest tea, and is timely and seasonal.

I steeped this first for 2 minutes then after the leaves opened up, all my other steepings were short as 1 minute or less to keep the tea from being burned or bitter.

Flavors: Butter, Lima Beans, Peas, Vanilla

Preparation
170 °F / 76 °C 2 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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99

This is one of the most attractive and interesting teas I have enjoyed!! The dry leaves are little tiny rolled pearls with a shiny patina, very beautiful. They don’t have as strong as a scent because they are so tightly rolled as to preserve them. The skill to do this must be high.
The leaves unfurl to be tobacco brown curly smoky cuties.
The liquor is dark brown, chocolate-looking smoky and tobacco scented.
The flavor is very thick, rich with a slight touch of sweet but not too sweet. It has a mineral flavor too. No bitterness or astringency. Good
Thank you Tea Trekker for this lovely sample!!! Loved it!!
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5/16/14
Drank the rest of this sample today and I wish I had more. It has some smoky elements that taste like Lapsang Souchong but not overpowering, just subtle and then mixed notes of a sweeter black tea. Such a beautiful dry tea and then interesting flavors to drink!!!

Flavors: Mineral, Tobacco

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 3 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 6 OZ / 177 ML
Terri HarpLady

Oooh, this sounds nice!

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100

Had this yesterday on April Fool’s Day but Steepster was broken on this entry and April Fooled me lol.
This tea was Sooooooo delicious!!! Rich, thick, smooth, well-balanced. Like coffee with lots of cream in it and a subtle sweetness. Touch of oat. Really enjoyable to drink and no bitter or astringency!!! Yum Yum
Thank you to Tea Trekker for this sample with my purchase, loved it!!!

Second Steeping was still great!! Sweet note is gone and it’s not as creamy rich so I’d probably end with this brew as I don’t want to lose the goodness :) Very yummy and need more but I think it is unavailable right now :(

Flavors: Cocoa, Cream, Espresso

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 3 min, 0 sec 6 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
Terri HarpLady

This one sounds good too! Heading over to the Tea Trekker website to have a look-see :)

Lee

Yes!! Good stuff!! I need more,,,I think it is the organic that is out of stock but the regular is still in stock :) You will have more tea!! Lol

Terri HarpLady

There is always more tea to have, right? LOL

Lee

Yes!!!!!! More!!!! Lol You must have a very large shelf for your collection!!!

TeaBrat

Ah, I think I need to place an order with Tea Trekker some day :)

Lee

Yes, I need more. I need to stop lol. I like them :)

Terri HarpLady

one tea shelf? hahahah, try 3 cupboards, plus a corner in my bedroom…

Lee

LOL you should post picks here in the forums

Terri HarpLady

I know…I keep planning on it. lol

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69
drank Madagascar Vanilla by Golden Moon Tea
257 tasting notes

This is April Fool’s Day. This tea April Fooled me :( The dry tea smells great like vanilla beans.
The flavor is vanilla and
it has a briny orange flavor to the liquor that is different. I don’t know what tea this is made with :(
This is what Steepster is for so you can know about a tea before purchasing. This is tea like you get in the grocery store, ok but not high end and you don’t know what you are drinking. :(

Flavors: Orange Zest, Vanilla

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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95

The dry tea is little tiny tiny black twisty threads with golden ones mixed in and it smells like hay or straw.
The liquor smells very different, like sweet raisin bread. It is a dark colored liquor that you can’t see through.
The flavor is smooth, rich, and malty. Though there is a sweet scent, the tea is not that sweet tasting to me. There is no bitterness or astringency. Very good.
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7/9/14
Tried a bit of this Gong Fu style today,,,,8 oz porcelain gong fu pot, 190F 15" infusions.
Liquor is a beautiful color, auburn orange clear jewel.
Wet leaves are cut and chopped. Smoky scent.
In the flavor, I was catching just smoke today. It gets better as it cools, but no sweetness and a bit one note really, just smoky.
It may be better served the way I first brewed it, Western style,,,, or I might do longer infusions gong fu style to see if I can pull different flavors from it.
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7/15/14
Gong Fu today at 175F and this is still very smoky and one note. I usually believe Gong Fu is the best method for all tea but this one might be better Western style.
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7/26/14
Having this one today, Western style in a new cup size teapot with huge infuser, the same size as the pot. I am loving these teapots (I got 3) bc they really let the leaves open up and I am now brewing by the single cup so I can have more of a variety of tea during the day. When I was brewing in my other Western teapots that house 2 cups,,,,I was brewing a pot of tea and the infuser wasn’t reaching throughout the entire pot like my new little cup size ones are. I got them on Amazon, they are Hario glass teapots and they are the bomb!!!!!
As a result,,,,this tea is awesome today. Very sweet and mild. I brewed at 190F for 3 minutes. It has a beautiful red auburn liquor with malt and bourbon scent. The flavor is malt, molasses, smoke, raisin pie,,,yumm.
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7/27/14
Having again this morning!!!! Smoke, malt, honey, raisin. Smoke is dominant for me this morning….maybe taste buds are working the smoky side more today lol

Flavors: Bread, Malt, Raisins, Smoke

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 3 min, 0 sec 3 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
boychik

sounds delicious!

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98

Beautiful menagerie of different green colors in the leaves. I love White Peony, it is one of my cupboard staples that I drink lots of mornings.
This one is very good.
Liquor is golden and smells like sweet honey.
The flavor is very subtly sweet and has notes of shortbread or oat bread.
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6/19/14
Enjoying this sweet, lovely tea this summer morning!! Always delicious!!
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6/28/14
Enjoying good old reliable White Peony bc I just got back from vacay and I have a bit of a cold so I know this will make me feel better and easy to brew makes it simple.
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7/24/14
I did a side-by-side comparison of White Peony and Silver Needle today and found that I have not been noting the flavor in both that is Almond! Silver Needle is definitely the best, of course, with the added Cream note that White Peony doesn’t have as much of and White Peony has a more golden liquor compared to Silver Needle which has an all creamy pearl color. I love them both and White Peony is a good travel tea to me, one that is always reliable in brewing, flavor, and not as expensive to bring on a trip.
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8/24/14
I wanted this exactly a month later from the last time I had it,,,,must be a moon phase thing mmmmm. Anyway, enjoying this as always. Well balanced, almond, sweet, tiny hint of a pumpernickel bread, good.

Flavors: Almond, Bread, Honey

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 3 min, 0 sec 4 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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100
drank Downy Pearls by TeaSource
257 tasting notes

The dry rolled balls have a subtle scent of dried cherries, a nice natural sweet smell.
The brew instructions had a lower temperature range (155-165F) for this than I’ve ever used for a white tea so I went with 160F because that’s as low as my kettle goes.
The leaves did not unfurl as much as I thought they would probably because of the lower temp. They appear to be chopped and then rolled. The brewed leaves look like chopped cooked frozen spinach. They have not unfurled all the way so they are still in balls that are falling apart. I am gonna give this one a second steeping because more flavor is rolled in there.
The liquor has the distinctive white tea champagne color and this one is a golden and darker white tea.
The flavor is good. It is subtle sweetness and mainly tastes like honey with a tiny hint of dried cherry.

Second Steeping – kept it at 160F for 2 minutes. The leaves have mostly fully unfurled now and the liquor is a deeper champagne color. The flavor has evolved to include a very interesting note. I had to get into my spice cabinet and start smelling because I could not figure out what that note was. It was closest to sumac and blue poppy seeds. A sweet spice note mixed with the dried cherry note. The second steeping turned this into a different tea because the first was devoted to the outside of the balls and then second brought out the surprise of the inside of the leaves.

I really enjoyed this tea experience and a white tea pearl type (non-jasmine) must always be kept in my cupboard now!!!!!!!

6/2/14
I brewed this today in a different pot than I did last time. Still Western but a 22 oz ceramic pot. Flavors are the same and there is definitely a sumac note to this tea. A sweet note too which makes it good!

Flavors: Honey, Stonefruit

Preparation
160 °F / 71 °C 2 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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80
drank Coconut Pouchong by Golden Moon Tea
257 tasting notes

When I opened this package, I was overwhelmed by a strong piña colada scent and I was a little scared.
The leaves are large, slightly twisted, and mixed colors of dark brown and moss green.
But after I brewed this Oolong, it tasted pretty good!! The Oolong gives a pineapple scent and flavor then the accent of the coconut makes it taste very island drink like but in a hot tea. The scent when you bring your nose up to the cup is spot on piña colada.
No bitterness or greenness to the Oolong either.
This is a great one for people who like flavored teas and especially piña colada.

Flavors: Coconut, Fruit Tree Flowers

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 0 sec 4 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML

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