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This is my 6th straight harvest of Shibi oolong from TTC and once again it’s a magnificent tasting tea. There are some interesting changes from last winter’s super tropical, pina colada-y harvest. This year’s crop is all about the intense florals which hit you as soon as you open the pouch.

Dry leaf smells of fresh vegetation, cream, and daffodils. Following a rinse, wildflowers and magnolia appear along with vanilla cream and citrus notes.

The tea liquor has a bright green color. First steep tastes of sweet grass and orchid, teasing the tongue with glimpses of what’s to come. Subsequent steeps reveal thick, luscious flowers, and a faint hint of coconut cream. As the steeps progress, it becomes fruitier, gaining a nice syrupy viscosity and honey-like sweetness. The longevity of this tea is astounding. It simply doesn’t want to quit. I can easily push it to over 10 rounds and still get great flavor.

One thing to note about this tea is you need to be gentle with it. I start off most green oolongs at 195 F or so and crank the heat to boiling within a few steeps. For this one, you want to stay in the 185-190 F range and carefully increase the heat to coax out the delicate flowery notes otherwise it punishes you with astringency.

Officially my favorite tea from TTC and one of my top 3 Taiwanese high mountain oolongs of all time.

Backlog.

This one had characteristics of a milk oolong and a TGY. Lots of cream, dairy, and orchid like flavors. Thick mouthfeel and a very milky texture. There was a slight staleness to it but that didn’t detract from the flavor.

I steeped 3.5g in a 80ml gaiwan for 10s and then added 2s to subsequent steeps per Verdant’s instructions. The dry leaf smelled like cream, with some floral aromas similar with TGY. I detected hints of orchid, iris, and what seemed like lavender. Wet leaf had more of a vegetal aroma.

The tea starts of TGY like and then shifts to buttercream with vegetal tones. Mouthfeel is thick and creamy. By the 3rd steep settles into a milk oolong like taste.

Despite being a little stale, this tea was able to show a lot of natural milkiness and had a nice creamy taste and texture. Personally I thought this tea was kinda boring. I got tired of it after a handful of steeps due to the lack of flavor evolution in taste.

Second tea of my Taiwanese black tea sampler. The Sun Moon Lake T-18 was bust but this one did not disappoint. The long, graceful yancha like leaves are interspersed with orange twigs and smell like a mixture of cocoa, flowers, berries, and dark molasses. I brewed 3g in a 160ml teapot following my standard gongfu method for black teas: 30s initial infusion at boiling followed by flash steeps.

The first steep opened with sweet potato and then as it cooled, revealed chocolate and a hint of blackberries. Subsequent steeps were noticeably lighter. The second steep tasted of cocoa with overtones of vanilla bean and buttercream. The remaining 3 steeps were similar with prominent notes of berries, vanilla, and cream.

This was a mellow and tasty black tea that doesn’t hit you over the head with anything. The flavor profile was similar to some wuyi black and lapsang teas I’ve had. Enjoyable but doesn’t really set itself apart from other Chinese black teas.

Bought this back in June and finally got around to opening it now. I was a little worried that after nearly 8 months, it had lost freshness but my fears were unfounded. Like the regular laoshan black, this is a very chocolate focused tea. However the chocolate level here is much stronger. It’s like comparing hot cocoa to a luscious European dark chocolate bar. Not only is the flavor more robust, but it lasts through several more infusions than the regular grade and autumn laoshan gongfu black tea. The mouthfeel is smooth and well rounded. I gongfued this tea but I imagine it would be just as delicious grandpa steeped.

So at long last, I finally got my hands on some duck shit oolong. I have long been intrigued by this funny sounding tea, but couldn’t bring myself to commit to a 50g bag. Thankfully I was able to get a sampler recently from Teavivre. The ability to sample any tea is another reason why I love this tea shop.

This tea has a honey-gardenia flavor profile. It’s on the greener end of the oolong spectrum but has an ever so subtle roast that brings out hints of warm spice, honey, and almond. I enjoyed the crispness and mellow florals of this tea. Mouthfeel is rich and buttery. However around the 4th steep, it began shifting to a more savory flavor. It develops a bit of pungency and leaves behind a leathery aftertaste.

I had mixed feelings about this tea. It starts off great, but eventually turns soup-like with some odd flavors. Nevertheless, as a green oolong lover the roast on this tea is on point. It retains the delicate flowery notes and has a caramel edge without ever tasting roasty. I’ll likely revisit this tea somewhere down the road, this time with a fresher batch and/or a higher grade of duck shit.

An interesting experimental batch from Verdant. This is their laoshan roasted oolong blended with osmanthus flowers. I’ve loved the osmanthus scented Taiwanese oolongs I’ve tried so far, but those were green oolongs. This blend is quite different from those floral-focused teas. It’s darker, more savory and the osmanthus plays a supporting role rather than a leading one.

I brewed this grandpa style. The tea appearance is black curled leaves interspersed with orange flecks of osmanthus. Upon sniffing, all sorts of interesting aromas pop out. I detect incense, eucalyptus, spice, and dark soy sauce. The taste is more akin to a laoshan black. There’s the signature chocolate note along with malt, osmanthus, and a hint of orange zest in the finish. As it continues steeping, the flavors begin to round out. The sweetness and osmanthus flavor grow stronger. Mouthfeel becomes soft and a tad oily. A hint of cinnamon spice dances in the background.

Though I enjoyed this tea, it wasn’t a favorite. The roasted notes of the laoshan oolong didn’t really play well with the osmanthus. I think a green or light roasted oolong would complement osmanthus flowers better.

Backlog.

Weird is how I would describe this tea. It’s got this strange wood and menthol taste that I found off-putting. No aroma in the dry leaf. Wet leaf smelled like Vicks Vaporub and had some darjeeling woodsiness. The first steep tasted exactly like how it smelled. As it cooled, the menthol lessened a bit and I tasted more of the woodsy, bug bitten flavor. The next two steeps had the same medicinal taste.

I gongfued this tea and could have kept going but decided to stop after the 3rd steep. I really disliked the minty/menthol taste which seemed all that this tea had to offer. There wasn’t any depth nor did the tea change from steep to steep.

I’ve heard great things about Taiwanese black tea so my experience here was a letdown. This was one of four black teas in my Taiwanese black tea sampler pack from TTC. Hoping I have better luck with the others.

While I love high mountain teas, I am fairly ambivalent towards Da Yu Lings. In my experience, they tend to be good but are seldom worth the high price they command. This one came highly recommended by the vendor.

Out of the bag, the plump green leaves had a forest green aroma and some floral hints. There was also a bit of seaweed aroma, a not so good sign that the tea is beginning to lose freshnesss. The warmed gaiwan brought out osmanthus and orchid which changed to melon and tropical fruit after the rinse. The first infusion was thin and vegetal with a light floral sensation on the tongue in the finish. Second steep brought our more florals, but also the stale seaweed note. The third steep was the best one of all. A thick flower nectar with a prominent note of orange blossom and less of the seaweed. The fourth infusion was similarly floral but also brought some brothiness. The texture become softer and gives the tongue a gentle floral tingle as it goes down. In the next 5 steeps, the tea flattened out a bit as it settled into a pleasant floral/vegetal taste.

So much like past Da Yu Lings, this ended up being a good but unspectacular gao shan. Nice mouthfeel and texture, but lacking some depth. I would like to have seen some of the fruity aromas in the taste.

Over the years, I’ve developed an affinity of sorts for winter harvest bao zhongs. I find the taste cleaner and smoother than the spring harvest. A little ironic considering how its fresh floral character so epitomizes spring. Recently I was fortunate enough to receive a sample of Floating Leaves’ Winter Competition Bao Zhong with my order and wasted no time brewing up a cup.

Bao zhong is a tea whose aroma should be savored as much as the taste. For this reason, my preferred method of preparing this tea is grandpa style. It also helps stretch those expensive competition grade teas. Upon opening the bag, I was greeting with a lovely sweet floral aroma of orchid and hyacinth. I steeped 1g of tea in an 8oz mug using water heated to just under 190 F. The first sip was slightly floral but thin and weak, probably because I started drinking too soon. After waiting for a few more leaves to drop to the bottom, I took another sip and got a sweet pea like flavor accompanied by notes of honeydew and gardenia. At the same time, delicate lilac and vegetal aromas wafted from my mug.

When the mug was halfway empty, I topped it off with boiling water and took a sip. The sweet pea tones were stronger this time and came with notes of orchid and warm morning dew. This was a floral-vegetal affair with a lot more sweetness. A third top off resulted in a similar tasting tea, though simpler due to the flavors having melded together.

Overall, I enjoyed this tea though it wasn’t quite the flower bomb that baozhongs I’ve had in the past were. It leans slightly vegetal with a sweet pea taste interspersed with florals. Doesn’t have the ethereal flavor of my favorite competition bao zhong from BTTC’s, but still hits the spot for me.

This is the third of the “Tian Mu” green tea varietals I tried from Teavivre and bears some resemblance to the other two.

The dry leaves are long spindly blades, forest green with flecks of white. It has the same sweet aroma as Tian Mu Yun Wu and Tian Mu Mao Feng. The first steep produced a light brew that tasted a lot like silver needle white tea and accompanied by vegetal tones reminiscent of crisp lettuce and cabbage. More of the grassiness came through on the second steep. There was some fruitiness present along with an aloe like sweetness characteristic of Tian Mu teas. The tea got lighter with the next two steeps though the taste was basically the same.

All of the 3 Tian Mu teas I tried were good but I would rank this behind the other two. It has more of a white tea taste profile and isn’t as robust. They are also much lighter than other green teas. Had to use more leaf than usual to get any flavor out of it.