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2nd white tea I’ve tried. Pleasantly clean and mellow, slightly sweet. I’m not well versed enough to identify particular notes, which all seem to be pretty subtle, other than something honeydew melon-like. Gongfu, Brita filtered water, around 190f (crab’s eye!). Ended up prying the ball apart a couple steeps in because I was getting a little inpatient lol.

Update: did a few more steepings with this today. Got some vegetal notes like a green tea, but more floral in nature, along with some light honey notes. Quite lovely, and so I’m upping my rating. Wouldn’t hesitate to order this again in the future. I was using water almost right off the boil with gongfu steepings and it never got bitter, so much less maintenance than a green. Curious how this would hold up to grandpa style brews, since any greens I’ve tried grandpa have all gotten bitter, but I’m out of this for now.

Gongfu, filtered Brita water off the boil. Several shu puers later, I’ve figured out that I probably just don’t like Shu Pu ers, and it’s not an issue with the teas themselves (now to brew through the remainder of my W2T stash…). I don’t like earthy flavors, which draw medicinal associations for me, so I can never relate to the pretty descriptions. Not really sweet for me. Thicker mouthfeel typical of shus. Will try a grandpa brew tomorrow with the other half of the biscuit I ordered and update.

Update: Grandpa brew was not much different… if possible, perhaps even more bland than gongfu, which I didn’t expect. Not something I’d likely purchase again.

Laoshan Black Tea
He family spring 2020
Laoshan, Shandong, China
崂山红茶

5g, 130 mL, brita filtered water, water off the boil

Dry leaves: chocolate, raisin

10s first steep: brewed leaves smell a little burnt. Taste: a sweet floral, very pleasant, but also deep, reminds me of coffee without the acidity.

20s second steep: similar brewed leaves. Taste: aftertaste reminds me of Chinese dried jujube dates. No other thoughts.

No more notes, except sweet potatoes at some point. Online reviewers overall seem obsessed with LB, so I had really high expectations going in, and that probably dimmed my experience a bit. I’ve been spoiled by my aunt’s mystery pack that she sent me a while back, and that had something basically exactly like this with different packaging, so I’ve already had it or an eerily similar one in the past. It’s not a bad tea per se, just perhaps not for me. Didn’t bother with more exact notes, because everything that can be said has already been said.

Got it as part of Beantown’s sampler pack, not a favorite. Looked kinda pretty though! Made a bit of a color gradient in a clear cup.

Ordered a sample from Beantown. Ordered because it was caffeine free, and not too bad, but I’m not sure what Rooibos is supposed to taste like in general. I was planning to find a non-caffeinated tea for before bed, but the cinnamon makes it a little too spicy for a bedtime drink.

Part of sampler pack from Beantown. Nothing special. Tastes no different from an Earl grey tea bag, so no point in paying premium for loose leaf necessarily. Even with chai spice mix added, had a sharp and somewhat unpleasantly bitter note (though maybe chai and EB tea don’t mix the best).

130mL, 4g, brita water

Leaves dry: smell of a strong buttery green, peas, and with hints of floral and citrus. Overall nice pale yellow infusions.

Decided to keep brewing temps at 166 or below. Based on my own experiences with green teas, under extracted greens are okay, over extracted greens are far less so, and it is far easier to mess up greens than oolongs. Aside from cold brew prep, green teas I feel are decidedly more high maintenance (or as high maintenance as teas get) than oolongs that I can toss in a thermos and forget about until drinking.

5s: leaves smell roasted green, but also malty? Not unpleasant, but interesting. As expected, first cup not very strong. Pleasant light green.

15s: I’ve figured out the smell. It’s like Chinese chestnuts after they’re steamed, slightly sweet and nutty, but add a pinch of buttery roasted green tea and you’ve nailed this tea’s aroma. Very pleasant aftertaste.

40s: similar smell, with the chestnut note becoming even stronger. a little sharper, slightly bitter and dry finish-so tannins? Not bad, even refreshingly crisp and sweet aftertaste, but generally I prefer mellow flavors, so this right here is why I will never opt to steep a green tea for over 1-2 minutes unless it’s for cold brew.

Didn’t have time to continue this session unfortunately, but this was a fun tea! I don’t really like greens because they’re more high-maintenance/fussy and it’s harder to brew a good cup, but this is one I’d brew again if I was in the mood.

Got this as a free sample with my White2Tea order. This is my first time drinking a white tea coin, so I don’t have anything to compare it to in particular. As others have noted, it was indeed packed tightly. 4 steeps in, the coin was still not coming apart properly, so I took a paring knife and pried it apart, which didn’t change the flavor much for me, so I guess it’s fine. Overall, a good mellow daily I would think, though it was not interesting enough for me to consider buying more. I used Brita filtered water, with temps right off the boil, and discarded the first steep. It never got bitter, but left a little bit of a dry mouthfeel afterwards each time. The infusions turned out a little darker than I expected, with times from 10s to several min towards the end.

Not sure if this affected my brew, but I dropped my gaiwan lid and it shattered, so I was left with no lid during my session.

Got this as part of the sample pack from Beantown. Tastes exactly the same as the Harney and Son’s Earl Grey tea bags in the little light sky blue sachets, nothing special here.

Got this as part of the sample pack from Beantown. My cup turned out pretty bitter so I couldn’t pick out any of the notes they described, but it was palatable with milk and sugar added.