790 Tasting Notes
A sample from boychik! I liked this one quite a bit. Smooth, deep and pretty milky. It tastes “fresh” for lack of a better descriptor. I think I probably prefer the Golden Lily from Whispering Pines but this is a high quality tea (unsurprisingly) and you wouldn’t go wrong choosing it.
It doesn’t count as breaking my “no tea purchase for awhile” resolve if I order for someone else. My mom asked me to order some of the Jackfruit for a friend of hers and this was one of the samples they included.
This was nice and fruity. The description doesn’t mention strawberry specifically but it sure does smell like strawberry! Nicely fruity and lightly sweet. This was a nice tea to have tried. I wouldn’t keep it on hand myself but it would probably make a nice iced summer tea.
And by the way, if you are looking for companies with great customer service the folks at Mahamosa are just super. I completely spaced putting the discount code in at checkout and emailed them about it. They added it on to my order without any issues.
Preparation
Thanks, boychik, for generously sharing some pu’ers with me. This is the first one I’ve tried – the first one I worked up enough courage to try. :)
No fish smell, so that’s a plus over the only other pu’er I’ve ever tried. :) It’s not bad but I don’t think my palate is discerning enough for pu’ers. All I get is the taste of smoke, some dryness and the smell of cinnamon as it cools. I did it with short steeps at 185, as suggested. It is very pretty to watch unfold. At this point, while happy to have tried it, I wouldn’t get any for myself. I shall continue my journey with more of boychik’s shared bounty and see what else I can taste. :)
Preparation
All you pu-club people seem to. :)
At least you tried. I think it will grow on you. I’m not really into sheng but I find that I like Wild Monk the most. You should try some shu. Especially Special Dark( I hope I incl that one, if not I’ll send you, just got new replacement )
I think I remember seeing some in the box. And I’m not done trying. I’m still intimidated by them, but I’m still game. :)
Nicole…sometimes i just think of them as extra black, black teas. There are a few i just straight up brew western style and leave it at that… much less intimidating… not that i’m any expert.. I figure if i like it that way.. it’s all on me lol
Less intimidating and also less time consuming. :) I thought I should at least try the recommended way. Boychik gave me enough of most of them to try them at least 2 ways. :)
Whew ;) another thing I find that sheng resteeps better than shou, so save the leaves try tomorrow . I had one sheng I dumped after 4 days resteeps because I was just tired of it.
I had to pick some of this up when Verdant got it in. It’s still not on the absolute top of my list but it’s good enough that I need to keep it around. :)
I don’t remember my first package of this enough to compare batches but this is sweetish, maltish and smooth again. It’s really a lovely tea. Lovely in sight as well as in taste. I’m hoping between this and other awesome straight teas I’ll be able to pass by Easter candy and cream in tea and all the baked goodies I’m craving lately. I really need to get serious about curbing my bad eating habits. :)
Preparation
This is what I get for making an order without checking my notes. I forgot that I was going to reorder the Golden, not the Royal. Again, though, not that the Royal is bad. Not at all. And now that my experience with Yunnans has widened perhaps I should do another side by side with them.
For now, I will say that I prefer what results when I use my tap water rather than the filtered water at work. I had a cup at work today and then one at home and they were very different. Too much smoke in the foreground with filtered water for me to really enjoy it. At home, the tap water must have something in it that damps that down or sublimates it in some way because it’s just a nice, pleasant cup of malty, dusty Yunnan. Nothing special but nothing bad either. And the second steep is still good as well, so that’s a plus for this one.
Preparation
Steeped up a cup of this for breakfast this morning. I wasn’t really paying a lot of attention and just wanted a cup of something so I didn’t quite wait for the water to boil. I’m guessing it was about 180-190 or so. I also only steeped for a couple of minutes – probably shy of a full 2 minutes.
This was almost a different cup of tea done with these parameters. Wonderfully silky and sweet with not a bit of bitterness or astringency. This is still one of my favorite Ceylons. I think I’ll continue steeping like this in the future!
Preparation
Such a pretty tea! I get some smoke from this that deepens as the cup cools but it isn’t objectionable. This is a nice, smooth, deep, sweet tea. It’s been in my cart several times. Someday I’ll make it all the way past the checkout at Mandala and have this in my cupboard. :) Thanks, boychik!
Preparation
I tried to go with a shorter steep time as boychik recommended but I kind of lost track… I was at work at the time and got distracted. Oops. This was pretty bold as a result, but not bitter. There was a tiny bit of sharpness at the end but that’s it. It smells great. I’ll have to try it again and vary some steeping parameters. At this point, I prefer Shang’s Bai Lin Kung Fu but I would not hesitate to toss this in my cart with my next Teavivre order.
