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Got this as a sample from the $5 sample deal a while back, haven’t had the urge to try it with the prompt ensuing hong storm until now. Approximately 6 grams of leaf in here, I’d say, the leaf looking suitably “wild” and flyaway in appearance, being almost completely intact and only slightly twisted leaves. Kind of reminds me of wuyi in appearance, except not roasted, and attractively speckled with lighter colors in the leaves. I dumped it all in my 100 ml gaiwan and poured boiling-ish water over the sucker.

It is more aromatic and floral than I expect from black, which is reflected in the taste as well as on the inhale. Mild flavored malt, some astringency in the background to match the higher notes and flavors, there isn’t much bitterness to this one, but there is more of a green-ish bite than I would have expected from a black. Overall lighter than I expected, but it was interesting and pretty good. Not really my favorite flavor profile, though.

Finally cracking into this sample at the end of a frustrating day. 7g to a 100 ml gaiwan, boiling water that has cooled for a minute, I wasn’t keeping too close an eye on temp. Aroma fresh off the rinse is pure just cut grass and standard young sheng with a slight hint of camphor lingering interestingly in the background somewhere. The leaf is an attractive darker olive green with some red edges on random leaves.

Brews up a liquor that is a darker gold and the taste more mild than I am used to from sheng this young. Not too bitter or astringent, although there is some drying action present. Intermediate steeps coaxes out a pleasant sweetness that is followed by that stealthy camphor cooling quality. Nice thickness, with a solid bit of mushroom-esque meatiness to the flavor. This tea wasn’t particularly outstanding in any way to my taste, but very solid all around and with that touch of camphor to grab the interest (I’d be curious to see how that develops with time) . Add in the happy and relaxing qi and I’d say this was a great way to wind down the last of the evening, although I may regret it when I try to sleep.

Had this last night as I really wanted tea and rumors say that Huangpian contains significantly less caffeine than your average bud filled premium tea. Don’t know about that since I still kept waking up in the night (really should have known better), but at least it carried through to the morning in that I was pretty much awake before the alarm went off.

As for tastewise, I feel like either my brewing technique has improved considerably or this tea has changed considerably from sitting in my large rice crock for a few months with my other random cakes. The first time I tried this was when I was fresh starting out on looseleaf tea, any tea, much less pu erh and I brewed this up as a bitter, mouth puckering terror, possibly poured into my cup from some poor soul’s burnt leather boot that they utilized as a chewing tobacco spittoon. I couldn’t finish drinking it that first day and poured it out after two steeps.

The one other attempt I made at it between then and yesterday yielded pretty similar results, but today (figuratively, literally, it was last night)? I had the surprise of drinking what seemed to be a wholly different tea altogether! A biting astringency was still there, but the bitterness had diminished to tolerable levels, the tobacco leather boot taste only an afterthought conjured by memory. It was now… floral? Delicate, even. Hay-like, with a lingering aftertaste sweetness, maybe a bit soapy in the intermediate steeps. Complete game changer. I’m interested to see what transformation this undergoes in yet another few months!

Got this from a teafriend as an extra, so I’m taking it they didn’t care much for it, heh. Have been grandpa-ing this one as I do pretty much all my dragonwell and it was alright, had the basic dragonwell flavor, but was also oddly… strongly perfumed tasting. Didn’t care much for that, but it was drinkable given that it was free. I would probably look to buy other dragonwells in my possession if I were going to restock, however, as it either didn’t have as much of the lovely sweet and subtle chestnut of other dragonwells I’ve had, or it was drowned out by that air freshener like aroma taste. Maybe I’ll try experimenting with home roasting it and see if that improves it.

Received a fun little extra from Liquid Proust when I put in my last order in the form of this vaguely labeled “Home Roasted Dragonwell Sencha” packet that I’ve been trying (and failing) to give a proper review by drinking it any way other than via grandpa water bottle method, but this seems to be how it’s doomed to be drank so might as well go ahead.

I’ve been starting off with some level of random hot water in the bottle, say a 1/3, dumping a little under a tablespoon of this guy in there, and then filling the rest up with fridge temp water and then it just kind of steeps away for the next two to six hours until I drink it all. Initially, the roast is a bit in your face, but after you get over that, it harmonizes surprisingly well with the nutty dragonwell flavors and the sencha gives it the nice seaweedy body and aroma I associate with Japanese green tea. This thing is nice as a mega steeper (I had high hopes since this is the unfortunate fate of all my dragonwell once I discovered this magic property of theirs), pretty close to bombproof, although I haven’t tried boiling it yet, but I think it would stand up to it, honestly.

Overall, I thought it was quite nice, especially for a home roasting project if he’s never done it before, haha. It’s been my go to waterbottle tea as I like the extra roasty notes (much like a kyobancha with more green flavor and caffeine) and is pretty balanced and bitter resistant no matter how much you neglect it.

Sweet, candy like milk aroma, it tastes much like it smells, but with a surprisingly sturdy body and oolong base that reminds me of a stronger tieguanyin, but with some of the floral character of a high mountain oolong.

I I leafed this quite hard as I received a sample from a teafriend and was too lazy to measure it and so just dumped the whole bag in, probably about 6-8 grams. Was surprisingly solid even once the milk flavoring had faded, although the next day had a weird plastic taste to it that I assume was stale flavoring. Overall was quite pleasant though, looking forward to trying the others!

So I’ve been holding off on reviewing this one since I wanted to try it a few times before coming to a conclusion on it. Having now done so, I would say that this is a very solid oolong if you’re a fan of the darker, roastier flavors of oolong backed by rich caramel flavors and honey sweetness (which I definitely am).

I generally went with boiling water on all of these, or a little under because I am lazy and look at how dark this thing is, it’s not going to mind a little boiling water. Having played with leaf amount, this definitely benefits from over leafing and tastes a little overwhelmingly roasty if you oversteep (which I may have done due to not enough leaf) and loses a lot of the more delicate sweet notes. Still delightfully complex and layered, though, reminds me a bit of an excellent, baklava with much less sugar and honey and generous with the roasted nuts on top. The brewing is also forgiving, although you can certainly make it too intense if you forget about it.

With the warm profile, this tea would be extremely comforting any time boiling hot tea would be welcome, so I will be stocking up on this once I run out and I give myself clearance to buy more tea, haha.

Got a sample of this from someone’s stash, so no idea if this is the 2016 or 2015 or 2014. I’m guessing 2016 by the notes, though.

Leaves are standard gold green balls, very floral smelling which gives me some trepidation as someone not a fan of uber floral oolong. Put in a generous bottom layer to my 100 ml ruyao gaiwan anyway though, just off boiling water, prewarmed teaware.

My first impression on this in the early steeps is that cold, metallic, fruity taste that I see in TGY and other similarly oxidized oolongs not infrequently (and that I find myself quite liking), so that was nice. Liquor is a light gold and thick, smells a little more grassy and vegetal now. Opens up to some creaminess and more floral (sigh), although thankfully more honeysuckle than anything else (followed by… orchid. I think. There’s a lot of flower power going on in here), rather than the ever ubiquitous Jasmine I’ve come to detest. Ends on a lighter taste, grassy/hay undertone with emphasis on the florals and some increasing dryness and bitterness. Went for about five steeps.

Overall, pleasant enough, although not really something that stood out to me either.