Grass Fragrance Black Tea (2017)

This was my most recent sipdown since I finished my sample of this tea this morning. It was an excellent Wuyi black tea with great body and texture to go along with wonderful aromatics and flavor components. I suppose I should not have been surprised, however, since Old Ways Tea seems to have a way with Wuyi blacks.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a brief rinse, I steeped 5 grams of loose tea leaves in 3 ounces of 185 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was chased by 17 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, and 10 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of baked bread, sweet potato, and malt underscored by hints of grass. After the rinse, I noted new aromas of roasted peanut and honey as well as a slight orchid fragrance. The first infusion introduced aromas of brown sugar and candied orange. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of sweet potato, honey, orchid, and candied orange that gave way to impressions of malt, roasted peanut, and brown sugar. There were also subtle notes of pear, grass, and peach in the aftertaste. The subsequent infusions brought out scents of violet, apple, pear, and chocolate. Baked bread notes came out in the mouth along with impressions of minerals, violet, cream, apple, chocolate, and nectarine. There were some very subtle hints of straw too. The previously mentioned notes of pear and peach were more intense, swelling on the finish and merging with lingering touches of brown sugar, violet, orchid, candied orange, and honey in the mouth for a unique afterglow. By the end of the session, I could still pick out mineral, malt, cream, and roasted peanut notes that were accented by hints of violet, honey, pear, brown sugar, and sweet potato.

Okay, I may as well just come out and say it: I enjoyed this tea much more than I expected to. It was a much sweeter, fruitier, and more floral tea than its name suggested, and it clearly had not lost a step in storage. All in all, this was a wonderful Wuyi black tea. I could see it being tremendously satisfying for fans of sweeter and more robustly flavored black teas.

I thought this was going to taste like something out of a land mower, but it was really something that came out of a garden. The dry leaf was grassy, but floral, fresh, and very smooth like bamboo amidst its rocky scent. Because this was a sample of who know’s how many grams, I threw it into my mug strainer, and rinsed at 30 seconds. The second steep was one minute, than 2 minutes and thirty seconds, than whatever lazy time amount I left it in bordering on grandpa style. The notes of the dryleaf were there when brewed, but sweeter. The initial sip started off floral and spicy, going to something like sage in the mid sip, and ended in a sweet malty aftertaste. It was almost honey like, and the later, longer steeps turned into a full, but modest honey note that was barely juicy. If only it could linger a little longer. The bamboo florals, malt, and sage dominate overall, but they are still nicely accented. The tea could get a little bitter, but as bitter as any smooth black tea can be. The first few steeps were a little astringent, but the last few had little astringency.

If you have ever had a Tongmu Wu Yi tea, this has a lot of the same slightly different. It actually reminded me of one of the newer Taiwaneese Shan Cha black tea in its grassiness, but it was not quite as fruity. This tea is still hella good and would definitely be one of my picks for daily drinkers to those who like floral black teas. Some might be a little underwhelmed or weirded out by the grassiness. More experienced drinkers might be impressed with the notes, but might snub it for the more expensive stuff…nevermind this does compare to some of the higher quality teas I’ve had. I only liked the honey fragrance that this company offers slightly more.