3294 Tasting Notes
This is delicious! It’s also very interesting, kind of a cross roads of flavors & sensations.
I used 5 G for 6 minutes in a standard mug…10 oz-ish
The resulting cup reminds me of a cross between a sheng & a few of the other Heicha I’ve tried. It’s a lovely rich taste, much different from any of the other white teas I’ve had, much fuller in flavor, with a silky quality & an instant chaqi buzz, along with a potent tongue tingle, & my lips feel full & sexy, LOL. Honey, sugar cane, malt, its really very tasty & sweet, fruity even. I’m actually contemplating a cake of this…
I’m taking a break from the latest session of multitasking: a few more loads of laundry done, a few students, cleaned up the kitchen, gave my yixing their bath, & the hardest decision I have to make is which tea do I want to season with?
I’ll let you know later!
I went to bed at midnight, slept like a vampire at dawn, although I vaguely remember a zombie walk to the bathroom at 6 or so, Ms Theresa trying to convince us to get up & “get things done”. Little Terri flipped her off, somebody set an alarm for 10 am, & we returned to deep sleep & weird dreams, finally waking up at 9.
Shower, pick baskets full of produce from my neglected garden, (photos sometime later today on FB, for those interested), breakfast, & this tea.
I love this tea. I need this tea. A nice long relaxed gongfu session, loaded with serious chaki, as if I were drinking a good sheng. This tea is savory, like Master’s Han’s Wild picked, but fruitier, like concord grapes, & juicy. There’s much more to it, & I’ve reviewed it before, & now I have a student warming up, so I’m gonna go teach. I’ll be multitasking all day: Seasoning yixings, washing laundry, roasting tomatoes, making food for tomorrow, hopefully knitting on my newest pair of socks, playing my harp a bit, & then sleeping like a vampire again. I’ll be drinking tea throughout (except for the sleeping part, LOL)
“Purple Black”…interesting.
Do share a link for the photos, when they are up!
Best wishes for today’s lessons.
https://www.facebook.com/terri.langerak
stop on by :)
When the spring Black teas were unveiled on the YS website, I have to admit I went a little nuts, LOL. In part it was the unending urge to try all the black teas, & also the desire to have teas on hand to share with my BBBB sisters. I still haven’t sampled all of them yet.
I just added this one to the steepster database, which required me to visit the YS website, a dangerous activity!
I’m drinking a cup of it now. It definitely has a floral edge, which kind of makes me think of geraniums, along with a little bitterness, & a touch of astringency. It also brings to mind a really dense chewy natural rise German bread I used to buy, back when I could eat things like that. It was kind of dry & chewy, with a hoppy kind of taste, & especially tasty with avocado… I’m not sure if this is the brand, but this is the type http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/asda-compare-prices/Bread/Schneider_Brot_Organic_And_Wheat_Free_Rye_Bread_with_Sunflower_Seeds_500g.html
ahhhh…nothing like a cup of deliciousness & the time to enjoy it.
I made one of my awesome breakfasts, & drank a couple of steeps of this one, with it’s rich malty & sweet taste, nice thick & kind of shiny mouth, hint of florals & tantalizing bitter edge. I’m sure it would be even better gongfu, but we do what we can.
The 2 yixings I ordered came this week. I started seasoning one of them for smokey zheng shan xiao zhong types, & my plans for the other one was for either yunnan or fujian, but I’m having a hard time making up my mind which.
Now I’m having 2nd thoughts about the smokey tea, & thinking I might reboil that one & start over…or maybe I’ll order another tiny teapot…LOL
Heading out to my youngest Grandchild’s birthday party (he’s 8 now), but I plan to spend the rest of the weekend in my PJs, sipping teas & getting caught up on all my favorite steepster friend’s reviews (there are so many of you!)
Happy Birthday to Grandson! Have fun!
Oh Terri – did the brocade one come??
i want to do that! stupid work. I miss steepster peeps and being able to relax so much :(
Here’s to leisurely Saturdays with children. (My mom used to say, “Kids spell love T-I-M-E.” She was a pretty smart cookie.)
Always enjoy reading your reviews. You have so many interesting teas.
just use it for both Yunnan and Fuijan. not a super huge diff in flavor.
apt…I was also sort of thinking that :)
Priss – yes! it came yesterday, & it’s beautiful, AND they included 2 yixing cups as well!
Oh Squeal!!!!! I’m all jealous and stuff. Have you decided which tea it’s gonna be for? I feel like I have this unnatural interest in your teapot. I’m like yixing voyeur girl.
(oh crap I hope I spelled voyeur right, because I already for voilà wrong)
got. not for. sigh
LOL, why are you jealous? Didn’t you just get a new yixing too recently? :)
Anyway, I haven’t christened it yet, but I’m thinking lovely golden Dian hong types
I got, ahem maybe a couple of them, but my really pretty one with the leaves carved into it hasn’t gotten here yet. I REALLY the love the shape and everything about that brocade one. So beautiful. And Dian Hong would be PERFECT for it
Breath…yes, that’s what I need to do, just breath & relax, & drink this tea…
Cream of wheat, honey drizzle…oh, the aroma… oh the tongue tingle…thank you…sigh…
I think some of you know me well enough to appreciate the sudden shift in my life from lounging in my home, playing with tea & tea ware, cooking, gardening, knitting (the new hobby), playing instruments, yoga, Tai chi, students coming & going, on & off Steepster sessions all day. It’s been pure bliss, to be honest. I could continue this way forever…
Suddenly I’m out the door at 6:00am mon, weds, & fri (ok, really, that’s my goal, but to be honest I still haven’t left the house earlier than 6:30, barely arriving on time), arriving home just in time to teach private students from 3 – 7pm. Tues & Thursday are still work from home days, with students (& lots of tea) from 10 – 7.
It’s a somewhat rough transition for a night owl like me, but I think I needed to challenge myself a little, to be honest, maybe I was getting a little too relaxed, & the extra income will be enjoyable. Having to make lesson plans, prep food the night before, & figuring out how to fit in maintenance activities & practice time will push me to new heights of organizing & time management skills (dream on…but it could happen)
My friends at the school are all excited to have me back, especially when I showed up with a huge basket of homegrown heirloom tomatoes yesterday ;)Home grown tomatoes! :)
Congrats on going from “pure bliss” to challenging yourself – such discipline!
I didn’t get to have a garden this year and it’s making me sad. I’m living vicariously through yours. I am looking forward to this time next year when I get to slow down – we are going in opposite directions. And you have inspired me to have a cup of this tea. I love this one.
I wonder what would happen if I packed some tomatoes into a box & mailed them…
They would be cooked before they got across Texas but its a BEAUTIFUL idea. Our drought will end some day and I will get to have my garden again. Or I will move.
I’ve been enjoying steepings of this one for the last couple of hours. I warmed the leaf in my hot mixing, & upon opening the lid, I was greeted with a sweet apricot-like aroma! Apricot & green-ness, smelled awesome to me!
This is very nice mellow sheng, sweet & kind of fruity, & rich in a way that I can’t quite describe.
Other teas I’ve drank today:
Tiger Assam – A & D
Yi Mei Ren – YS
Imperial Grade Jin Jun Mei from Tong Mu Guan Village – YS
Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong – Verdant
I feel tea starved, like I haven’t gotten enough, but I’m headed out to a gig, so that’s all I get for now!
I should be in bed asleep by now, since I have to get up at 5am, but I just finished making my breakfast & lunch for tomorrow & cleaning up the kitchen, & I wanted to share a few comments regarding this tea.
My beautiful little black yixing arrived from Camelia Sinensis, along with 2 cups I ordered, & they are all adorable. I had a little free time, so I started the seasoning process, using Verdant’s Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong smoked wuyi black.
Also included in the package was a free & generous sample tin of this tea (or at least I think it is this one). I opened the tin, & the fragrance is sweet, floral, fruity, & almond-like.
It steeped into a golden liquor, both floral & fruity, with flavors of Honeysuckle, Vanilla, almond milk, & lychee.
A very lovely afternoon session.
Stopping by briefly to say I miss you guys!
I’ve been so busy this week, I can’t think, so here is a list of some of the teas I’ve been drinking:
Jinggu Golden Strand Pure Bud – YS
Organic Superfine Keemun Fragrant Black Tea – Teavivre
Master Han’s Wild picked Yunnan Black – Verdant
Fengqing Dragon Pearl Black – Teavivre
Zhu Rong – Verdant
Shiva’s Breakfast – Butiki
Premium Taiwanese Assam – Butiki
Imperial Moijiang Golden Bud Yunnan Black – YS
Bolder Breakfast – the Tea Spot
Yunnan Purple Beauty Black tea – YS
And probably some other ones, but that’s the teas I remember.
I’ve written actual reviews on all of these before, so that’s all I got!
I’m roasting San Marzano tomatoes & it’s 11pm.
I got up at 5am, & as soon as the tomatoes have come out of the oven & had a chance to cool down a little, I’ll put them in the frozen & go to bed.
Today was the first day of me actually having a day job (outside of 30 private students & various gigs), & really, it was kind of fun. It’s good to see all of the people I used to work with, & the kids in my class seem like nice ones. I started the day with a pot of Devotea’s 1910, then filled 2 – 20oz klean Kanteen thermal thingies (which keep your tea hot for 6 hours!!), filled one with Zhu Rong, which I enjoyed all morning, & the other with Verdant’s Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong, which I enjoyed all afternoon.
Then I came home just in time to teach private students for a couple more hours, & drank several steepings of this Shu, which Garret generously shared tuocha samples of.
I don’t have a lot to say. The rinse water smelled fishy, but the actual tea did not! It was creamy & chocolatey, & downright tasty. It also gave me a nice lift, as I was really dragging when I first got home.
I need to try Temple Stairs some day :)
Also MMMMM SAN MARZANOS!
Hi! These mini’s are super young (the pressing just happened in March) and the blend itself is quite young, too (fermented in 2013). I’m glad you got to try them. That rinse mushroomy, briny, sea water smell will dissipate quickly in the coming months. It’s pretty tell-tale that it only has that aroma in the rinse.
Had you tried the loose leaf version of this same blend? It is (for now) aging better than the pressed versions, but will be eating the dust of the cakes and minis within a year or two as far as complexity and flavor development. I’m excited about this tea.
I hope others are too, or I’ll be drinking it for this lifetime and the one after that, too :)
Wishing you great joy,
Garret
“… a potent tongue tingle, & my lips feel full & sexy, LOL.” Oh my! Look out! Terri’s gone WILD!
“… gave my yixing their bath, & the hardest decision I have to make is which tea do I want to season with?”
How true! Is there any generally accepted wisdom on this question?