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Dry leaf has a strong aroma of wildflower honey. Brews a very clear gold. Tastes of honey, grain, mineral, dry grass, and red grape skins. Very clean, almost sparkling quality in the mouth. Strong sweetness that reminds me a bit of the cane syrup that my grandpa loves to pour over biscuits for breakfast. Does not get bitter when oversteeped, just thick and flavorful. Very nice tea.

I saw that Scott released a video about this one today, so when it was tea time I went for it. Like the Da Mao Shan I had yesterday the flavor is very honeyed. The mouthfeel is very thick and soft, somewhat oily. Milder and less pungent than the Da Mao Shan, but not at all weak. Like they say in the video it is very balanced. One thing I notice as I keep drinking is that it stays in the mouth for a long time. It’s slightly floral and also taste of mild nuts. I like this tea a lot, but prefer the stronger Da Mao Shan.

Big, bodacious, loosely pressed leaves in my sample. Very “green” aroma reminds me that this is a 2017 tea. The taste is very honeyed with lots of mineral and green wood. There a bit of cedar and sandalwood and very light fruityness. If I had to pick a fruit for this I would say lychee. Bitterness and astringency are moderate. The bitterness is nice and lingers on the tongue and cheeks. The description mentions that this tea is slightly smokey, but personally I have to search for the smoke to taste it. It is slightly more obvious when I sniff the cha hai though. The mouthfeel is balanced between clean and buttery.

Later steeps mellow a little and transition to a milky texture. The bitterness becomes interesting: it isn’t burly and in your face up front, it is mild and smooth until after the sip that the bitterness kicks in. Nice mellow qi, I feel it especially in my face and the top of my head.

I’m finding that I have an affinity for the stronger Jinggu area teas like this one. I really enjoy the flavors and the soft but bitter quality, and they tend to be much more affordable than comparable teas from the Menghai area. I’m going to keep an eye on this one and re taste in a couple months/year when it has lost more of it’s greenness.

I was HYPED for this one! (you see what I did there?)

Dry aroma and initial steeps are herbaceous, hoppy, and honeyed with pine, mineral, and dried flower notes. Soft and warm in the mouth, moderate bitterness and astringency. The profile shifts toward peppercorn and green vegetables. Starts to give me the brain tingles and in the cheeks as well. Later steeps become less interesting; milder with a citrusy note.

Good tea, if it stayed as good as the first couple steeps it would be excellent.

Leaves are darker than the “Wu Long Mtn.” tian jian, smells somewhat roasty and fermented. Initial steeps taste like a rubber tire rolling through a compost pit with a bit of burnt toast and peat moss. Despite the yuck, I push on. On steep number four it starts to taste sweeter and more mineral with a sweet/savory note of Chinese five spice blend and crappy coffee. 6th steep is more palatable yet; mineral, peat, and green banana.

Tian jian confuses me…

My new year’s W2T order came today, oh the wonders of EMS shipping! My free 100g cake (they had a promotion going on) ended up being the Lincang/Mengku from the terior set. I find it slightly ironic that a company that generally doesn’t tell you the terior of their teas has a terior tasting set…

Anyways, this tea came in compressed cylinders that smelled like slightly roasty aged white. I was pleasantly surprised that that carried over into the taste as well! Tastes of raisin, malt, minerals, and apricot supported by lesser notes of roast, bamboo. Slight medicinal taste. Like an aged white despite being 2017. It excels when pushed for longer steeps; it gets thick and honeyed without getting bitter.

Now I wish I had gotten some of the Turtle Dove to compare. I like this tea a lot, and am definitely going to buy some more.

The dry leaves are dark and smell very earthy, not like wo dui but like moderately wet storage. Brews a dark brown and is incredibly thick in the mouth like a good stout. Tastes of rich dark earth with a bit of molasses and vanilla and a strong minerality. Later steeps taste cleaner with a more prominent sweetness.

The leaves are quite dark, but it brews a light yellow-orange. Fruity notes of citrus and banana, roasty notes of toasted barley and almonds. Lesser medicinal notes of ginseng, cannabis, and mineral. Just a hint of smoke, more like a burning match than a bonfire.

Good tea.

I was curios about this tea; all the Yun Wu teas that I’ve seen before have had twisty, curly leaves. This one on the other hand has flat pressed leaves like a Dragonwell. They’re smaller and a bit darker green than Dragonwell, but similar nonetheless.

The taste is very clean and somewhat mild. It has a chestnut-y note like Dragonwell, but tastes greener and more buttery. Nice minerality to it. Somewhat vegetal but also very slightly fruity.

A good green tea. I kind of want to get a sample of their Dragonwells to compare.

I was interested to try this tea because I enjoy smoky flavors and it looked to be high quality; not the shredded leaf “smoldering garbage can aroma” kind of Lapsang Souchong commonly sold in the West. I thought it odd though that they call it Golden Monkey, as it’s obviously quite different than the teas that normally go by that name.

The dry leaves are moderately sized, dark, and twisty. The dry aroma is like raisins or dry figs, I’m not really smelling any smoke. Brews a medium orange. Tastes predominantly of fig with hints of pine, toasted rice, dry wood, baking spices, and a very light hint of smokey tobacco the background.

Very nice, mellow tea, and as the description says it tastes like a mix between a black tea and Wuyi oolong. Despite the name there is very little smoke to be found.