379 Tasting Notes
I put four different teas in the fridge to cold steep overnight, so when I pulled this one out I absolutely couldn’t remember what it was. Not to worry, I remembered as soon as I opened the jar and was hit with a blast of coconut aroma! This is very nice as a cold brew. Crisp, vegetal green oolong with creamy coconut.
3g in 300ml cold steeped overnight and into the afternoon. Hot damn, this is good! Gorgeous clear medium gold liquor, nice floral aroma when I go to sip even though it’s right out of the fridge. Tastes like a bouquet of flowers and fresh crisp watery vegetables. Very refreshing.
Finally unpacked and set up all my gongfu tea stuff, though I have no idea where my gong dao bei and filter have wandered off to. Anyway, decided to start with the Haku Discovery Box that I picked up at the Toronto Tea Festival, and with the lightest oolong in there. It’s a pouchong oolong, so the “spring in a cup” description certainly fits! The dry leaves are dark green and lightly twisted, with a light floral scent that intensifies a lot when they’re placed in a warm gaiwan. I did 3g of tea, 75ish ml water at 90 degrees C, steeps of 15/30/45/60 etc. seconds. First couple of steeps were intensely floral, not quite lilacs but similar. Then it gradually transitions to a lightly vegetal sweetness like nectar. Very fresh and light. I was slightly worried about caffeine this late at night but I actually felt really relaxed afterward. I’ve taken the other 3g and added it to 300ml water for cold steeping overnight. Even though there’s still snow on the ground out there, this tea makes me feel hopeful for spring. :)
Flavors: Floral, Nectar
I pulled this old assam out of the cupboard to make stovetop masala chai yesterday, which was delicious but the spices kind of drowned out the tea flavours so I decided to just drink it on its own this morning. Despite the age it’s still pretty flavourful… brisk and malty with notes of grape and raisin. I’m working on drinking up some of my old tea so I can justify buying some fresh tea this year, haha. :)
Had this hot as my first tea of the morning and it worked to wake me up! I find the chocolate and raspberry flavour in this a little artificial? Not necessarily in a bad way. It reminds me of those boozy chocolates where there is a relatively hard chocolate shell on the outside and some sort of liqueur-flavoured syrup on the inside, you know? Like that, but the syrup inside is raspberry flavoured. It was fine, but not the sort of thing I’d crave super often.
Cold brewed. Intense watermelon flavour to start out, candy-like, someone else said watermelon jolly ranchers and I agree. On the finish more of the green oolong flavours come out and that’s what makes it start to taste like actual melon and not just candy. It’s good.
Got this in a Tea Runners box, and the first time I tried it, something magical happened. I wasn’t really paying much attention because I was in the middle of making breakfast, so it was like: 1 tea spoon of tea in a basket in my mug, poured over boiling water, totally forgot to set a timer, got distracted by eggs, some unknown amount of time later remembered my tea (it was still hot, good drinking temperature). It had some really lovely honey and cocoa notes, and a lovely lingering aroma in the empty cup. Tried resteeping, but unsurprisingly, very bland. Ok, so next time I made it I did my typical 3g/300ml/3min/boiling water routine, and it just tasted like a pleasant but unremarkable black tea. Malty, maybe some mineral undertones and a bit of sweetness on the finish, but nothing like that first time. So this time I made it in the easy brew teapot (https://tearunners.com/products/tea-runners-easy-brew-glass-teapot) and went hard. 5g of leaf, 350ml, boiling water. At 5min I poured off maybe 25% to taste test – honey sweetness definitely there, no astringency or bitterness, no cocoa. Let the leaves steep with the rest of the water for another couple minutes and the liquor got DARK, I was a bit afraid. But actually still entirely drinkable! Malty, full-bodied, only a little bit of astringency on the finish. I could feel my English ancestors calling to me to add milk (unfortunately do not have any in the house). Interestingly, the earthy and cocoa notes only emerged once it started to cool down, but they were there. Now I just poured off the last 100ml or so that has been steeping with all those leaves the entire time I have been typing this. Again, lovely dark liquor. Not much has changed except that it’s stronger and finally starting to get a little bit bitter. I added a teeny tiny bit of coffee cream to this last little bit out of morbid curiousity and… nope, it’s strong but not strong enough to stand up to cream, lol. Anyway, fascinating tea. I’ll probably try the last bit of this sample gongfu, even though I suspect the teeny tiny leaves will be a pain in the gaiwan. Anyway, tell me your keemun-brewing secrets!
Flavors: Cocoa, Earthy, Honey, Malty
Preparation
Picked this up at the Toronto Tea Festival, and also went to a talk by the founder of the company all about his adventures in processing Canadian fireweed (and other local plants) in the style of various teas. The dry leaf is large and twisted, kind of like a Taiwanese black tea, and has very little aroma. As it steeps, the scent is definitely reminiscent of black tea, but with a herbal or vegetal edge that reminds me of walking through a forest. The flavour is a bit malty, a bit fruity, a bit sweet… definitely much richer and more complex in flavour than your average herbal tea. I like it a lot! Turns out I leafed this a bit heavier than recommended – I did 3g in a 300ml mug with water just off the boil, which is what I’d do with regular black tea, but then I checked the package and they recommend 1.5g for 250ml. Oops. No regrets though, this is really great and an excellent bedtime tea.
Flavors: Fruity, Malty, Sweet
