250 Tasting Notes

Another very interesting sample from Tea Ave to help warm me up on a cold and icy day.

First thing I noticed when I set up was that opening the bag was a sensational experience, with a very intense fresh herbacious/grassy scent wafting up from the dry leaves. The only other teas I own that are like this are the freshest of Tie Guan Yin’s and the most traditional of Shinchas. Incidentally enough, they all are very lightly processed teas, so I guess that’s the key. Anyway, I put some in a pre-warmed gaiwan, boiled some water and let it cool off to about 95 degrees centigrade, and steeped it for about 7 seconds for the first infusion. Right off the bat there’s a very strong fresh herbacious aroma, which was expected but still pleasant. The tea produced is a very light honey color, with a slight green tint to it. The flavor profile of the tea is very smooth, with something between a silky and mineral mouthfeel that gradually trends towards more mineralish as the aftertaste continues. Flavors of grass, herbaciousness, and sweet hay dominate the profile, and the tea is very sweet like most lightly-processed teas. The tea is also very thirst-quenching, and will probably make for a good summer tea.

The second infusion was steeped for only 5 seconds, using 95 degree centigrade water. The resulting tea actually smells more floral this time, which is interesting since that’s something that tends to fad in other oolongs, not develop. The flavor profile actually tastes like I steeped it a bit to long, which is a bit odd. It’s lost the silkiness and has gained a tiny bit of astringency. I think that the best bet for this tea is to pour it immediately if the leaves are fully awoken, and I’ll try that for the next cup.

I performed the same steeping as the previous cup, but I poured as quickly as possible this time. The result was much better, with the smooth mouthfeel making a comeback and the absence of the astringency noted previously. The flavor is a bit more grassy now, but still very pleasant. The aftertaste is also less mineral now, and fades fairly quickly. I think this tea really didn’t like the treatment it got during the second steep, and is starting to fade now, so I’m stopping.

In the end, it’s a great tea, though probably not the ideal thing to drink during the winter. I’ll review this again in summer, and I’ll be a lot more careful with steep times.

Flavors: Floral, Grass, Hay, Herbaceous, Sweet

Teaave

Hey Joshua Smith, thanks so much for your reviews!! We would like to invite you to transfer your thoughts and comments to our website and rate our teas if you have a minute. It will help us a great deal :] Cheers.

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100

It’s been a very, very long time since I posted a review, mostly due to work and partially since my previous gaiwan didn’t survive my move. Now that I finally got a replacement, I can finally post a review about the samples that I recently got from Tea Ave.

The dry leaves remind me a lot of a Darjeeling, very colorful and with a delicate flora aroma that I’ve come to expect from high-mountain teas. I filled my gaiwan about half way, and steeped for 15 seconds with 190-180 degree water, then pour it directly into some of my small cups. The first steep resulted in a very nice medium colored tea, that was very aromatic. Much like the dry leaves, it smells very floral, but there’s also a fresh herbacious aroma like a fresh green Tie Guan Yin. The flavor of the tea is similar to a really top quality Tie Guan Yin, but it feels like it’s thicker. The mouthfeel is a very nice buttery sensation that lingers for a long time in the mouth. As the tea cools down, it starts to taste a bit like a White Peony and loses some of the complexity.

For the second steep, I used slightly cooler water for about seven seconds. The tea actually tastes a lot more complex now, with hints of leaves and spice present in the palate now. The spice isn’t like the saffron that you taste in a really high quality Tie Guan Yin, and is a bit less subtle yest still hard to describe. It still retains its butter mouthfeel, but it’s a bit reduced. The aftertaste also is more complex, with lingering hay, leaves, and spices that fades over about 2 minutes. The development is rather amazing, and I can’t wait to see how it continues to develop.

For the third steep, I let it sit for 10 seconds. The end result is that I got a surprisingly thick feeling tea that was actually sweeter than both of the previous infusions. The aroma is also stronger, and it has developed a honey flavor, and generally continues to grow stronger and sweeter. Unfortunately, something came up and the tea got cold, wo there’s nothing else to say about this.

Later steeps started to lose flavor and intensity, and generally started to taste like a Bai Mu Dan. A very good Bai Mu Dan, but still much less interesting than the original flavor. Still, it’s a very god tea for contemplative sipping. If you want something that will just give you a nice relaxing afternoon, this is a good tea to try out.

Flavors: Floral, Floral, Hay, Hay, Herbaceous, Herbaceous, Honey, Honey, Spices, Spices

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85
drank Australian Shincha by Ito En
250 tasting notes

This just arrived the other day as part of my Steepster select subscription, so I’m drinking it during a slow day at work. Since I can’t brew it with the recomended directions, I improvised, using an 8oz cup, a finum brew basket, and boiled tap water. I let the water sit for a good 10 minutes to cool off, I’m not a fan of the bitterness that overwhelms the flavor of Japanese-style greens when brewed too hot.

After steeping for 2-2.5 minutes, I decided to see what the aroma was like, and was pleasantly surprised. It actually smells sweetly herbaceous/grassy, and reminds me a bit of when I used to “help” (read – get in the way and slow down the process of) my grandfather make hay on his farm. The flavor is a bit more conventional, grassy and a bit stringent, aftertaste lingers on the hard palate for a good minute and a half. Seems like a good everyday tea, nothing that makes me want to hoard it away (like my golden fleece, that’s only for special occasions), but still better than your average Japanese-style green. I’ll write more after the next steep.

Well, the second steep was fairly bland and generic. Most japanese-style teas lose a lot of flavor quickly, but this went from “interesting” to “upper middle class”. Good, but not great, lost both the astringency and the sweetness, not much else to say.

Flavors: Astringent, Grass, Herbaceous, Sweet

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 2 min, 30 sec

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Now that my life is beginning to settle down after getting a job (still need a car and a more permanent apartment…), I actually have time for things like tea reviews again!

Got this tea through my recent Steepster select batch, so I brewed it at the office this morning. 8 oz. of near boiling water, steeped for 2 minutes to avoid the dangerous over-steeping that can cause puerh to be unpleasant. The foretaste is a very smooth herbaceous flavor which is very hard to place, and the smoothness is not quite silky, but not really mineral either. More generally, the tea is very sweet and has been properly aged to avoid the bitterness that can be prevalent in younger green puerhs. I am very interested in seeming how the tea develops as the tuocha really starts to break up.

Second steep prepared exactly the same as the first, but the resulting tea was significantly darker. The aroma is also more prevalent, and it turns out that it’s a nice earthy aroma that isn’t overwhelming like some young shu puerhs. The aftertaste/mouth-feel has also evolved to be a definite mineral-like flavor. The other interesting thing is hat it reminds me a lot of hojicha, which is really unique for a puerh in my experience. This has definitely turned out to be a well above-average tea, and I’m honestly looking forward to the next steep.

Flavors: Earth, Herbaceous, Mineral, Sweet, Wood

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 2 min, 0 sec 4 g 8 OZ / 236 ML

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Bio

I am a university student, studying Computer Science, who found that I really enjoy a nice cup of tea. I finally got into loose-leaf tea in August of 2011. I am currently in the process of expanding my horizons, and have found that I have a particular fondness for Oolongs in general, and Wuyi Yanchas in particular. The unique mineral taste is very appealing to me, as well as a nice Sencha. More recently, I’ve developed a taste for Sheng puerh, white tea, and black teas. The only things I’ve tried that I didn’t like was Shu puerh, but that might have been because it was quite young. Regardless, I’ve been slowly expanding my horizons, so if you have any recommendations, please feel free to send me a PM.

Just for the heck of it, my other interests include classical musics (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi, Debussy, Shostakovitch, Rachmaninoff, Liszt, and Wagner, to name a few composers). I also have a fondness for a bit more modern music, like The Beatles, all Jazz (by all, I really do mean all), Gorillaz (I love Demon Days), and a couple of Indie artists you will never run across unless you play a lot of semi obscure Indie games. Also, I love cats.

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