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I remember trying this tea many years ago and not having a favourable impression. However, I like Doke’s commitment to sustainability and hope that they may have refined their processing (or my preferences may have changed). I steeped 2.5 g of leaf in 150 ml of 195F water for 2, 1.5, and 3 minutes, plus a couple uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of honey, grapes, nuts, florals, and hay. Brewed this way, the tea is very delicate. I get notes of honey, chamomile, muscat grapes, hay, nuts, meadow flowers, and herbs. The tea has a dryness in the mouth that isn’t totally in keeping with all of these nuanced flavours. The sweetness builds as I drink the tea, with the grapes and honey becoming more prominent. The next steep features grapes, honey, lemon, oats, chamomile, and herbs, with some noticeable astringency. Steep three has notes of herbs, grass, and honey, but is getting vegetal and kind of metallic. I understand why the vendor advises calling off the session here. My final two steeps retained the honey sweetness but were not as polished.

I enjoyed this tea a lot more this time, possibly due to the steeping parameters. Its honey sweetness and fruitiness remind me more of a very high-quality first flush Darjeeling than a Fujian silver needle. I wonder if the lurking astringency is due to this tea being made from Assam leaves. I admire Rajiv Lochan and the Doke estate for their innovation in Indian tea making, and they’ve produced an interesting take on white tea that I enjoyed revisiting.

This could very possibly be my first tea from Laos. I know One River and maybe The Steeping Room sometimes carry tea from this region, but I don’t think I’ve ever tried any. I steeped 5 g of leaf in 120 ml of 195F water for 45, 60, 75, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus some long, uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma of these long, dark leaves matches the vendor’s description: honey, fig, smoke, malt, and wood. I get notes of malt, wood, honey, fig, smoke, grain, and caramel. My relatively long 45-second steep brought out some tannins, even though I was using five grams instead of my usual six. Also, fig is a great description for the round, fruity notes I often find in these types of teas. The next steep has hints of fig, but more notes of honey, hay, malt, and especially wood. It’s a bit drying if held in the mouth for any length of time. Steeps three and four are still round and fruity, with some apple hints as the tea cools. Subsequent steeps feature honey, malt, hay, wood, tannins, earth, and smoke. The tea fades into earth, malt, smoke, tannins, and wood.

I could easily mistake this for a Yunnan black tea. Its rustic, fairly uncomplicated profile was pleasant on this cold winter day. It got a bit too drying for me on occasion, but the flavours were nicely balanced and those leaves were beautiful.

Advent Calendar Day 1

I finally decided to do an Advent calendar this year. Thanks, Martin, for suggesting this vendor. Including a Mingqian Anji Bai Cha for the first day is a good indication that they’re dedicated to providing higher-quality tea. Following the instructions on their website, I steeped 3 g of leaf in 120 ml of 195F water for 55, 75, and 105 seconds, plus some longer, uncounted steeps. Suggesting this steeping method shows great confidence in their tea, as greens typically get bitter at higher temperatures.

The dry aroma is of green beans, orchids, grass, and soft citrus. The first steep has notes of green beans, green pepper, asparagus, grass, orchid, orange, and umami. There’s a touch of bitterness, but it’s not overwhelming. The next steep features asparagus, green pepper, butter, and grass. Steep three is a little softer, emphasizing buttered green beans, green pepper, asparagus, florals, grass, and minerals. Later steeps lose some of their complexity, becoming grassier and more vegetal but not bitter.

This is a nice, sweet, floral Anji Bai Cha. I’ve been kind of spoiled by offerings from specialist tea vendors, but this holds up really well for the price. Everything is in balance and it takes hot water like a champ!

Since I first reviewed the 2020 harvest, this tea has become something I order from Wuyi Origin every year. It’s managed to remain quite consistent, and while it will never supplant their Floral Lapsang Souchong as my favourite, it has an important place in my lapsang rotation. This is the 2024 harvest. I steeped 6 g of leaf in 120 ml of 195F water for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus some long, uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is a cozy blend of sweet potato, lemon, and squash. The first couple steeps have notes of squash, sweet potato, lemon, and wood. The most striking thing about them, however, isn’t the flavour, but the incredibly thick, silky body of the tea and the persistent aftertaste. The next two steeps add bread, violet florals, oakwood, pine, orange, and some tannins on top of the lemony, squashy background. Steeps five and six transition into a more oaky, bready profile with a nice tannic backbone. The next few rounds focus on bread, malt, maple syrup, oakwood, lemon, and tannins. The final steeps have notes of earth, minerals, malt, tannins, wood, and lemon.

This tea isn’t as gloriously over the top as the Wild Lapsang, but it’s elegant, well balanced, easy to drink, and, based on my limited experience, representative of the type.

I’ve seen a few posts about lapsang here lately, and I’d say Wuyi Origin has some of the best. They even have a sale that I’ve noted in the annual BF post in the discussion section. I think it’s important to support, if possible, great vendors like Wuyi Origin that may be losing money due to the chaos in the U.S. market right now.

Once again, I wildly overbought green tea this year so I could do some educational comparison sessions. This time, I’m focusing on three kinds of Anji Bai Cha, two from Seven Cups and one from Camellia Sinensis.

Tea bush: Bai Ye
Location: Zhejiang Province
Picking date: April 12, 2025
Price in USD/g: $0.46

For the side-by-side comparison, I steeped 2.4 g of leaf in 120 ml of 185F water for 4 minutes, resteeping as needed until the tea faded. I also did a more normal session with 3 g of leaf in 250 ml of 185F water, with times as above.

The dry aroma had notes of green beans, asparagus, cut grass, honey, and magnolia. In the side-by-side session, the first steep featured green beans, cut grass, asparagus, heady magnolia, kale, lemon, and orange. Later on, I tasted green beans, grass, asparagus, kale, and magnolia, with the florals persisting until the end of the session.

With my regular setup, the first steep had notes of green beans, asparagus, white sugar, lemon, orange, and magnolia. Later steeps lost this complexity and focused on green beans, asparagus, grass, and faint magnolia. The end of the session was grassy and vegetal.

This tea was sharper and grassier than the Seven Cups offerings. It had a heady, almost perfumey magnolia aroma and flavour through most of the session, as well as a good amount of citrus. It also had the sweetness of the other Anji Bai Cha, though to a lesser extent in later steeps. If I hadn’t done a side-by-side comparison with the Anji from Seven Cups, I’d say this was a perfectly nice green tea, and it’s still great for the price.

Once again, I wildly overbought green tea this year so I could do some educational comparison sessions. This time, I’m focusing on three kinds of Anji Bai Cha, two from Seven Cups and one from Camellia Sinensis.

Tea bush: Baiye #1 (White Leaf #1)
Location: Anji County, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province
Picking date: Mid-April 2025
Price in USD/g: $0.79

For the side-by-side comparison, I steeped 2.4 g of leaf in 120 ml of 185F water for 4 minutes, resteeping as needed until the tea faded. I also did a more normal session with 3 g of leaf in 250 ml of 185F water, with times as above.

In contrast to the sweeter, more beany Ming Qian Anji from the same company, the dry aroma of this tea featured asparagus, honey, florals, herbs, and citrus. The first steep of the comparison session was slightly bitter and had notes of herbs, asparagus, kale, beans, lemon, and unidentifiable florals. Subsequent steeps showcased asparagus, green pepper, grass, herbs, lemon, honey, and florals. The citrus held on until near the end of the session and the tea was always more vegetal/bitter than the Ming Qian, though not unpleasantly so.

With my normal leaf-to-water ratio, the first steep had notes of green beans, asparagus, rosemary and other herbs, orange, lemon, and florals (daffodils?). It was once again more vegetal and bitter than the Ming Qian Anji. Subsequent steeps featured buttered green beans, asparagus, grass, and more florals. The final steeps were grassy and vegetal but not too bitter.

Although this tea was more vegetal than I preferred, it had many intriguing notes to compensate for that. This was the most citrusy of the three Anji Bai Cha I tried. I liked the normal session more than the comparison session since the lower leaf-to-water ratio mitigated the bitterness. This is still a high-quality Anji and I’ll have no problem finishing my 25 g bag.

Once again, I wildly overbought green tea this year so I could do some educational comparison sessions. This time, I’m focusing on three kinds of Anji Bai Cha, two from Seven Cups and one from Camellia Sinensis.

Tea bush: Baiye #1 (White Leaf #1)
Location: Anji County, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province
Picking date: Early April 2025
Price in USD/g: $1.19

For the side-by-side comparison, I steeped 2.4 g of leaf in 120 ml of 185F water for 4 minutes, resteeping as needed until the tea faded. I also did a more normal session with 3 g of leaf in 250 ml of 185F water, with times as above.

The dry aroma of this tea featured honey, green beans, pastry, and soft florals. In the first session, I got initial notes of green beans, snow peas, pastry, honey, lilac, and other florals. Subsequent steeps were consistent, revealing green beans, asparagus, grass, pastry, and lilac florals. The tea never got overly bitter, though at a 2:1 leaf/water ratio, it was potent!

The first steep in the normal session had notes of green beans, asparagus, honey, pastry, nuts, lemon, and florals, maybe lilac. Subsequent steeps were more vegetal, with some cucumber, although the nutty, pastry goodness persisted. The tea got a bit drying when forgotten about. The final steeps faded into grass, green beans, and some floral hints.

As expected, this was an excellent, if pricy, Anji Bai Cha. There wasn’t a lot of citrus, but the florals and lack of bitterness made up for that. The sweet, pastry notes were a nice bonus. You could tell that this tea was picked sooner than the others while the leaves were sweeter and less vegetal.

I bought this 2025 Old Garden Sweet Dew to compare to the one from Camellia Sinensis. I was also intrigued by the fact that the tea is from heirloom bushes. This usually makes for a more interesting, unique flavour. I steeped 3 g of leaf in 250 ml of 185F water starting at 4 minutes, resteeping as needed until the tea faded.

The dry aroma is of chestnuts, bread, grass, and lemon. The tea starts out gently with notes of bread, chestnuts, lemon, apple, honeydew, cucumber, lettuce, and umami. In the middle steeps, the bread, nuts, lemon, honeydew, and cucumber are all very noticeable and the tea is sweeter than expected. I get a lovely honeydew aroma at the bottom of the cup. The cucumber starts becoming a little more bitter as the session goes on. I get little whiffs of some other fruit that I’m tentatively identifying as banana. The final steeps feature lettuce, cucumber, and grass and are not overly bitter.

This is a beautiful green tea with some unique fruity notes. It had good longevity and only became vegetal near the end of the session. It was well worth the high price tag, although I like other green teas from Seven Cups a bit more.

I’m still finishing off the ridiculous amount of green tea I bought this spring. Camellia Sinensis had two versions of Meng Ding Gan Lu this year, this being the first. The product description matched the one on this page almost exactly, so I’m including my tasting note here. I steeped 3 g of leaf in 250 ml of 185F water for 4 minutes, resteeping as needed until the tea faded.

The dry aroma is of nuts, bread, sweet corn, and flowers. The first steep has notes of hazelnut, bread, corn, kale, spinach, butter, and faint florals. This tea is fairly vegetal right off the bat. Further steeps reveal slightly more florals, plus grass, minerals, and what Togo calls lime. The tea is rather drying. The final steeps are grassy, nutty, mineral, and vegetal.

This is a nice enough green tea, but it gets too drying and vegetal to be a favourite. The hints of citrus and florals are fun, though.

This is the first Jin Jun Mei from Meng Ding I’ve come across, and I was curious enough to add 25 g to my last order. At around $20 CAD, it was much cheaper than the Zheng Shan Tang Jin Jun Mei from Lapsangstore I’ve had on my bucket list for a while, which comes in at an eye-watering US$155 for 50 g. I steeped 6 g of this much more humble tea in 120 ml of 195F water for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus some long, uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma of these black and gold fuzzy leaves is of heady roses, dark chocolate, and malt. The first steep features heady, realistic rose backed by bread, malt, dark chocolate, and brown sugar. I get more dark chocolate and some tannins in round two. The rose persists through the next couple steeps, with the addition of honey in the background. In steeps five and six, the rose starts to fade, leaving a tea with notes of bread, dark chocolate, malt, honey, and minerals. The tea is also a bit drying. By the eighth steep, the florals are evident but not specifically rosy. The final few steeps feature bread, malt, honey, earth, minerals, wood, and tannins.

As someone who enjoys floral teas, I was quite happy with this nontraditional Jin Jun Mei. The real JJM is supposed to have a strong rose component, and this fits that profile. Most affordable JJM emphasize malt, honey, and chocolate. These flavours can be nice, but there are lots of chocolatey teas out there that aren’t Jin Jun Mei. Though some might find it too perfumey, I like this tea and it seems to be high quality. I need to go through my tea museum to find the two other Jin Jun Mei I bought from this vendor back in 2023 or 2024 to see if they’re as good.