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Happy 2023! I apologize for my long hiatus from Steepster. It’s certainly been a while.

Here’s another entry in my attempt to drink all the unroasted teas from Wang’s catalogue. Shan Cha is difficult to find, and to my knowledge, this is my second one after the excellent What-Cha version. Thanks to Wang Family Tea for the generous 25 g sample! I believe this is from 2021 and is the non-competition version. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml porcelain pot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus a few uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of apricots, rose, raisins, and autumn leaves. The first steep has notes of rose, dried apricots, raisins, autumn leaves, cream, malt, wood, and tannins. The stonefruit and rose are rather lovely! The next steep adds a bit of blackberry and more sweet rose and apricot over the malty, woody, tannic base. The next couple steeps are similar, with the addition of honey, grass, and clove. Steeps five and six are less strong on the apricot, but still have lots of rose and raisin. The tannins assert themselves increasingly strongly in the next few steeps, though the apricot and especially the rose continue to make this tea worth drinking. The final steeps are full of malt, tannins, earth, minerals, honey, and wood.

This is a lovely fruity, floral tea that I enjoyed just a little bit less than the What-Cha version. The tannins could get aggressive, both in my preferred shorter steeps and in the longer ones that Wang suggests on their website. I did, however, purchase the competition version of this tea from 2022, so we’ll see how it compares.

I’m nearing the end of the green oolongs I bought from Wang back in 2021, and I have to say I’ll be sad when they’re gone. Most of the previous Qilai Shans I’ve had have been very floral and not that memorable, but of course, I couldn’t resist picking up one more. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot using boiling water for 55, 45, 55, 65, 75, 90, 120, 180, and 240 seconds, plus several long, uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of orchid, pineapple, and grass. The first steep has notes of orchid, pineapple, mung bean, and grass, and there’s a little bitterness because it’s the last session’s worth of tea in the bag. The next steep adds peach, lemon, and other unidentifiable florals. Steeps three and four give me peach, apricot, pineapple, lemon, cream, and orchid, but are not particularly sweet because the tea is quite vegetal (beans, lettuce, spinach, grass). The vegetal notes get stronger during the next couple steeps, with the fruit diminishing into grassy florals. The pineapple and orchid last the longest, leaving a not unpleasantly bitter vegetal impression as the session winds down.

As with all of the green oolongs I’ve tried from Wang, this Qilai Shan conveys clean, simple flavours very well, with the added benefit of having unexpectedly fruity notes in some sessions. Its longevity is also great, as is the fact that without the tea bits, this vegetal tea doesn’t actually get bitter. It’s a little unpredictable and slightly more vegetal than I’d like, but I’d highly recommend it!

I avoided Ruby 18 like the plague for a while because of a few very astringent examples, but What-Cha’s Yu Chi Red Jade made me more open to exploring this cultivar again. I received this as a generous sample from Wang last year, and was eager to finally try it. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml porcelain pot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus some uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of cinnamon, menthol, raisins, cream, malt, and wood. The first steep has notes of cinnamon, menthol, cream, raisins, camphor, malt, and wood, with a little astringency. The menthol and cinnamon are stronger in the second steep, and I get that sassafras note I associate with Ruby 18. Steeps three and four are full of mint, cinnamon, and sassafras, with some cream, grass, tannins, malt, sweet potato, earth, and raisins. The astringency isn’t off-putting, but it’s definitely there. Over the next few steeps, the distinctive Ruby 18 notes persist, but the tea becomes more bready, earthy, and tannic. The tea doesn’t change too much throughout the session, although grass and honey surprisingly emerge right at the end, along with the predictable tannins, malt, and wood.

This pleasant Red Jade has a lot of the cinnamon and mint that are typical of this tea type. These flavours persist over almost the entire session, though sadly, so does some astringency. Using the steeping parameters on their website (195F, 40/40/50 seconds) doesn’t tame the astringency, and produces fewer steeps. For me, this is a solid tea that I didn’t enjoy as much as the What-Cha version.

I’m surprised not to see a note for this tea. Wang generously sent me a sample in my mega 2021 order, and I’m getting to it in preparation for my mega order in 2022. (Those Black Friday sales are dangerous, especially with all the new award-winning teas on the site!) I steeped 5 g of my 10 g sample in 120 ml of boiling water for 60, 50, 65, 90, 120, 150, 200, and 240 seconds, plus steeps of 5, 8, and 10 minutes.

The dry aroma is of linden, peach, orchid, and grass. I’ve never had the pleasure of smelling peach blossom, but I can believe the vendor’s claim that the tea has that aroma. The first steep opens with grassy, orchid notes, and then reveals white sugar, peach, grass, mung beans, orchids, and spring flowers. The next steep is quite peachy, with vegetal, grassy, orchid, and sweet flavours and a lovely, lingering aftertaste. The vegetal aspect detracts somewhat from the ethereal florals and stonefruit, but not enough for me to care. Steep three has a lovely combination of peach, orchid, sugar, lettuce, grass, and egg yolk, which I wouldn’t have identified if the vendor hadn’t pointed it out. The tea is both very sweet and very vegetal, with a peachy aftertaste. The next few steeps have lots of peach, cream, and florals, plus lettuce, spinach, grass, and beans. The tea never gets harsh, though it does gradually become more grassy. The peach hangs on until the end of the session, though only as an attenuated sweetness.

This is a stellar tea that I had to buy more of. It’s a bit more vegetal than the Da Yu Ling, but the peach won me over. It also has great longevity. I highly recommend this tea for anyone who likes sweet, fruity high mountain oolongs.

I’ve had this hongcha in my tea museum for an embarrassingly long time. Alistair’s Ruby 18 and Taiwanese Assam were so good that I finally decided to try this one, especially as it’s the only one of his higher-end Taiwanese black teas that’s currently in stock. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 7, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus some uncounted steeps.

The dry leaves have lovely aromas of blackberries, strawberries, honey, florals, and spice. The first steep is full of jammy red fruit (blackberries, strawberries, and currants), plus lemon, malt, bread, honey, geranium (thanks, Derk!), and clove. The second steep adds sweet potato, tangy orange, and almond in the aftertaste. The next two steeps add notes of cherry along with all the other red fruit, and the geranium, honey, and malt are a little more prominent. Steeps five and six have some malt and earthiness, but are still full of red fruit, sweet potato, cream, and lemon. In the next couple steeps, the fruit starts to fade, though it’s still very much in evidence, and I can taste the sweet potato a little more. The sweet potato and jammy red fruit continue over several more steeps, with malt, honey, grass, earth, and minerals becoming stronger near the end of the session.

This is the kind of lush, aroma-forward tea I gravitate toward. The early steeps remind me of Fruit Roll-Ups, especially if I’m not paying attention, and this is far from a bad thing. There’s never any astringency during my extended gongfu sessions. The body can be a bit thin sometimes, but that jammy red fruit keeps me coming back for more.

I made a big Floating Leaves order over the Black Friday weekend, so the least I can do is finish a few of the teas from my last order in 2021 before my haul arrives. This Dong Ding is from either spring 2021 or winter 2020. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus some long, uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of walnuts, hazelnuts, roast, and flowers. The first steep has notes of nuts, cream, banana bread, honey, minerals, grass, and char. The next steep has more banana and nuts, plus honey and narcissus/orchid florals. The roast is on the lighter side, and the body of the tea is thick. The next couple steeps feature nuts, graham cracker, roast, pine, florals, and grass. Steeps five and six are a little more grassy and vegetal, though they still have a nice, round honey and roasty flavour. Subsequent steeps are a bit more nutty and roasty, with floral and grassy undertones. The final long steeps have notes of graham cracker, roast, nuts, butter, minerals, and wood.

I want to like Dong Dings more than I actually do, as I find most of them too roasty. This one was on the lighter side, however, and I thought it had more character than some others. The florals and banana bread were a nice break from the roast, and it never started tasting like overbrewed coffee, as some other roasted teas can. I’m glad I tried this tea, but don’t regret leaving it out of my 2022 order.

I was delighted to find this three-year-old sample in the vaults of my tea museum. I enjoy Laoshan black tea, but haven’t had any in quite a while. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml porcelain pot at 195F for 7, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of cocoa, rye bread, honey, and malt. The first steep has notes of fudgy cocoa, dark chocolate, rye bread, honey, cream, and malt. The second steep adds faint cherry, minerals, and wood, but this tea is all about the cocoa. The next couple steeps are more roasty with hints of caramel. Steeps five and six are mineral, woody, and roasty with some sourness, but still, the cocoa makes it quite drinkable. The cocoa continues into the tenth steep, after which the tea has notes of wood, earth, minerals, and roast.

For such an old tea, this Laoshan Black stood up rather well. I appreciated its cozy, somewhat simple profile on this dull day. It didn’t change much over the gongfu session, but for a comforting chocolate tea, that’s okay.

I decided to get a bunch of new first and second flush Darjeelings this year, even though I still have a few from years past. Maybe I should have waited, since I’ve heard that weather conditions during the second flush harvest weren’t that great. I steeped 4 g of leaf in a 355 ml mug at 195F for 4.5, 6, and 8 minutes.

The dry aroma is of raisins, figs, malt, autumn leaves, spices, and wood. The first steep has notes of raisin, fig, muscatel, rye bread, autumn leaves, chili, spices, honey, tannins, malt, and wood. It’s a little drying, though I may have used a bit too much leaf. The next steep emphasizes raisins, rye bread, autumn leaves, cream, malt, and wood, though the aftertaste is nice and fruity. It also, predictably, becomes more drying. The final steep adds caramel and grass, and is bready, malty, and tannic without much fruit.

This is a nice daily drinker Darjeeling that I probably won’t remember a couple months from now. There’s nothing wrong with it, but it doesn’t pop with lush fruit and florals like some really good SF teas.

I’ve been looking forward to trying this Shan Lin Xi for a while, and finally finishing a 150 g pack of another Shan Lin Xi gave me the perfect opportunity. (I actually forgot to post a note on that tea, but fortunately, I have another bag.) I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot using boiling water for 55, 45, 55, 65, 75, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus several uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of pineapple, orchids, and grass. The first steep has orchid, pineapple, coconut, woodsy, and grassy notes, with some other unidentifiable florals mixed in. The next steep has a touch of astringency and the sappy quality I get with many teas from Shan Lin Xi. I also notice cream, green beans, and sweeter florals (narcissus?), and as Daylon said, it kind of reminds me of a fabric softener sheet. The aroma at the bottom of the cup is particularly floral and fruity. Steeps three and four are full of cooked pineapple, herbs, orchids, sweet pea flowers, beans, grass, and veggies, with maybe a hint of citrus. The tea is becoming increasingly vegetal and green. The next couple steeps feature more coconut and pineapple in the aroma, but more spinach and grass in the taste. The final long steeps are mostly vegetal with hints of florality.

This is a highly drinkable tea, as shown by the fact that I’ve had three sessions with it in the past few days and will finish my 25 g bag shortly. I love the tropical fruit and sweet florals, but the strongly vegetal flavours and lack of longevity bring my rating down somewhat. Nonetheless, this is a tea I will consider buying again, if only because it’s substantially more affordable than the SLX Wild Garden.

It’s always nice to get tea from Whispering Pines, since shipping costs from the U.S. to Canada are so high. Thanks to Daylon for the generous sample! I steeped 6 g of leaf in 120 ml of water at 195F for 7, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus some uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is hard to pin down, with elements that remind me of cranberry, grape, hay, malt, tobacco, tomato vine, and wood. It smells like a wild Yunnan tea, if that’s helpful. The first steep has notes of earth, forest floor, minerals, grapes, squash, honey, hay, malt, and wood. The next steep is sweeter, with molasses, tobacco, bread, red grapes, cranberries, pine, and maybe some spices. In the third and fourth steeps, I get bread, honey, sweet potato, raisins, hay, malt, cream, pine, earth, smoke, wood, and minerals, and the tea is a bit drying. The aftertaste is particularly sweet, though this is a savoury tea overall. I get berry and cherry notes in the next couple steeps, and the tea is a bit sweeter. As the session goes on, the tea becomes more like a standard Yunnan tea, with notes of bread, honey, pine, tannins, malt, and wood. The final steeps feature malt, wood, tannins, minerals, honey, and raisins, with some red grape sneaking in on the longer steeps.

This is a rustic, wild Yunnan tea that is nonetheless nuanced and complex. Its sweet, earthy flavours really do evoke a forest, particularly in the first few steeps, and I had fun trying to detect everything that was going on. I don’t usually gravitate toward these types of teas, but would highly recommend this one.