TeaEarleGreyHot Send Message

Post-CoVid Tasting Note: It has now been two months since I recovered from Covid, and my senses have returned to normal. So, as promised, I am reevaluating this tea. After a 5-second rinse of a 5g portion of tea cake in boiling water, I brewed the leaf in 8 oz. boiling spring water for 3 min., which produced a straw-yellow infusion. To my nose there was a pungent aroma of young sheng puer in the hot infusion. There was some astringency on the back of my tongue, but the taste was not bitter. Nor did I detect the strong floral notes and sweetness of typical of other C. taliensis teas. I have enjoyed those flavors in jing gu white pekoe silver needle and jinggu sun-dried sun-dried silver needles white pu-erh tea, but here they did not present themselves until the infusion had cooled to ambient, and even then were subtle. While hot, there was a lingering aftertaste of gardenia flowers. I think this tea would make a very refreshing iced-tea brew! I find that even 10 min after my last sip of the cold tea, there is a lingering taliensis flavor. As a hot tea it may still be a bit young to fully enjoy the puer qualities. The leaves are still a light olive-green in color and the cake was loosely compressed. A second infusion of 2 min. was less astringent, but equally flavorful. This is a bargain-priced and unique puer that is certainly worth trying, which purists may find either delightful or, at least, surprisingly unusual.

————————
Bought this in spring 2022 from the YS “.us” site. [UPDATE: I have deleted most of this very negative review because it appears I have Covid, and have lost most of my sense of taste. Not fair to slam this tea under that circumstance! Look for a fresh review in a month or so, assuming I survive.]

….If Camellia taliensis intrigues you, please please buy the 25g sample size first.

Disclaimer: I am one of those individuals for whom stevia sweetener tastes bitter instead of sweet. If the reputed sweetness of this tea comes from a similar compound, it is possible that my taste buds simply don’t taste it the same way as other peoples’ might. Again, start with a sample size instead of a whole damn cake!

Wow! This is a truly delicious tea, and the description by Yunnan Sourcing is spot-on. The aroma is heady and I can immediately sense its assamic descent. Taste is rich, malty and sweet, like stewed stonefruit. Some astringency arose in the second steep, also greatly enjoyable. I’ll buy more for sure! Steepings #3 & 4 were 12 hr later and also satisfyingly tasty.

I received this packet as part of the “Smoky Tea Lovers Sampler Set” form YS, not because I particularly love smoky teas, but because I wanted to try some of the varieties available and see what was out there. These leaves were supposedly harvested in spring 2021, and so they’re just barely one year old. Nevertheless they were deep dark brown as dry leaf, and stayed dark brown through steeping. I’ve added a photo of the spent leaves. The tea liquor was a deep honey color. There could be no doubt that this tea was intentionally smoked over wooden fires. In the first steeping, I got an overwhelming fragrance of pine smoke very reminiscent of the aroma in my jar of smoked paprika. I was unable to smell anything else. Flavor wise, although I detected sweetness in the back of my mouth, the overwhelming flavor profile was as though I had been inhaling campfire smoke through my mouth for an hour. I didn’t really taste anything else, probably because the smoke residue deadens the sense of taste, and I actually developed a numbness on my tongue and the inside of my lips. I would only pair this tea with very strongly flavored foods, and I have a hard time imagining when I would want that level of smokiness except, perhaps, when eating meats. The second steeping was much less pungent and far less flavorful, and I see no reason to try a third steeping. They might as well have smoked wood shavings or forest leaf-litter to achieve an equivalent product. I just don’t like this and now I have to try to get the flavors out of my mouth. As bad as it is, I’d still drink it over rooibos. Maybe this will come in useful as a dry rub for oven roasted meats. I’ll have to try grinding some up.

Another smokey, raw pu’erh from YS. This one came as part of their “smoky tea lovers sampler set“ which I bought not because I particularly love smoky tea, but rather I am unfamiliar with it and wanted the experience! A sampler set seemed to be a good place to get that experience, especially if they are teas selected by lovers of smoke!

Well, this tea did not disappoint. Steeped to a golden hue (after 10s rinses in hot tap, then boiling spring, water). A great smoky flavor, soft mouth feel with low astringency, and a good lingering aftertaste. Clearly well aged, but without “humidity“ in the nose and no trace of fish, compost, or dirt on the tongue. This tea would stand up to, and complement, a bacon & egg breakfast, with the sweet smokiness echoing smoked bacon! By the third infusion, the leaves had opened up to reveal a dark green chop with a few stems, and the soup had transitioned to a honey-brown hue. Fourth infusion still had some fines at the bottom of the cup and the flavors had tempered—still smokey, but time to lengthen the steep time considerably.

Yup, this is smokey. And had bitterness & astringency in my first steep (after a rinse in hot tap water and another rinse for 10s in boiling water). Deep golden colored brew and very aromatic. The leaves were still quite green as you can see in the right-hand dish of the photo, which belies the teas youth and drier storage. By the 3rd steep, the smokiness had diminished but the astringency remained potent. Perhaps this tea will age to a smoother and sweeter brew in 10 or 20 more years, and if so, perhaps my heirs will be enjoying it.
UPDATE: I continued sipping this, now on infusion number 6 (five minutes). The bitterness and astringency have tempered, but the soup remains a beautiful, clear, deep golden color. Nice, round mouhfeel. Bumping up my rating by 5 pts. though the tea still needs more age. This, too, was part of the “smokey tea lovers sampler set” and I’m glad to have tried it.

NTT describes this Oolong as: “Bold | Earthy | Complex | Malt | Toasted Pecan | Brown Sugar” and I can partially agree. Definitely bold and complex, but I’m not getting earthiness (thankfully), nor do I get malt or brown sugar. There is a roasted flavor and aroma that is reminiscent of nuts which, I suppose, could be called pecan—but not a strong pecan. Maybe pecan shells. The oxidation is heavy and there in no grassy or buttery or honey flavor to my tongue, but the brew is surely tasty. Second steeping satisfied too. Overall just not exciting to me. I’ll finish off the bag and move on! Nevertheless, I was very happy to be able to try this offering from Nepal, and I have been enjoying a number of other Nepalese teas as well!

2013 Cha Yu Lin “Hua Mei” Hunan Tian Jian Tea. I have no idea what the name means, but I can attest that this is a dark tea. Both the leaf, which is rather stemmy, and the soup, which was clear and oak-brown in color. I’ve never tasted smoked peat, so I don’t know if I can concur with that part of the YS description, but I sure don’t get fruit or chocolate. Instead, the first impression in my initial three steeps was of seaweed, reminiscent of nori used to wrap sushi. Both in aroma and flavor. No compost or fishy notes, but definitely a taste of the ocean! No astringency or bitterness or undesirable notes, but nothing really appealing either. A longer 4th steep smelled faintly of dirty socks and both color and flavor were petering out. Not complex at all. No lingering flavor either. Someone put in the listing that this is a pu’erh? Okay….