144 Tasting Notes
Sipdown. And also, Steepster ate my note again.
2 years from opening the packet and it’s still very caramel-y and rum-y. I normally hate rooibos but this was actually nice.
As I’m running low on non-caffeinated teas, I would repurchase if near a Lupicia. Still surprised I liked this at all.
Sipdown. Lol. It’s been three years since I first opened this.
Herbal fruit tea. Tastes like the dessert. Liking the cinnamon. A little tart when brewed for more than a few minutes, but I can see some people liking that.
Flavour didn’t diminish with time, which is rare. Not rebuying, but rating stays the same.
Bought this from the international site.
Strong. I get a big vanilla note and a big roasty note with some floral aroma. The minerality is subtle.
I did this Western style in yixing 87C, 1 tblesp, 150ml for 2min, 3min, 3min, 4min, 5min. Strength carries through the first four infusions.
5th steep is getting lighter with a soft fruit note and slight woodsiness.
I’m a little wary of brewing this in the same yixing that I use for Whispering Pines’ Wildcrafted Da Hong Pao. I wonder if the medium-strong roasty note in this tea will overwhelm the fruity flavour of the clay absorbed from the WP version. Or is that getting a little pedantic? It’s not like I can afford the WP version on a continuous basis anyway.
Can’t feel any qi with this one but I do feel rather relaxed.
Still on the hunt for a fruity DHP. I really enjoyed it though and it’s at such a great price point. If I had the budget, I honestly would order one of every DHP listed on the Yunnan Sourcing website.
Okay. This makes the list of one of my top teas ever.
I wrote an extensive note about it some time ago and my laptop shut down by itself when it was almost complete. So here it goes again, albeit a little less detailed.
The vanilla note is one of my favourite things in Da Hong Pao. Vanilla isn’t listed as a note on the website, and it’s definitely not an ingredient either but it is what I taste. A light vanilla, with a fair amount of oak and lots of pure minerality. Throw a little bit of white wine in the mix. But what makes this particular DHP stand out to me is just how juicy it is. That, and the qi.
So juicy. Like stonefruit nectar. And the qi. It’s a calm, happy qi.
It is a little on the light side though, and so the flavour does start to peter out by perhaps the fourth steep Western style. I follow the website directions for Western ( yixing, 87C, 1tblsp, 150ml for 2min, 2min, 3min, 4min, 6min and then I rest the leaves for a few hours in the yixing and try for 7mins and 10mins).
I have purchased this twice and simply can’t afford to purchase anymore due to the cost of shipping to Australia. It ends up being $AU4 per session which is pretty damn high.
As Brendan hasn’t answered my question on the future availability of this product, I assume it’s a limited offering.
Go on guys. Buy the last six ounces left on the website. I’ll just have to hoard what I have left.
Western style – 2 tsp – 350ml – 90C – 2mins
Dry leaf – I smell salted caramel, baked bread and stonefruit. Pretty standard for a good quality black BUT also a kind of a boozy aroma which makes this one stand out to me in particular.
Infused – I taste all of the things I smell but a little less of the caramel. Texture has a pleasant thickness to it. Very smooth.
Teavivre is so consistent with their quality!! Happy customer
I get mainly orange blossom honey from this tea. Not too much in the way of sweet potato, malt, chocolate or spice.
Verryy citrusy actually! Almost as if it were blended with an essential oil, even though it’s really just pure tea. I can see why it is the base for their Wild Grey blend, where bergamot oil is actually combined with the Dian Hong.
It’s not my favourite but if you love a citrus note without actual added citrus, you’ll love this tea.
Sipdown.
I came to appreciate this more and more when it’s night-time and I want a creamy, indulgent drink without sugar. I steep this five minutes in boiling water and add milk. It is reminiscent of coffee but not quite, and is made of barley so caffeine-free.
If I’m ever low on no-caffeine teas and near a Lupicia store, I will definitely repurchase this.
November 2015 Harvest
5g in 100ml porcelain teapot, gongfu style.
Dry leaf smells rather light. Can’t detect much aroma at all. That is, until I throw them into a prewarmed teapot and WOW is this tea leaf or warm cherries dipped in chocolate? This is before I even add water, by the way.
Verdant says this has notes of chocolate, cherry, sandalwood and vanilla. These flavours absolutely spot on.
A huge reason I bought this is because cherry is listed as one of the main notes. I haven’t had access to something like that since Cocoa Amore by Whispering Pines (will that ever come back?)
Laoshan Roasted Oolong is my Cocoa Amore replacement. And at a much better price point too.
Recommend recommend!! I may even buy a yixing pot just for this.
My favourite chai in the world, tied with Melbourne-based Prana Chai.
T2’s organic version tastes much better than the standard one. However, all my experience with this blend has been with packages produced before the Unilever takeover. (I feel like some of their products have gone down in quality since the takeover, probably for the Unilever profit margin.)
The flipside of that, is T2 expanding past Australia to become a global operation which means the rest of the world has one more giant offering. (If anything, T2 does have quite the range.)
Small saucepan, brewed stovetop for seven minutes on medium-high heat. 3 – 5 teaspoons of chai (depending on how cold the weather is..) with one cup cold water and one cup So Good Vanilla Soy Milk and 1/4tsp of New South Wales White Box Honey.
Literal perfection.
Only reason this doesn’t have a score of 100 is because I haven’t tasted it straight without any additions yet. But that’s because it is just simply too good the way I’ve always made it.
