144 Tasting Notes

99

I’m sipping this tea again today and enjoying its sweet floral and malty flavors immensely. Again western style, as before. But I cannot justify the 95 rating when it deserves a 99. So there it is, an excellent brew! Thank you @Song Tea & Ceramics!

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 30 sec 3 g 8 OZ / 236 ML

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70

Revisiting this Qimen, the same mylar pouch I bought during pandemic, from the back of my cupboard. Looking at my previous review, the score of 54 seems a bit harsh (since I’ve assigned regular Lipton “pekoe cut black” teabags a rating of 65). The tea has good flavor of fruit and malt, and nicely aromatic, but is indeed smooth and delicate as compared to plain Keemun which I still prefer. But there is a time for smooth and delicate flavors, and this delivers on that promise! Raising my rating to 70, with the caveat that it is on the expensive side of 70. The second steep was watery and with the previously mentioned notes of cardboard, so I won’t advise multiple infusions.

Preparation
Boiling 2 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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25

Brewed 2.5g dry Indonesian leaf in 7oz boiling water for 2 min. Neither leaf nor liquor were purple. Aroma of toasted wheat. Flavors of toasted grains, blackened potato skin, nuttiness, charcoal, and metallic. No floral notes, no cinnamon, no butter, no dill, no vinegar. A re-steep was the same, after which the rolled leaf had loosened somewhat, but never expanded. Frankly, just tastes like an infusion of vegetable ashes. No desire to drink any more of this. Rating 25 and not recommended.

Flavors: Ash, Charcoal, Grain, Nutty, Potato

Preparation
Boiling 2 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 7 OZ / 207 ML

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An old pouch I hadn’t opened in 7 years, kept well stored. Finely chopped leaf, almost like a CTC.— and faintly fragrant. Western brew. Bleh. Brown water tasting vaguely of tea and nowhere near as good as standard Lipton teabags, which I rate at 65. This old, stale black tea tastes old & stale. Not recommended and in fairness I won’t assign the rating of 40 because of its age. If you find some of this, and like it, give it a fast sipdown because it won’t live long.

Flavors: Tea

Preparation
Boiling 1 min, 30 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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I’ve had this black tea sitting around in its sealed mylar bag for some 6 years now and am finally posting some notes here after finding it this morning. Coincidentally, I see that Steepster user @Mastress Alita posted a review of it only 3 days ago! MA’s material might be fresher than mine, but it’s no longer for sale on Tealyra’s site anyhow.

I steeped Western style, as directed, and found much the same as reported by MA, though with a weak intensity and substantial astringency. Interestingly, midway through the tea, I got hit with a few flashes of blackberry fruit flavor! Overall the tea was drinkable, with some interesting flavor and little if any extended aftertaste. I’d only rate it a 60 though I won’t post that score here (nor “recommend”) since I suspect mine has simply suffered with age. I may try overleafing it and dropping the water temperature before giving up.

FOLLOWUP: I doubled the leaf to 5g and used 8oz water at 190°F for 30sec. The result was much more intense in flavor and aroma, but no more enjoyable to my palate. A re-steep also for 30s was less bright. This tea just isn’t for me— off to the compost heap with it! (I guess I can’t call it a sipdown ha!)

Flavors: Astringent, Blackberry, Malt

Preparation
Boiling 2 min, 0 sec 3 g 8 OZ / 236 ML
Mastress Alita

I purchased my package in 2022 (though I don’t know how old the tea may have been on the site at that time) and it was still sealed until I opened it a week or so ago.

TeaEarleGreyHot

Aha, okay, yours was substantially fresher than mine, which bears a 2020 expiry date!

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70

Well, there is a raft of 9-12 yr old reviews on this tea under the old name of this vendor (Tealux), but Steepster “teepland” posted a newer note a few yr ago, and I’ll tag onto it. I’ve updated the Tealyra description and photo, though. Still, it seems these pearls have gotten larger since teepland’s review (and the photos) because they report using 8+ per teaspoon, per cup, while Tealyra suggests 3 pearls per teaspoon per cup, and that matches my measure. Those 3 pearls totaled 2.5g dry wt, which is about right and matches some of those old reviews. So maybe the size varies from lot to lot? I brewed grandpa style. Pleasant, sweet, fragrant tea, with notes of honey, cocoa, petrichor, and my impressions match Tealyra’s description and others’ notes. Nuff said. I’d recommend and rate this as 70.

Flavors: Airy, Cocoa, Floral, Honey, Petrichor, Sweet

Preparation
Boiling 8 min or more 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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80

Today I brewed closer to the seller’s guidance, again Western style: 2.5g in 8oz boiling water for 2 min. Two steepings. And I’m liking the tea much more than previously, raising my rating to 80. The fragrant dry leaf was dark and wiry in appearance and yielded a liquor of deep clear amber color with typical Assamic nose of malt and brown sugar. Once expanded, the leaves were small but intact. The taste was sweet and malty with raisins and a bit of astringency, and some floral notes I’ve not noticed in other Assams. The flavor improved and intensified as the liquor cooled, and the long-lingering finish was superior to the forward taste! This is better than any CTC Assamic I’ve had. The re-steep accompanied my lunch of kimchee, roast pork, and vegetarian konjac pad thai. The tea was still nicely fragrant and bore flavor notes of fruit compote.

Flavors: Brown Sugar, Floral, Fruity, Malt, Raisins

Preparation
Boiling 2 min, 0 sec 3 g 8 OZ / 236 ML

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85

I acquired this shou 3 years ago, and have had it in 63% RH storage since then. This now 9 yr old ripe Pu-erh (2019 pressing of 2016 material) brewed up to make a very nice, thick & sweet broth that was deep brown and opaque in appearance. I steeped (western style) 5g leaf in 8oz boiling water (after a 10s discarded rinse) for 30 sec the first time, then re-steeped the leaves three more times for 15s each. I’m sure the leaf would have continued for another 4+ steepings, but a quart of tea was my limit. Each infusion tasted the same, with a strong mushroomy flavor and petrichor aroma, with accents of chestnut and tobacco. Without sourness, fishiness, or bitterness, it was very pleasant and a great value. Creamier than, and almost as flavorful as, the tangerine gong ting I previously reviewed at http://steepster.com/teas/yunnan-sourcing/93201. Still available, I’ll rate this as an 85.

Flavors: Chestnut, Creamy, Mushrooms, Petrichor, Sweet, Thick

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 30 sec 5 g 8 OZ / 236 ML

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Bio

Life is too short to drink bad tea!
Pan-American: Left-coast reared (on Bigelow’s Constant Comment and Twinings’ Earl Grey) and right-coast educated, I’ve used this moniker & Email since the glory days of AOL in the 90’s, reflecting two of my lifelong loves—tea and ‘Trek.

Now a midwestern molecular biologist (right down to the stereotypical Hawaiian shirts), I’m finally broadening the scope of my sippage and getting into all sorts of Assamicas, from mainstream Assam CTCs to Taiwan blacks & TRES varietals, to varied Pu’erhs. With some other stuff tossed in for fun. Love reading other folks’ tasting notes (thank you), I’ve lurked here from time to time and am now adding a few notes of my own to better appreciate the experience. You can keep the rooibos LoL! Note that my sense of taste varies from the typical, for example I find stevia to be unsweet and bitter. My dislike of rooibos may be similarly rooted in genetics.

I am conversationally friendly but absolutely not here looking for dates or money. Nor to sell anything. If I’ve started to follow you, I don’t mean to be creepy, it only means you posted something I liked reading, or it was about an interesting tea or event. And I’ve recently discovered that the Steepster system only notifies me of new posts written by people I follow. If you follow me, I won’t assume anything. If I do not follow you, it isn’t a snub—you’re still a good human being!
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Photo with Aromatic Bamboo Species Raw Pu-erh Tea “Xiang Zhu” by Yunnan Sourcing, which is most definitely aromatic!

Location

Chicagoland-USA

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