Berylleb King Tea

This tea is beautiful to look at – all tiny golden buds.
This is really really good. Could be my favorite Jin Jun Mei.
It’s dark and rich, maybe a hint of creamy. Just plain yummy.
This is why I love Chinese black tea….

Edit: This is too good to be drinking at work. It’s just getting wasted here – I need to drink this at home under proper steep parameters. Wonder what else I have in my purse…

I only steeped this western style so I won’t get the full gamut of notes here. It is relatively tasty though. There is a moderate amount of fermentation flavor left, not for those who don’t like a little fermentation flavor. It is however, not overpowering. There is a definite note that I would describe as either wet wood or bamboo, not sure which is a better descriptor. There is a sweet note too.

I brewed this one time in an 18oz teapot with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 30 sec.

*dexter*sent this one my way and i wanted to try it against the one from Han Xiang just for fun. Where the han xian one is cocoa, and sweet and malty and delicious…this one is slightly malty, less cocoay but the after taste is really nice. A little hint of astringency but that just adds to the tea rather than detracting from it. I think i refer the han xian one just a bit more though…as it’s tastes call out to me a little more! stlll a tasty cup though.

My dearest dexter sent me a lovely box of straight teas that i have had to neglect as i haven’t had time to sit and enjoy tea on my weekend recently. I don’t like trying samples from friends at work in travel mugs as i like to give them their full attention. Of course, as i say that, i drank this one several hours ago, and my other half dragged me outside before i had a chance to write a tasting note lol.

As some of you know, Jin Jun mei’s are hit or miss for me. I don’t seem to love them with the same passion as others do. This one was on the nice side though. Sweet, not really malty but reminded me of sweet potatoes a little…I had this one gulped down pretty quickly :) Also my first experience with this company if i’m not mistaken. :) thanks dexter!

This cute little pu square was sent to me by Sarsonator, thank you sweetie.

Quick rinse and first steep is like a pale version of what it should be…i didn’t let it steep long enough, its super compact.

Second steep and…whoa! This doesn’t taste like shou…it tastes like roasted coffee beans!

Very dark and rich, slightly bitter just like a strong black coffee.

Now, I don’t drink a lot of coffee but I enjoy a cup once in a while. And I drink mine black, so this is very reminiscent.

I would say it resemble Special Dark a tad. Certainly as rich and full bodied.

Third steep and it’s still not completely loose, this will render many steeps.

And it provides a pretty intense qi, made my heart beat a little faster and gave me tons of good energy. Really, i see this as a potential regular morning cuppa. I think it would do as good brewed western style cause it doesn’t have a very complex flavor profile. The steeps tasted almost all the same.

I agree with Sarsonator’, a must try to all the coffee lovers out there!

Here’s a look:

http://instagram.com/p/yP_u8SQhzr/

http://instagram.com/p/yQBOn1wh2q/

I don’t tend to like milk oolongs, but Berylleb sends a few of these (in sweet red satin pouches) with every order so I have quite a collection built up, and I thought it was time to try one. In my experience natural milk oolongs tend to be flowery, vegetal and just a hint buttery despite the name. Not my favorite. But this one, from the second you open the bag, is reminiscent mainly of peaches. The smell is incredibly strong, and while the taste is somewhat mellowed, peach is really quite prominent. I can slightly discern the oolong base and there’s a nice amount of creamy buttery flavor. Honestly, it tastes exactly like I remember Peaches ‘n Cream oatmeal tasting like. Is it really unflavored? I’ve never had anything like it.
I’m only on the first steep, but I’m interested in seeing how it progresses.

I ordered the cutest tea pet from berylleb (http://www.ebay.ca/itm/321108625852?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649) for my wife for Christmas, and it came in yesterday. Oh well, she still loves her little green tea friend. And it’s so freaking cute that I immediately ordered another for myself, requesting a blue one, since she’s taking hers to work.

Included with our new tortie friend was two packages of this tea, which is wonderful. I live for milk oolongs. They are, hands-down, my favorite, so I’m super excited to try this one.

I definitely see the peach note, and then it evolves into this wonderfully creamy mouthfeel that leaves the taste of vanilla behind. It’s very, very good. I can’t wait to try this one cold.

However, I have a tin of DavidsTea’s milk oolong, and a tin of TeaVivre’s milk oolong on the way to me (hopefully), so I can’t in any way justify buying any more of this. But if I had room for it, I would be mighty tempted.

I was going to make the 2008 Song of Chi Tse, but my Golden Shousy teapot isn’t done seasoning yet, so I thought I’d give one of these a try. They were given as a little tea gift from Berylleb.

This is a really interesting tea. I did two rinses, not because of flavor, but because it was hard to get the leaves to open. The wet leaves smell exactly like COFFEE.

It’s pretty amazing. I wasn’t expecting THAT! There are certainly other flavors here, but I can’t get past the coffee. It’s not just the scent. This tea tastes like coffee.

I know we are all tea lovers around here, but if you also dig coffee, then this is definitely for you!

Brewed this one western style this morning. Some puerh teas don’t take western brewing well, either they are too earthy or too bitter. This one is good from the first steep although it is certainly good gongfu style as well. I’m not getting as strong notes of chocolate this time, ah well but its sweet and tasty.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with 6.1g leaf and boiling water for 30 sec.

This tea is excellent, almost but not quite stellar. It has very little fermentation flavor left, just a touch, barely perceptible. This is on par with a good quality puerh cake at least, if not the very highest quality. It is good. I might just put in an order with Berylleb for a half kilogram. I only bought 100g. In the initial steeping I detected notes of cocoa or chocolate. By the fourth steeping these notes had deepened to dark chocolate. There were other sweet notes as well. This is a very relaxing tea.

I brewed this 5 times in a 207ml Taiwan Clay Teapot with 7.6g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 10 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, and 30 sec. There were at least five more steeps to this tea but I have had enough caffeine for one night. It got only a little weaker in the fifth infusion. I should have given it one minute instead of 30 seconds. This was a damn good tea.

One of the last samples from my swap with AllanK.

And this is another good one. The dry leaf smells a bit apricoty, but there’s also another very sweet scent. Like candy. O_O

There’s no bitterness on the first two steeps and this definitely has a slightly different character from other shengs. It’s got a medium body and is very pleasant through the whole sip. Nothing to kick you in the ass right at the end. The aftertaste lingers nicely.

I added 1/2 tsp of sugar to the sharing pitcher, as A had suggested, and there definitely are some fruity notes that come forward. I don’t think this really needed sugar, but I found that it was a nice addition.

I don’t know if I would buy this one because of the size. How do you even store something like this? Aaawww who am I kidding? It tastes good, so yeah. I probably would buy it. I would be interested to see how this ages!

This tea is really, really good. I added a small amount of sugar to it. This brought out an incredible honey and apricot flavor to the tea. I don’t know if it would be there without the sugar. I did not add much. I bought this because I thought it looked interesting and I am glad I did. I don’t know if three weeks in my pumidor had any effect on the tea but it was good. The honey and apricot notes were prevalent in the first two steepings and less thereafter. It was only a little bitter in the first steeping and not at all after that. By the fifth steeping it was very smooth. It lost a little depth of flavor by the fifth steeping, but not much. In the end I steeped this six times and think I could certainly have gotten three or four more out of the tea.

I steeped this six times in a 140ml Yixing teapot with 5g leaf and 200 degree water. I gave it one 10 sec rinse. I steeped it for 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min.

The spent leaves had a really nice apricot aroma to them. I never noticed any bamboo flavor despite this being stored in bamboo.

This is an excellent oolong that lives up to the phrase “competition grade”. It is slightly sweet and slightly bitter, but it is bitter in a good sort of way. It has some of that characteristic oolong flavor common in Dong Ding oolongs but it is not overwhelming. It might be described as a musty flavor but I don’t know if that is right.There is also a mild honey flavor to this tea. This is is the first time I gave this the full gongfu treatment.

I brewed this four times in an 180ml celadon teapot. I used 190 degree water and 5g of leaf. I brewed it for 15 sec, 15 sec, 25 sec, and 35 sec. This was without a doubt one of the best oolongs I have ever drank.

I got this tea as a free sample from Berylleb, who is a wonderful eBay seller. I was hooked and have had to come back for more on numerous occasions! This tea is unique! It’s a Jin Xuan cultivar grown on Mt. Dong Ding, so you get that creamy milky flavor of Jin Xuan with some of the fruity flavors of a Dong Ding, likely from the terroir of Mt. Dong Ding.

This tea pulls you in with its enticing peaches and cream aroma. There are generous helpings of cream and fruit flavor throughout every steeping of this tea. In later steepings some subtle floral tones enter the scene. This tea is so creamy, light, smooth, fruity, buttery… and did I mention creamy? I have not had a milk oolong with as creamy of a flavor as this one. There are times I think I’m drinking a melted milkshake, it’s so wonderful. It’s like peache pie a la mode! And this tea is organic and unflavored, to boot! Wow!

I highly recommend this tea to anyone who likes light and sweet oolong. It is a favorite I constantly come back to and one of the teas I often use to introduce my friends to the world of Gongfu Cha and loose leaf teas. Everyone loves it and requests me to make it for them again!

For the perfect steeping, use 4.5g per 100 ml and steep for 45 seconds at 194F/90C. Add 15 seconds to each repeated infusion. After the fourth, start adding 30 seconds. You’ll get consistently milky and light steeps out of it this way and avoid the bitterness and overt floral that can escape from this tea if you don’t handle it properly.

this is quite nice, although different. it’s a rather run of the mill oolong (not amazing, but pretty good) with the most unusual aftertaste of ginseng! takes a bit to get used to it, but i bet this will end up being something i crave every now and then. it was a free sample from the company with another order, so i’m going to steep this puppy ‘til it’s dry, so to speak in mixed metaphors, that ginseng kick is really rockin’ this sleepy rainy afternoon!

sooo milk oolongs. they’re a thing. sometimes i like them..sometimes i don’t…and i never ever ever ever like the resteep. This one isn’t half bad. What’s strange to me is that i got no buttery sort of flavour that i get from most milk oolongs. instead this was almost more like a peach oolong. but a natural peach, not that weird tim horton’s peach flavoured drink (that of course i loved when i was younger!). on the whole…not to shabby! thanks awkward soul!

I’ve decided to review this sheng as I am definitely a supporter of organic tea. The bing is rather medium-tightly compressed.. a little tighter than a Mengku tea factory compression. Initially, the wet leaves have a slightly smoky aroma. However, this quickly transforms into what I can only describe as a fruity smokiness. The resulting tea liquor has a golden amber colour with some cloudiness to it. I, personally, do not find this tea smooth. It is bitter (I dont find this bitterness very pleasant) with some sweetness in the background. The smokiness is there as well. There is a slight huigan, which is nice. After a couple of infusions, I’ve come to the conclusion that this is a decent everyday tea. However, not something I personally enjoy very much.

I received this as a free sample after ordering some Wuyi Star samples from Berylleb. I was curious to try what they were like (I still haven’t tried them). I’m not sure what quality they are, but from what I read about the Wuyi Star brand I liken it to the Lipton of Wuyi.

This Tie Guan Yin wasn’t sweet or floral enough for me, and it didn’t have a strong aftertaste, but it wasn’t too vegetal either, and I do really appreciate free samples!

Thanks so much, CharlotteZero, for a sample of this one. This is a nice switch from the charcoal-like oolong I had earlier today. I don’t think I’ve ever had two oolongs in a day before! This one is nice, but it doesn’t really have a full flavor. I tastetested before the three minute steep was over, and that is when the most milky sweet flavor was present. But steeping for three minutes turns it into a typical but mild tasting oolong. The second steep had even less flavor… maybe it has just been stored in a sandwich bag for too long or something. (I still prefer this to the charcoal oolong.) I really hate the idea that I’m not giving teas a fair review because of something not for the fault of the tea.. like not being stored in the best way possible or it not being a brand new tea. I guess that’s the reason for tasting notes and Steepster in general though!

I would like to say first that Berylleb is an excellent eBay seller- both their products (in my case, teaware) and their customer service have been wonderful. I highly recommend that you check out their store on eBay.

That being said, I was not a big fan of this free sample they sent me with my most recent purchase. I do like milk oolongs, but this one left a too sweet taste in my mouth after I drank it, almost like an artificial sweetener would.

Oh well, I gifted it to another Steepsterer(?), and hopefully they will enjoy it.

Buttery? Yes. Light? Yes. Tasty? Yes. I also thought it smelt and tasted of peaches. I found it light and refreshing and very pleasant to drink. Definitely a good tea and one that I shall happily drink again. It has lasted well through half a dozen infusions and its taste is only improved by it being a free sample I received from Berylleb. Bonus!