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Grandpa Style!
This sheng pu’erh is definitely quite smooth and approachable, with an incredibly soft and almost powdery (in a pleasant way) mouthfeel to go alongside tender notes of white Spring flowers, fresh linens, and the lingering honey sweetness of ripe green melons and white peaches. It slowly buillds in presence over time, but just remains so delicate and lovely. Really quite brewed up grandpa-style like this!
Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/DKvCHLTy_QJ/
I love taking photos of dragonballs with different floral backgrounds, but this time around the creamy white flower petals really mirror the profile of the tea too. One of my favourite dragonball photos in quite a while.
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUTQOGSMgls&ab_channel=ROLEMODELVEVO
Gongfu!
This tea is so different from what I might have assumed it to be like based on name alone, but it’s really fantastic with a sweet and medium-bodied composition that just feels, well, golden tasting. A little nutty, a little caramelized, and just a bit pastry like as well. The more I think about it, the more brown butter just feels an increasingly spot on descriptor, though some steeps had a beautiful stonefruit rich undertone and some silky smooth florals. Grilled peaches, at times, dressed with orchids and lilac. Still, it’s so much less of the intense and aromatic floral notes than “flowerbomb” channels. Mostly that praline-like sweet nuttiness, touch of toastiness, and baked good warmth.
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DJ7eKUFyUYv/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D3qm4KENGg&ab_channel=almostmonday-Topic
Gongfu!
I had a fantastic catch up and tea hangout with Marika yesterday since it was a long weekend here in Canada. Patriot’s Day in Quebec, and Victoria Day everywhere else. It was very overdo, though!
We drank a lot of teas, of course. For the most part stuff that I wanted to share with her since I don’t get to do that on a daily basis anymore, and this was one that I really wanted her opinion on because it’s one of my fanciest smoked teas. It was very, very good. Lots of longevity to the smoke notes, but also buttery smooth with these really fantastic honey and red fruit undertones to it. I’ll have to do another tasting notes in the future that does a better job explaining the tasting notes, but for now suffice to say that I was so satisfied sipping on this one and just really happy that I’d got to share it with her.
We don’t always love the same teas, but smoke is definitely a BIG area of overlap for us.
Gongfu!
I wasn’t sure what to expect from this tea, but it was one of the most distinctive shou pu’erhs I’ve had in a really long time. Full-bodied but quite sweet and fruity tasting without as much of the deeper earthy or woody flavours you usually see. Even the fruity notes were bright and zingy with a really juicy, ripe red cherry profile that punched above the other slightly more tangy notes of fresh nectarines, pomegranate, and even almost a bit of tamarind with that subtle “brown tasting” caramel and molasses edge to it. Seriously, it’s just so fresh and lively with the sunniest sort of profile of a non-flavoured or blended pu’erh I’ve had in a long time. STRONG first impression.Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DJ42_MNyWX7/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24AzQWF8fRI&ab_channel=SaintMotel
Gongfu!
Enjoyed this session with a few blackberries snacked on in between the steeps. Though not quite as intense and full-bodied as expected, this was still a rich session with a smooth and more forest-y leaning flavour. Woody with that brothy and more umami sort of undertone that I see so commonly described as mushroom-like. Also just a bit creamy, but more in the sense of cooking cream and less a sweet, custardy creaminess. Probably because it is woodier in profile with some pine-y element, but I did taste rosemary and juniper at different points. The finish and aftertaste of infusions are where this tea is at its sweetest. Many years ago, a coworker gifted me a bunch of ouzo flavoured hard candies because she knew how much I enjoy the taste of black licorice, and the notes I’m picking up here are reminding me heavily of them: very anise and even absinthe-like.
I wanted to try this tea because of BLT’s description of it as more herbal and licorice-like (spot on!), and I feel like it really didn’t register to me that this was a twenty-four year old tea until halfway through this morning’s session. That’s wild. If this tea was a person, it would have hit all the big milestones: getting its license, voting, legal drinking age. What an incredible treat and luxury it is to get to enjoy aged teas like this one!!
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DJpgo0UStjb/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFRJCKVhwJs&ab_channel=OliverMalcolm-Topic
Trying this one today after tasting the taiping houkui yesterday is a good illustration of the variety of experiences you can have from Chinese green teas, lol.
Dry leaf is a medium green with some silver tips, twisted and kind of irregular. The dry scent in the tin is lovely and green, like freshly cut grass. Interestingly, there was basically no aroma when I put the dry tea leaves in the preheated mug, or when I poured over the hot water. I did 2g leaf + 300ml water at 180F, grandpa style.
This was a better tea than the taiping houkui to really get a feel for grandpa style brewing. Initially it was very entertaining to watch the leaves bob up and down and gradually unfurl. There is a phase in the beginning where most of the leaves pick up tiny air bubbles and float to the top, and this is usually the point in the past where I’d loose patience with grandpa style and pull out the strainer because I get so annoyed with trying to take a sip without ending up with a mouthful of leaves. Love this mug and its filter. And yes, eventually the leaves do absorb enough water to fall to the bottom of the glass. The sipping experience was also interesting because it really changed a lot as I drank and the leaves steeped. It kind of went from “hmm, nothing” to “nothing but in a very refreshing way” to “oh hey, there’s some bitterness and astringency kicking in” to “yes, my mouth is awake now”. It’s a pleasant bitterness though, accompanied by a bit of a sweet aftertaste in the back of the throat, very reminiscent of a young sheng, which makes sense since this is a green tea from yunnan after all. Then more hot water to dilute and mellow it out again, then notice as the flavour gradually intensifies. It’s enjoyable, I can definitely see the appeal of brewing these cheaper green teas this way. Uncomplicated and easy to just sip away while doing something else.
Preparation
I just got my first tea haul from Bitterleaf Teas! I pre-ordered small tins of all the non-Longjing spring green teas, as well as a glass green tea mug (it has a built-in filter making it ideal for grandpa style brewing). I decided to try this one first, because I’ve never tried a taiping houkui before and it just looks so cool. I steeped it grandpa style in the new mug. :) I started out with water at 180F for the first few pours, then started increasing the temp with each pour (cycling through the presets on my kettle).
Dry leaf aroma is really lovely – fresh, sweet, and verdent. Aroma as it steeps is also lovely and floral. Flavour is light, floral, with a remarkable nectar sweetness that started out strong and gradually tapered off. It remains soft and delicate even with the higher temperature water later on – absolutely no bitterness and very minimal astringency. Very nice.
Flavors: Floral, Sweet
Preparation
Gongfu!
I feel like I’m always so prepared for this tea to be much, much more bitter, astringent, and aggressive punchy than it actually is. It’s true that it does have some upfront bitterness in a slightly more green and medicinal way and that there’s a consistent astringency throughout most of the session. However, I find both to be incredibly well balanced, and to me, it reads as medicinal in an almost soothing way with a sort of tranquil fuzziness to the mouthfeel. I can’t think of a better way to describe it than that static electricity feeling of a limb falling asleep – before the pain of it waking up has started to set in. Floral notes creep from the undertones to the finish, and I get such a lovely but mild note of raspberries in the back half of the sip. Not tart or juicy, but smooth and mellow and very well integrated with the flowery notes peeking through and the sweetness that fills the palate after the bitterness has passed.Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DHwjc-Gy_Bi/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhJx5sYUyDg&ab_channel=TheHowl%26TheHum-Topic
Personally I find the dark, molasses-like sweetness and biscuit and caramel notes of the black really outweighs the oolong, though there are undertones of raisins, plum, and baked sweet potatoes that could arguably come from either tea in this delightfully experimental blend. The overall brew is so thick and syrupy, and somehow all the tasting notes click together to give off a sort of Stroopwafel vibe. It’s really lovely!
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DHRLwapJjYB/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FklT0OQZKA&abchannel=TheArcadianWild-Topic
Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – June 2025 Tea #3 - A tea swap tea or a sample
Happy to finish this tea, as I’m not really a fan. Glad to know this though! This was tangy in a way that I wouldn’t say I would usually associate with mandarin. The black tea isn’t anything I would gravitate towards either. But it’s sometimes a great thing when I don’t feel the need to stock up on a type of tea…
2025 Sipdown total: 36
2025 unique tea sipdowns: 29
From CameronB! Thanks again! Such a tiny fruit, it’s about enough for three Western steeps of tea. Of course, I throw some peel in the infuser, along with the actual tea. Sadly, the black tea is so incredibly light flavored to me, it’s just not something I want to steep up. The orange really takes over, even though that is quite light too. The orange that does appear in the flavor is very much like a rind flavor. It’s just a bit sad that a tea that isn’t really that great would be put through the trouble of being stuffed inside a tiny orange. Luckily, this isn’t a big orange, and was just enough for me to sample to know that this isn’t the tea for me. :)
Steep #1 // 15 minutes after boiling // 2-3 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep
Gongfu!
Started my morning with one of the best heicha tea sessions I’ve had in a very, very long time. It’s so thick and rich in cooling menthol and camphor notes, with a punch of medicinal and forest-y flavour, and really tingly, mouth numbing spice undertones of clove, cassia oil, and black cardamom alongside bittersweet dark chocolate. Despite all of that, the mouthfeel is really creamy. It’s just so flavourful but with such a visceral mouth sensation and body feel. I don’t know if I’ve been this glowy and tea drunk feeling in a while…
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DGgq63PSr7h/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i39g22RiTqA&ab_channel=CigarettesAfterSex
A nice white tea that has quite a rustic character with a strong dry grass/hay presence to it. I like its smooth colloidal mouthfeel in particular.
The taste is sweet and vegetal with mild bitterness and flavours of gardenia, burdock, peanuts, and tree bark.
Flavors: Bark, Bitter, Burdock, Candy, Dry Grass, Gardenias, Hay, Peanut, Smooth, Sweet, Vegetal
Preparation
This tea is now sold out unfortunately, but if it comes back in stock, I would highly recommend it. With the inflated prices of Oriental Beauty in recent years, it is hard to come around such a great example at this price.
The tea has a lot of depth and complexity and is more robust than some of the Taiwanese high grades. The dry leaf aroma is super sweet with notes of flowers, nectar, beeswax, and maple syrup. Wet leaves then smell very perfumy. There are notes of petrichor, soap, rose, and forest floor.
The taste is generally very sweet. Floral and woody notes dominate, with fruity ones in close succession. There is, however, also a sort of mineral, savoury undercurrent, as well as mild bitterness, which helps to keep it a thoroughly engaging session. Some specific flavours I noticed include peach, charcoal, and sugarcane. The aftertaste is very long, a bit drying and refreshing.
The tea has a medium body and a pretty soft mouthfeel, it is not super thick, but very pleasant to drink.
Flavors: Beeswax, Bitter, Charcoal, Drying, Floral, Flowers, Forest Floor, Fruity, Maple Syrup, Mineral, Nectar, Peach, Perfume, Petrichor, Pungent, Rose, Soap, Soft, Sugarcane, Sweet, Wood
Preparation
Gongfu!
Breaking in this beautiful baby blue shibo from Arbeeceramics this afternoon with a tea session of 2023 Black Rabbit paired with some fresh, local strawberries!! This Yiwu black tea is so bright and tangy with a nice full body and really syrupy, saturated red fruits that go hand in hand with the ripe berries I was nibbling on throughout the session. I mostly taste cherries, raspberry, and b9th red and black currants with undertones of honey, oak wood, and leather. On the nose I get vanilla, though I didn’t notice it so much in the taste. Definitely exactly the explosion of fresh fruit notes I was hoping for when I pulled out this sample today!
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFbTxEjyWLt/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DswTFD9A3jY&ab_channel=AllyEvenson
Grandpa Style!
I’m still on a little bit of a sticky rice kick, so I’m brewing up one of these cute little coins from a recent order. This ripe pu’erh is infused with nuomixiang (aka sticky rice herb), which gives it such a cozy and comforting flavour of glutinous rice. While I imagine this will be amazing as a gongfu session, I’m drinking this grandpa-style and it absolutely slaps. Starchy, smooth, and almost a little bit creamy with undertones of coconut, vanilla, and even pandan alongside a very full-bodied and robust foundation of earthy pu’erh. The balance is really good, and I appreciate the way the sticky rice flavour plays off the undertones of sweet brown dates, petrichor, and molasses in the shou pu’erh. Delish!
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFS6WvQpt7W/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDoKZ9WeyR0&ab_channel=MICKEYDARLING
Gongfu!
I love pretty much every smoked tea that I can get my hands on, from the most brash and aggressive tasting teas to ones with the more fleeting and subtle whisps, so when I saw that Bitterleaf was offering Lapsang Souchong from Tongmuguan (aka THE place to get traditionally smoked lapsang from), I was unquestionably on board. It is very, very good.
As far as the level of pine smoke goes, I would say this is more of a medium intensity erring ever so slightly on the softer side. It’s smooth and sultry, without a hint of bitterness or astringency to it. The black tea itself is also very fragrant with a really sweet floral aroma of sakura blossoms and sweet red stonefruits; very cherry-like. Medium to full-bodied, and so very layered. Soft blankets of smoke, rose, and sakura in the top notes, with a gentle mid sip of ripe and tangy red cherry cherry and strawberry, all with a delicate woody finish and lingering aftertaste of darkly sweet black licorice. I expected something good, but I wasn’t totally prepared for something THIS good.
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFVqTLLSTVm/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57cJ5LDaAHk&ab_channel=CalinRed
Gongfu!
This tea has such a grounding, tranquil energy to it with the most buttery, smooth mouthfeel. The top notes are so soft with elements of coconut oil, fresh linens, gardenia, and newly bloomed white flowers. Slowly the flavours start to deepen, with more emphasis on the floral notes: lilac, geranium, and lilies rounded up by sugarcane sweetness and crisp sugar snaps. It just seems to brew forever and ever, with this swell of romantic and Spring-like flavours I could just melt right into.
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DKU8Kuvpx36/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24tCRxpsTpg&ab_channel=BallParkMusic
Gongfu!
The aged version of this tea, Goddess Roast, has become a favourite of mine, so I wanted to give it a taste even though I don’t typically gravitate towards greener TGY like this one. This was really incredible, though. Maybe one of the more fresh tasting and aromatic tieguanyin that I’ve had the pleasure of tasting, and the leaves were so incredibly bright green! Medium bodied with a very buttery feeling and soft liquor and a profile that felt like an explosion of flowers blooming in my mouth. Magnolia, jasmine, peony, lilac, violet, and even gardenia – all laced with a light sugarcane sweetness. It also seemed to brew for forever. I’m definitely so glad I decided to give itba try because that was such a good first impression!
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFJPY0gSGIr/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTsyAcEgisU&ab_channel=BetterNoiseMusic
Gongfu!
An early morning session from yesterday. Obviously, a very warm and cozy tasting tea with such a smooth and creamy flavour. However, the black tea itself is also incredibly rich and full bodied with a very deep, darkly sweet chocolate note to it. Even though they’re usually made with coconut, something about the combination of chocolate and sticky rice is making me think of the haystack cookies that we sometimes made growing up – especially during summers with my grandparents. Definitely a nostalgic and comforting tea on several levels.
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DH4S6kIydJU/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi9j9ogqr4E&ab_channel=Yaeji
Sipping on this while reading a new graphic novel! This limited series is Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees, which was pitched to me by a friend as Animal Crossing with serial killers and, yeah, that’s pretty spot on. I’m just eating up the vibe of the pastel and water colour illustrations crossed with such dark subject matter. But, it’s also maybe the coziest murder mystery I’ve ever read, so it definitely needed an equally cozy tea to pair with it. Queue this sticky rice dianhong: full bodied but so, so starchy and creamy with really distinct notes of glutinous rice, coconut milk, and a gentle pillow of malt and cocoa to end the sip on. I really, really like sticky rice herb infused teas in general (especially ripe pu’erh), but this is my first time trying it with a black tea and it’s just ticking every single box on the “comfort tea” list for me. I mean, wow. This just works SO WELL. Between the comic and the tea, I’m hard pressed to think of a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFBSgyuSVc2/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W38MtB0SgI&ab_channel=MagicCityHippies
