Mountain Stream Teas

Took myself on a weird journey with this one.

By itself, it tasted rather non-descript and I find it amusing that the website describes it as ‘strong black tea-ness,’ and says this tea is for those who like Assamica (‘think Lipton.’)

It does remind me very much of Lipton, but obviously higher quality. I’m not a big fan of Lipton though but I was compelled to try it as the site mentioned it would be good with cream and sugar, and I was craving that.

Unfortunately, this was not for me. I found it fell a bit flat and boring and ended with a bit of a mild eucalyptus note, which is an interesting end at least. I love eucalyptus as a scent but not in black tea.

So I messed around with it a bit and thought I’d make a yuenyeung latte (a Hong Kong style coffee+milk tea combo) with some low to mid-quality chocolatey-noted coffee beans I was gifted.

Consulted ChatGPT for a recipe, and brewed the coffee and tea separately first. I tried each of these on their own before combining them, tasted it, and concluded that the mixture was way worse than the sum of its parts. It was an abomination.

And I should have known. Chocalately coffee notes with Liptonesque eucalyptus-ending tea notes? There’s a reason eucalyptus and chocolate is not a thing, even in Australia where we love eucalyptus.

Whacked a heaped teaspoon of condensed milk into the coffee-tea mixture. Colour and density is reminiscent of Hong Kong style milk tea now. And oh god, way too sweet.

Added Aerocinno-frothed milk. Still way sweeter than I’m used to, and it’s nothing like a HK-style milk tea anymore. I reckon ¼ tsp condensed milk would have been best (ChatGPT had said ½ tablespoon though, but my bad for not including my sweetness preferences).

I fuck around some more with milk, tea, coffee ratios until it becomes an airy, dessert-y, gentley chocolatey with a hint of uplifting eucalyptus to keep the whole thing light.

It was finally nice, but I’m about to get so strung out on caffeine and condensed milk sugar, and no one’s fault but my own.

Raisin and leather notes is rather my thing, so this is a tasty tea to me no doubt.

Unfortunately, from the 4th steep onwards, maybe it gets deeper in the GABA or it builds up in my system or something, and it starts giving me a headache.

If GABA works great for you, you’d probably love this tea.

Oh man I am SO behind on Steepster reviewing but here we go.

10g Sample sipdown | No.21 of 2025

Enjoyed this over two sessions gongfu style in a clay pot.

Tasting notes on package say: roast, sweet cream, fruit, sweet smoke aftertaste. I’d say all of that is on point. Has a bite of astringency if overbrewed, but the bitterness is huigan (lingering sweetness) if brewed with care.

Reminds me of a fruitier, deeper, slightly smoked version of the Old Master Dong Ding

Pretty.

Tastes to me exactly like lingonberry jam with gardenia whipped cream on a plain scone. Hmm. This is giving me ideas.

Gonfu’d but the tasting notes remain the same every steep. Also tastes the same cold-brewed and it is very refreshing this way.

Sipdown no.18 of 2025, 10g sample.

Marine and refreshing. The reviews of this tea on their website mentioned someone’s fond recollections of driving through Monterey, California. I too, loved Monterey when I was there seven years ago. I loved that we both thought of that wonderful place, shared through the experience of this tea.

I brewed this at work in a gaiwan with a standard non-variable temp kettle at 100C for an indiscriminate number of minutes and when I tasted it, the tea was strong but not at all oversteeped. I like when teas withstand all kinds of parameters and end up tasting great no matter what you’ve done to it.

Eager to purchase more in the future.

25g Sipdown | No.23 of 2025

This was my 3rd purchase of this tea. I had intended to get 50g but thought, there are so many teas to try, I’ll just get a smaller amount again.

But no, next time, it’s a 50g purchase for sure.

Sipdown no.17 of 2025.

So I bought a 10g sample, enjoyed it so immensely I immediately bought another 25g (rare for me to rebuy a tea), drank all of that, and now I’m trying to stop myself from buying 50g more.

I can taste the mastery in the making of this. It’s really impeccable. Caramel and vegetal, which sounds like a strange combination but felt harmonious here.

Gongfu!

Sipping on this oolong with some sweet and juicy red grapes in between the steeps. This Taiwanese milk oolong is so fresh tasting, with massive and gorgeous full leaves and a smooth, creamy & medium-bodied liquor that floods the palate with highly aromatic florals, a hint of coconut milk, and so much buttery goodness. It’s really quite striking how much it tastes like freshly whipped or churned butter. The finish is a little sweet, with an aftertaste of sugared violet petals. I find this grape pairing pulls forward a lot of the floral notes while also spotlighting some of the fruit notes (which are a hint tropical) that might otherwise be missed!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DOHd8kvknU3/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgPU-hy9wFM&ab_channel=BenjaminCarter

Day 5 of the Tea Thoughts spring countdown box. Day 4 was a drink mix that was fine but neither tea nor particularly notable. I don’t always find the same tasting notes that the company uses to describe a tea, but in this case I think the description is spot on. They describe “sweet/sour orange, citrus flowers, [and] sweet grass” as the notes. Definitely getting sweet/sour orange, a bit of tartness, a mild floral, and a nice creaminess. Not so much the sweet grass, but two out of three is pretty solid! I had the day off so I made a full gong fu tea time out of this. There was one steep where I let it brew a little too long, and it did get a bitterness that I didn’t love. But on the steeps where I didn’t overbrew, I found this a smooth, cozy, and easy drinker.

Spring 2022 batch – Milky, vegetal, and sweet floral notes. There is a nice ginger flower scent, but I don’t find spice or heat. Using a gaiwan, floral notes last a few steeps and vegetal notes take over. However, grandpa style brings out more floral, milky flavors and the ginger flower scent lasts longer.

2012 Cake – Smooth, earthy, and tangy with hints of caramelized sugar and fruit. The tea leaves also have a very enjoyable lightly roasted, floral apple smell.

This session today will use the rest of my 2012 sample, and I feel a slight pang of loss with every sip as I appreciate this sold-out aged tea for the last time.

Nice orange blossom scent, very floral on the first few steeps. Sweet, milky, and refreshing taste. I like adding ~1/4 of a dried orange slice while brewing for additional fruity sweetness.

Jan 2025 snow pick – bursting with floral scent and flavor. Sweet, warm, and grassy/hay notes.

Drank this bowl-brewed while reading the latest Eighty Degrees issue. The golden yellow flowers are, of course, very stunning. However, they also produce such a uniquely floral cup with a thick, syrupy liquor and strong, pungent notes of dark honey and dried medicinal and earthy herbs that evoke imagery of what you might see strung up in a sort of stereotypical medieval apothecary. The finish is rather peppery tasting, at least to my palate.

Though I’ve rarely enjoyed chrysanthemum tea in the past, this past winter I had some really positive experiences with a few different offerings that really challenged that bias I was holding. So, when I placed this recent order for Mountain Stream’s Spring oolongs I decided to continue pushing myself with this tisane and see just how much my taste for it has changed. I’m glad I did because, although I won’t be running out to mass restock more chrysanthemum tea any time soon, I did actually enjoy this cup quite a lot. I find that mix of golden honey and peppery flavour really soothing, and it was a very relaxing tea to drink while reading through some of the articles and photo series in this issue!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DI1p2_opiLE/?img_index=1

Also, I just have to shout out this yunomi cup from Ali Schorman because I’ve been eyeing her work for soooo long and am just really, really happy with this piece I snagged from Charlie Cummings not too long ago! Gorgeous attention to detail, really tactile, super saturated and beautiful sunset orange and pink colours… I’m just loving using it!

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBHusJ0BXxE&ab_channel=WILDERADO

Gongfu!

This is obviously a very beautiful looking tea, but the mix of fresh, aromatic rose with the notes of warm and lightly caramelized sweet rolls that the dry aroma gives off caught my attention just as much as the look of the leaf. Those fresh out of the over baked aromas are only amplified when the water hits the leaf, as are the tender, lush florals. It’s a very well-balanced cup, with a slightly heavier and cozier liquor than most other rose scented oolong teas I’ve had. Other than the flavour of sweet baked goods and pastries, it also has notes of darker honeys, a gentle and slightly woody-leaning roast, nuttiness, and even a smidge of cinnamon. More the warmth of cinnamon versus the heat. Quite a different rose oolong than I am used to, but wow, do I like it!! It would be so interesting to do a side by side with this tea and one with a greener and less oxidized base…

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DI64kkVSijB/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBzrVda54g8&ab_channel=ScoobertDoobert-Topic

Gongfu!

I recently placed a tea order for a bunch of Mountain Stream’s flower scented oolongs from this year’s Spring harvest, and I’m really excited to start sipping my way through them. This one is just so incredibly refreshing with a bright, aromatic and floral top note of fresh orange blossoms before settling into more of a soft, creamy mouthfeel and medium-bodied profile with notes of fresh linens, rain water, dewy white flowers, coconut, and lilacs with a distinctly milky finish. It’s so incredibly unique, and one of the best takes on a milk oolong that I’ve sampled in a really, really long time. Even with my very generously leafed gaiwan, it’s a smooth as silk tea that seems almost impossible to over brew. I’m so glad I picked this one up for the Spring!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DIuVY4HSBoa/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBPqwiMDS6g&ab_channel=NathanielStewart

A sipdown! (M: 1 Y: 41)
There are venodrs, which sparkled my interest several times; only to find they are from North America and shipping gets just crazy expensive. But when you’re doing swap, I get teas I wouldn’t try otherwise. This seems that isn’t the case, but it is still outside the EU. Thank you Courtney for this oolong.

I have prepared it twice, once in a tea pot for my family using 4 grams; and it was fine, though a bit astringent.

Today I prepared it for second time and using gongfu method and it is much better. I did steeps as suggested — 30, 40, 60 seconds and then 15 seconds increments.

I notice exactly what is mentioned on the baggie — “Vegetal upfront, sweet slightly unripe peach aftertaste”. Yes, it started a bit vegetal, but following steeps were sweeter and sweeter, with hints of astringency as described as slightly unripe peach. As I do prefer those peaches, it was perfect for me.

Last steeps were just grassy, green oolong in flavours, which weren’t bad, but alas, a bit boring.

I’m finally getting around to trying this Honey Black tea stuffed lemon “tea ball” that I’ve been waiting for a special occasion to steep. This will not be my last tea of the year (I drank this on December 31st), but it did feel right to finally break into this beauty given how unseasonably warm it was outside which meant that for the first time in probably forever I was able to actually have an outdoors tea session on New Year’s Eve. Such a rarity and treat here in Montreal!!

This tea is also quite a special treat in and of itself! I don’t know if I’ve seen a lemon stuffed with tea in this way from anyone other than Mountain Stream Teas, and it’s not even the most “out there” chenpi-style of stuffed fruit they’ve offered. Unwrapping the rope to crack the peel almost felt like destroying a piece of art, though in the end it was worth it to get to have a taste. This is very much more than one session’s worth of tea leaf, but the portion I did steep up was phenomenal. Full bodied with just a bit of a sharper and borderline medicinal top note of brisk, pithy citrus before pivoting into a sweet, lingering mix of dark honey, lemon, malt, and florals that coats the palate and back of the throat. It’s dynamic and packed with flavour while still serving up so much nuance. Perhaps the most elevated version of a lemon black tea that I’ve ever had the pleasure of drinking!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DEQhHRuyDJz/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxqfTLJ_BZk&ab_channel=PolyvinylRecords

Adventageddon Day 16

I only really had time today for one gongfu session so it was a coin toss between this and my Inoki tea since both sounded so good. In the end I ended up making this as a very large Western pot of tea at work. The liquor was so soft, silky and soothing with a mix of creamy fresh churned butter notes of aromatic, florals like lilac and violets! Though I have a sneaking suspicion this Jin Xuan might have been tastier brewed gongfu it was still damn good brewed this way, and making it as a pot of tea let me share it with some coworkers too and I know they appreciated that.

There’ve been some real bangers in the Tea Thoughts advent this year, but this might potentially be my favourite so far!?

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDp8zy5SWRb/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Fkt2pR8uxU&ab_channel=ClaireBrooks-Topic

Day 16 of the Tea Thoughts winter countdown. Peeked ahead and gong fu’d this yesterday with the teeny tea tray that I’m still in love with. Even before I looked at any information about the tea, I was jotting down notes about how creamy it is, with a slight marine note at the back end of the sip and overall big “high mountain oolong” vibes. So zero surprise that this is a high mountain oolong made with jinxuan cultivar. Made some more today in a smallish steeping mug. It’s even creamier today. Loving it.