Old Ways Tea

Tastes like a slice of toasted Greek sweet bread made with mastic, while sitting in a rocky old growth cedar forest somehow being delightfully drowned by the perfume of roses and sunflowers. Then on the swallow and in the aftertaste it’s like eating a slice of apple-lychee-cinnamon pie, dotted with raisins and sprinkled with brown sugar, finished with a drizzle of sweet cream. Leather, malt, cocoa, citrus, apricot, rum, spiciness, oats.
It’s all there waiting to be found. Camphorous, heating/cooling, long aftertaste, medium-thick body, good longevity, relaxing qi. I’m floored.

Phenomenal Wuyi black tea probably not for those new to the style but recommended for absolutely anybody curious what the region has to offer.

I’m reminded daily of resiliency and grateful to be situated where I am.

Brewed this gongfu to compare to the 2018 Grass Fragrance Black. This one is very similar, though with a deeper, more savory, fruitier aroma and taste, bolder flavors early on and greater longevity. Like the Grass Fragrance, it has a solid backbone of baked bread, malt, sweet potato and cedar. Some light bitterness on the sip that becomes more apparent if oversteeped. The finish is a tad drier yet more robust with osmanthus and the returning sweetness darker like brown sugar as opposed to red grapes. The tea also has a nice medium body with a pleasant astringency and the same clean minerality and salivation. The Fruit Fragrance Black seems to have an instantaneous calming and cooling energy. Overall, an excellently structured tea for its price range and such a pleasure to sip.

Song pairing: Toro y Moi — Rose Quartz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ID1plssS4s

[5.5g, 100mL porcelain teapot, 200F, drink the flash rinse! Very short steeps starting at 7s]

This was a mellow and smooth, yet complex and round rock oolong such that I had a difficult time pulling out distinct flavor notes. General impression was a brew composed of well cured cherrywood-scented tobacco with touches of charred vanilla marshmallow and peanut caramels later flowing into rock sugar, orange blossom and grass but always maintaining a cherry/wood-tobacco and cinnamon undertone. The minerality of this tea was more along the lines of petrichor and river rocks than something deep and dark. Highly fragrant, thick and active in the mouth with light astringency, moderate salivation, a looong sweet and lightly floral finish and a quick returning sweetness. Warming and relaxing in the body yet cooling in the mouth and chest. Also some nice lemon zest tingling later in the session. I’d love some more of this.

I have a spread of 4 Shui Xian rock oolong teas from Old Ways Tea that I’ve been working my way through since the past few mornings have left the town blanketed all day in a breezy and chilly coastal fog. The weather became more like winter and as said in my last review, an almost out of season rainstorm blew in last night.

Here we go. This yancha has an understated power. My body feels full after drinking it, like everything under my skin is pushing outward. Much more caffeine than the 2017 Shui Xian from OWT but not jittery in its effect.

The dry leaf was incredibly fragrant with marshmallow, vanilla, strawberry, citrus, dark chocolate and almond. It smelled like dessert! A strong, sweet and creamy cocoa with a high note white floral came out above a fruity strawberry base after warming the leaf. I drank the rinse of this one and I’m glad I did. It was already incredibly mineral with a thick body, like a cross between maple syrup and congee. The aroma and taste, underneath a tongue-electrifying minerality, was all sweet and floral cinnamon mixed with cloves in melted chocolate and of course some yancha woodiness. Very much like a floral-vanilla Mexican hot chocolate. I’d say the minerality was more pronounced than the flavors on the tongue, but the tea presented a long-lasting finish and lingering retronasal florals. A sourness like very dark chocolate hung around in the back of the mouth. Plenty of salivation to balance the light astringency. Warming and cooling at the same time, camphoresque in the throat and chest, leaving both with a full feeling.

Later the thick liquor moved from syrupy-porridge to glassy while almond, marshmallow, butter, orange blossom, fresh grass and coffee came forward in the mouth. The long finish showed no signs of giving up. Orange zest like feeling on the tongue. I lost track of steeps… great longevity.

A western preparation of 2g, 8oz, 212F yielded 2 infusions with a great balance between floral, nutty, woody, chocolate, mineral and vanilla marshmallow characteristics.

Super tea, masterfully roasted. I feel that, compared to eastkyteaguy’s review over 9 months ago, some more resting time has allowed this tea to shine. Too bad its gonegonegone.

[6g, 100mL clay gaiwan, 212F, rinse (drank) followed by 12+ infusions starting at 7s]

The hills have already begun their browning out for the dry season yet a rogue rainstorm has come through, ensuring that I have several days off of work and both the time and the mood to drink up some of my Wuyi rock oolong.

This is a pleasant, short-lived Shui Xian that makes it appropriate as an everyday drinker. I suggest drinking the rinse because it had already presented a blast of aroma and flavor. Otherwise it will seem like the tea quickly falls off the cliff, which it does, but why not delay the inevitable?

Aromas and flavors of dark milk chocolate, dark chocolate, oak wood, faint roast, dark brown sugar, indistinct florals, red and black raspberries, orange and faint herbs. Mostly dark woody, mineral and chocolatey with a bright fruity backing that keeps it from being too heavy of a tea. Light bite in the back of the throat in first steep after the rinse quickly transformed into returning sweetness. As the session progressed, the darker flavors dropped away quickly and the florality and minerality of the Shui Xian cultivar came forward. I understand Shui Xian is meant to have a narcissus fragrance, but I picked up on something more akin to orange blossom. The session finished somewhat bright and creamy but so very close to drinking hot water.

Price is an accurate reflection of its performance. It also performed well as a one-steeper western style with 2 grams per 8oz, 5+ minutes. Dominant characteristics were a roast not overplayed, woodiness, florality and minerals with an undercurrent of dark chocolate.

[6g, 100mL clay gaiwan, 205-212F, rinse (drank) followed by 8 short steeps starting at 7s]

This is the first time I am drinking a tea from Old Ways Tea, thanks derk for sending me the sample :)
I don’t think I can add anything to eastkyteaguy’s review in terms of flavours present. However, I want to point out that the mouthfeel of this tea is absolutely phenomenal. It is thick like a maple syrup, super soft and silky, unlike anything I ever drank.

This is not an easy drinker for sure. The complexity in flavours is exceptional, the body is super full and the qi is electrifying. Unfortunately, the price reflects that as well.

Gongfu Sipdown (602)!

I’ve hit that ‘wall’ that I always hit when writing tasting notes on the weekends; it’s just what happens when you’re 30+ tasting notes in and those tasting notes generally also happen to be multiple paragraphs long…

This was a freebie sample that I received when I ordered my sampler from Old Ways Tea a while back; and I’ve had some good sample success as of late because I think I actually enjoyed this sample the most out of everything I’ve tried from this company!?

Here’s what I wrote on instagram:

Heavy roast, with smoky grilled nuts (peanuts), charcoal, dark chocolate, mineral, cinnamon, and tree bark notes. Perhaps a hint of leather? Introduction of poached peach notes mid session. ONly started to notice a hint of heady floral notes in the finish of the sip pretty late into the session.

Honestly, it doesn’t surprise me at all that my favourite sample from OWT that I’ve tried so far has been the one that, arguably, has the strongest roast. That deeply fits inline with my favour preferences…

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/BxDgTTNHgFf/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bjD1tarzr4

I’m pretty sure I received this as a freebie several orders ago and have finally gotten around to it. Thanks for the sample, Old Ways Tea!

Given the price point of $0.18/g I should’ve brewed this hongcha western, knowing that it would probably fade quickly when prepared gongfu but I decided to go against better judgement.

Dry leaf did indeed have an almost grassy aroma at the forefront along with orchid. A deeper huffing of the leaf in hand revealed blackberry, red grape, baked bread, malt and cedar.

Teapot time: 4.4g, 100mL, 200F, flash rinse which I drank followed by 8 steeps of 10/12/15/20/30/40/60/120 seconds.

Warmed leaf and rinsed leaf had the same aromas, with the baked bread overpowered by the stronger malt and cedar notes.

The tea started light in taste and had an appreciable aroma with grass, honey and orchid. Tastes of honey, sweet potato, undefined stonefruit and osmanthus led the way, getting stronger in the second and third steeps where additions of brown sugar, asian pear, and orange blossom appeared. Clean minerality with some salivation. Aftertaste was lingering with subtle smoke and honey, orange blossom and peach. By the fourth steep, the flavor began dying and in retrospect, I should’ve pushed the tea harder at this point. It did have a nice body with good astringency and a moderate red grape returning sweetness in the back of the mouth. There was absolutely nothing off-putting about the brew.

This tea is a nice Wuyi black and worth it for someone who wants an introduction to teas from this region at a respectable price. I may pick up another bag of this to try it western style.

Gong Fu Sipdown (607)!

Trying another one of the yancha samples from my Old Ways Tea sampler; this time the Light Roast Shui Xian. To be honest, I knew I would enjoy this tea – but I also knew right away that I wouldn’t enjoy it as much as some of the others in this sampler. I really enjoy heavily roasted teas – so in general light roast oolongs can be a bit frustrating for me since it’s like being teased by the flavour profile I crave so deeply in an oolong.

This was a nice tea though – I steeped it in my yancha dedicated yixing pot and it brewed up very smooth and consistently. I did find that it was not an oolong I could brew for an extended period of time though; after only the sixth infusion the flavour of my infusions was getting pretty rough and tapped out. However, that short session turned out to fit perfectly into my evening schedule and I didn’t have to feel like I was cutting it too early/short and losing out on good tea since the flavour had dwindled so badly already.

This is probably my least favourite thing I’ve had from Old Ways Tea so far, but it was still quite nice overall and I’d definitely drink it again – though this isn’t a yancha that I’m considering repurchasing, unlike their Rougui (as an example).

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw8E7TJnezU/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USY602Ft98M

My last tasting note was my second ever one. It has been three or so days since created that note and I have learned much about this tea since. In the previous note, i mentioned that Shui Xian means `narcissus` which is, of course, the beautiful flower. well, it also means `immortal water` and i bring this up for a reason.

i have been steeping these same leaves now for 3+ days, bout 12 or more times. each time i steep the leaves just a little bit longer. so far i am still receiving the powerful aroma and a quality taste. i am very impressed.

there are a couple lessons i have learned from drinking this tea about tea in general:

1) it is important that you know how to properly steep your tea. the directions on the packet/label/tin whatever… are meant to be guidelines and you should feel free to experiment. in doing so you will increase the enjoyment and longevity of your tea and i believe it is respectful to do so.

2) proper storage of your tea when you are done enjoying it for the moment is an imperative skill to hone. tea can be very expensive. if you don’t take care of it- it will go to waste! the best advice i have for that is to store the tea spread out on some kitchen roll/towel and leave in an oderless, dry, dark, environment.

overall this tea is fantastic, and i urge you to buy some.

For my second tasting note, I have chosen to review this tea which is absolutely phenomenal. First a note about steeping time. The slider on this website only goes down to 15 seconds. This is a tragedy of design because you should steep this tea no longer than the time it takes to pour the water over the leaves and pour the water out of your vessel. 4-10 seconds maximum. Steeping any longer than that will dramatically affect the flavor.

As soon as the boiling water hits the leaves a deep rich aroma of tobacco, almost burnt charcoal smell invades noses chemoreceptors harder than an uppercut from Mike Tyson. Once I recover the excitement begins. a toothy smile adorns my face.

I let the tea cool before slurping it over my tongue. My taste buds sense the tobacco and charcoal flavor. A memory of bitter dark chocolate from my childhood. I am reminded Shui Xian means `Narcissus` and the beautiful flower is pictured in my mind.

I feel calm, happy, and safe. The flavor lingers in my mouth as an after taste for quite some time and I relish in it licking the roof of my mouth.

I am at peace with everything. My mind is now clean. I breathe deeply. Satisfied.

This is my first ever tasting note. I am hoping to do this more frequently, but I have not quite learned what to look for in aroma, fragrance, color, and taste of real tea yet. I will say this tea was suggested to me by Philip @Old Ways Tea. He included a gaiwan with my purchase which was absolutely lovely of him.

The tea is delicious and I will probably come back to this tasting note when I have learned what to look for and experienced more teas.

Gongfu Sipdown (600)!

Finished this one off in my Yancha dedicated yixing pot last night; really nice session too! The tea was really good, but I had set everything up on my bed and was brewing while cozied up in bed, playing music and just relaxing. It was one of those moments were all the things come together in a way that can only be described as sublime.

Song Pairing #1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GdgUWx7yi0

Song Pairing #2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-Y83Z9nNUY&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=11&t=0s

Only around seven infusions from this tea; I’m still working on seasoning this yixing pot and it’s still experiencing flavour ‘suckage’ – so kills the length of sessions, a little bit. It was delicious though! First few infusions were channeling buckwheat honey notes; sweet in a darker/denser way with those intense roasty qualities and a hint of a molasses-y note. Mineral too – but less so than other Da Hong Pao I’ve had. Those buckwheat/molasses “dark” qualities softened through steeping, but this was still pretty roasty all the way though – nutty notes as well, sort of a chestnut element? Very woody throughout as well. Not as fruity as expected, but there was still that sweetness coming through from those denser honey notes.

Pictures: https://www.instagram.com/p/BvHXp_AlWVI/

Sipdown (607)!

I drank this one Gong Fu last weekend, and I definitely enjoyed it – but I’m SUPER mad at myself because I didn’t write down any notes about it; not on instagram, the little notepad I have next to my tea tray, or on the excel document I keep open on my laptop. Of course, because of this, I remember next to nothing about what the tea tasted like! That’s so frustrating! But, here’s what I do remember…

- Less roasty that the Rougui I tasted from Old Ways
- Less sweet than the Rougui, as well
- More upfront mineral notes
- About ten infusions…

But damn it! How am I supposed to be learning/refining my knowledge of Wuyi teas when I don’t recall anything about drinking them! Two years ago I would have had near encyclopedic memory of the tasting notes without writing anything down; it drives me crazy that I can’t do the same now.

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/BumBw8flY3a/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrtMj3K2Aws

Yet another delightful oolong from Old Ways. Floral fragrances are not something I associate with Da Hong Pao, so I was looking forward to getting into this one. The aroma of the leaves when dry was sweet and nutty, sort of like praline, and a touch floral. Wet, the leaves had a heady roasted aroma – higher than most dhp which have a lower, darker aroma in my experience. Might have been floral, but I’m not entirely sure I would have made such a characterization if I wasn’t looking for that sort of aroma due to the name.

The flavor was wonderful. I could taste the roastiness of the tea, but it was not at all sour. Very smooth, with a slick, mouth-coating feel to it. The finish was light and pretty floral early on, but after a few steeps turned more into a sweet nuttiness, and sometimes even chocolatiness. This is probably about as floral as a DHP can taste, but it wasn’t a wild departure from most. That said, it was just a darn good Da Hong Pao.

Saying goodbye to 2022 with the last bag of my favorite leafy white tea. So mellow. Goes well with this winter rain.

Maybe I’ve rated this Wuyi white tea so highly because it’s unlike any white tea I’ve had, very savory and assertive. Maybe it’s because I’m a fan of Wuyi oolong and black teas and this tea also clearly comes from that, ahem, terroir :P

Or maybe it’s because this tea is like strolling through a forest on a dry and warm autumn day in my home state of Ohio.

crunchy autumn leaves fallen and still falling
smoke snaking through the trees
round bales of hay left in the bright sun at the edge of a farmer’s meadow
a quick shimmy up a pine tree (this tea gets me elevated, haha)
snacking on roasted nuts and a dried sausage with apricot from my jacket pocket
mushrooms pushing up from the forest floor
plants giving out the last bit of their sweet nectar
peeling lichen from the cool limestone cliffs at the bottom of a gorge
somehow yellow peonies and cream fit in with all of this, lol, i promise

This tea is like home.

Gong Fu Sipdown (606)!

I’ve been craving Yancha a lot lately, but I wasn’t really feeling the few options I had in my stash so I asked teachat for some suggestions – James/shredsofmetal suggested this sampler, and I couldn’t remember having ever had anything from this company so I figured why not – it would get me several different kinds of Yancha, and I’d get to explore a new company’s offerings.

Rou Gui is probably my favourite kind of tea from Wuyi – it’s just got such a nice overall profile, and even the somewhat mediocre quality ones still aren’t that bad tasting. This one REALLY blew me away though – and if it’s any indicator what the rest of the teas from this company are going to be like that I am in for a really enjoyable experience!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/Buhw4m3F3Ye/

Ten infusions total – only ending because it was getting late, and I wanted to police my caffeine intake a little bit. This was delicious from start to finish though: the first two or three steeps were very heavily roasted with loads of mineral, charcoal, and roasted nut flavours, but even with those first steeps there was still this underlying sweetness that made me think of roasted walnuts/hazelnuts (arguably two sweeter types of nuts), as well as whisps of maple. The mouthfeel was thick, and lush.

Later steeps started to ease up on some of the heavier roasted notes (without losing them entirely), and progressed into this deeped and more complex profile with quite a bit more of a layered richness and sweetness. The maple was more pronounced, and became this sort of thick, creamy maple butter note, and some of those beautiful stonefruit notes started to emerge that I personally deeply love in a good Rougui. Caramelized peach undertones, for sure – with some nectarine notes as well. Maybe a little bit of molasses/brown sugar. Long lingering finish; like pancake syrup on the tip of my tongue but denser.

Final infusions were shifted more towards the peach, but still a very cooked down peach; fruity but not bright/acidic. Some warming cinnamon, as well, in the body.

I thought that this Rou Gui was surprisingly pretty sweet – but never cloying, and still with an immaculate balance of complex flavour notes. I was swooned! Swooned!

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzTK811f0_Y&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=11&t=0s

(Really beautiful cover of this Imogen Heap song; though hard to not associate it with the meme…)

This was one of a couple tea reviews from the fall of 2018 that I needed to post here. I finished a sample pouch of this tea back in November, but I unfortunately did not get around to posting it here on Steepster before the end of the year. Prior to trying this tea, I had never tried a Wuyi white tea. In terms of appearance, the tea looked very similar to a traditional Bai Mudan, and the similarities did not end there. The aroma and flavor profiles of this tea also displayed some marked similarities to a Bai Mudan, though this tea displayed the expected Wuyi minerality and was much heavier, livelier, and more energizing.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After the rinse, I steeped 6 grams of the loose bud and leaf mix in 4 ounces of 185 F water for 6 seconds. This infusion was chased by 18 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, and 20 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry leaf and bud mix emitted aromas of pine, smoke, cedar, and hay. After the rinse, I detected an aroma of roasted peanut that was accompanied by hints of honey. The first infusion introduced aromas of toasted rice and char. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of smoke, hay, pine, cedar, and toasted rice that were balanced by impressions of char, roasted peanut, and roasted barley. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of malt, autumn leaves, and roasted almond. New impressions of malt, minerals, caramel, cream, autumn leaves, and roasted almond appeared in the mouth along with belatedly emerging honey notes and hints of mushroom and birch bark. As the tea faded, the tea liquor emphasized lingering mineral, malt, roasted almond, roasted peanut, caramel, and hay notes that were balanced by subtler impressions of cream, mushroom, autumn leaves, and cedar.

This was a very interesting and potent white tea that was full of the nut, grain, wood, and mineral notes so typical of Wuyi teas. It definitely showed off the influence of its terroir as it captured the qualities that make Wuyi teas so unique and treasured. That being said, I felt that it was missing some subtlety and could also have used a little additional sweetness or some sort of floral component to balance out all of the heavier notes. To be clear, this was a very good white tea, but I felt that it was missing a few elements that would have made it even better. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for other white teas from Old Ways Tea, though, as this first stab at white tea production indicates to me that their partners have the potential to produce some truly excellent white teas after this one.

Sharing good tea is a joy.

I split a 5g package of this tea with my mechanic friend today after he asked for ‘some of that tea that tastes like tar.’ Five steeps western at 2/3/5/?/?? minutes.

This review is a summation of his reaction rather than mine.

“Man, this is it.”
“I can feel when it hits; it’s almost electric.” I then explained minerality to him.
“It’s really clean and refined, not too smokey. "
“Where can I get more of this?”

I asked him to rate this tea on a scale of 1-100 and he gave it an 85, so there you go.

I find it very similar to the 2016 version of this tea but as a 2018 tea, the tarry aroma is still strong enough to overpower any nuances that I picked up on in the 2016: https://steepster.com/teas/old-ways-tea/84631-smoked-black-tea-2016

I whispered, ‘Wow.’

This unroasted Qi Lan packs it in with an undeniable strength in aroma, taste and aftertaste. The dry leaf had aromas of dark chocolate, brown sugar, anise, orchid, oak wood and vanilla. I’m surprised to have picked up those darker notes in an unroasted tea, but maybe it was my familiarity with the normally roasted Qi Lan playing games with my olfactories. The aroma of the warmed and rinsed leaf was like walking into an orchid shop with some whiffs from the bakery next door that was browning some butter.

I had to drink the rinse.

The aroma wafting from the cup had strong notes of orchid, brown sugar and vanilla. The taste was an expansive bouquet of orchids in the mouth again with the brown sugar and vanilla while a very pure and pronounced minerality flowed underneath and glided across the tongue. Delicately oily with very light astringency and bitterness. The aftertastes were equally decadent with orchid, vanilla, white peach, chocolate, graham? and milk? This fanfare continued for another 3 steeps before giving way to a more delicate symphony which brought the white peach forward along with some lemon water and grass. The aftertastes moved into almond, butter and wood and the tea completely gave up the ghost with its eighth infusion (including the rinse).

Overall, this tea made a lasting impression with its upfront aromas and tastes and prolonged aftertastes. It was missing a bit of body and was lacking in longevity but I am grateful to have had the opportunity to try an unroasted Wuyi oolong both for its own sake and for comparison to its roasted companion.

7.3g, 100mL, 200F, rinse (drank) followed by 7 steeps of 10/15/20/25/30/40/50s

This is a solid DHP. It has rested long enough that the roast is neither sour nor overpowering. Aroma is roasty and sweet. The flavor is mostly nutty and sweet. There is a slight sharpness in the front of the sip, sort of a walnut astringency. The finish is moderately complex, with almond, dark chocolate, walnut, or toffee notes competing for primacy depending on the steep, though most fade to a dry cocoa which lingers in my mouth for a couple minutes after the steep. I also detect slight spice notes, perhaps clove or nutmeg. This DHP is a solid offering which has me looking forward to trying Old Ways’ more aged DHPs.

I tried this both on its own and side-by-side with its charcoal-roasted counterpart from Old Ways Tea. The dry leaf smelled of honey, graham crackers, cinnamon, a light cocoa aroma and maybe some floral aroma mixed in there as well. It seems the electric roast has brought out a host of aromas without really contributing a heavily roasty note to the aroma. Once wet, a slightly toasty aroma comes through, along with a more distinct floral note and dark fruit, like prunes.

The flavor was smooth, tasting lightly of honey with a bit of a fruity finish. The finish wasn’t particularly long. Before trying the charcoal roast, I had no real problems with this, but seeing what the different roast did to the same leaves, I feel this one pales in comparison. It wins out on aroma, likely because the aroma isn’t muted/covered up by a pervasive charcoal roast smell.

That is the only reason I have this marked as “not recommended.” To me, it is worth the very tiny price increase to go for the charcoal roasted Huang Guan Yin from Old Ways. That said, I would encourage folks to pick up at least a bit of both roasts and do their own comparison.