TeaSpring

Odd.

Like… Odd!!!

I’m getting a very strong smoky note in this one tonight. Like, not just strong flavour, but proper smoke. I did use this cup for Lapsang Souchong last night, but I rinsed it out and I never had trouble with flavour bleed like this before, ever. It should not be possible that this is merely contamination.

How very very odd!

Last time I logged this I was all about the fruity and slightly floral notes. Well, fruity is a bit of a stretch in this one and floral is just completely out of the question.

How did this happen?

It’s possible it oversteeped just a bit. Apparently this turns smoky (and somewhat astringent) with a longer steep. Interesting. I’ll even give it a few more points, because while the milder incarnation of it was nice enough, I definitely like this stronger version better.

Bah, still feeling rather under the weather. I really wanted a january in which I wasn’t ill, but people around me seem to insist that there is probably more to it than just average female issues. And the more they say so, the more miserable I feel. At this point I’m strongly suspecting that they might be right too. Lexitus has reminded me to have lots of fluids, so I might as well continue posting about tea, yes?

Switched back to the Teaspring order for this one. I was in need of just a plain black cup. No additives.

The leaves look a lot like my Assam Deluxe FTGFOP from AC Perchs, except with fewer golden tips. They have a very fruity raisin-like aroma as well as a strong note of cocoa.

Due to the nature of the cup chosen, I can’t really comment on the colour, but in this cup it looks pretty default black. The aroma is very sweet and raisin-y. The cocoa is still there too, but now it’s less dominant than before. There is also something there that reminds me a little of vanilla. A malty sort of vanilla, which sounds weird, but it’s the best way I can describe it. I would not believe, based on aroma alone, that this was not a flavoured tea. But it isn’t. It’s plain.

The taste is surprisingly sweet for a plain black, and it’s definitely fruity. Teaspring speaks of plum-like notes, but I think personally I’ll stick to calling it a raisin-y note. I will agree with them, though, on the floral note. It’s only there if I really concentrate and taste it thoroughly, but once I’ve found it, it’s there. Dry-ish and floral. Like just a smidge. Like the tea bush grew surrounded by flowers.

I’m reminded of the Fujian Baroque that Bethany shared a sample of with me, which isn’t surprising because this tea comes from the Fujian province too. I like this one better though. It’s a little less loud on the fruity notes, and I can also find a cocoa note on the swallow. A very dark one that lingers as if there’s a layer stuck to the inside of my mouth. I couldn’t find that in the Fujian Baroque.

A decupboarding. Actually it’s a really hard decupboarding because I’ve used about twice the leaf I’d usually use and shortened the steep considerably in order to fit. Thing is, I need the tin.

I’ve just received a Shang Tea order today, you see, and I don’t have a single tin larger than the Adagio 25g sample tins not in use at the moment. The boyfriend pointed this out and also said something about when we (read: I) might need another tea shelf put up. So I’ve made a new rule about tea acquisitions.

I am not allowed to open a new tea until I have a tin to put it in. Samples excepted of course. So that leaves me with four new Shang Teas, Awesomeness Guaranteed, that I’m not allowed to have just yet.

So I’ve been shaking tins to find the ones with less leaf in them, and have managed to liberate a tin by using the last of this one in one go. Rather surprisingly it yielded a rather good cup.

It’s actually quite a funny tea this. I’ve both really really loved it, the first time I bought it, and found it extremely disappointing, worth only 43 points the second time I bought it. These leaves are the rest of the second go, and I don’t think I’m likely to make a repurchase.

I will however adjust the rating upwards again, because it doesn’t seem as offensive, but still not awesome, in this brewing. There is a fruity sweet raisin-y, kind of honey-ish aroma to it, and TeaSpring says it has Keemun-like qualities. Maybe it is slightly grainy with floral overtone as well, but it’s not super-obvious.

That Keemun-ness is coming through a little more in the flavour, but it’s still not something I would have found if they had not mentioned it. It’s quite floral and some grainy notes in the body of the tea. Also a sweet honey note that makes the whole thing remind me of the Cheerios I had for breakfast.

It goes quite well with bread and brie, I’ve just discovered to my surprise.

(The Kitten Grand Prix is tearing through the house at the moment. It sounds like it’s raining rubber erasers in here)

Here’s another one from my recent Teaspring splurge. Another tea that I have fond memories of. If I recall correctly it was on my first ever Teaspring order. I remember liking it a lot and then when I wanted to reorder, it was sold out. For a long time it kept saying ‘out of stock’ and eventually I gave up and forgot about it. But now we’re back in business.

Apparently, according to Teaspring, Queen Elizabeth really likes this oolong and is the source of the ‘oriental beauty’ name it also goes under. For a royalist like me, that’s a big selling point. :) Note how it doesn’t even have to be the royal family of my own country.

I can’t give a great description of the leaves at this time, other than they’re large, twisty and ranging in colour from black to almost whiteish, the reason being that I open the bag a little awkwardly and now it’s slightly broken. I need to handle it as little as possible, so that it doesn’t break further until I have a free tin. (Note to self: Buy more tins. I’m at least five tins short.)

The tea brews up very dark, looking rather like a black tea, and it has a very strong aroma. You don’t have to search for the scent and it seems sweet and floral. For some reason my mind insists on marzipan. Which is odd because it doesn’t really smell like marzipan at all. The little grey cells (or not so little, actually. Brain cells and nerve cells are actually quite large because they stretch so far) are very stubborn and won’t give it a rest at all. What is that other smell I can smell, though? I know I’m supposed to be able to connect it with something, but the stretched grey cells won’t recall what it is. I think they’re just prissy that I’m not giving in on the marzipan issue. It’s floral, but I kind of think I ought to be able to get a bit closer than that. Maybe I’ll think of it later.

It is indeed very floral in flavour too! If I didn’t know any better, I would think this was scented. It’s very vegetal and flowery and exTREMEly girly. The flowers that aren’t really there are so dominant in this, and I find myself wondering what it was about it I was so taken with way back when.

Unlike the Bi Lou Chun, this one is just not living up to the memories I have. I’m not very impressed. How disappointing.

It’s been a while since I’ve even thought of this one and SoccerMom inspired me with one of her recent posts.

It’s always difficult to measure out the leaves for this one. They’re all curly and getting twisted up in each other, so when you think you take a normal size spoonful, you actually find you are lifting a third of the tea out of the tin… So a few false tries and I finally got a couple of spoonfuls of acceptable size.

Grass-y aroma is grass-y. And very very sweet.

I was skimming over my previous posts about it. A bit like a cheatsheet, reminding myself of what I thought of it before. Apparently at one point I was searching for a peach note. And there was the mint-y aftertaste.

Mint-y aftertaste is still there, making the edges of my tongue feel a bit cool. Peaches? Hmmm… Maybe. I think now I know what the peach-y note is, or rather which flavour is supposed to be the peach-y note. I’m not sure I really agree on peaches though. Maybe a little more apricot-y, I think, if I have to pick a fruit.

It’s just not a note that says ‘fruit’ to me. I find it more blossom-y to be honest. Not jasmine, not even close to jasmine, but the same sort of flower-y feel. I don’t know enough about how different flowers used in tea taste like so I can’t really get any closer than that.

It actually reminds me of that Dong Ding oolong from Nothing But Tea I had a few days ago, the one that I thought was way too green in flavour and not at all sufficiently oolong-y. This is just a slightly greener version of that. Weird then that I like this one so much and didn’t really care much for the oolong on account of it being too like this… Chalk that up to me wanting my oolongs to be oolong-y! That’s not a lot to ask, is it?

And would you know! The area of origin for this one is Dong Ting in the Jiang Su Province. Does anybody know where Dong Ding oolong is produced? Names can cheat but I’ve got a strong suspicion here. Am I right?

This is actually the second steeping of this one. Tonight it’s my trying to ground myself again tea. I need it because I’m presently in a foul mood and have been fuming over an issue all weekend. It doesn’t even help that I just submitted my tax deductables and I’m expecting a refund. It helped a little, but I’m still pretty annoyed.

This is one of my first ever green teas. I think it was this one or gunpowder that was my debut, not counting bagged cheap ones. It has really cute twisty spirally leaves and I have a soft spot for it because of this.

These spirally leaves, however, are tightly twisted and they interlock with each other, so that when you take a spoonful of leaves out of the pot you have to pay attention because chances are there are more leaves on your spoon than you were counting on. It’s so easy to use too much leaf here.

After having been accu aqua acqaui getting to know Sencha lately, I was actually struck by a surprising initial thought in this one. It didn’t remind me that much of Sencha as I drank it, but the initial sip where I wasn’t paying too much attention had the same green vegetable-y flavour to it. It was just for a moment and then it turned back into something else. Being in the mood I was in at the time, I can’t actually tell you what it was that changed, but it just did.

Second steep is very sweet. Not really much else in the way of flavour notes, but this is good enough for me. I’ll enjoy the rest of it this evening.

But yeah, I’m still pretty irritated. My presence might be scarce for a while. I feel the need to hide and hibernate and let the irritation burn out, so I may or may not be around, but I’m still reachable by PM or email. See you around, Steepsterites.

I made a cup of this earlier and then forgot about it, so it’s all lukewarm and dull now.

As usual though, I had to test-taste it before tossing it and for a brief brief moment I thought I had actually managed to spot the peaches that JacquelineM found earlier in a different brand bi luo chun. I was all, “YAY!”

And then I realised that when I rinsed the pot out after the passion fruit from Adagio (unlogged) earlier I hadn’t done it properly and missed the pinch of leaves lodged in the spout. I’m pretty sure that’s where the sudden fruityness came from.

As lovely as this is when it’s warm, it’s rather dull when it’s not. So I think I’ll go make something else. I’ve quite lost the desire for this particular one right now.

sips

Hmmm…

sips

Hmmmmmmmmm…

sips

Who was it wot mentioned having found peach notes in a plain bi luo chun?

sips

I can’t find it.

And I can’t figure out if I’m disappointed or relieved. I don’t really much like peach in tea, see. I just thought it would be cool if I would be able to find it too.

sips

No, nothing. Still otherwise yummilicious, though.

Teaspring order is now home and unpacked. And yes, it did contain the beloved tie guan yin. phew! It also contained a load of other goodies (including a tibetan tea brick which I’m looking forward to trying as soon as I can persuade myself to break it to bits) and it was really difficult to choose which one to try first. Ippy-Dippy came to my rescue and here we are!

A lot of my Teaspring order appears to have been nostalgia. I remember this one as being one of the first ever green teas I had ever, and I remember being rather fond of it.

I love the look of the leaves. All thin and twisty and soft looking. Really they look like they ought to be downy but they’re not really. Cute leaves ftw!

It brews up, even slightly oversteeped, to a pale yellow colour. I tried with a short steep first, but after one sip, I poured it back in the pot and let it steep a little more because that was like just drinking hot water. The aroma was a strawlike grassy thing with hints of salted butter.

Due to the slight oversteep (I got distracted) it was a little astringent, but not bitter. It had the same sweetish strawlike notes as in the aroma. There was also a strong nuttyness that reminded me a little of the beloved pai mu tan.

The thing I remembered about this one, was a lingering, slightly minty aftertaste, and I’m pleased to say that I did not imagine that. It’s there too.

Towards the bottom of the pot it turned a little more buttery and vegetable-like and the minty aftertaste went away while drinking that. Strangely, now, several minutes after having finished the last cup, minty aftertaste is back with a vengeance. Cool.

This is definitely living up to the fond memories I have of it.

def living up to the fond memory

In the beginning you may feel a bit disturbed by the strong impression of freshly cut grass.
However…during continuous drinking the grassy touch will change to a pleasant, fruity and smooth experience.
Steeping time has an immense impact of this tea. It is one of the most fragile teas that I have ever come across…it is definetely a challenge getting a brew out of it without bitterness or falling under the idea to have just swollowed a bundle of grass.
Develops great taste if mixed with 4-5 slices of dry ginseng. This opens another door to the profound world of tea complexities.
Very cooling for your body…even if drunk hot.
If the leafs are good quality you may get 5-6 brews out of one portion. Each brew will leave you with a different impression of the (moody) dragon…

After a few more drinkings: this tea is quite enjoyable and good, but I think it works better as an “occasionally” tea than as an everyday tea. Its interestingness and distinctness were great the first day, but after 4 or 5 days it’s starting to get a bit dull.

Overall, I’d liken this tea to a cross between Lapsang Souchong, Hojicha, and a dark oolong. The flavor is a little more Lapsang Souchong than Hojicha, with only a hint of oolong-ness, while the body and texture are more like a dark oolong than Hojicha, with only a hint of Lapsang-Souchong-ness. Also like a dark oolong, I’ve noticed that the leaves change from black to green when brewed. There’s a nice long, smoky aftertaste, with some astringency and just a hint of wood.

Although overbrewing doesn’t necessarily harm the tea, I definitely prefer it with a shorter brew time, at least for the first few infusions. I’ve been getting 6-7 infusions from the leaves (with a steep time of 2-4 minutes for the last few infusions).

I tried this tea for the first time today. As soon as I cut open the bag, the smokiness exploded out — this smells just like a Lapsang Souchong. The dry leaves are small, thin, wiry, and black; I had to check the producer’s website just to make sure this wasn’t actually a black tea. I gave the leaves a very quick rinse, and the smoky smell subsided, replaced by an almost malt-like scent.

I’ve never brewed this tea before, so I made three infusions with different brew times: 1, 1.5, and 2 minutes. The leaves were still going after the 3rd, so I imagine they could go longer. The liquid is a dark yellow color with lots of tiny leaf-hairs in it, and a relatively mild smoky scent.

Edit, after actually drinking the tea:
I like it: the taste is definitely smoky, but it’s mild — not overpowering. All three infusions were roughly the same flavor-wise, although the first seemed weaker than the others. It does have some characteristics of a light black tea, but it also has an oolong-ness to it. There’s almost a foresty/earthy taste hidden behind the smokiness, and a tiny hint of astringency.

Medium-bodied and smoky. While this didn’t blow me away, it was quite good and I’m looking forward to trying it again.

I used more leaves this time, to make this a little stronger, but it came out almost exactly the same — if anything, the first infusion seemed a bit weaker. I made five infusions.

The wet leaves have a strong, pleasant smell to them — very flowery, and stronger than I remember — and that smell makes its way into the tea’s flavor. This has a woody aftertaste which hangs around for a while. Very pleasant and enjoyable.

Edit: Later, I made three additional infusions using the same leaves (for a total of 8), using a longer brew time (3-4 minutes). There is certainly a hint of bitterness, but the tea is quite good overall — and much stronger. I suspect this can handle even more infusions, and that even the early infusions will be forgiving — next time, I’ll try some normal infusion times, instead of the shorter ones I started off with today.

This is my first time trying this tea; I like it. I rinsed the leaves once and used a rather short brewing time.

This tea first struck me as very “foresty” — bark, leaves, and earthiness — but there’s a strong flower scent and taste, and a bit of fruitiness (raisins?) too. I brewed it to a light orange color, but the flavor is still robust. There’s a bit of pleasant astringency, particularly on the aftertaste.

This is a solid tea with some complexity to it. While it might not be for everyone, it’s one I enjoy. I drank it by itself, but I think it might be even better paired with food or dark chocolate.

I got 4 infusions from these leaves. I think they could probably keep going for 1 or 2 more, but that was enough for me. =)

This is a very unusual tea, but I like it. The brew is a nice orange color, with an aroma that’s sweet with a hint of smokiness. It’s medium-bodied with a very smooth texture and a fairly mild flavor: a sweet, roasted, almost malty taste. It’s almost similar to a weak pu-erh, particularly in its sweetness, but without any of the earthiness. It’s also quite similar to a fully-roasted all-twig kukicha, but with less of a bark-like flavor. It has a very long aftertaste.

This is an interesting tea, with a flavor I enjoy. It’s very difficult to categorize — it isn’t really grassy, nutty, flowery, salty, spicy, smoky, twiggy, mulchy, or any of the other adjectives that normally fit green, black, or pu-erh teas — but it’s definitely recognizable as tea. This is the kind of tea I push on people who say things like “I don’t like tea” or “all teas taste the same”.

A quick pre-rinse really helps the first infusion; I often do two pre-rinses. It does offer multiple infusions, but not very many: after two infusions the leaves often still have some flavor in them, but it takes a long time to extract that flavor. This tea is almost impossible to overbrew, though, so I’ll do one ‘leftover’ infusion at the end with an unbounded brew time. After 10 or 15 minutes, this ‘leftover’ infusion becomes strong and tasty without the bitterness such a long infusion would normally bring.

I didn’t include this in my numerical rating, but I do have one very negative comment: This tea comes in individual-serving foil packets, and those packets are horrible. They’re difficult to open, they contain too little leaf (for my 16 oz teapot), and they make the price outrageously expensive. While I do think this is a tea worth trying, the current price is simply not worth it.

This was my last serving of this tea. This time, I made two 1-minute brewings and two 2.5-minute brewings, and it came out great — smooth with a nice, soft flavor. It’s rather nondescript and “average green tea”-like when brewed this way, at least to me, but it was enjoyable.

This is far too easy to overbrew. I somehow got this tea mixed up with a different one, and I brewed it like a normal tea (extra leaves, standard time and temperature for green tea) instead of doing short infusions. I’m reducing my rating by a few points. :-/

This still is not a bad tea — a lot of complexity shows through, especially when it’s brewed strong — but it becomes distractingly bitter very quickly. The taste is very mossy today, with some fruity overtones. The self-inflicted bitterness makes it difficult to enjoy, though.

This is a decent tea, but it’s not my favorite. Leaves are thin — not quite wiry or needle-like, but close. Aroma is nice: robust, rustic, and nutty. Flavor is very grassy, and very “traditional green tea”-ish. It’s noticeably astringent, but not unpleasantly so. This reminds me more of a darker green tea, or maybe an age-worthy oolong which hasn’t been aged. It certainly feels like a quality tea, but it’s not my personal style.

This is definitely a food tea; better with dinner or dark chocolate than by itself. I could see some people absolutely adoring this tea, but I don’t plan to order it again.

It took some experimentation to find brew settings that worked well. I had more success with a short brew time, and pre-rinsing the leaves twice seems to improve the texture. I usually got 3-5 infusions out of it, depending on brew time.

This was my last of this tea. I used slightly fewer leaves, with a longer brew time. Although today’s infusions came out a little less flavorful than previous ones, this is still quite good.

The “old cut grass”-ness is less prominent today; instead, there’s a hint of honey, particularly in the first few infusions. It also has a stronger aftertaste — a pleasant, mouth-drying astringency. I’d buy this again.

Still delicious. I’m increasing my rating of this by a few points.

Today’s brewing was a bit stronger for me (but I like very light teas, so “strong” for me is likely “weak” to most people,) and it came out less grassy/composty and more nutty. Smooth and enjoyable.

Light and airy, with some earthiness. The leaves are soft and velvety, with plenty of tiny hairs to make their way into the infusion. Aroma is rather weak. The flavor reminds me of cut grass that’s been left in a pile for a few days: herbal and grassy, but with some light mulchy, compost-like overtones. This is a flavor profile I enjoy, but it’s very light and mild so you might enjoy it even if old grass isn’t your thing. :-)

This isn’t a superstar Long Jing by any stretch, but it is good. A nice, very light everyday tea.

Improves over multiple infusions. I usually get 4-7 brewings, depending on how strong I make it.

And that was it. The last of the sooper-speshul (and wildly expensive) sanctified Da Hong Pao. It was in the to-be-finished pile because, well, as special as it is, you can’t keep it forever. And also, I need the tin.

I’ve bought a regular (and much less expensive) Da Hong Pao to replace it, so finally finishing this off was such a terrible loss. At least that’s what I tell myself.

It’s a good cup. Every bit as good as it was that first time when I finally made myself open the little satchet and brew up half.

I’m getting that chocolate-y note on this one again. Both in aroma and in flavour. It’s actually reminding me of Adagio’s Black Dragon Pearls a bit, except this one seems to have more character, I think. The pearls were good, but at the same time also kind of ordinary.

There are floral hints too but not so many that you think it must have been contaminated or that they have secretly scented it, and not so few that you have to sit and search for them.

I’ve brewed it a bit differently this time with steep times and leaf amount, (brave after the Nepal Top fiasco, I know) because I didn’t have enough leaf left that it was worth saving if I used the normal amount of leaves.

In spite of that, I’m recognising everything that I wrote in the first review. It seems like what we’ve got here is a consistently good tea. I haven’t yet tried the regular Da Hong Pao, but I have high expectations of it because of this one.

2nd Steep: Still good. Tastes a bit used but it’s okay.

3rd Steep: Weaker. Definitely. It’s all light yellow now, sort of like a white tea that has been allowed to stand still and develop a bit. It’s drinkable still, but if this was the first contact you had with it, you so wouldn’t come back for seconds. Not sure a 4th steep is worth the effort, but I’ll attempt it anyway.

4th Steep. Yeah. Coloured water. Useless.

Apparently two steeps is the ideal. Three only if you’re desperate. Four if… well, never four actually.

I never thought I’d ever actually drink this tea. I mean just read the description. It’s sanctified! It’s speshul! It’s… It’s… It’s… !!!

It’s enormously expensive, is what it is. 9 grams = $5.10 The 108 g box = $ 55.60

But how could I not get a packet? Sanctified tea! Speshul! I might never get the chance to own something unique like this again.

I’m not sure what possessed me to make it today. Maybe it should have been saved for a special occasion like a good bottle of champagne? Thing is though, I know from experience that if you save a really expensive bottle of champagne for a special occasion then you’ll never get around to tasting it because you never know if there might be an occasion that was even more special. And when you finally DO open the champagne, it’s gone dull. This happened to my parents with the bottle of Dom Perignon they bought at the winery when we were on holiday in France. Talk about a disappointment. (Yes, it’s possible it wasn’t stored correctly. But still.) I wasn’t old enough to like wine yet when I was that age, so I at least was spared.

Anyway, I didn’t want to not have this special tea anymore, but I didn’t want aforementioned fate to befall it either. That would have been worse, so I’ve made a small pot of it now, using half the leaves, and I’m going to wring as many steeps out of it as I can.

The dry leaves are large and very dark brown, almost black. They don’t seem to have all that much aroma to speak of, but it is there. Delicate and I seem to be picking up a note of something chocolatey. When steeped the chocolate note is less pronounced but it’s still there, underneath some more sweetly floral notes. It smells very nice!

The flavour is also a delicate one. I pretty much agree with Teaspring’s description of flowery sweetness. Possibly more flowery than sweet, but it’s close enough. Not much in the way of aftertaste initially, but again, I find myself agreeing with Teaspring’s description. It sort of builds up as you drink.

I find I’m liking this a lot. I could most definitely see myself stocking up on this tea, although I would probably go for an ordinary Da Hong Pao and not this sanctified stuff that costs an ungodly amount of money.

But it is still kinda fun to own it. :)