Wan Ling Tea House
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Having a cup of this tea this evening. Still just as lovely as I remember it. Crisp, sweet, with delightful fruit notes.
A really nice body for a white tea … fruit notes that are at one moment plum-like and the next, I notice notes of apricot. Just a slight, drying sensation toward the end leading into the aftertaste that is sweet with honeyed notes.
Wow! I am loving this!
It is crisp and strong in flavor – much more so than I would have ever given a bai mu dan credit for having! Strong fruit notes of dried apricot and a lovely sweet tone. This has less of a hay-like flavor that I often associate with a white tea and more of a earthy tone, and the sweetness softens even that earthiness. Lovely and floral too. Really nice, honey-sweet.
I’d recommend this one to those who love white tea, as well as those who think that white tea is too softly flavored for them. This has some intense flavors going on. It’s a good one!!!
Ooh, I’m first! :)
So, yesterday I had an infestation of nephews. They are not bad lads but they do take a lot of work to keep entertained and seem to require your attention 24/7, thus wearing me out. I had, and still have, a sore throat and was feeling a bit run down yesterday, so that did not help either. Still, there is an up side to this too. Elder Nephew likes tea. Better yet, he appreciates good tea already, despite not even being a teenager yet. Younger Nephew follows suit to join in more than because he really enjoys it.
Me: “EN, what would you like to drink?”
EN: “I’ll have one of your special teas.”
Please is no longer part of his vocabulary now that he is approaching his teens. Hmm. Well, a spot of tea would do to stop the pair of them bickering and ensure that peace reigns if only for a little while, so I dug this one out along with my Oolong pot. Note to self, I really need to get a Wuyi Oolong pot, because this will spoil the seasoning of my Anxi Oolong pot if I mix the two too often. Hmm, that’s just an excuse. I really just want another Yixing teapot because they are so cute and adorable.
Anyway, time to bring peace into the house for a wee while. I dug out the pot, the sample packet of this tea and the cha pan. We’re so rock and roll that we are going to do this one gong fu style. I threw the packet of tea into the pot and brewed away. Several cups of silent tea drinking later, I asked what they thought of it. YN was not too interested. EN commented that it was earthy. I could not get much more than that out of him though. He wanted to know if he was right. My answer that there was no right answer did not meet his approval.
So, this tea, it was earthy according to EN. I tasted a baked, malty, wheaty flavour that reminded me of Puffed Wheat breakfast cereal. There was an element of toasted rice in there, like a nice genmaicha. At one point I thought I caught a hint of lemon and honey at the back. The roasted flavour was lovely and made for a great drink to contemplate for itself. EN and YN sat quietly and drank their tea, but the interlude was all too brief. Then the chaos began again.
I left the leaves in the pot overnight and shall try them again later to see if there is anything left in them. I hope so, because this was a really good tea that I would happily drink whenever the mood takes me.
Preparation
I’m not surprised that EN had no words for flavor since the whole concept of taste buds, slurping and taking time with tea is still new to a young-un. I’ve had to take time digging, questioning over time to get my grandkids to think about taste. Some get it, some have more trouble.
I was impressed that he actually thought it was earthy. EN is learning. A good pupil he is (said in Yoda voice). :)
I get it this review is from three years ago but I just tried my first Ban Tian Yao so I was looking around here to see what others experienced of them. This sounds nothing like a Wuyi Yancha, right, malty, like wheat or toasted rice, with lemon and honey, and earthy (if the earth is wood, leather, or tobacco that would be in normal range). The one I just tried was unconventional too but more in a normal direction for a tangent, lots of mineral, a bit of caramel, maybe towards tar, light on those normal earthy elements.
Some of the problem may be in my palate, John. Looking at the description, I suspect it may have been off due to a sore throat. The reset may be in my experience and mode of description. I have no training as a tea taster or wine taster so I write down the associations that mean something to me.
Still, it’s an aged Ban Tian Yao which would explain the deeper earthier notes. That might also account for the other unconventional notes. I think I need to get some more of this when I have a tea budget again, and see how my description would differ with three more years’ experience of thinking about and describing the taste of tea.
The dry leaf smells grassy and is a light olive colour. It is almost flat and looks great. The wet leaf smells meaty but retains the light olive colour. It looks fantastic suspended in my glass teapot. The liquor is almost clear. For all the colour it has, it might be plain water! But then the tasting proves this tea. It has a silky smooth mouth feel. It is light and refreshing. The meatiness of the wet leaf does not come through in the taste until the third steeping. Instead it is really light, sweet and a bit floral. All in all, this is a lovely, refreshing cuppa that is perfect for days when you need a light pick-me-up.
Preparation
Drinking this Darjeeling today. I feel ashamed that I have not written it up before now though. The liquor is a golden brown colour. The aroma is more grassy than floral. It is creamy with a hint of astringency. I am not getting any dominant, readily identifiable notes in this one. It is lovely tea to drink but it tastes more sweet, smooth and a bit mellow with a Darjeeling flavour to it than it tastes of anything particularly identifiable. I think my taste buds and descriptive powers are failing me a bit today.
Preparation
Writing this one up from yesterday.
I had a buddy round for a spot of gaming, so we sat and drank a pot or two or maybe three of this while playing. When my buddy first started coming round he drank Yorkshire Tea. Nothing inherently wrong with that, but he picked up on the loose leaf tea pretty quickly and now looks forward to sampling whatever new teas I might have in. This one is not new to me but I had not fed it to him before. Anyhow, it got the thumbs up from him. So, what did I make of it?
The dry leaf has a floral, muscatel aroma typical of Darjeelings. It smells good and inviting. It appears quite chopped with a fair bit of stalk in there too though, which might make some wary. The leaf varies in colour from pale green through dark green to brown, giving a pleasing appearance. Upon brewing, the aroma is again floral and grassy. The tea tastes like a Darjeeling should: light-bodied, crisp, muscatel-like. Then suddenly it hit me, there’s a distinct caramel apple note in there too. Crikey! That surprised me. What was missing was any real astringency. The tea was sweet through to the end. Admittedly, we were not paying total attention to the tea, but all the same, it was a splendid tea and there was a depth and complexity to it that made itself known despite our distraction.
Preparation
Crikey?! Oh that’s a new one! Next you’ll be sticking in some of your friends aardvark jokes. Sounds like a good little tea though with no astringency.
Yes, it’s a lovely tea, the sort of tea I could drink every day. It’s aard not to add the occasional vark joke, Bonnie. :)
groan!
Thank you Roughage for this Sample Tea!
I keep apologizing for my lack of knowledge about darjeelings. Like the clumsy schoolgirl I was at my first 6th grade dance, I have no idea what I’m supposed to do. At age 11 and 5’9" there’s no way I was letting a short stubby boy even think of SLOW dancing with me (which they all wanted to do with their evil grins)!
Darjeelings grin their evil grins at me too. They all look the same to me. I don’t know why. I’M NOT A DARGEELING BIGOT!
Roughage was so kind to send me this tea. I need to buck up and slow dance with it. Sigh….
So…I smoothed out my dress, looked at my dance card and there were no instructions on brewing this tea. Oh great! What was I to do? No chit chat on the dance floor to get me going.
I had to duck in a corner to look up the instructions under another First Flush Darjeeling and just wing it.
(My cheeks were turning pink)
Ok, deep breath…I took the recommended steps to brew the tea and waited.
Everything stopped for 4 minutes. So long a wait.
The liquor was floral and golden amber. This was expected. I had seen this before.
What would make this different or special?
I went to a corner chair and sat down, putting my hands in my lap and looked down at my knees. “I must be stupid!”, I said…“I never can understand this type of tea.” And I sighed again. Then I just sat.
After a time, I walked back to my cup of tea and looked into it. I took a big sip and thought how it tasted a little like grape skins and peaches. It smelled like warm flowers but not orchids. I was about to say PASTRY but out of fear of being mocked…changed my mind (pastry ha ha ha)! There was a short biting bit of astringency that I didn’t mind. Instead of being too brisk there was balanced smoothness. Good flavor!
It appears that I had slow danced after all!
I’m sure I stepped on toes.
Either I’ll grow to be more elegant and refined a dancer or you’ll grow taller and able to match with me and be my teacher. I need all the help I can get.
(Hope none of you Darjeeling lovers mind my liberties…I mean no disrespect to the tea…I mean it when I say I am a Darjeeling idiot!)
Bonnie I had no idea you where that tall! Wow that must have been a little difficult at a young age.
Yes! There was a discussion about removing bone from my legs …eek! When we changed from elementary to Jr.High (different school) many students thought I was a teacher. (We wore skirts or dresses to school way back in the old days) . I was every little boys symbol of emerging womanhood! Therefore, No slow dancing!!! (You can imagine where the foreheads of those little boys landed!) Garrrr!
What a apt description for how I feel about Darjeeling’s too.
Very well written, Bonnie!
Thank you TeaEqualsBliss for sending me a bit of this tea!
And what a lovely Keemun this is. I get what TeaEqualsBliss says about this being a “lighter” Keemun, but, I find a robustness to this too, not so much in body but more in the spice set in the background. This has a lovely complexity to it. It has a lovely peppery quality, rich yet calm and relaxed. This isn’t your “get up and go” kind of Keemun, it is more like a contemplative cup that you’ll want to explore.
Really nice.
Three new Darjeelings turned up on my doorstep today. It’s almost as if I ordered them!
Anyway, ordered on Tuesday, arrived on Thursday. Thank you, Wan Ling, for getting them to me so quickly. I was torn about which to try first so I put all three boxes in front of me, closed my eyes and picked one at random. After managing to select my desk lamp, a pen and a book, I eventually managed to put my hands on this one.
The dry leaves vary from a light olive colour through to a brownish green. They are whole and curly with a thick floral aroma. When steeped they unfurl to reveal quite a lot of whole leaves. The aroma is still floral, that thick heady scent of a flower meadow, I think. Tasting the tea seems to get every part of my tongue going. It is light, refreshing, floral. There is a hint of something darker lurking in there, a slight astringency maybe, that lends itself well to extending the aftertaste so that I enjoy the tea for a fair while after I have swallowed it. I breathe in and out so that the air across my tongue and the aroma on my breath enhances that aftertaste. This tea makes me feel good and also demonstrates beautifully why Darjeeling is the Champagne of teas. It has that same light, bubbly feelgood factor. I hope the other two are as good or better. I’m positively giddy about trying them!
Preparation
I love my darjeelings!
For all that I’ve heard that this is a difficult year, the first flush all seem to be quite good. I’m so excited for the second flushes which are almost always better.
Lovely visual review! Remind me to play cards with you! (Stick to cooking!) I look forward to the comparisons between all three Darjeelings!
Jim, the tea certainly seems to be good. I had heard that it was meant to be a difficult year, but the tasting so far suggests that there are few problems.
Bonnie, we can play cards any time. :-)
I know that with wheat, ideal conditions produces a very pretty, but nutritionally useless crop. Strain on the plant is what produces protein and fiber.
The Japanese shade their tea bushes to strain the plant, and produce some of the finest tea in the world.
My guess is that it is because of the difficult conditions that this year’s Darjeelings are so good.
I had not thought of it in those terms, Jim, but that certainly seems to make sense.
This smells like dark leafy greens and marigolds! WOW! Intense Aroma! Impressive!
Upon first sip…
Ohhhh! Incredibly clean – squeaky! Certainly a greenish-oolong! Near Buttery! Sweet! It’s like a cross between a Red Bell Pepper kind of sweet and a sweet corn sweet.
The lovely smooth-sweet combo lingers…so pure…so warming and friendly.
I can’t tell if I’m picking up slight plum notes or slight apricot notes…perhaps both! Regardless this is very VERY good! It’s sweet! It’s a bit fruity! It’s incredible clean and crisp! There are sweet-floral notes yet it’s smooth! It’s REALLY lovely! The more I sip – the more I LOVE it! YUP! This is pretty amazing!
Lightly oxidised tie guan yin oolong. Aroma is sweet and slightly floral, with very little vegetal or green tones.
Hugely sweet and sticky fruit (apricot?), particularly on first infusion. Crisp grape at the start quickly gives way to a syrupy middle and finish. Typical tie guan yin flavours are present throughout, but very refined with no harshness and lots of depth to the flavour. Honey and slight fruit in the aftertaste. Very satisfying and easy drinking.
Preparation
First let me say I DO like this tea – it’s tasty. But I, personally, wouldn’t call it robust. I found it to be a bit on the lighter side…it’s mellow yet airy and crisp. It’s a very gentle Keemun. I think that is why I like it…it’s different. It’s always nice to have a soothing black tea in your back pocket, ya know??
It’s a bit sweet and I really like the sweet notes!
YUM!
Very complex. Slightly roasty, very sweet & sticky aroma on leaves. Fruit start – notes of pear & stoned fruit. Viscous but clean middle, hint of spice (allspice?). Soft finish, with a hint of astringency. Subdued but complex aftertaste.
Preparation
Very light and gentle as high grade green should be.
Dont expect explosion of taste from this one but it fills me with energy with every cup.
I use it as reference and compare all other Mao Fengs with this one :)
Still my number one.
Preparation
Unfortunately, and hopefully due to my sniffle/sore throat, I’m not getting any flavour beyond hot water from a rather hearty steeping of this one.
aw, feel better soon! I have a stash of the Throat tea from Teaopia, if you happen to be in my area I’ll gladly share!
Thanks! Do you find it helps? My throat is feeling better but it sounds like something good to know for future reference!
Oh definitely, but I’m not sure how much better it is than most of the other “get well/throat” blends out there… I really don’t enjoy the flavour but keep it around for those odd days when I need the relief!
