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its been a really long time since I’ve had a keemun. Like a year, I think I’m always put off by them because the leaves always look broken in pictures and that makes me uncomfortable tbh, and I guess my regular vendors don’t tend to stock keemun black but here we are.

The dry leaf aroma is so hard to describe it’s like some kind of weird woodsiness with earth but there’s this like fruitiness or i don’t know, raddish sort of smell? but it also kind of smells like an earthy grapefruit or orange or something, and it’s slightly reminiscent of a shu like with a mushroomy smell. The dry leaf aroma doesn’t really appeal to me, but that doesn’t mean all that much I suppose,

Anyways, pretty typical keemun-looking leaves, decent amount of breakage, and just very small twisty leaves and some stems actually

Okay I let it stew for like a minute in the warmed gaiwan and I get an aroma of like charred meat, like charcoal and barbecued beef or pork.

Tastes of stems, earth, some mushroom, a sweet smokey taste, a sugary sweetness, chocolate, there’s sort of a beer-like taste right when I sip, I get a very distinctly bok choy aftertaste.. I ate some bok choy a few hours ago, but I just had a tea session before this and that one didn’t taste like bok choy so I think it’s actually from the tea. Anyway, it has a nice thick, satisfying texture.. oo it reminded me momentarily of those um those minty chocolatey.. these things:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/2e/b2/8c/2eb28c08a6d77764f756e02823c2d455.jpg
What are those called?
I don’t even know why it reminded me of that it frankly doesn’t taste like those at all but its ok. You know what it is, it’s the same kind of sweetness, and the same feeling in my throat as those candies. okay anyways I definitely didn’t like keemun last time I had it and I understand why, the flavour profile isn’t really something i’d ever go for, but I’m actually enjoying this much more than I thought I would from the dry leaf aroma. Some of the chocolate and earth goes out around steep 5 and there’s a nice floral note that enters in its place, with still a strong smokey flavour, which I’m finding to be a bit of a strange combination.
The really nice thing is there’s absolutely no bitterness or astringency, it’s totally smooth all the way to the end of the session. Well, maybe a teeny bit of astringency.

I’m gonna be frank, I don’t reeally like this, it isn’t by any means a bad tea, I think it’s objectively of better quality than the other two teas I’ve tried from teasenz thus far, but I’m really not big on the sweet smokey taste. It’s just not something I’d ever choose to drink. If you’re into like lapsang souchong, then for sure pick some of this up.

Brewed at 95C, filled gaiwan like a quarter of the way because the leaves are so tiny

When I was in vancouver last weekend, I went to the chinese tea shop with my friend, and Daniel made like 5 or 6 different teas just for us to try (me and my friend didn’t ask for any of them, or even to try teas, some of the other people did and he was just so excited to show us his teas, he just kept making more other ones), anyways, it was a lot of fun. He made this in what I assume was a really well-seasoned yixing because it tasted unbelievable, like I distinctly remember it tasted exactly like I was getting the last bits of mango that are on the pit of a mango and you’re trying to scrape off the last little bit with your teeth.. anyways, so I got my first yixing pot there, which was $15 because it’s a marriage pot, the lid fits really well and is almost the same colour, so I decided to use it for dancong because dancong is amazing

Anyways so I’m brewing it in that. at 98C

I get honey notes, and a rock sugar-like sweetness, light fruitiness somewhat reminiscent of lychee, a but of mint, some bark notes, there’s a cinnamon toastiness to it as well. It has a lovely tingly exciting mouthfeel with a lovely toasty aroma. I don’t really know what else to say about it, it doesn’t seem to complex. I get a bit more of a perfumey floralness, light and a bit more of a soapy texture a bit later into the session.

I like it, I might expect a little bit more at this price point (~$0.50/g) but it is really quite good.

My 100th review! Yay I’ve made it :D

I drank this one western style last night while I was studying cause I had no time for gongfu and it was delicious so the very next time I had time to drink gongfu I went for this one (I’m gonna drink a lot of tea today, It’s been a stressful few days) It’s quite a different black from the usuals, I’ve only ever had one other purple black tea and I didn’t really get to be in depth with it because it’s my friend’s and I’m excited to get gongfuing,

I’m brewing at 95C in my 120ml gaiwan, the gaiwan is maybe half full of leaf

the dry leaf aroma is very floral with fruity notes of blueberry and blackberry, lots of woodyness and some earth.

The early steep aroma is pretty much the same as the dry leaf, just a bit less fruity

I get notes of potato, grape, blueberry, with a nice medium-thickness body that goes down with a long lingering fruitiness and a slight pleasant sweet sourness, it’s also slightly reminiscent of wine, it’s very very sweet, I don’t get any bitterness or astringency, there’s the tiniest bit of astringency actually, I’m getting a tiny bit of chocolate too, the blueberry notes actually sorta taste like chocolate covered blueberries, floral notes finally show up around steep 6 or 7 in the aftertaste. It’s not the most complex tea, but the flavours are really defined and delicious.

it fades off into like thick grape juice tasting tea, it’s awesome.

I enjoy this lots, it’s actually a really good deal too, it may be a bit boring tasting for people who know more about purple teas, I mean I don’t know anything.

I don’t think I’m going to rate teas anymore it feels.. wrong

The dry leaf smell like fresh bread, a light fruitiness reminiscent of cherry and apricot, and some wood and cocoa.
after settling in the warmed gaiwan, I get an aroma of sour cherries and/or sour peaches, hay, dark cooking chocolate and wine

First steeps have an aroma of barley, cocoa, wood, something that’s vaguely fishy, raspberry, there’s something leathery too.

There are notes of mango, hay, honey, the same kind of florals that you might find in a bai mu dan, but it has an enormous body, a really lovely mouthfeel, with very pleasant bitterness, a decent amount of astringency, and a slight metallic feeling (no metallic taste), with thickness. A wine-like aroma entering on the third steep, this really tastes a lot like white tea, it’s strange.
They astringency gets strong quickly, and becomes a bit overpowering around the middle of the session; I had to decrease my steeping time quite a bit to make it tolerable and at that point the rest of the mouthfeel is a bit emptier, I can’t find a nice balance anymore

It softens up a bit in the mid-late area, but the flavours get a bit bland around there, sweet honey, hay, and a bit of cocoa and a lingering taste,

It’s a tasty tea, nothing spectacular but it’s enjoyable

Thanks to Teasenz sending me these samples!

I’ve been sick the last couple weeks, unable to smell or taste properly and that was horrible, that was the first time since I got really really into tea that I couldn’t appreciate tea and it was very unsettling, but finally I got my sense of smell back today, I have a whole bunch of new teas I couldn’t even sniff for weeks!!

The dry leaf here has a very earthy and woody aroma, the leaves look quite nice, maybe a tiny bit of breakage, but quite beautiful.
I filled the gaiwan maybe halfway, maybe a bit more. After sitting in the heated gaiwan, I got thick fruity notes of mango, pineapple, strawberry and hints of peppermint.
After the rinse, it has a nice earthy, woody, pine tree aroma with hints of mint and .. Can you smell bitterness? I’m temped to say that it smells bitter, sort of like plant stems as well. It’s a nice dancongy aroma
In the first steep, I can’t help but feel that there’s something .. missing. the mouthfeel is very flat, I mean it’s thick and creamy and smooth, but it’s like the mouthfeel is very separate from the taste, it feels almost one-dimensional in a way, it’s not dancing on my palate like Verdant’s did. Well, anyways, the flavours are actually very nice, lovely mango and earth/wood.
The second steep is a bit more alive, it’s creamier, with a pleasant bitterness that I’m quite enjoying. More mango with honey and flowers. The flavours linger for several minutes along with an increasing dryness in the tongue and roof of the mouth.
Some smokiness develops in the aroma with time, and the body unfortunately wound up thinning with each successive steep after number 2.
Dancongs for me are so calming and warming, very comforting, and this totally has all of that, and I’m actually really enjoying this, but around steep 6 or 7 the thinness that had developed became unpleasant and the body wound up putting me off more than I expected it to.
I think this is a really solid dancong for the price point ($0.13/g). I’ll get another session out of the sample which I’ll drink happily :) I am curious what cultivar this is, it doesn’t say anywhere.
I’d say it’s a nice entry level/daily drinker dancong

Omg okay so today I got 3 packages, one from Vahdam, one from Teasenz and another from Jake’s stash sale, I’m drowning in tea right now and its fantastic.

Anyways okay this is not going to be as proper of a review as mine usually are, I’ve been studying all night for my midterm tomorrow and caved and decided to start gongfuing this one while doing work so this is from memory. This is actually the only sample (of like 21) that I’ve opened just to give it a smell, and I was amazed by the dry leaf aroma, I don’t know how to describe it, it smells so pure and sweet, very fruity (orange/peach/grape) and not at all floral, more to the point I was really impressed with the look of the leaf, they’re completely whole and beautiful, just like in the picture. And with my complete disinterest in white tea recently and my past experiences with indian tea being pretty negative, this amazing aroma was a huge shock if I’m being honest. I had very low expectations for a Nilgiri white tea, but I’ve been very happily surprised.

It brewed up very strong and thick and almost malty in a way, hints of bitterness every now and then but for the most part it had a very nice body, I got notes of berries and lovely florals, as well as some of the fruits from the aroma, and at one point I’m pretty sure I tasted chocolate. Honestly, while I wouldn’t have had a hard time telling you that it was a white tea, it was quite.. Burly, I want to say. I feel like it has the body of a black tea, with the flavours of a fruity white.

Also, looking at the name, there is something that feels frosty about this tea. I don’t know why, but it’s very fitting that this is a winter harvest (Feb 2016).

This was a very good first impression for Vadham

I picked up a cake of this at the Chinese Tea Shop in vancouver about a month ago, because it was affordable ($33CAD-ish?), plus it’s already 6 years old. I wasn’t sure whether it’d be a regular drinker for me, seeing as it’s only my second cake and I don’t really have any place set up for long-term storage, but I’ve wound up playing around with it a lot recently, anyways it’s really creamy smooth going down with a sharp spicy aroma in the aftertaste. and a bit of dryness, a bit of a lower qi. I’ve found it tastes best at specifically 87C (~190F), and moving it up or down even 1C made it like significantly worse, and now I really feel justified in spending extra for a kettle with 1 degree increments :)
I actually really like this, it’s probably my favourite sheng that I’ve ever tried which is lucky that I went for a whole cake, I wanna drink it all soon and I want to break up the whole cake but I don’t know where I’d put all the looser leaf.. Do you guys break up cakes before drinking it or do you just take a bit off at a time? cause it’s annoying doing it every time

mmmmm okay, it starts off with some delicious white chocolate, wood, earth and a bit of spearmint, but with a meat-like quality that’s vaguely reminiscent of turkey. It brews a very light orange-yellow, much lighter in colour than the 5 other dancongs from the August 2016 Verdant club box. It’s silky smooth to drink and as it develops, bitter flowers, orange zest, grapefruit, lemon and lychee begin to present themselves, and it develops a nice creamy texture. Throughout, the tea soup and the wet leaves have the toasty cocoa aroma that all of these verdant dancongs have had, but again without any of this in the taste. I get further notes of grapes, carrots and beets in the mid-late session. This one’s soo tasty, it’s kinda like a cross between the Ya Shi that I adored, and the Wu Dong Shan Mi Lan Xiang. Finally as it fades out, I get notes of cabbage, spinach, and zucchini, with some more lychee at the end.

I’m very interested to try some dancong from other farmers and regions to see just how good these new Verdant ones are :) I think this provided me with a nice amount of experience to know that I want more of this in my life!

I did a 7ish second rinse and then I used 100C water for the first steep, 99C for the second and third, and 98C from there on out, cause it worked well on the previous ones, and it’s good to have consistency to compare them. I filled the gaiwan about 2/3 of the way.

Well the first steep was really thin and didnt taste like uh.. well I tried to think of notes but I couldn’t come up with anything, so we’re gonna ignore that, the first infusion’s colour was really light too, so I guess it was just not opened enough, so the second steep is really bready, with subtle plum, i want to say it tastes like gin or uh white rum; it’s really quite alcoholly, which I don’t appreciate, and a minty taste, maybe it tastes like a mojito. Toasted rice, seaweed, with grassiness, ooo okay I wasn’t really liking this but here, steep 5 is really nice, creamy, notes of potato, spinach, green beans, celery it’s very vegetal, it leaves a very astringent aftertaste, like if you just decided to like eat some basil leaves, the way that feels. I honestly am not really enjoying this though, its sharp and thin and tastes like herbs, there’s a slight hint of lychee, which would be the mi lan xiang-ness (?) (I’m basing that on my 2 mi lan xiangs ever, tasting like lychee), but other than that this tastes very very different from the one I had yesterday, I quite preferred that one, this one’s much more delicate tasting, though this might be more of a pure lychee kind of taste showing up later in the session, as opposed to the lychee-jelly sort of taste from the mi lan xiang yesterday, a bit of honey and some florals are coming through now, It’s starting to get better, there’s still a lot of spearmint that I’m not too happy about, it kinda fades down from there,

This one was only okay for me, I think it was objectively good, but definitely not for me. Also I burnt the roof of my mouth halfway through the session on some spring rolls :l

I did a 5ish second rinse (I think I should’ve done 2 rinses though, just to open it up a bit more before having at it) and then I used 100C water for the first steep, 99C for the second and third, and 98C from there on out, cause it worked well on the previous ones, and it’s good to have consistency to compare them. I filled the gaiwan about 2/3 of the way.

This tastes like some sort of sour green apple candy, in an amazing way. woody, earth, lychee, during the second cup I feel so relaxed and calm that I was having a hard time moving my cup all the way up to my mouth, there’s definitely some florals here and what I almost want to say is honey, but the texture.. Okay the texture is incredible, it’s so silky smooth but it’s also thick, tonguing it a little before swallowing feels like I’m moving my tongue through hot, thick air, also there is a lot more lychee in steep 4 than when I first noticed the note, that’s wonderful. This tea looks thicker, the colour is a bit more opaque than the others that I’ve tried, a nice thick yellow-orange, as opposed to the mustard yellow I’ve been seeing, the lychee turns into something like pear with some.. pineapple? maybe guava, with a bit of toastiness, the tropical fruit only lasted one steep, it moves to a sweeter, deeper red appley kind of taste, even slightly reminiscent of apple pie, there’s still lychee there though, through it all. I get a peachy lemony lychee brew after that.

this one was so deliciously fruity! I love that I had the chocolatey dark one, the ya shi, the floral one, da wu ye, and now this. I really was expecting these to taste a lot more like eachother than they have been, considering my inexperience (the first time I tried a few different pu’ers they all tasted the same to me) all of this variety from one farm, plus the next 2 that I have to get to, (the two that came in 10g sizes, vs the 15g and one 25g, which makes me think/hope they’ll be the fanciest) smell lighter and very aromatic and different so I’m definitely excited to get to one of those tomorrow :)

I did a 5ish second rinse and then I used 100C water for the first steep, 99C for the second and third, and 98C from there on out, cause it seemed to work well on the previous ones, and I guess it’s good to have consistency to compare them. I filled the gaiwan about 2/3 of the way this time

yay dancong oolong