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8g, gongfu, boiling water. The aroma of this tea: mushrooms and flowers, admittedly an odd combo but I love it. More of the florals come out with the wet leaf. The flavor is not as sweet as I thought it would be. It’s peppery actually. And yes – pickles. WHY PICKLES, WHY?

I have to come back to this tea another time, it’s just not working for me tonight!

Gongfu, 4g of tea, 200 degrees, 30 second steeps to start with and increasing the time +/- a minute or more for later steeps. It’s a lovely cupful of springtime; buttered corn and orchids, mildly floral but not over the top. I generally prefer a more roasted TGY and dislike green/unroasted TGY A LOT. This tea is only lightly roasted but enough to be enjoyable for me. The flavor really is quite complex, and changes remarkably over the course of multiple steepings, with later steepings becoming more vegetal and slightly astringent. The next time I have this tea I will try it grandpa style, should be interesting to taste the difference. If Master Zhang did a more heavily roasted oolong, I would buy it in a heartbeat.

I got this as a sample from a Mandala order. I didn’t know what to do with it, so I looked up other reviews on this type of tea and went from there. Gongfu, used the whole sample (about a tablespoon I guess? I forgot to weigh it) and water at 175. First steep two minutes. The aroma is absolutely lovely. Fruity sweet. The flavor is also sweet initially, with a slightly bitter aftertaste and lingering mouthfeel. I don’t know what it is with me lately and thinking green teas smell/taste of mangoes, but there it is, and so much for my one-dimensional palate.

I’m in a experimenting kind of mood, so I’m going to do a shorter steep at a higher temp. 30 seconds at 185: oh, that’s much better! Hardly any bitterness now. If I hadn’t screwed up the first one and had just gone with 30 second steeps, I’d be at 7 right now. I feel very relaxed and mellow; this is a nice tea to come home to after a stressful day. I would add this tea to my wishlist, but alas I do not see it on Mandala’s site. It reminds me a a little bit of Mandala’s Valley Peak green tea, but it lasts much longer.

EDIT: Today I learned that Bi Luo Chun and Green Snail Spring are one and the same!

I got this as part of a sample pack from Eco-Cha that also included High Mountain Concubine and Dong Ding. I decided to brew this gongfu, about a tbsp of tea, 190, first steep of a minute. Pale yellow liquor. Interesting aroma. As the leaves open more they are huge and filling my gaiwan. Aroma and flavor are both floral and buttery. Another reviewer said it’s similar to Mandala’s milk oolong, but dialed down a bit. Agreed, though I prefer the sweetness of Mandala’s version. I get the butter, particularly in terms of mouthfeel, but not so much the milk. This tea actually reminds me more of Mandala’s Golden Turtle, which I think I described in my review as drinking buttered flowers. There’s a bit of astringency in later steeps. Of the three teas I received from Eco-Cha, I would say I preferred this one the least, but that is probably because I prefer roasted oolongs generally.

I stopped by my local tea shop and this was the only pu’er they had, so I thought what the heck, it was about 5 dollars for the last bit of the cake they had left (about 30 grams) so I went for it. I used about 8 grams tea, water just about boiling, gongfu, 2 short rinses. I started with very short steeps (5-10 secs) b/c that’s what I do with shou, but the tea was weak and terrible so I upped it to 30 secs and then one really long steep, which didn’t help much. The cake was very, very dry so it may not have been stored well. The aroma is decent enough, not fishy or anything, but It tastes like weak, funky old black tea. A flat zero on the sweet meter. I think I’ve been spoiled by better quality shous, so I’m going to chalk this one up as a loss of five bucks and move on.

First off, the aroma of the dry leaf is amazing. Roasty, nutty, caramel, and yes – roasted corn like the tasting notes on the website indicate. Wet leaf aroma adds a bit of smoke. As the leaves open I notice lots of stems (again, good? bad? don’t know). Decided to brew this gongfu, starting with 30 second steeps. The next time I need to remember to follow the brewing tips and use 6-8 grams of tea, or brew grandpa style because my first steep wasn’t that great (user error – not enough tea). Anyway, longer steeps (a minute) were better. The flavor is nutty, roasty, and sweet and the aftertaste lingers on the tongue. So different from the un-roasted/lightly roasted and more floral dong dings I’ve had. I’m looking forward to trying this grandpa style, I think this tea is probably more suited to that style, for me anyway. I love a dark, robust oolong and this is definitely one of those. It’ll be great in the cold winter months.

EDIT: Did try this grandpa style at work, and it was wonderful.

My first Eco Cha tea, this from the “Intro to Oolong 3-Pack Flight” that just came in the mail today (yay, new tea!)

190, gongfu, 1 tsp, first steep a minute, then 30 seconds thereafter. What a lovely aroma. Nutty. Honey sweet pale yellow liquor. There are a TON of stems in this tea. Like, branches! I don’t know if that’s normal for this kind of oolong, but wow, I’ve never seen so many. Still, it’s a very sweet and mellow brew. I’m feeling very calm, very zen. How calm? Full day of court hearings, long commute home, and not even a teenager can get on my nerves right now. Didn’t walk the dog? Clean your room? Empty the dishwasher? Do your summer reading? Ah, no problem. I’m just going to sit here and enjoy this lovely tea. That’s how calm.

Side note: My box did not come with tasting notes. It did, oddly enough, come with some weird plastic thing that I am considering posting to reddit’s “What is this thing?” sub, because seriously… I have no idea what this thing is.

Later steeps are still lovely by the way.

The thing: http://imgur.com/a/lVeT7
EDIT: the thing is a bag sealer!

6g of tea, gongfu, water just about boiling, two short rinses, then 5-10 second steeps. This came as part of an “intro to pu’er” set from Crimson Lotus. The first thing that really hits me is the aroma of the dry leaves. They smell delicious, like candy or fruit (mangos). Wet leaves have the same aroma, plus a note of tobacco. Light soup, looks like a roasted oolong. The aroma of this tea is amazing. This is unlike any other sheng I’ve tried: the aroma and the flavor don’t match up. You expect sweetness, but it’s not really there. The flavor is more smoke, pepper, tobacco, with a fair amount of bitterness.

EDIT: Drank this again a month later. Yes, there is sweetness. Plenty. I just couldn’t taste it before. Go figure.

I got this shou as part of an “intro to pu’er” set from Crimson Lotus. 6g of tea, 200 degrees, gaiwan, two short rinses and 5-10 second steeps. The wet leaves smell kind of funky at first (is that fermentation? I don’t know, but it fades). Dark soup. Flavors: smoke, sweet, grass, oak.

EDIT: drinking this tea again about a week later. Noticing more complexity in the brew now. It’s really a nice shou. I would purchase this again.