1705 Tasting Notes
Artificiality, you need to stop messing with good tea flavors. Well, I love the combo. The coconut is really nice, the mango is a great follow up, and the tea base is good. Oddly enough, this is a flavored tea that should be Gong Fu’d. But the chemical used to flavor the tea overwhelms the natural taste of the green tea making it kinda soapy. Only was able to finish one cup, unfortunately.
Flavors: Coconut, Grass, Mango, Soap, Tropical
Used more leaves and those of you who already follow me know that I have the bad habit of raising the rating after I tried it again and a previous critical review. Forgive me for my subjective inconsistency.
Back to the tea: this works Gong Fu or Western, making it pretty versatile. Bourbon is the strongest scent and taste that I get out of it, and drinking it is like drinking clean, liquid bourbon booze chocolate with hints of cherry and wood. Later on, the bourbon wears of and it progressively gets more woody in profile maintaining its sweetness. It can go on for several steeps until nothing but sweetness and cherry are left over.
In terms of roast, this tea is more medium to dark roast for an oolong. Some leaves are nice and green while others are fairly dark. The medium, woodsy profile was closer to a Gui Fei personally more than anything else. Actually, the woodsy profile was kind of like toasted or fried rice but boozy. So in short, Sake. The only tea that I’ve had comparable was Liquid Proust’s Dark Chocolate Oolong, which is one of my all time favorites.
Like I said before, I really do enjoy this tea. Josh selecting a tea close to one of my all time favorites is already astounding. The price still upsets me. I wish that I would have been smarter and asked for a sample, because I am glad that I tried it. I would probably get it in bulk if I had more income to dispose.
I do recommend a try for this, but the appeal is probably specific to bourbon or whisky lovers. Some people might otherwise think this tea is too weird for their palate, or wonderfully odd and exciting. The woodsiness of the oolong is the main deterrent. The medium body, versatility, and moderate caffeine amount are the welcoming crew. I also get to enjoy a boozy beverage without worry over the legal confines of age.
So, here’s what I’m going to do with my ounce. Savor a few cups for myself and for my friends. The rest I’ll include with a swap…Andrew, there’s a good chance some of this is going to you.
Flavors: Alcohol, Brown Sugar, Cherry, Cherry Wood, Dark Chocolate, Sake
Preparation
This is incredibly strong even with 3 grams. And it is still sooooooo sweet. I love the warm chestnut and coffee smell dry leaf, but I need to figure out a better way to brew this. I’ll Gong Fu when I use three grams again. Heck, I might use four leaves for one cup because it’s so strong. I actually felt like I was drinking the oil from cashew butter.
I’ve been having Earl Grey cravings and this really satisfied my need for one. It also turned out to be a uniquely light one.
When you drink it, there is no doubt that this is an Earl Grey and you would not notice a great difference between any other. But if you drink it carefully, there is actually a lot of subtle things going on with the taste.
The bergamot is the most immediate thing you smell from the dry leaves and the immediate thing you taste from the brew at three minutes at nice, boiling temperature. But as it goes down the throat, some tastes of malt, citrus, and cocoa roll in very slowly and nicely. The longer I steeped it, the more tea “chocolaty” it got in every steep. I followed Brenden’s recommendations precisely, but I also got more tastes as I let the leaves strain in my cup. There was a very slight butter and caramel note every once in a while, maybe closer to a very LIGHT sweet potato, but they were fairly subtle. The spices and honey are really the different tones of the citrus.
I can say that this was a light, but nicely balanced and almost oily Earl Grey. It’s lightness and subtlety make it unique to me. It kind of makes me curious what Earl Gold tastes like in comparison, if it is a chocolate orange as Amanda describes it. At least I have this chocolate orange for now.
This was actually one of the best blends that you can get for a decent price from Whispering Pines. Some of you might be under impressed because its lighter taste, but others might like it for the lightness as I did. And if you want to try Whispering Pines, this tea is a good start.
Flavors: Bergamot, Chocolate, Citrus, Cocoa, Honey, Olive Oil, Smooth, Sweet, Sweet Potatoes
Preparation
Okay, I admit, I’m weak willed and got me some of this tea. Josh recommended this one along with a few others. I was going to get all three, but the coupon code wasn’t working. I emailed him about it, it still didn’t work, so I settled on just getting this one.
The dry leaf smell is amazing. It’s like smelling bourbon liquor chocolates. Had eight leaves for 9 ounces, and the first brew at three minutes was pretty good. Fruity, closer to cherry, chocolaty, and boozy with the bourbon. Steep two at four, and the bourbon is still there but with the typical roasted and woodsy profile of this type of oolong. It reminds me of a Hojicka a little bit. The third steep is flat.
I am going to try this again with a few more leaves. It would probably work Gong Fu, but Western or Grandpa is probably better for the bourbon flavor. I like this, but it was not worth the twelve bucks plus seven dollars in shipping that I paid for it. Should have went with my first instinct and got the green version of this, maybe even the Pu-Erh. The bourbon would actually go really well with the green florals and probably make for an amazing tea. With the Pu-Erh, it would provide a dense foundation sweetened by this chocolaty booze. Not that the bourbon blends badly with this-in fact the first taste is amazing because of it. The fact that I got such a full bodied profile with so few leaves is amazing. It’s just not worth the price.
Flavors: Alcohol, Cherry Wood, Chocolate, Fruity, Roasted, Sweet
