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What I would give to have tried this tea when it was fresher. Tea Urchin, or whoever they acquired it from, must have stored it flawlessly because this green oolong with over 4 years of age has held up really well.

So far, I’ve steeped this gongfu with short steeps in a teapot and also western style. I really love the nuances of Taiwanese oolong when prepared gongfu, so my praises will be geared toward that method.

I wasn’t expecting such a forward dry leaf aroma from a 2014 tea but I was greeted with notes of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice, along with brown sugar, cream, apple, light creamy white florals and roasted pear. The aroma of the dry leaf matched that of the wet leaf and liquor throughout all steeps, evocative of… nevermind, I don’t know what but my room was a pocket of sweet spice, flowers, fruit and cream.

One of my housemates was acting neurotic today so I decided to share my gongfu session with her while she was spilling her life story to some poor Chevy dealership worker over the phone. I interrupted her with “Smell this, drink this,” thinking the calmness that often follows a high mountain oolong session would help her chill out. She stayed on the phone and never really savored it, pretty much slamming an empty tiny tea cup down within 5 seconds of me setting in on the glass table. Well, she did offer a few comments like “That first sip made my tongue tingle!” and “Oooh I really like this, thanks for sharing. I think it’s working.”

Moving on. The taste offered much the same as the aroma, with baking spices, florals like narcissus and creamy lily, brown sugar, a very light vegetal quality, green oolong grassiness, tingling minerals and later some green banana/banana leaf and lightly creamy, sweet lemon. Full mouthfeel with light salivation. The finish was moderate with those tropical fruit notes I delight in finding in some high mountain oolong: a mix of creamy passionfruit, guava and lychee that just stole my widdle tea heart. I didn’t notice the sugarcane returning sweetness and some slight mouth-cooling until late in the session. Those qualities were delayed compared to other teas of this style. One thing to note is I started off the session with a 200F rinse, which I drank, with no undesirable qualities, so I bumped it up to boiling for the entire session and it still performed excellently.

As a green oolong of this age, I can’t fault it for much. It was a little heavy on the high and low note fragrance and taste while lacking a bit in the midtones. That creamy tropical fruit aftertaste was a treat and probably would’ve been even stronger when fresh. The longevity of the tea was lacking a bit as well but dang that aroma.

Thanks for the few sample bags, Tea Urchin! I hope to see some more, maybe fresher, Shan Lin Xi oolong offered in the future.

A mellow morning cup of genmaicha provided by ashmanra, thank you! It was noted on the paper tag inside the bag that this was either from Tea ’N Joy or Tea Queens.

ashmanra sent some tasty Blackberry Jasmine green tea in a swap that had a very strong syrupy aroma. Its aroma penetrated through the bag and into the genmaicha bag, so it was almost like having a surprise second steeping of the Blackberry Jasmine with a hint of toasty rice :)

This is a tea I picked up from the co-op in San Francisco. It’s blended by a restaurant called Azalina’s at the edge of both of my old neighborhoods. I had never heard of Azalina’s probably because it’s located in the Twitter headquarters.

Really, this is an incredible blend if you like strong flavors. Crushed/chopped black tea leaf, tons of lavender, huge chunks of orange peel, clove, star anise and vanilla beans. They all meld together seamlessly, creating a smooth, vanilla sweet yet spicy and lavender-cooling bold black tea. The orange peel is sweet and floral compared to a more pungent tangerine peel. A little mineral and oily, doesn’t get bitter or astringent. Leaves a slight tingly spice in the mouth.

I imagine the flavors are strong enough to create a killer latte or milk tea. In my usual fashion, I drank it straight. 2tsp, 8oz, boiling, 2 steeps at 2-3 and 5 minutes. With the second steep, the black tea is pretty much depleted but the other ingredients still make a tasty brew. Very much recommended if you ever come across it!

Bought one of the red pigs to commemorate the year of the pig, me being a product of 1983. The craftsmanship is evident, nice rough texture, a kind of unfinished touch that I appreciate much like a pig itself. Pig’s about as long as the width of my palm.

The only reason I’m writing about this pig…

I spent some time working with a few Juniper Ridge employees earlier this week harvesting juniper in northeastern California. One of the employees was Pablo, a stoic yet hilarious dude.

The day started off with finding a lost pupper wandering around in the previous night’s snow (really wish I could attach photos!). She was going to come home with me. The town vet lived next to the property we were working on. The vet took the dog into town to their clinic where an employee recognized the dog and called her owner. Still feeling kind of sad about that. The dog was so sweet.

After dealing with a full day of alternating snow, sun, clouds, rain and wind, a healthy round of beers was indulged. Pablo opened up a little and joked about having a pet pig and after eating a horrendous dinner at a Mexican restaurant (all the food in the town of Alturas is near inedible), he said he was going to make carnitas out of his pet pig. With a healthy buzz going around, of course we all got out our phones to share pictures. Pablo really does have a pet pig. And it’s HUGE. He has this HUGE pet pig at the likely small city lot he lives on. Apparently some people that sell pigs as pets lie and say they’re exactly that, pets, but a lot of them end up the size of something which ends up at a carnicería. So maybe Pablo wasn’t joking about making carnitas out of his buddy.

Anyway, the trip was awesome, my work clothes smell like juniper and chainsaw exhaust and I have my own tea pet pig that I’ve now named Pablito. Here’s to my year!

Wanted to add a few things while sipping this tonight with the mechanic. He said it has some maltiness and a pleasant tannic dry finish. Shared some knowledge about leaf-bitten teas. Btw, these leaves are very healthy and clearly hand picked. I’m on the edge of having a gongfu partner.

A very generous sample from Kawaii433 that took me a while to work through. Thanks :)

Same base oolong as the Adagio Peach Oolong she sent. Same base flavors — roasted barley, autumn leaf, wood, mineral — but the grapefruit elevated that kind of heaviness into something brighter, though like the peach oolong, more aromatic than full of taste. Odd medicinal-artificial whiffs in the aroma. Decent citrus zest tingling and very, very light bitterness from some grapefruit rind. Pretty smooth tea. I steeped many cups of this western (2 brews with 2tsp) before deciding to finish off the bag doing a gongfu session in a 100mL teapot. No difference whatsoever between the two methods. A good thing about this tea is not having to be mindful of brewing temp; boiling works just fine.

I have to get in another few reviews before I call it a night.

Picked this up bulk loose leaf from the co-op. Sipdown tonight, a pot made for the house. Compared to both the Dammann Frères Tilleul (sachet) and Ahmad Limeflower (teabag) I’ve tried, this one is not as heady floral and syrupy, more of a pungent herbal character. Still sweet and flowery. Clearing some light congestion. Linden is much loved in this house <3

I’ve had this Summer 2017 harvest of Oriental Beauty sitting around for a while, sipping on it here and there western style 2tsp to 8oz. I didn’t write anything about the body of the tea or the aftertaste just some hasty tasty notes written on the label: autumn leaf, almond, citrus, honey, nectarine, peach and light cream and butter. It was definitely up my alley.

I did a teapot session this morning using 5g to 100mL, 205F. So this Oriental Beauty is composed of the traditional Qing Xin cultivar used for this tea blended with some Jin Xuan cultivar. When I drank this gongfu, the contribution of the milky Jin Xuan was much more apparent than when prepared western style. It was more like sipping on peaches topped with cream and creamed honey. Mellow, almost milky, still with plenty of almond nuttiness, nectarine-peach-fruit tree flowers and even some peach pit or almond hull mixed with wood and leaf. Thanks to the other reviewer, MarshP, I can also attribute some rosehips and even rosewood to this. Smooth, liquor deposited a moderate lingering nectarine-peach aroma in the mouth. Can get a little bitter later on but I enjoy it. Not sure if it’s due to age or different brewing technique but the citrus I very much tasted brewed western fell out. A different experience, for sure, but just as lovely. I remember third steep in I was thinking “I love tea.”

I’m heading out tomorrow morning to do some contract work for Juniper Ridge, the company whose teas I sent samples of to Martin and Togo recently. Going up to northeastern California near Oregon and Nevada to harvest juniper to distill into essential oils. Weird how things work. Life sure has been taking some turns lately and I’m at a point in my physical location and states of heart and mind to go with the flow. It’s all very foreign to me, a general practitioner of forceful vision.

I’m not expecting much for internet on my phone, so I might not be around these parts until late this coming week. Ciao!

Kitchen cleanout, fresh but low quantity remaining so it’s gotta go.

Smells nice and toasty-nutty-seaweed. That all fades into something lighter and salty-mineral when I take a sip. I’m noticing that while there isn’t really an aftertaste, the aromatics do continue to kind of build in my mouth and some caramel becomes noticeable in that ether. I have my favorite loose hojicha but this isn’t too bad for bagged tea. It was a nice lead-in to this toasted croissant with the rose petal preserves we picked up from the new Mediterranean store in town.

Housemate, who I made a cup for, says “Oh glob, that’s good tea.” slurrrrrp

“I can share (but nobody would like it I assume).” —Martin.

Third and final session with this tea that Martin shared with me. For somebody that’s not a big drinker of Ceylon teas, I find this perfectly acceptable and accessible, probably good for those that like their tea with milk and sugar but it is drinkable straight which is how I prefer. It does have a mild aroma of red fruits jam which comes through stronger in the mouth along with malt and cedar, a hint of butter. Surprisingly full body that thins out into a texture bittersweet at the back of the tongue. Long-lasting jammy aftertaste with some tannic drying. Heavy in the stomach at this leaf amount and brew time. It is not a smokey-campfire tea to me unlike for Martin. Good for two steeps. I find it a nicely balanced, strong breakfast-type tea.