1557 Tasting Notes
Pungent pearls!
Abundant acid!
Spicy, salty spheres!
Bitter balls!
Numbing nuggets!
Generous juniper!
TCM associations for sure. There is some semblance to Sichuan peppercorns.
Refreshing, sour and light when brewed hot then refrigerated .
Feeling: cleansing, fat digestive, tonic, invigorating
Flavors: Acidic, Berry, Bitter, Hibiscus, Pine, Pungent, Salty, Sour, Traditional Chinese Medicine
Preparation
Hefty sample from Rishi helping get me through food poisoning. The rice, when brewed, provides that smell that I can’t quite place. Acrylic paint? Did I see ashmanra mention a houjicha smelling like paint? Sobacha can have it, too. Chemical-ish.
Still a good genmaicha. Maybe it needs aired out. Could be a touch more savory as the amount of rice leads this to being a little too sweet. I’ll give it some more attention soon.
Preparation
Better? in a steeper basket. Almost obnoxiously floral, so if that’s your thing, scoop this up. Classic tieguanyin taste but without the sourness. Still drying – less so; still viscous – more so. Handles high temps well and can be steeped 3-5 times. Ridiculous longevity for this preparation method. Way too high in caffeine for me, unfortunately, without enough of whatever compounds that mellow me out.
Preparation
Really pleasant oolong whose light roast character seems to have faded since Daylon made a note, or maybe I’m not as sensitive.
Feels good in the mind and body. Floral dreaminess. Very sweet chestnut aroma and taste. Darker taste but still light and grassy. Cooling. Salty tingle.
I couldn’t brew out the leaves one session so jarred them with water in the fridge. The resulting cold brew was packed with flavor and sweetness.
Thanks for the share, Daylon <3
Flavors: Cherry Blossom, Chestnut, Coconut, Floral, Grass Seed, Malt, Menthol, Mineral, Narcissus, Nutmeg, Peach, Salad Greens, Salty, Squash, Sugarcane, Sweet, Toasty
Preparation
Berry-malty aroma with a touch of cocoa butter. Taste is malty, tabac and astringent, sweetness like brown coconut sugar, berry and orange undertone, some bitterness on the back end. With a second steep, the cup becomes coppery, tannic and bitter such that I want to drink it down quickly.
Halfway down this morning’s cup, I added a drizzle of hazelnut milk. This completely overwhelmed the tea. The hazelnut milk tastes like papery nut skins and smells strange. Oh well. Just not a milk tea person but thought I’d try!
When cold-brewed, the flavor is upfront more glassy coppery-woody “tea” with a thick oat-toffee kind of taste as an afterthought.
I’ve had a previous year’s harvest of this tea from another company and enjoyed it quite a bit more. Weather changes and so do tastes. While this tea is good quality and has a character of its own that stands out from basic plantation leaf, Sri Lankan teas aren’t high on my list.
Flavors: Astringent, Berry, Bitter, Brown Sugar, Chocolate, Fruity, Malt, Malty, Metallic, Oats, Orange, Tannin, Tea, Tobacco, Toffee, Wood, Woody
Preparation
Edited to add:
After trying this western instead of gongfu, I can say this is most likely an aged Taiwanese red tea. Really nice chocolate and cherry-scented tobacco aroma with that wintergreen character present in Ruby 18s. Much more interesting gongfu!
What a ride! Is it an aged raw tea? Is it an old oxidized white? Is it a sun-dried red? Is it a GABA oolong or simply an oolong? The only thing I can feel confident declaring is that I have no idea how this tea was processed! Is it a forgotten relic, stashed away in some dark corner for years? Is it an experiment gone wrong, or rather oh-so-right? Like the Indonesian Yellow that Liquid Proust sells, this tea defies all preconceived notions of any specific processing. Most of the material is one leaf picking like Baozhong oolong and it’s well oxidized.
Taste- and aromawise, it starts out with humid aged nutty and forest floor notes, then moves to barnyard and mushroom, then to something almost malty, then to something lighter and fruitier like pear, then to pure watermelon-cucumber and yellow cherry with light grape skin tannins.
Several characteristics are apparent throughout all steeps: a welcome sweetness, a refreshing wintergreen-type quality, seamless transitions, an inability to be oversteeped and a complete lack of bitterness no matter what temperature water is used.
So much complexity wrapped up in ridiculous longevity. Did I mention watermelon?!!
Thank you for sharing, beerandbeancurd, you lovely creature.
Flavors: Barnyard, Caramel, Cherry, Chocolate, Cucumber, Cumin, Forest Floor, Grape Skin, Malt, Mineral, Mushrooms, Musty, Nutty, Pear, Pine, Salt, Smoke, Smooth, Spring Water, Tobacco, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Watermelon, Wintergreen
Preparation
Strong and comforting sweet and grainy aroma with a prominent cocoa note. First steep is sweet, grainy and nourishing. Second and third move into earthy territory with dominant tobacco and rye tastes as tannins and complementary bitterness present. A great breakfast tea.
It’s been years since I’ve had a straight up Yunnan gold tea. Thank you Whispering Pines for including this as a free sample with my order :)
Flavors: Beer, Burlap, Cactus, Cantaloupe, Cocoa, Earthy, Eggplant, Ginger, Grain, Leather, Malt, Malty, Orange Zest, Pine, Roasted Barley, Rye, Savory, Sweet, Sweet Potatoes, Tannin, Tobacco, Vanilla, Wheat, White Grapes, Wood
Preparation
Daylon, your sample is threading like silk into this beautiful summer morning. Somebody put their full attention and energy into this tea.
This Michigan-grown leaf gives me great hope that one day I can grow and process tea here in California that, like this oolong, rivals the depth, complexity and longevity of fine eastern teas.
Thank you, Daylon. I can’t express enough gratitude <3
Flavors: Apricot, Butter, Camphor, Cedar, Clean, Crisp, Floral, Freshly Cut Grass, Fruity, Incense, Jam, Juicy, Oily, Orchid, Peach, Peony, Sandalwood, Spicy, Strawberry, Sugar, Viscous
Preparation
This past week, I had 4 different 2020 Old Ways Tea Rou Gui over 4 days and this was by far the standout!
My notes are an absolute mess probably because I was more with the tea than concerned about writing legibly.
Complex sweet aromatics, soft in the mouth, blooming vaporous aftertaste. Cooling mineral sweetness.
Warming and drying. Slowed breathing.
Refined, ethereal, silky.
Malty suede.
Flavors: Cacao, Cannabis, Caramel, Charcoal, Cinnamon, Cream, Dark Bittersweet, Drying, Leather, Malt, Mineral, Osmanthus, Peach, Peppermint, Roasted Barley, Silky, Soft, Wet Wood, Wood
Preparation
2020 harvest
I don’t remember much about this. A lighter, fruitier Rou Gui.
Roswell Strange’s note has more to offer than my impressions which have slipped into oblivion.
Flavors: Cacao, Charcoal, Drying, Fruit Tree Flowers, Marzipan, Mineral, Nuts, Oak, Peach, Pear, White Grapes