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I was surprised to find a small box at my front door several months ago – a gorgeous Jin Hou (Golden Monkey) black tea with bergamot oil. Blended by AJ, this tea was thoughtfully sent in return for a sample of Whispering Pines’ Earl Gold Reserve that was originally from beerandbeancurd.

The bergamot oil is particularly fresh and penetrating in bag but it is smoothed in the cup by the small-leaf Jin Hou black tea with its natural notes of dried currants, sparkling honey, caramelized sugar and sweet chocolate that come on stronger as I sip down this cup. Medium-bodied, somewhat oily and soft with a welcome briskness on the back-end. A hint of buttery caramel is in the aftertaste while the zesty flavor of bergamot lingers on the tongue and tingles the salivary glands.

Second steep has more malt than dried fruit and brown sweetness but still has plenty of bergamot that now tastes more like Froot Loops. I forgot about this cup so it’s a bit astringent but also heartier. Perhaps long and strong steeps like this would pair well with a touch of milk.

A pleasure to sip on a cold October morning when my body is sore and slow to move.

Thanks AJ!

The evening of my flight to China, I clicked the China Airlines check-in link in my email. But I couldn’t check in. I tried again. And again. All packed up and ready to catch the bus to the airport, I thought, “Oh, I’ll just check-in at the airport.” I grabbed my planner to put it in my backpack and leafed through it to double check my lists. Saw that my flight was for after midnight TODAY, SATURDAY, not for after midnight on SUNDAY. Holy shit, I missed my flight. Complete oversight. My excuse was that the week and a half prior to my departure, work was insane. It was prime-time building season here in California and the guy who carried the most weight between the four of us in the office took a different position.

I freaked. Hopped online to see what I could do but found it was too late and too expensive to book a flight on another airline. The next 24 hours was spent freaking. Phone calls back and forth to China Airlines’ different offices (US Los Angeles, which is closed on the weekend, Hong Kong, Taiwan), emails to the folks at One River Tea (the 15-hour time difference wasn’t helping!), talking to my seasoned-traveller aunt on the phone to help me get my head straight.

No room on the next flight out. I had to wait until Monday after midnight. But I had to jump through all these hoops and pay to change my flight. The trick was China Airlines’ LA office was closed on the weekend, and they were the only office that could take an American credit card. Hong Kong and Taiwan required some other form of payment through Alipay or WeChat. Oh awesome! Last week I had followed a YouTube tutorial on how to install Alipay on my American cellphone. Tried that with WeChat, too, several times, but it never sent me a confirmation code. I linked my bank card on Alipay and tried to put money into the account but nothing worked. WTF. How can I pay to rebook my flight?! Luckily Alex and Xiaoyan at One River Tea had woken up for the day and said they would use their WeChat to pay! But then I had to figure out how to tell the agent on the phone to send the payment request to a different phone in China. I don’t know how many times I was on/off the phone with China Airlines. Eventually, it worked.

I felt terrible for Alex and Xiaoyan, who had gotten a hotel room in Wuhan a few days before my scheduled arrival. They assured me they would wait there until I arrived. The only connecting flight out of Hong Kong on China Southern was booked, so I had to stay overnight at the Hong Kong airport hotel. Luckily I could pay at the counter with my American credit card for the leg from Hong Kong to Wuhan.

Anyway, I had my insulated stainless steel bottle with me on the flight. Taipei Taoyuan airport has all these filtered water stations where you can pick the temperature of your water. This is tea-drinking country! I dropped some nuggets into my bottle and filled with almost boiling water. This tea was so soothing and strong and resinous sitting there stewing in the heat. It kept me as awake as I could be following several near sleepless nights.

I tried the remaining amount of this tea at home a few times — once in a clay pot, once in a bowl — but I could never replicate the strength it provided while I was exhausted and crazed at the airport.

So thanks, beerandbeancurd, for providing something that gave me the strength to get through that mess! Tea and tea people are awesome.

This tea is such a wild card. Glad I had 40g to figure out what was going on here. After 10 or so rounds of experimentation at work and home, the last cup of the bag was the best! I didn’t weigh the broken bits (2g?) but did use the 160F setting on my kettle. Got distracted, came back 10+ minutes later to a sweet and mellow fruity cup. The floral blueberry and fruity peach notes really stood out this time. No bitterness. Full-bodied.

Stunning herbal tea. gmathis’s bunny fluff is apt. In hand it smells like hay, walnuts and milk chocolate. A dry, fluffy scent.

Absolutely unfiltered first impression: dimethyltryptamine, Payless Shoe Source, mothball, dung. I’m finding it so difficult to shake the associations that I struggle to come up with other words.

Sweet-dry hay and earthy walnuts? Something vegetal? White grape-ish? Old flowers? Mineral. Cooling – I didn’t expect that looking at the dry bunny fluff.

I would love to run this herbal tea through GC-MS.

Finally, the last of the Sonnentor teas – thank you Martin <3

Fresh herbs are the best. The quality here is outstanding.

No frills, classic herbal tea taste with ingredients you don’t find in many, if any, American herbals — applemint, hemp leaves, birch leaves, hazelnut leaves, mallow, mugwort, sunflower petals and bee balm (plus peppermint). Some of the leaves – like birch and hemp – are quite large! The mints taste more spearmint-like than the mentholic NW American peppermint, but it’s still nice and cool. Overall, a very clean taste with a sweetness that is balanced by both tangy-bright and earthy qualities. When leafed heavier, I can taste something like fruity apple. A certain thickness is cut by a mild astringency which be felt in both mouth and body. Good after-dinner drink and also a refreshing first sip of the morning should I have fallen asleep the night before while waiting for the mug to cool.

Still some prominent floweriness despite the roast. Viscous and sweet, complex chestnut and toasted rice flavor soup with a brisk tannic quality. Extra-strong aftertaste lingers though sometimes it can lean a little too drying like a greenish banana. Returning sweetness develops from the throat, like the Maillard reaction and sugary toasted coconut chips. I feel my ears and sinuses open up with cooling sensation. Seamless.

I chuckled a little at Song Tea’s galangal descriptor. After sitting here a while with the aftertaste, I think it’s apt. Not the sharp heat and pungency of ginger, but something more mellow and earthy, piney. I will say I don’t enjoy the tea as much with their recommended parameters, so I’m glad there is versatility with this leaf.

May 2022 harvest

I’ve had another of this matcha master’s Asahi cultivar matcha from a vendor based in Japan. Looking to skirt the high shipping charge from Japan, I ordered from Rishi.

This is good matcha, though nowhere near as great as the other one. Great color and foam, muted aroma; flavor is a little watered down for the amount of powder used and leans rather floral and like cucumber. Texture is not as silky as I’ve experienced with the other Asahi cultivar matcha. In fact, it’s kind of chalky. Perhaps this a function of age, since it was probably milled late last year or early this year (it is now October).

Not worth the high price to me.

“Lu Ya” brand Hefeng tea
Hubei Hefeng Zhengyuan Tea Factory

Little 5g packet from a hotel in Rongmeizhen, the Hefeng county seat. Brought a packet home and had grandpa style which is customary there. It did have the flavor of the region’s green tea (chestnut and soybean) but was pretty unremarkable; probably old.

The hotel room was more provocative than the tea. A tryst room in a government hotel. How convenient that the large red lights atop the hospital across the street lit the room such a sensual shade. The sheer curtains softly filtered the color of passion onto a painting of a half-naked woman, and below it, the round bed low to the floor with a gold fabric padded headboard curved to fit. I had never slept on a round bed before that. While comfortable, it was difficult to keep the fitted sheet on even without salacious activities.

From beerandbeancurd!

Made with cold non-homogenized 2% milk and stirred. At first the beet powder clumped a little on top, but after letting it sit in the work fridge for several hours, the mixture completely homogenized. Color is like one of those flesh-colored crayons with a pinkish tint.

The taste is a near copy of restaurant Thai iced tea but more natural tasting. Less thick (which I appreciate) because it’s not made with condensed milk — really satisfying and chuggable. The beet extract powder with its earthy sweetness lightly balances the richer cane sugar taste. Am I imagining the floral suggestion of the gardenia flower extract?

I don’t understand how this has such a spot-on flavor with only 4 ingredients! That black tea extract powder must have a major malty-vanilla tilt to it.

Not only would this powder be perfect for people that like to cook Thai/Asian food at home, but I also think it would make a killer ice cream.

2021 harvest

Not quite sure I’d call today’s work steepings overleafed. It was a guestimate, sure, a modest cupped palmful – I don’t think that’s enough – plus an extra finger pluck from the bag.

Very strong cup of Manipuri black tea but really no bitterness or astringency, neither was the flavor too dense. Three full steeps. Bright liquor of beautiful color.

old wood cabin in a rainforest
vague forbidden fruit in dark shadows
humid – cavernous – cool
exotic woods – resin – incense
almost like old puerh
but never too overwhelming in any one of those facets
never musty, never charred, never outright woody
creeping energy, earthen, dark, knowing
i feel possessed
i’ve felt this before
https://steepster.com/derk/posts/419916

And when I came home from work, I made a grilled cheese with sourdough, some Greek cheese called Kasseri and kimchi. Drizzled the top of the sandwich with linden honey. Stoner food essentially. I don’t cook like that. That’s what this tea did to me. Wild.