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I didn’t get much sleep last night. The apartment was shaking all night from passing busses and the old elevator. Some nights the shaking, vibrations and rattling are worse than others or maybe I’m just on edge. Anyway, I’m tired and lying in the sun on a patch of dying grass with yellow jackets on the last days of their prowl before most of them die off when the colder weather comes. They’re fierce this time of year. I swear I had some PTSD from mindlessly sticking my hand in the entrance to their ground nest while working on a crumbling mountainside. I had no time to think and no option to get away from the emerging death-swarm besides literally throwing myself several hundred feet down a steep grade I had no traction on and then side-hilling it for another 60 ft. I still did not come out unscathed. I had to stop work for the day and lock myself in the work van because those duckers track you with pheromones in their venom.

But genmaicha and lack of sleep make me not care about about their current buzzings around me. Heck, I’m rambling.

First tea of the day at 2pm. Genmaicha == comfort. This teabag is stuffed full of chopped toasted rice and sencha. I tore open the spent bag to check out the ratio and it’s about 50% of both. It looks like tabouli. So it’s a little heavy on the rice imo but it’s very fresh in aroma and taste which makes up for the heavy toastiness. A mellow yellow-green, smooth brew that’s obviously savory, a little sweet, a little seaweedy, a little minerally. No issue at all with bitterness using 1 teabag steeped for 3-4 minutes in 16oz of unknown temp hot water. I’m finding it very satisfying at the moment. I would definitely buy a box.

Naptime?

Moving through the teas I picked up yesterday.

3g, 60mL, 195F, flash rinse followed by 8 steeps at 10/15/20/25/30/40/50/60s.

The dry leaf smelled kind of light with notes of spinach, white floral, cream and sugarcane. The liquor started quite fragrant and was light- to medium-bodied with toasted rice, a brightness like citrus and some astringency. The second steep (lol I said belied – removed) suggested the flavors of the rest of the session with buttery toasted rice and corn, tartness, a slight metallic tone and a pretty strong aftertaste of buttery cooked peaches/apricots and generic sourness that lasts. Bottom of the cup scent of sugarcane. The astringency and tartness continued to grow to unenjoyable levels, so I cut it off after a 1-minute brew.

This was my first Mao Xie and could be my last but I’ll have no problem finishing the rest of the bag since it’s a small amount. I guess I’m just not too much a fan of rolled Chinese oolong, but somebody who appreciates their profile more than I do might also enjoy this one.

Here’s another one I picked up from the co-op this evening, a tisane blended by Tap Twice, a San Francisco tea company. On their website it sounds like they encourage people to contact them to meet up and drink tea. Maybe when my social side picks back up I’ll drop them a Herro.

I must have sniffed 50 different jars of teas and tisanes at the co-op and this one was like WOWZA. I bought enough for two sessions and will definitely be picking up more. It’s a straight-forward tisane – cacao, peppermint, rose petals and damiana. The aroma and tastes both are a perfect balance between the ingredients. Nothing tries to take center stage and somehow the peppermint tastes so pure. Kind of fluffy, sweet, no bitterness or astringency. This tisane will be a mainstay.

(Western, 1T, 8oz, 200F, 3/5m)

Tap Twice also has a good-looking selection of Chinese, Taiwanese and Japanese teas in their online shop, sometimes with questionable tasting notes like ‘wisdom’ lol.

After I said NO MORE TEA, what did I do? The bulk spices, herbs and tea are the first thing to greet me at the co-op. At least I can get trivial quantities and not feel too bad about buying more tea.

Mmmm….

Brewing loose tonight based on color (hello darkness my old friend). The puer is ok quality with plenty of large cut leaves but a thick layer of dust does settle in the bottom of the cup after pouring through a strainer. It’s thick like a cup of french press coffee, earthy, mushroomy, maybe a little bittersweet, very buttery after first steep and pretty clean-tasting with some astringency. The sticky rice herb isn’t as strong as I’d like it to be but its sweetness later becomes pronounced. Overall, it’s solid. The mini tuo cha form is great for ease of use and I’ll consider keeping some of these in my backpack once I buy another strainer.

One 6.5g mini tuo cha gave me 3-10oz brews western style with water off-boil.

A follow-up note after finishing the remaining 2.5g.

I’m thinking the floral might be sunflower – that seems to go along with the light nuttiness in aroma and taste. And damn does the bottom of the cup smell so good and sweet, like caramelized brown sugar, floral and squash. The floral aftertaste really fills the mouth. Noticeable cooling in throat after the warm feeling subsides. Toward the end, there’s a sweetness emanating from the throat. I can see the teeny tiny golden buds, or melon seeds, emerging between the two-leaf set. This is top notch tea. Would be a 100 for me if there were more evolution of flavor. Bumped up the rating a little.

This reminds me of a warm fall day at the family farm in Ohio.

Old Ways Tea is located in my neck of the woods and I’m happy to buy from them. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve tried from them thus far (except huangguanyin yancha, but I just don’t like them in general) and this tea is no exception.

I was stepping into unknown territory with this tea, so I decided to do a small tasting and I’m glad I did. This tea would just not give up. Gone gaiwan: 2.5g, 60 mL, 200F, 10s rinse followed by 16 steeps. 16! from 2.5g! Holy jeebie. 10/15/ 20/25/30/35/40/45/50s and 1m/1m10/1m30/2/3/5/8m.

Dry leaf had a strong grassy and floral scent that I can’t place but I know it is something I’ve experienced before. It’s still driving me crazy after the session. I hope somebody else tries this tea and can help elucidate what the scent might be. I really want to know because the grassy floral was the prominent aroma and aftertaste of this tea.

There wasn’t much evolution in flavor over the course of the session but what it did offer was a fantastic balance of aroma, texture, aftertaste and feelings of relaxation. I imagine using all 5 grams could get one pretty tea drunk. The grassy floral on the nose came through in the taste and seemed to be stacked on a layer of light minerals, something nutty, and a dark melon or pumpkin, mabye even a long-cooked sweet potato, oozing its gooey goodness. These all hit the tongue with a thinness on the sip that transitioned into a thick brew with some astringency at the back of the mouth. My swallow was loud and very satisfying. Like Old Ways Tea stated in its description, I could feel the tea in my throat, warm and full. That later turned into a full-mouthed astringency but the mineral effect kept it from getting out of hand. Toward the end, my tongue felt full and thick, a little tingly and sandpapery. The thick and coating floral aftertaste stuck around long after the swallow and made each successive steep that much more enjoyable.

I can’t see myself reaching for this tea on a regular basis due to the strong floral aspect and its longevity but it’s definitely a treat for the senses and seems to be masterfully processed. I definitely recommend giving this one a try for experienced tasters and fans of texture.

Dear glorb, who would have thought jasmine and black tea would marry so wonderfully in flavor and aroma? This is the best jasmine-scented tea I’ve ever had. So easy to drink. The Yunnan black really brings the heady florals of jasmine down a notch despite the strong yet pleasing non-perfumey aroma of the contents of the bag. Jasmine top note, fruity mid and cocoa base. Thick, sweet and some astrigency that I find pleasing and may be well masked if you’re the type of person to add milk to your tea. Interesting kind of spicy warming feeling that sticks around. This tea is very pricey but M. Whispering Pines is a master at the blending/scenting game. Curiosity wins again.

Edit: I keep upping the rating as I think about it more.

(Western, 1tsp, 8oz, 212F, 3/5m)

I can’t imagine how utterly sour, astringent and bitter this tea would’ve been several years ago.

The dry, warm, and rinsed leaf highlighted the region – beef jerky, leather, musky animal hide and tart prune. The golden-orange-brown liquor started off cloudy, smooth and mouth-filling with a fast-moving bitterness and some astringency. The sip began with tastes of subtle honey sweetness, tartness, incense, smoke, wood, floral perfume and perhaps a faint hint of butter with a meaty aftertaste. From there, the tastes lightened ever so gradually and the tartness became akin to a watered down apple cider which was also apparent in the aroma. As the flavors lessened, the liquor cleared. The bitterness grew slightly and the astringency and sourness seemed to exponentiate – tolerable with long breaks in between cups.

Luckily the interruptions were not at the hand of the sourness and astringency but were effected by the cha qi. As soon as the second steep, I could feel it growing quickly. I felt like the slowest moving grandfather clock in the world, simply existing in my own sense of time. I found myself in a slow, seated sway, a wooden ghost of some otherworld of physics. Very calm, zoned out, pulled downward (or opposite). Later I felt like an old woman, wise and very aged with warts, random sprouted hairs and at times a beard. What a trip. Backward shoulder rolls felt amazing. This transitioned into a strong pressure a few inches below my clavicle and an intense sleepiness. I had to lie down at 830 pm and fell into a narcotic trance. This was all on a full stomach. Beware drinking this tea without food.

Overall, this tea still needs plenty more aging. The leaf is surprisingly still very green with 8 years of age. I can’t say I’m drawn to the tea at this time. There are certainly highlights to its flavor profile, but I think this one needs to be stashed away and forgotten about, though lovingly checked upon like an old man living alone.

Teapot time. 5g, 100mL, 195F, 10s rinse (drank) and 10 loosely timed steeps of 10/15/20/25/30/35/45s and 1/2/5m.

Unknown harvest, first ever Taiwanese tieguanyin. This was a very complex tea and I found it difficult to form an entire picture of its characteristics so in this note, I’m focusing on aromas and tastes.

Dry leaf smelled surprisingly fruity and cool given this was roasted. There were also hints of roasted peanut and dark green vegetal. Warmed leaf produced very strong aromas of roasted peanut, dark chocolate, orchid? and marine. Rinsing the leaf really opened up the profile. It was strongly pungent, something like tomato sauce, sweetened collards and roast strangely turning into plum, purple raisin, dark chocolate and a hint of pineapple. Again it changed, ending with dark-roast coffee, collards, brown sugar and more pronounced pineapple.

Because of the unfolding nature of the rinsed leaf scent, I continued to sniff the leaves every steep and found them to be consistently strong in aroma with evolutions of charcoal, wood, brown sugar, dark chocolate, pomegranate, stewed greens, roasted grains, roasted peanut, wet wheat and mango. The liquor also was very fragrant, mostly with notes of light fruitiness, chocolate, marshmallow, roasted peanut and brown sugar. It reminded me a lot of the Charcoal-Roasted Yushan aroma. The bottom of the cup smelled like brown sugar throughout. With all that said, obviously the fragrance of this tea is very engaging and a highlight for me.

Moving onto the liquor. It remained fairly consistent and strong in flavor in the first three steeps, starting with kind of an oyster-seawater-seaweed and banana leaf on the sip, turning into pine, vanilla, salt, brown sugar and peanut. The second steep saw the addition of an unripe mango aftertaste. The mouthfeel was interesting. I’ve read in numerous reviews about teas with a powdery mouthfeel and this was the first time I experienced such a texture. That and a moderate astringency lasted the entire session.

Banana leaf came in heavier on the third steep and turned into green banana, persisting until the end. I also noted a strong cooling sensation, especially felt in my ears. By the fourth steep, the marine notes faded and there were additions of molasses, coffee and minerals. As the session progressed, the prominent tastes moved around a bit, with butter and rice, unripe mango, roasted chestnut, grapefruit, bubblegum and a metallic tone. In the end, the liquor became very astringent and ended with a pronounced butter. Aftertastes ranged from strong banana leaf/green banana to fermented fruit and buttered green vegetables.

As I said before, this was a very complex tea. Even though it seems there was a weird assemblage of robust aromas and tastes, they all flowed together really well. It was strangely cool and warm, marine, fruity, starchy, vegetal, savory, and salty. All of this together made for a session that really captured my attention and focus. I’m glad this was my introduction to Taiwanese tieguanyin and I’m really looking forward to dipping into the few others I have in my collection.

It’s a beautiful sunny day, warm enough that I can wear a tank top in the western half of the city which is usually foggier, windier and cooler than where I live. Got a bag of this from a food counter at school under the impression that it was a green tea and spearmint blend but it turns out it’s just ‘mint.’ I can taste spearmint but don’t know if there are other types of mint in the bag. Can’t say I really care – it’s hitting the spot. Steeped one bag in 16oz boiling water. This one takes high temperature and long steeping well. Sweetness almost like nectar, spearmint, citrus, straw and maybe some vanilla. Very smooth for a mint tea. Lacks a little punch, though.