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Finally coming back to black tea after a stretch that saw me primarily drinking oolongs, I decided I needed to clean out some more of the black teas that had been in my keep for awhile. This Indonesian black tea was the first one I came to, and since it had been kept under wraps at the back of my tea cabinet since somewhere around April, I decided to go with it. I made this decision because I’m not super familiar with Indonesian teas and wanted to try and review something that would be totally new to me.

I prepared this tea using a simple Western infusion. I steeped 1 teaspoon of loose tea leaves in 8 ounces of 212 F water for 3 minutes. I did not perform any additional infusions. To further put this tea’s capabilities to the test, I also performed 4 and 5 minute infusions, but they did not really differ all that much from the 3 minute infusion, so I will limit my review to the initial preparation.

In the glass, the infused liquor showed a dark amber. The nose was not all that strong, though I managed to detect slight aromas of wood, toast, cream, roasted nuts, and leather. In the mouth, the tea presented a rush of wood, brown toast, cream, black walnut, tobacco, leather, and slightly earthy, herbal, spicy notes. There was a slight astringency on the finish, as well as a lingering woody aftertaste with hints of spices, toast, and leather.

In my opinion, this is a decent little tea, nothing more and nothing less. Its greatest strength is its inherent drinkability. I found this to be one of those approachable black teas that I could drink quite a bit of in one go, which to me means that it is the sort of tea I would pick to unwind with in the afternoon, especially on days where I need a little bit of a pick-me-up to get through the rest of the day. I could also see it making a solid breakfast tea. Its greatest weakness, however, is its lack of depth and complexity. It’s hard not to notice that this tea is very simple-there’s just not a ton going on with it. That’s not necessarily a bad thing if you’re just looking for an easy rush of caffeine, but it’s most definitely not a good thing if you are looking for something interesting and challenging. In the end, this tea is a mixed bag. I would recommend it to casual drinkers or people looking for something easy to put away, but I would encourage those looking for something unique and flavorful to maybe look elsewhere.

This is the last of the oolong reviews I will be posting this weekend. I’m just about caught up on my backlog of reviews for the time being, though I still have one more oolong to review. I’ll probably get to it tomorrow before I start a new round of teas. This particular Tieguanyin differs from Verdant’s others in that it is picked from older bushes.

For the purposes of this review, I brewed this tea using the gongfu method outlined on Verdant’s website. I placed approximately 7 g of loose tea leaves in my small utility gaiwan and steeped them in 208 F water. The initial infusion following the rinse was 10 seconds. Subsequent infusions were 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, and 30 seconds for a total of 11 infusions.

The initial infusion was interesting. I was expecting something super creamy and floral, but this infusion was savory. I detected aromas of minerals, butter, cream, honey, hay, grass, and herbs. In the mouth, I picked up a rush of mineral, butter, cream, custard, honey, grass, hay, ginseng, and sesame notes underscored by a trace of floral flavor. Subsequent infusions saw the floral notes (orchid, lilac, violet, saffron) emerge a little more fully and the mineral, grass, hay, and herbal notes subside. Later infusions saw the emergence of stronger cream, butter, custard, grass, hay, herbal, and vegetal aromas and flavors. On the final 3 infusions, the vegetal and grassy notes dominated and were underscored by butter, cream, and mineral aromas and flavors.

At first, I was worried that I had waited too long on this one and that it had started to turn, but my fears quickly subsided. This is an extremely deep, refined Tieguanyin with an interesting and challenging combination of aromas and flavors. I rather like it, though I do tend to prefer the more robustly flavored regular Tieguanyins offered by Verdant. I would recommend this tea to oolong fans, though I would recommend it with the caveat that it will likely not be for everyone. In other words, this is good, but just don’t expect something super accessible.

This oolong is crafted from a fairly new tea cultivar. Noted for its floral aromatics and hints of grass and cream in the mouth, Zi Mu Dan (Purple Peony) has only been around about 20 years and is currently used solely for crafting oolongs. Some have compared it favorably to classic oolong cultivars like Tieguanyin. Let’s see how it compared in my eyes.

For the purposes of this review, I brewed this tea gongfu style in a small gaiwan. I used approximately 7-8 grams of loose leaves and set the water temperature at 208 F. I once again followed the gongfu brewing guidelines suggested on Verdant’s website. The initial steeping was 10 seconds, followed by steepings of 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, and 26 seconds for 9 total infusions.

Initially, I was impressed by the aroma of the wet tea leaves. The scent reminded me of a combination of chrysanthemum, peony, jasmine, and rose. In the mouth, the initial infusions presented delicate notes of rose, jasmine, peony, and chrysanthemum balanced by subtle flavors of cream, custard, and grass. Later infusions saw traces of the floral aroma remain, though vegetal, cream, and mineral scents began to emerge. The delicate, subtle floral flavors also faded, though I could detect hints of rose and chrysanthemum lingering in the background. They were replaced by somewhat more robust flavors of sweet cream, custard, minerals, grass, and leaf vegetables (lettuce and watercress).

This is another newer style oolong that sort of perplexes me. I kind of think I either may have gotten to this one a little too late or built this one up a little too much in my head. I was expecting an incredibly sweet, creamy, floral tea, but this is more subtle and airy with delicately integrated flavors. I also found the grassy, vegetal notes to be a little more prominent than they were described as being. Perhaps the flavors were starting to fade (which could be possible as this was from a November 2015 harvest and has been sitting in my tea cabinet for just over two months) or they just don’t stand out as much as I was lead to believe-it’s certainly possible, as the Mao Xie, Huang Jin Gui, and Autumn Tieguanyin I received from Verdant were from the same harvest and consumed alongside this tea, and all of them were still fresh and vibrant in the mouth. Whatever the case, this tea doesn’t do much for me, but I will give it a second chance once the next harvest is in stock.

So, here we go with another oolong review. I have been dedicating my time to drinking more oolong teas lately, and today we come to Verdant Tea’s Ben Shan. Part of Master Zhang’s collection, Ben Shan is a type of oolong that many tea drinkers may be familiar with only in passing. It is well known in China, but in the West it doesn’t seem to get a ton of attention. I have heard that some vendors mix it with Tieguanyin in order to emphasize floral aromas and flavors.

I brewed this tea using the gongfu method suggested on Verdant Tea’s website. I steeped approximately 7 grams of loose tea leaves in 208 F water. The initial infusion was 10 seconds, with an increase of 2 seconds for each subsequent infusion. I conducted 9 total steepings for this review (steep times of 10 seconds, 12 seconds, 14 seconds, 16 seconds, 18 seconds, 20 seconds, 22 seconds, 24 seconds, 26 seconds).

Rather than detail the results of each individual steeping, I will simply provide any potential readers with my overall impressions of how this tea changed over the course of a single session. Initially, the aroma was quite delicate, offering mild aromas of lilac, jasmine, chrysanthemum, cream, and custard. The aroma became more subdued over the course of the session, as traces of mineral and vegetal (lettuce, watercress) scents began to emerge. In the mouth, initial steepings offered a balance of delicate chrysanthemum, lilac, jasmine, cream, and custard notes with faint impressions of pear, lime zest, and puff pastry, though mineral, lettuce, and watercress notes began to emerge in subsequent steepings.

In the end, I am not sure how I feel about this oolong. To me, it kind of falls into a gray area between a greener Tieguanyin and something like Huang Jin Gui. The flavor is pretty evenly split between creamy, savory notes and sweet, floral notes, but there really isn’t enough of anything else to provide some needed depth and balance. After drinking this tea, I can kind of understand why Ben Shan is supposedly often blended with Tieguanyin-it really doesn’t seem to hold up very well on its own. In my opinion the aromas and flavors that are here are really pleasant, but they are too light and superficial to keep me intrigued over the course of a lengthy session.

It looks like I am the first to get to this one. This lapsang souchong is the only Taiwanese black tea offered by Simpson & Vail at this time. The folks at Simpson & Vail bill this as being heartier than their Chinese lapsang, and I must say that they really aren’t kidding about that.

I brewed this tea using a simple one step Western infusion. Again, I normally do not resteep black teas unless it is specifically suggested by the vendor. To prepare this tea, I steeped one teaspoon of loose tea leaves in 8 ounces of 212 F water for 3 minutes. I also tried 4 and 5 minute steepings of this tea, but the aromas and flavors were consistent across the board despite a slight increase in strength and astringency, so I will just stick to presenting the results of the initial 3 minute steeping for this review.

After infusion, the resulting liquor was a dark amber. Strong aromas of woodsmoke, pine, nuts, leather, molasses, and sea salt were present on the nose. I could also detect subtle scents of tobacco and toast. In the mouth, strong notes of woodsmoke, pine, cedar, black walnut, hickory, leather, molasses, tobacco, and sea salt were underscored by subtler flavors of caramel, dark chocolate, and brown toast. The finish was full of smoke and wood flavors with more than a bit of astringency.

Overall, I quite like this lapsang. It really lives up to the description of a hearty black tea provided by the vendor. Honestly, Simpson & Vail’s Chinese lapsang souchong does not even really compare to this one. This lapsang is just so much richer, stronger, and smokier. Still, I don’t expect the many people who are unexcited by any lapsang souchong or really heavy black tea to take to this one at all, but as someone who tends to enjoy lapsang souchong, I cannot say that I would have a problem recommending this tea fairly highly to fellow lapsang aficionados.

Okay, this review finally catches me up on my reviews. I will undoubtedly have more reviews to post by the middle of the week, but I can relax for now. This was the last of the Whispering Pines white teas I ordered a couple months ago. It compares favorably to the others, but unfortunately I am not a huge silver needle fan. That may be why I put this one off for awhile.

I prepared this tea using the three step Western infusion outlined on the Whispering Pines website. I steeped 1 tablespoon of this tea in 190 F water for 3 minutes. The initial 3 minute infusion was followed by two subsequent infusions at 5 and 8 minutes respectively.

First Infusion: Delicate aromas of pine, raisin, minerals, honeysuckle, cinnamon, and eucalyptus were evident. In the mouth, I detected subtle, smooth notes of pine, raisin, honeysuckle, eucalyptus, cinnamon, hay, and butter underscored by a trace of minerals.

Second Infusion: Slightly stronger aromas of raisins, dates, cinnamon, eucalyptus, and honeysuckle were evident on the nose. I also detected a scent somewhat reminiscent of powdered sugar that I did not pick up on the first infusion. In the mouth, I picked up distinct notes of butter, cream, cinnamon, powdered sugar, honeysuckle, raisin, dates, hay, pine, fresh basil, eucalyptus, and minerals.

Third Infusion: Mild aromas of minerals, fresh basil, eucalyptus, pine, and cinnamon were present on the nose. Gentle, integrated notes of cream, butter, minerals, hay, basil, honeysuckle, pine, eucalyptus, and cinnamon were detected in the mouth.

Overall, I think this is pretty good for a silver needle. In truth, I am not a huge fan of this particular type of tea as I tend to prefer more robust flavors, but this is by far the most interesting silver needle I have tried so far. I found it interesting that the scents and flavors I was picking up were rather different from those detailed by others. I was initially expecting a very sweet tea, which this one kind of is, but I also found it to be somewhat earthy and herbal. Maybe it’s just my palate or maybe it’s the most recent harvest. Who knows?

I don’t know if this is a good thing or not, but I have been using my time off work to drink a ton of oolongs. I have been trying to clean out more space in my tea cabinet and was shocked to discover that the oolong shelf was overflowing. Moreover, I had a number of green oolongs that were still good, but needed to be consumed in order to get the most out of them. This is the one I decided to start with and I’m glad I got to it when I did. So far, it is the best oolong I have had this year.

I brewed this one gongfu. Yes, I am finally reviewing a tea that I brewed gongfu style. I steeped approximately 7-8 grams of tea leaves in 208 F water. I did not exactly follow Verdant’s gongfu brewing guidelines for this tea. Rather than increasing steep times by the recommended 2 seconds, I increased steep times by 5 seconds per infusion. No joke, I still got 12 good steepings out of this tea.

First Infusion: Prominent aromas of butter, cream, and flowers were present on the nose. In the mouth, I picked up robust notes of hay, grass, lettuce, bread, minerals, butter, cream, custard, lilac, jasmine, orchid, and saffron.

Second Infusion: Cream and flower aromas were heavy on the nose. I picked up big floral notes on the entry that were soon chased by mellow flavors of steamed buns, custard, butter, cream, minerals, and lettuce.

Third Infusion: Very creamy and savory on the nose with balanced floral aromatics. The flavor was savory up front, offering relatively robust notes of cream, steamed buns, butter, and custard. A nice balance of floral and vegetal notes rounded out the flavor.

Fourth Infusion: Again, very savory on the nose with lots of butter, cream, and custard. The floral aromas were starting to fade a tad at this point. In the mouth, there was still a nice mix of floral and savory flavors with vegetal and mineral notes on the finish.

Fifth Infusion: Savory aromas on the nose with slight floral aromas in the background. In the mouth, there was a pleasant balance of flowers, cream, and custard. The mineral notes were more pronounced on the back end compared to the fourth infusion, as were the vegetal notes. I also noted the return of grass and hay-like flavors on the finish.

Sixth Infusion: The aroma was very similar to the previous two infusions, as was the taste, though I noted that the grass, hay, and lettuce notes were slightly more pronounced here.

Seventh Infusion: Mild nose with subtle aromas of cream, custard, minerals, and flowers. Smooth, subtle notes of custard, cream, butter, lettuce, hay, grass, minerals, and flowers in the mouth.

Eighth Infusion: The nose was similar to the seventh infusion. In the mouth, I picked up smooth notes of hay, grass, butter, lettuce, and cream balanced by fleeting impressions of lilac, saffron, and jasmine.

Ninth Infusion: The nose was similar to the previous two infusions. The flavor profile emphasized lettuce, grass, hay, and minerals on the entry, while custard, cream, butter, and floral notes lingered in the background.

Tenth Infusion: Fleeting aromas of cream, lettuce, grass, hay, and flowers on the nose, with strong lettuce and mineral notes in the mouth underscored by flowers, cream, and butter.

Eleventh Infusion: Slightly creamy, floral nose with vegetal impressions. Lettuce, grass, and mineral notes dominated the entry, though fleeting impressions of cream and butter provided a semblance of balance.

Twelfth Infusion: The aroma was very similar to the previous infusion, as was the flavor, though everything was very muted except the mineral and lettuce notes. Even though I have a very sensitive palate, I decided to stop here as I expected that another infusion would not leave much of an impression.

Overall, I really like this oolong and was shocked that it has such a low overall score here on Steepster. I’ll concede that it may not be all that complex, but I feel that it presents subtle nuances in its flavor profile very well over the course of a long session. I respect and admire that.

I’m finally starting to clean out some room in my tea cabinet now. I am preparing to finish the last of this after I type this review. To sum up everything I’m about to say, this is a very nice rose congou at a great price.

I prepared this tea by steeping 1 teaspoon in 8 ounces of 212 F water for 3 minutes. I’ve played around with my brewing technique on this one a little. I’ve found that I can steep this for around 5 minutes with no harsh flavors. I would say it could probably be left even longer without acquiring too much astringency. I also think this would probably make a great iced tea.

After infusion, the resulting liquor is a clear amber. Mild aromas of caramel, rose, cocoa, and cream were apparent on the nose. In the mouth, I picked up distinct notes of cocoa, caramel, cream, butter, and of course, rose. The finish offers a lovely and soothing mix of caramel, cream, and rose.

This tea is not at all complex or deep, but it is very appealing regardless. One thing that helps it is that it is super easy to drink. It also provides just enough black tea flavor to provide a semblance of balance to the floral notes. It’s nice. I recommend it highly.

Okay, now that I have eaten myself silly, it is time to get back to catching up my reviews. I received this one as a free sample a couple months back. I think it was right around the time this tea went out of stock for the season. Now that I have finished this one, I have finally consumed all of the white tea that I have purchased from Whispering Pines this year. I will be moving on to the blacks and oolongs shortly.

For the purposes of this review, I steeped a rather heaping tablespoon of this tea in 190 F water for 3 minutes. I infused this tea two more times for 5 and 7 minutes respectively. To be completely honest, I had to guess as to how this tea should be prepared as I forgot to log the suggested brewing method and could not find it on Whispering Pines’ new website. I should also note that an absolutely wicked storm hit right as I was preparing the third and final infusion, and with my power going in and out, I had to time it with my phone. It may or may not have been a full seven minutes. I’m pretty sure I got close.

First Infusion: The infused liquor was a rich gold. Aromas of oatmeal, grass, hay, honey, and butter were apparent on the nose. In the mouth, I picked up strong notes of oatmeal and honey underscored by cream, butter, grass, hay, and flowers.

Second Infusion: The infused liquor was again a rich gold. Milder, smoother aromas of oatmeal, grass, hay, honey, and butter were joined by a subtly floral aroma. In the mouth, I picked up notes of honey, butter, grass, oatmeal, and hay balanced by slightly more pronounced notes of flowers and cream. I also detected a very subtle minerality on the fade.

Third Infusion: The infused liquor was a slightly paler gold. I detected mild aromas of oatmeal, honey, cream, and butter. I also detected a slight mineral scent. In the mouth, I detected smooth, refined notes of oatmeal, cream, honey, and butter. The grass and hay notes lingered in the background, but were not nearly as strong. The floral and mineral notes showed back up on the finish and nicely balanced the lingering impressions of oatmeal, honey, and cream.

I’m not really sure how I feel about this tea. I generally like the white teas offered by Whispering Pines, but this one did not leave much of an impression on me. As a matter of fact, I found it very mediocre compared to the other white teas I have tried from Whispering Pines. To me, it just seemed to be lacking the depth and complexity of the others. I will concede, however, that my brewing method may not have done it justice. I really just cannot say with certainty that I got this one right. I think I will go ahead and give this one a middling score in my personal rating system as a mediocre Whispering Pines tea is, in my opinion, still better than many others out there, but I will do so with the caveat that I will be trying this one if and when it is offered again to see if my opinion changes.