80
drank Himalayan Beauty by Rishi Tea
127 tasting notes

Another great hong cha rishi

When I ordered my tea table I need a few more items in my cart to qualify for free shipping and this sounded interesting. I am a fan of dongfang mei ren so the description intrigued me, not sure what oriental beauty processing techniques entails beside the bugs biting the leaves. Either way the description is spot on I am regretting opening the bag just now a year or two after I ordered it because the dry leaves smelled a but dull. I am quite the tea hoarder fresh tea before I discovered my new addiction of puer which of course encourages such behavior, not to mention my short stint at a tea retailer that sold tea from previous years harvest in semi-aerated containers. So I have experience of smelling stale leaves.

Either way the tea still had some life in the leaves it produced a brew actually fairly close to a dogging mei ten but the terrior came through with playful astringency and mild woodines as well and remind me of tippy darjeeling in the past. The scent was very perfume floral and the after taste was a great sweetness that peaked just short of a puckering reaction only after I had swallowed the tea which is where I can see the cotton candy reference because cotton candy sweetness builds as well, not so much flavor but sweetness development I can see.

I probably wouldn’t buy again it being a lot of buds the brew was rather thin which won’t hold my interest and so unique in flavor I probably wouldn’t drink very often. Teas like this are much welcome interruption to my normal routine strange enough to be interesting but only bought about an oz so I won’t be forced to drink often. I never put much worth into hong cha baulking at the die of spending morethan $3-4/oz but rishi has chanhchange my mind with their hong yue and now this I regret not getting their li shan micro lot but there is always next year.

Flavors: Astringent, Floral, Muscatel, Sweet

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 15 sec 5 g 3 OZ / 100 ML

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Reputable Companies I have narrowed down to over the years and my personal purchase preferences from each

Origin tea (Gao Shan Oolong)
-Eco Cha (Taiwanese Teas)
-Rishi (Great starter for Taste Profile Footing and high quality teaware)
-Yunnan Sourcing (Teaware, Black, Pu er)
-White2Tea (Curated Pu er)
-Essence of tea (Curated Pu er)
-Yuuki-Cha (Japanese Teas/Teaware)
-Teavivre (Chinese Teas)
-Jing Tea (High quality Chinese)

“You can go a week without food, but not a day without tea."

Numerical rating personal meaning
70-75
#Bulk#
Drinkable but would not purchase

76-80
#Traveling/Tumbler/Office Tea#
Willing to pay up to $5/oz

81-84
#Staple#
Willing to pay up to $8/oz

85-89
#Reserve#
Willing to pay $10/oz

90-99
#Experience#
Priceless

I try to refrain from numerically rating a tea until I have tried brewing at least an oz of it with various different parameters and vessels (hotter/colder water, longer/shorter times, yixing/gaiwan etc)

Location

Hovering over my tea table

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