m2193 Send Message

7.9g in same 100 mL duanni, since I didn’t feel like gaiwan brewing. No specific notes since was drinking with a friend, but basically the same thing to me as the 2019 Lotus Peak Zheng Yan Shui Xian from Tong Xin She, since from notes on that and compared to memory, it all tracks pretty well. This seemed a little sweeter to me, less bitter, slightly drying. Caused by a slightly higher ratio? 7.9g vs. 6.2g in the same pot. Who knows.

At any rate, for roughly 82% of the cost, the two seemed about the same to me, pretty classic Shui Xian, nothing earth shattering.

Am running a little tea demo course and ordered teas from YS due to a very limited budget and bc I didn’t want to gamble with Verdant again lol. Anyway, have 6 teas, which I ran through today with a friend (more beginner to tea) over the course of 4 hours, and so these are quick impressions and transcribed from notes, and are somewhat haphazardly done.

August 2021. 2.2g, 60 mL gaiwan (actuality is less practical volume), 212f brita filtered water.

Dry: umami, green, seaweed, tree leaves
Did a couple steeps together combined before pouring. Wet leaves smell coalesced with the taste in the most bizarre taste that I’ve ever gotten from a TGY. Outside of the brothy aspect and vegetal sweetness to the tea, slight umami aftertaste, not much sweetness to that. The lasting impression was the smell, something uncannily reminiscent of the spring pollinated and summer blooming flowers (weeds? they’ve got little light purple blossoms, grow in clumps, and have been around forever and seem always surrounded by all sorts of bees and wasps and other scary bugs that can sting) behind my parents’ business combined with cut grass. This may sound nice, but to taste it in tea was bizarre, unpleasant, and unsettling. Borderline nauseating for the friend who apparently suffers from allergies lol. Poor way to cap off the session.

0.50c/g. Neither of us finished our cup, and yet will retain memories of this one for all the wrong reasons. Pass.

Again, wish I could post pictures, but our leaves were shockingly green, like kale or spinach, but even greener, nothing pale green like the ones in the picture on YS US site.

Am running a little tea demo course and ordered teas from YS due to a very limited budget and bc I didn’t want to gamble with Verdant again lol. Anyway, have 6 teas, which I ran through today with a friend (more beginner to tea) over the course of 4 hours, and so these are quick impressions and transcribed from notes, and are somewhat haphazardly done.

Spring 2021. 2.1g, 60ml gaiwan (practical volume is less), 212f brita filtered water. Dry had the same smell as the YS Huang Mei Gui. Wet leaf was more mild in smell. Taste has stronger roast hint compared to HMG, but not strong comparatively to other oolongs I usually drink. Less floral, slight sweet, some spice, slight drying at end. Cinnamon aspect to gaiwan lid, leaves are slightly floral. Roast is more upfront, aftertaste is still slight minty & slightly sweet, with some sharp undertones. Not a ton of complexity here and didn’t last terribly long, but I expected much worse for the price. Last two steeps were a sharp honeyed taste, slightly floral.

0.26c/g. Quite impressed with this one, given the price. Friend enjoyed it as well. I’m unlikely to order more since I’m used to drinking “better” oolong I guess, but this one really made me question those experiences for how expensive they are vs. how much better they are. One of those things that for a newer drinker, might be harder to reason through. Subjective value is hard to quantify, I suppose, but paying for the increased complexity and everything that goes into the increased quality, and the nuances that are easier to distinguish with additional experience.

Am running a little tea demo course and ordered teas from YS due to a very limited budget and bc I didn’t want to gamble with Verdant again lol. Anyway, have 6 teas, which I ran through today with a friend (more beginner to tea) over the course of 4 hours, and so these are quick impressions and transcribed from notes, and are somewhat haphazardly done.

Spring 2021. dry smells like green trees. 4g, 196f (a mistake, as it turns out), 210ml, 1 min.

very nutty smell, but the taste was very bitter, with an underlying sharp nuttiness.

0.21c/g. Neither of us could finish even one cup. Pass.

Am running a little tea demo course and ordered teas from YS due to a very limited budget and bc I didn’t want to gamble with Verdant again lol. Anyway, have 6 teas, which I ran through today with a friend (more beginner to tea) over the course of 4 hours, and so these are quick impressions and transcribed from notes, and are somewhat haphazardly done.

2.5g, brewed in a chahai, 170mL water, steeps of 1 min. @190f, then 1 min. 30s @203f, then 1 min. at 212f

1st. green, light, pleasant. slight umami & floral. Not too exciting, I only thought slightly sweet after, my friend said it was pretty sweet.

2nd. a slight bitter creeps in. Less umami and floral, a darker spiced aspect. Slightly drying at end, lighter sweetness than before.

3rd. drier spiced edge. It’s not quite sharp, but that’s the best I can phrase it. underlying steamed veggie water sense of late green steepings, but that could be from careless brewing and emptying chahai of water completely both times before since I wasn’t sure it could handle continued steeping.

0.30c/g. Not bad, but wouldn’t repurchase. Friend enjoyed it much more than I did, but my expectations for average greens are less realistic after drinking the excellent ones from other sources.

Am running a little tea demo course and ordered teas from YS due to a very limited budget and bc I didn’t want to gamble with Verdant again lol. Anyway, have 6 teas, which I ran through today with a friend (more beginner to tea) over the course of 4 hours, and so these are quick impressions and transcribed from notes, and are somewhat haphazardly done.

August 2021 batch, YS US.

2.2g, 60 mL gaiwan (really like it, but warning that practical volume is less), Brita filtered tap, 212f, quick rinse.

dry leaves: roasted green smell.
wet leaves: roast.

Not very strong, quite bland, some hint of sugar and roast in taste, w/ slight minty aspect. Slight bitter roasted aspect when steeped longer, along w/ dry woodiness. quite dull and unexciting. Stopped after 4 steeps. My friend thought it was bitter, but I just thought it tasted bland, so YMMV.

0.22c/g. Neither of us liked this one, for separate reasons. Pass.

Am running a little tea demo course and ordered teas from YS due to a very limited budget and bc I didn’t want to gamble with Verdant again lol. Anyway, have 6 teas, which I ran through today with a friend (more beginner to tea) over the course of 4 hours, and so these are quick impressions and transcribed from notes, and are somewhat haphazardly done.

2.0g, 60 mL gaiwan (really like it, but warning that practical volume is less), Brita filtered tap, 212f, quick rinse.

slight roast to dry leaves, though w/ a tad sour edge. Wet leaves had a very slight roast, very floral. I wish I could post pictures on here, but anyway, they looked very different from pictures. Quite green still, with slight oxidized edges, much like the dancong I had before, but even greener than that.

Decent texture, light sweetness, very floral and slightly fruity initially. One steep had a light astringency in mouth and throat, not a great feeling, something like when you get a sore scratchy throat and try to cough, though that was only for that one. Some sense of the crushed mint w/ vegetal edge. Soapy dry scent to leaves later. A hint of osmanthus, then crushed mint. Flatlined after maybe 7 steeps? Last kill steep had a slight bitterness and mint, nothing too exciting.

0.38c/g. I wasn’t too into this one, finding it too floral and somewhat boring, but my friend liked it.

Got this in a mystery box (yes, I broke my own rules for this, but only partially regret it) from Paul of W2T and the package said 柚花香 and basically matches the listing on the site for the Pomelo flower Dancong so I’m assuming it’s the same thing.

4.5g, 90 mL gaiwan.
dry leaf is light roast smell and sweet orange, almost cola-like.
Wet leaf is perfumed floral smell, extremely sweet, almost cloying.
quick boiling rinse, then 3x 205f steeps. No detailed notes since I didn’t like this one and stopped at steep 4, so this tea has the honor of being one of the only teas I didn’t even bother to thermos in quite a while. It’s a soft and sweet tea overall with a grassy base and strong aroma, very heady floral. Only lightly oxidized, since the lightly yellow brews left over turned into a murky brown gray color when left out, an even more drastic color change than I’ve seen from my accidental leaving out of green tea brews. I kept the leaves in a cup at my desk, and they smell quite pleasant, but I really cannot stand the taste.

I really should’ve known from what I’ve read about dancongs online being more fruity floral heavy that I would not like this. I remember liking the One River Tea ones I tried before, but the roast was much more standard yancha like roast (and tasted like it!), and not like this one in the line of my impression of standard dancongs with leaf color a mix of greenish and brown. The mass of recommendations to try Imen’s and Hojo’s pricier dancong offerings are always tempting, but I’ve confirmed I do not enjoy this sort of profile and will remain content with my newfound affection for bland shou.

Thought this would be interesting to try, though I don’t have experience with alcohol so if there’s related notes I will probably be unable to perceive and describe adequately. Wish I’d picked up the Laoshan Rye and Brownie Batter experimental barrel teas LP did some time back; this was the only one I was able to buy in time.

4.5g, 90 mL gaiwan, Brita filtered tap, boiling.
12s rinse.
dry leaf is alcohol and raisins.
wet leaf has light hint of shou puer smell, but mainly remains alcohol and raisins. let it sit a bit before brewing to open up more.
7s: light taste of raisins (maybe some grape too?) and cherries (agree with TeaDB here, but raisins is dominant for me) linger on tongue. Shou taste is hinted at in the background, but doesn’t stand out
let it sit for a bit again since some chunks remained compact.
10s: much darker in color, though similar in taste. Abiding raisin note. When cooling, tinge of Bulang bitterness pokes through, though fades quickly.
did 2 more steeps before thermosing since it wasn’t changing much. I forgot the leftover of HCH’s LME old tree shou from the day before in the thermos as well since I was traveling. For some reason the combination makes a raisiny drink with a milk chocolate aftertaste. I’m not sure if that’s just the LCT or not though, since I’ve heard that LCT thermos’d can have a milk chocolate-like taste.

TL;DR: If you’ve ever thought “Boy, I sure wish there was a tea that tastes like chocolate raisins!”, I’ve got just the thing for you.

strong osmanthus, sweet potato aromatics in both dry leaf and tea.
1g in 8 oz. mug, boiling, Brita tap, grandpa. All I do is complain about my hate for hongcha here, but I was suckered by the name as Tong Mu village teas have been more renowned as of late and I’ve been curious as to why. I ordered a pack with my last order from SR. Anyway, I’m more than happy to be proven wrong. I’m taking a break from sheng for a bit, more so out of necessity than desire. My stomach hasn’t been able to handle it lately, even mid-aged, and I’m terrified after reading posts from old puer bloggers who had to take years-long breaks (Hster specifically, I think?) due to drinking too much young tea.

There’s a light floral vegetal aftertaste and lingering floral honeyed aspect in aftertaste in early steeps; nothing overbearing. In the thermos after tasted like the dining hall’s sweet potato and squash mix, which is not a criticism, just an observation. A gentle tea and probably on the pricier side for a hongcha, again probably bearing name in mind. I’m not sure I could distinguish it from other hongcha taste-wise. Not bad, just won’t be something I reach for.

On the notes of peach and citrus in the description, I can sort of understand why. But after the time I tried the osmanthus black from ORT, the osmanthus note really stuck and it’s hard to perceive it as anything else if encountered afterwards. Some oolongs have a floral note bordering on it, but what distinguishes it for me vs. more sweet potato-like note is a soapy floral aspect I find unique to it. And again, that could just be still osmanthus, but lighter. I’m not sure. I don’t love it, but it’s interesting. I would not buy any perfumes with osmanthus notes.