24 Tasting Notes
Hello Steepsters! Between my computer breaking (leaving me virtually computerless) and finals followed by leaving the state temporarily, it has been quite a while. I would like to take a moment and apologize to Stacy from Butiki Teas for the delay on my end of our commitment. That being said, I will be attempting to put up the bit of backlogging I have compiled ASAP. Now, on to the tea!
The dry leaves of the Organic Ancient Bi Luo Chun are tightly wound balls which when steeped, release a liquid of strong vegetable smells. I used just under what I might should have of tea leaves so I increased the temperature some. Around 2 minutes and 15 seconds, I noticed that the tea truly did not have much color in it, so I allowed it to steep on. This went on until I stopped it at the 3 minute mark. This produced a gold colored tea, which I feared I may have over steeped too much.
My fears were relieved when I tasted it and it only had the slightest bitter bite to it. The tea is juicy and vegetal with a slight bite to it, which as I said might be my fault, but is not at all a bad thing. The second steep was allowed 3 minutes as well to test the finish of the tea. Despite my deceiving steeper, this one too produced a similar, if not lighter gold liquid. This steep did indeed have a smoother finish to it. The tea continued with the vegetal taste, though subtler. I could see this as being an easy go-to green.
The dry leaves are long, full, fluffy and green. The wet leaves release a sweet vegetal smell. The liquid is incredibly lightly gold colored with a subtle sweet pea like flavor. The second steep is much the same, though I did add a generous amount of time to attempt to produce a stronger liquid. This tea is a little too subtle for my taste but still good.
This is my first time drinking raw puerh and I can tell by the smell of the liquid and the wet tea that it is going to be a new experience.
The directions call for 3 seconds and I did just over that due to the fact that the amount of tea per water that I used was slightly less. This produced a flat bronze gold color of liquid with a smell unlike any I have ever smelled before. Now for the taste…my first thought was “what the…?” with my next being similar. This is not what I was expecting and I just continue to drink it up! My hands seem to find the cup and not the keyboard so if I do not write something soon it will be gone. Focusing finally, the taste is definitely juicy, with a background of slightly earthy sweetness.
For the next steep I allowed the time to run a little longer, trying to establish the flavor more without making it bitter. It was a success and resulted in the delicious flavor being slightly more prominent, which makes my loss for words even more embarrassing!
This is a tea that I plan on buying again, and maybe then I will discover what else to write about this tea. For now I must conclude with the description of a beautiful mix of earthy sweetness that I could drink all day. I have no doubt that this tea could resteep until I am thoroughly fulfilled but as much as I would like, I am unable to sit around at the computer all day. However, I am content in the fact that I can take this tea around with me all day :)
This is my first experience with milk oolong so I really did not know what to expect or write.
The dry leaves were tight small balls of what I would discover to be large full leaves with a light oolong smell.
The first steep went for 2:45 at 212 and produced a dark gold liquid. The tea is a smooth sweet milky taste with a mellow oolong backing. This is a really interesting tea but I am not sure exactly what to say about this one haha. I am not too much of a fan of flavored teas of any kinds but I think if I were in a mood for one, this would be one I would like.
Thank you so much to Stacy from Butiki Teas for this sample! After actually drinking this tea, I would like to add a hundred more thank yous!
The first steep went for 1 minute at 160 and released a beautiful cloudy neon liquid with delicious sencha smell. The taste of this tea was amazingly smooth… not at all dry, and just as delicious as it smelled, much to my excitement! It has a really sweet flavor with a pea-like taste that’s slightly toasty. The end to this magnificent tea has the slightest bitter ending that I have ever tasted in a sencha, which makes me miss it more when it is gone. After drinking only the first steep, I have no doubt that this will be a purchase as soon as I have money.
The second went for 1:20 at the same temperature and I was please to find that the lovely cloudy neon color retained. This steep lost some of the flavor but I have no doubt that could be changed by adding a little more time. Between the flavor and the juiciness of the tea, I must admit that I was quite surprised and pleasantly so.
I also did a third steep for 2 minutes and it was just as amazing as the first!
I was in a green mood today so I desided to make this for my roommate and I. The dry leaves looked deliciously green and had a sublte smell that I could not really make out. Once they were steeped they produced a medium gold liquid that smelled of a sweet grassy scent.
The first steep went for 2 minutes at 195. The tea is not grassy but definitly vegetal and slightly sweet. It also has a strong bitter after taste that stays on your tounge that might be too much for some people but could be change with less steep time.
The second steep was also for 2 minutes at 195 to see if it kept the bitterness. This time the bitterness was not too overpowering and the taste was more defined by the beautifully vegetal taste. I liked this tea and would drink it whenever I am in a mood for green tea. It looks to me that this tea could go on for a few more resteeps.
I see that I am not the only one who was lucky enough to try this fantastic tea!
The dry leaves and buds are full with a beautiful strong green color to them. They smell wonderfully of a strong vegital scent that for some reason reminds me of some senchas I have had (maybe thats just me though).
The first steep went for 1:30 at 175. The wet leaves have a strong sweet smell and produced a pale gold liquid that matched the leaves scent. This tea taste slightly nutty and sweet with a strong aftertaste that gave me a warm bite expected of some greens.
I resteeped it for 2 minutes also at 175 and it was just as delicious as the first. I wish I went into more detail here but as I was writing this I was also reading for a class, but that is college. I continued to resteep this tea and it powered through. An absolutly great tea and I would recommend trying this to any green tea lovers.
First of all, thank you so much Angel from Teavivre for the samples!
I have slowly begun to get into black tea but I am still new, so please be patient with me! This will be the first black I review.
The dry leaves were tightly wound large balls with a strong scent. I decided to do a rinse of these to loosen them up a little bit so I rinsed them for about 15 seconds.
I then gave them a 1 minute steep at about 212 degrees which unfurled a layer of the leaves partially. After the steep, the wet leaves produced a slight sweet molasses like sent. I have had a black tea that was described with a molasses taste and I did not like it, however, this was a way better smell to me. The tea was a medium gold, lighter than I was expecting and I could tell this was going to be different than I was thinking it would be like. The taste was an interesting warm flavor that carried a subtle dark chocolaty sweetness. This was a pleasant surprise! I had never taste a black quite like this one.
I decided to try to pull out more of the flavor and steeped this one for 2 minutes. This caused the last layer of leaves to unfurl completely, producing a dark gold liquid. This time the tea had more of the dry chocolate flavor with a slightly bitter after taste.
I wanted to play with the taste some more so I decided to steep it at 1:45 this time. This gave me the dark gold liquid again but more of the first steeps taste. This is definitely a tea that you can change the taste to your liking by managing the time and leaves well. I continued on to a 4th steep and could tell that it would resteep well at least one more time.
This one is a long time coming, I apologize, it has been a busy year!
The dry leaves were beautifully wound balls, very fragrant and sweet smelling. They were a healthy green shade with some white as well.
As they steeped they unfurled nicely. They revealed full leaves and buds with a damp smell, almost like an after rain smell of jasmine.
The first steep was for 1:30. This produced a pale gold liquid with a light fragrance. The tea tasted strong but not overwhelming of jasmine.
The second steep went for 1:40. The leaves unfurled completely producing a slightly darker liquid with a light fragrance. The tea lost some of the strength of the jasmine but I think that it would have been better if I steeped it longer, still good though!
This was my first time drinking pu-erh tea and i did not really know what to expect. So far I haven’t had very pleasent experiences with black teas and I wasn’t sure how pu-erh compared to black. I can tell you now that they don’t. This pu-erh took me off guard and pleasantly surprised me!
The dry disk was a hard brick of dark tea with a noticeable earthy smeel. To be honest, the smell had me nervous but my fears were quite unfounded.
I rinsed the tea first then steeped it at 212 for 1.5 minutes. The leaves broke up pretty well I would say but I might rinse it more next time to provoke the breaking more. The liquid was an incredibly dark brown with a earthy smell. Now at this point I really had no idea what to expect. The taste was earthy with a slight fishy sweetness and not bitter at all!
The second was at 208 for 1 minute and broke the tea up completely. It did not lose any flavor at all! I’m sure this could be steeped over and over for awhile. I look forword to much more pu-erh in the future!
