Keemunlover Send Message

Charred oak, cedar, faint hints of cinnamon, light smoke, and “medicinal” notes all packaged in a surprisingly smooth tea. Nice lingering aftertaste. This reminds me of the Scottish Breakfast Blend from English Tea Store which I tried years ago, which featured Chingwo County Orange Pekoe, a variety of tea renowned for its oaky notes. But this is much smoother than I remember the other tea being, even though I enjoyed that one quite a bit. Woody notes are definitely the name of the game here, but the tea is also so smooth and friendly I could imagine it would appeal to a wide variety of drinkers, even those who are not particularly crazy about wood. My mini weighed in at 6.00 grams on the kitchen scale.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this tea comes from the same patch of leaves the Turtle Dove white tea comes from? I find a lot of similarity between these two teas.

This is a lovely winey black tea, not very malty at all, but with deep red wine flavors and wonderful perfumy rose-floral notes. Taste profile is very reminiscent to me of the 2018 Turtle Dove white tea I tried a few days ago, but this is maybe not as woody. Kind of like a Yunnan version of Keemun black tea, a favorite of mine.

My mini weighed in at 6.68 grams on my kitchen scale.

This tea is indeed a lullaby. Sweet and soothing. This is the first Yunnan white tea I’ve had (not that I’ve had so many) with the bright and fruity notes more reminiscent of a Fujian bai mu dan tea. Maybe not quite as bright and fruity as can be, but definitely going in that direction.

Sweet notes of green grapes, cantaloupe, and honeydew melon. With delicious minty tingles. Very creamy, too. All over a background of the grassy haylike Yunnan character I am more familiar with from other Yunnan whites. Very smooth.

The mini weighed in at 7.64 grams on my kitchen scale.

7.12g for this mini – Wow, this tea is smooth in more ways than one. First of all, the lighter notes of the white tea serve to smooth out the stronger raw pu-erh tea. But on another level, the bitter notes of the raw pu-erh are smoothed out by the sour Meyer lemon notes and the sweet and creamy caramel notes. This tea finds an interesting balance between the bitter, sweet, and sour elements. Yum.

6.46 grams – The floral element of this tea struck me most on the initial steep – strong grassy florals. As I drink further on, I notice some apricot but this tea also leans in a grapey direction, and I get some caramel sweetness. The bite is pretty strong on this one and I notice some “aspirin” taste in the bitter element of this tea, reminiscent of the “Gas” mini I recently tried, but thankfully accompanied by a fuller range of other raw pu-erh elements.

I’m drinking the mini version of this, which registers at 6.14 grams on my kitchen scale. Steeped in 16 oz water at 200° for 1.5 minutes 1st steep, 195° for 2 minutes 2nd steep, 195° for 3 minutes 3rd steep, and 195° for 4 minutes 4th steep.

Really reminds me a lot of a light-to-medium-oxidized oolong with strong apricot notes and a touch of green apple tartness. But it also has some of that signature raw pu-erh bite to it, and some lingering flavor with hay-like “zings”, which is great.

Doesn’t seem as complex as the 941 blend I tried a few days ago, though, and that one wasn’t a particularly complex tea. I might be giving in to confirmation bias, because going into this I know that this is huang pian, a bi-product, and thus a “lesser than” tea. But I think I’m being fair.

I think I could pick this up again because it is a good value for a raw pu-erh and I do enjoy this type of flavor profile.

6.16 gram per my kitchen scale. Tomato, honey, and malt/caramel is what I’m tasting here (in agreement with Cube’s prior review). Learning slowly from my past mistakes with these minis, I stretched the time on my first steep to 1.5 minutes at 205° in 16 oz of water. This seemed to result in a better flavor on the first steep, but the ball had was still not anywhere near having completely opened. A nice black tea with no bite at all. Seems closer to an oolong, as suggested by the vendor. I’m on my third “Dave-Fu” steep and I’m enjoying this one, just doesn’t really have any twist to it to draw me in or make this a definite repurchase.

Nice peachy notes with just a touch of some tangy pineapple. Some hay. A nice white tea. This mini weighed in at 6.88g per my kitchen scale.

I unscientifically weighed this in my uncontrolled kitchen environment on my small digital scale, and I found this ball to be 8.33 grams, compared to vendor’s promise of 7 grams. So I have some extra gas here!

Excited to try this, as I have recently enjoyed experimenting with the bitter Campari liquer in various cocktails, and found this to be a rewarding experience, so let’s bring on the bitter!

1st steep – 205° in 16 oz water for 1 minute – nothing much going on here. No real bitterness, not any sweetness, no aroma, no florals, etc. Just some barebones vague “teaness” here. Maybe I should have done a rinse or had a longer first steep. Will adjust next time, as I have four of these minis to play with.

2nd steep – 195° in 16 oz water for 2 minutes – Okay, here it is – pretty much a one-note chewing-on-crushed-aspirin type of bitterness. The brew is a noticeably cloudy looking amber color. Not too appealing, with maybe kind of a chalky texture. The bitterness is strong, but I wouldn’t consider it “mind-bending.” Might have been disappointing or annoying if I wasn’t expecting it. So far, I don’t notice any “returning sweetness” or really anything else but the aspirin.

3rd steep – 195°in 16 oz water for 3 minutes – More aspirin. The liquor is clearer now, with a better texture. Nothing else seems to be going on still apart from the aspirin flavor. I’m hoping to find a reward somewhere for hanging in there.

4th steep – 195° in 16 oz water for 5 minutes – Still got that aspirin thing going on, but it does seem to be fading in power and liquor color is still clearer and even better texture. But I don’t really notice any rewards for hanging in here.

5th steep – 195° in 16 oz of water for 5 minutes – I went ahead and gave this a 5th brew, because it seems to have some more “gas.” It’s a lazy Saturday at home, so why not? Fun to experiment with a new tea for most of the day. The aspirin has now very much faded and there is kind of the lingering elements of a basic raw pu-erh here, maybe something more akin to the 941 blend I tried a couple of days ago. I don’t really find this one too rewarding so far. I’m thinking perhaps I should try “flash steeps” as recommended by the vendor or change it up in other ways with the remaining minis, and I suspect maybe there is more here to discover.

Difficult tea to rate – If you are looking for a bitter, aspirin-like tea, then hell yes, I recommend this one to you. Otherwise, I would say no at this point. I guess I could maybe rate it a 75, as it clearly does what is promised. This tea is about the bitterness. I would rate it higher if I could find some other things going on, like some nice florals or some sweet elements.