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I posted a review of this tea earlier this afternoon, but realized in retrospect that I’d used the wrong leaves. I have two tea clips that look exactly the same and all the packages from Taiwan Sourcing appear similar, and I was obviously not paying attention. The reason I previously compared this tea to a green oolong was that I was mistakenly drinking a green oolong.

I wanted to buy this oolong in 2016, but it was out of stock by the time I was ready to make a purchase. This year, I got as far as adding it to my shopping cart during the Black Friday sale, but when I pulled the trigger a couple days later, it had all been snapped up. Thankfully, the people at Taiwan Sourcing must have recognized how much I desired this tea, and included a free sample with my order.

I steeped 5 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

I’ve never actually tasted a longan, but gather that it’s similar to a lichi. The first steep has notes of roast, honey, cream, lichi, and banana bread. It’s very sweet. The second steep adds roasted nuts and sesame seeds to the mix. Later infusions are a beautiful red colour and have notes of slightly burned banana bread, plum, spice, and dried fruit.

This is a rich, comforting oolong. I’ll have to buy the 2018 version if I get the chance. And next time, I’ll pay more attention so I don’t have to rewrite the review!

I’m wistfully savouring the last of this tea, regretting that I didn’t buy a kilo of it. Since there was a little more than an average session’s worth but not enough for two, I put about 7 g of leaf in my 120 ml teapot. I steeped it at 195F for 20, 10, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

This tea is sweet, rich, and balanced. I get notes of barley sugar, honey, flowers, caramel, chestnuts, cranberries, malt, and wood. There’s a bit of astringency, especially since I stuffed so much tea in the pot, but it doesn’t detract from the deliciousness. By the third steep, notes of orange blossom, citrus, and a bit of cocoa show up, and walnut skin appears in the aftertaste.

For the next few steeps, the chestnut, honey, and fruity tartness are dominant. Even when it starts to fade, it does it elegantly, without the bitter mineral taste that later infusions of black teas seem to have.

No question, this is the best black tea I’ve had in 2017.

I picked up this sample a few years ago in my “try all the teas” phase. The leaves are somewhat broken, and there’s just enough for a single gongfu session. I steeped 5 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

In the first steep, I get notes of honey, grapes, malt, flowers, cocoa, and tannens. I don’t know why, but some Chinese blacks make me think of a much better version of your standard English Breakfast. The tea loses the floral and grape notes by the fourth steep, becoming more malty, metallic, and astringent. The honey continues throughout the session, which makes it more enjoyable. Still, the first four or five steeps are the best.

Although this tea isn’t bad, I’m not in a hurry to get more. Compared to other, admittedly more expensive, Guangdong black teas I’ve had, this is just okay. I think I like black teas with distinctive floral, fruity, or chocolate flavours, and this one doesn’t tick enough of those boxes consistently.

I like white tea, but never seem to buy or drink much of it, possibly because I’m still unsure about the brewing parameters. Do you do long steeps at 175F, short steeps in boiling water, or something in between? The end result is that I tend to go with none of the above.

I decided to brew 5 g of this tea in a 120 ml teapot at 185F for 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, followed by a really long soak to get all the flavour.

The first steep has mild notes of hay, wood, soybeans, linen, apricot, and grain, and a wonderfully long aftertaste that intensifies the fruit. The second steep ramps up the flavours and weirdly makes me think I’m drinking pencil shavings. This is a sweet and woody tea.

As the session goes on, I get notes of banana, herbs, and minerals, and the tea gradually loses its intensity. I don’t get any cinnamon or spice notes.

This is a tasty white tea that I’ll enjoy finishing. Maybe I’ll even discover the right way to brew it.

I bought this tea about a year ago and it’s currently out of stock. This is close to my last session. I steeped 5 g of leaf in an 85 ml teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The first steep has muted notes of cream, flowers, cornhusk, veggies, and grass. Even when I got it, the flavours weren’t too prominent. There’s no bitterness, and the tea is more vegetal than sweet. Hints of pineapple show up occasionally. The tea has good staying power, not getting too one-dimentionally vegetal until the seventh or eighth steep.

Although I wouldn’t classify this as a “really great oolong,” as I remember the website suggests, it’s a pretty decent one. I admit my expectations might have been too high, since this oolong is from the Li Shan region and these teas tend to be more complex. I’ve had better luck with this company’s darker oolongs.

I unapolegetically love perfumey teas, and this dan cong is one of them. According to the Camellia Sinensis website, the leaves were frozen during processing. I’m not sure if this is the same production method as is used for Yunnan Sourcing’s Wudong Chou Shi Dan Cong, but both teas are very floral and aromatic.

I’m reviewing the 2016 harvest, which has stood up well to the year and a half I’ve owned it. I steeped 4 g of leaf in an 85 ml teapot at 195F for 15, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The aroma of the first steep jumps out of my teapot as soon as the water hits the leaves. I get notes of jasmine and other flowers, grapefruit, guava, mandarin oranges, and an undertone of squash and other vegetables. There’s a bit of astringency and the mouthfeel is oily. I can also see how people could describe this as soapy or perfumey. The second steep is more astringent as the leaves open up.

The heady floral and fruity aroma persists through the next few steeps. This teapot pours really slowly, so some steeps are more astringent than others. The jasmine and grapefruit flavours are the most prevalent throughout the session, which keeps going for an impressive twelve steeps without diminishing too much.

I wouldn’t want to drink this tea every day, but for those who love floral, perfumey dan congs, it’s an excellent option. It also has a surprising amount of caffeine.

When I saw a black tea made from the Four Seasons varietal, I had to try it. I soon discovered that it’s very different from your standard Ruby 18, and not necessarily in a way that I enjoy. I steeped 5 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 200F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The first steep tastes like Red River cereal, with oats, grain, cream, and honey notes. The second steep is similar, although there’s a floral, tangy aftertaste that reminds me of Four Seasons oolong. Four steeps in, this still tastes like breakfast cereal. The aftertaste is the most interesting part of this tea, where its Four Seasons character emerges. Although the Taiwan Tea Crafts website mentions citrus fruits, I don’t pick them up consistently, although I do get hints of citrus from time to time in later steeps.

This is a unique black tea that I’m happy to have crossed off my list. However, there’s a reason why I haven’t had Red River cereal since I was a kid. Since Taiwan Tea Crafts recommends drinking this tea iced, I’ll see if that brings out more of the citrus flavours.

This is the second purple tea I’ve tried from Yunnan Sourcing. I steeped 5 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, , 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

Although most reviewers taste grapefruit in this tea, I get green grapes and some sourness in the first steep. The second steep has notes of grape, honey, sourness, woodsiness, and citrus, which could be grapefruit at a stretch. There’s no bitterness at all in these infusions.

After increasing the temperature to 200F, the grapefruit is more apparent, as are grape, raisin, honey, malt, and sour flavours. I also get brief notes of blueberries, dry grass, and minerals in later steeps, and the tea gets more astringent as the session progresses.

Though I enjoyed this more than the other purple tea I had from Yunnan Sourcing, I wasn’t a fan of the raisins and the astringency. I shouldn’t have any trouble finishing it, but I’m not planning to get more.

I bought this in 2016 in a vain attempt to make myself drink more green tea. The funny thing is that even after almost ignoring it for two years in my cupboard, this is pretty enjoyable. I steeped 4 g of tea in a 120 ml teapot at 185F for 20, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, and 240 seconds.

The first two steeps are mild, with notes of flowers and buttered greens. The third steep adds some peach skin, asparagus, and a slightly bitter aftertaste to the profile for a much more interesting cup. The next 45-second steep brings the tea into sencha territory, with asparagus, lettuce, broccoli, and astringent flavours and much less fruit and florals. The tea fades gradually after this, becoming grassy and vegetal.

This was a refreshing tea, especially the first few steeps. Longer steeps tend to bring out the veggies, so I might try keeping them shorter during my next attempt.

This Qi Lan is a much gentler animal than the one I had from Tao Tea Leaf a few hours ago. I steeped around 5 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The first steep is surprisingly light for a Wuyi oolong. Honey and florals show up first, followed by roast and light tobacco. The second steep has a few more of those char and tobacco notes, but is still very floral and sweet. I also get roasted veggies and maybe some fruit (Lichi? Honeydew? I can’t tell.).

As Amanda Wilson said in her tasting note about this tea, it has some qualities that make it similar to a Dan Cong. Its honey character softens the roast, especially as the session progresses. Although the tea starts to get drying by the sixth or seventh steep, the honey carries it through.

As someone who likes greener oolongs, I enjoyed this Qi Lan more than its roastier counterpart from Tao Tea Leaf. It’ll be fun to see whether storing my remaining 30 g for a couple more years will mellow it out even further.