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I have negligible experience with Japanese green tea, but after reading about the hype surrounding shincha for three years running, I decided to give it a try. Since I had no idea what I was doing, I bought Yunomi’s five-shincha sampler, plus a Bankoyaki mini kyusu for brewing, figuring that even if I’m not a shincha fan, it would come in handy for gyokuro.

This shincha gives off a grassy and marine aroma, without any other notes that I can pick up. The leaves range from long to fragmented and there’s some powder in the bag. I followed Yunomi’s instructions and steeped about three grams of tea at 158F for one minute, followed by three subsequent one-minute steeps at 176F.

Even at 158F, the astringency is quite noticeable, though not overpowering. Spinach, asparagus, and umami are also present and the tea is brothy and smooth. I’m glad I bought the smallest kyusu available because I suspect I wouldn’t want to drink such a strong tea in quantity.

Increasing the temperature made the tea taste like all the vegetables I assiduously avoided as a kid—kale, Brussels sprouts, and spinach again. The astringency and umami have gotten even more pronounced. This tea tastes healthy, and I’m not sure how I feel about that.

The third steep has a bit less of a kick, but the same basic flavours. The fourth reverts to marine and grassy notes, though they’re much less distinct. This tea also seems to have a large amount of caffeine.

This shincha was a lot “greener” and more assertive than its Chinese counterparts. I might try it at a lower temperature to see if I can coax out some sweetness. It would also be much better as a morning pick-me-up than as an afternoon tea.

It looks like this tea hasn’t been reviewed in five years, so I hope this is the right listing. This is one of my all-time favourite bai hao. I bought it in 2015 and I liked it so much that I took advantage of a sale to buy two more bags this year. This is the end of the 2015 package, and I think the flavour is starting to mellow.

I put about 5 grams of the beautiful multi-coloured leaves in an 85 ml porcelain teapot, which I tend not to use because the pour is so slow. However, this just seems to make bai hao even better. The aroma of the leaves in the teapot is almost nonexistent, though some hints of sandalwood and spice come through. I used 195F water and steeps of 30, 20, 30, 45, 60, 90, and 180 seconds, followed by steeps of 3, 6, and 9 minutes.

The first steep comes in with citrus, wood, honey, and pear, with some sandalwood in the background. There’s no bitterness and a lingering aftertaste. Hints of grape and other fruit show up in the second steep, though they’re somewhat faint. I then upped the temperature to 200F to try and get more fruity flavours, but other than possibly making it a bit sweeter, it didn’t make a difference.

That sandalwood/spice note is the best part of this tea. It kind of tingles on the tongue in some steeps. It also makes the tea seem quite complex, even though I can pin down relatively few flavours. The fourth, fifth, and sixth infusions were the best and most well integrated, suggesting that this bai hao might benefit from longer steeps.

It’s difficult to judge bai hao objectively because I haven’t had too many and I love the flavour profile, which probably skews my ratings too far upwards. Nonetheless, this is excellent and I’m glad I have a stash of it.

What a pretty tea! There are lots of golden buds, usually in sets with one or two leaves. When placed in a teapot, they smell like chocolate, malt, and, true to reviews from previous years, tomatoes.

The first couple short steeps bring out all the notes above, combined with mild florals. The chocolate is less prominent than one might expect, and the malt is more so. The chocolate pretty much disappears by the fourth 20-second steep, as the tea transforms into a typical Assam profile. (I checked on Yunnan Sourcing’s website and it doesn’t look like this is really an Assam, so maybe it’s just a Dian Hong thing?) I don’t get any fruit flavours at all. The tea thins out by the tenth steep, though I got two more out of it before I gave up.

I might buy this again, but there are other teas that appeal to me more.

I can’t decide whether I like this tea. It’s certainly unique, with a flavour similar to the wild Dehong purple I tried a while ago. The leaves are long and greenish with ample golden fuzz. Since they’re from this year’s harvest, they’re still slightly flexible, which makes me oddly happy.

From the first ten-second steep, I get raisins, honey, malt, and a funky green grape sourness. The mouthfeel is slick and heavy and there’s no bitterness. It also seems to have a high caffeine content. This profile lasts for six steeps before the tea loses the raisins and transforms into a typical Assam.

If I actually liked raisins instead of avoiding them at all costs, I’d be singing the praises of this tea. As it is, I’m impressed by its novelty but ambivalent about finishing my 50g bag. Yunnan Sourcing’s website says this is a good candidate for aging, so maybe it will change over time.

What do you do with a good tea whose primary flavour you happen to dislike?

This tea smells like rich, fruity dark chocolate. Unfortunately, the fruit doesn’t make it into the first 15-second steep, but the chocolate definitely does, although like the classic version, it doesn’t seem as dark. There’s also toasted rice, a slight smokiness, and a hint of bitterness on the aftertaste. It’s kind of like drinking especially high-quality hot chocolate.

In subsequent steeps, the flavours are more defined and the chocolate is somewhat stronger. The toasted rice morphs into dark rye bread by the third infusion. This tea keeps getting sweeter and more chocolate-y until it peters out at about steep ten.

This is definitely a cut above the classic Laoshan black and is worth the extra money. Will buy again.

Today, I’m comparing the classic and imperial versions of this tea. Yunnan Sourcing doesn’t give any brewing instructions and Verdant’s three-second steeps seem way too short, so I started at 15 seconds.

The aroma in the bag is dark chocolate, toasted grain, and char. The chocolate seems milkier in the first couple steeps, with a nice sweet aftertaste. I was also surprised by how smoky this tea was. Since the body was thin, I upped the third steep to 20 seconds, which, though it did nothing for the body, intensified the chocolate. I coaxed six additional steeps out of this before it lost its flavour, the last two of which had caramel notes that I liked.

I’ll have no problem finishing this tea, especially as it’s almost fall, but I think there are probably better Laoshan blacks out there.

It’s been unseasonably hot where I live, so I haven’t been drinking too much tea lately. However, I’ve tried the last of my Teabento samples, Lucky Otter, both gongfu and Western style. (The power went out during my last session yesterday, which deleted my review.)

This Li Shan is sweet, floral, and fruity. In Western style brewing, it has a dried fruit quality similar to cranberries, while gongfu brings out tropical notes like passion fruit and papaya. The floral quality, which the website describes as orchids, balances out this fruitiness nicely. In both brewing styles, there’s virtually no astringency and an underlying vegetal character that gets stronger as the sessions progress.

This is a lovely oolong and I’m grateful to Teabento for the sample.

I agree with everyone else who has tried this tea: it’s fantastic! It’s like a Laoshan Black, only toastier. It’s also my first balhyocha and my second Korean tea—assuming that Teavana’s Jeju Island Green is a decent example. I did five gongfu steeps of 20, 10, 40, 90, and 180 seconds, followed by another ten-minute steep because I didn’t want the session to end.

In the first two steeps, cocoa and cereal predominate, with caramel and berries in the background. To me, this is milk rather than dark chocolate. Although the fruit then disappears, the toasty cocoa is more than enough to hold my interest. The tea never gets astringent or bitter.

I’d definitely consider buying this again to keep me warm over the winter. It’s also inspired me to seek out more Korean teas. Thanks to Teabento for providing this sample.

Thanks to Teabento for providing this sample. I really enjoy dan congs, though I don’t have much experience with them. Due to some over-enthusiastic pouring into a damp teapot, I steeped about 4-5 g of this in 120 ml of water. I kept the temperature around 205F and followed Teabento’s instructions for gongfu brewing: 15, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 120, and 180 seconds.

True to the name of this tea, honey and florals are the dominant flavours in the first steep, backed up by stonefruit, citrus, and grains. The roast doesn’t seem to be obtrusive, though it’s not soapy or way too flowery like some other dan congs I’ve had. I oversteeped the second brew by a couple seconds and it ended up being dry, meaning that this tea isn’t too forgiving. Still, the honey, orchid, citrus, and malty notes come through.

From the third steep onwards, there’s more maltiness and roasted character, though the other flavours are still very much present. I can even understand how Teabento can describe this as woody or mossy. The aftertaste is long and fruity and a lovely aroma persists in the cup. The tea remains pretty consistent until the final steep.

This was an excellent dan cong. I can only hope that the other dan cong samples I’ve been accumulating since 2015 are aging as gracefully.

As an aficionado of Taiwanese teas, I couldn’t resist trying this one from Yu Shan. Situated in the southernmost part of Nantu County, Jade Mountain is the tallest peak in Taiwan, but its output is low due to its remote location. I did steeps of 50, 40, 60, 90, and 120 seconds in 195F water, using 4 grams of tea in a 120 ml teapot.

If I didn’t know where this tea came from, I’d guess it was from Alishan. It’s sweet, floral, and buttery with vegetal undertones. In the second steep, these undertones resolve into something lemony and herbaceous—lemon verbena? This is gone by the fourth steep, as the tea becomes more vegetal. There’s still a lot of flavour, but the florals and sweetness are almost gone. This tea, though perhaps lacking in staying power, has a fascinating and distinctive character and I’m glad that Teabento generously allowed me to review it.