357 Tasting Notes
Backlog March 26, 2025
Aroma: Dark chocolate, sweet potato, nutty (pecans? walnuts?), & hops.
Texture: Oily at first but thinned out after the third infusion.
Tasting Notes: This is an example of a perfect red tea for the tea beginner. There’s plenty of complexity to test the palate for the long-time and newer tea heads! It’s smooth, never bitter, and seems to have the ability to take higher water temps. I added, “notes of sweet potato casserole without marshmallows, but add some pecans soaked in pine needle sauce (lol).”
Flavors: Pecan, Pine, Sweet Potatoes
Sipdown & Backlog – March 5, 2025
I made the final half of this tea as an iced tea. With the recent weather changes, from cold to warmer, I went through an iced tea craze, which is particularly nice to have on hand during in-office days.
Aroma: Cocoa, dark chocolate, floral, & malt.
Tasting Notes: Slight notes of dark chocolate, floral (rose?), & a maltiness in the forefront of the palate.
Sipdown
Aroma: Burnt sugar, powder sugar, & funnel cake (a little overcooked)
Color: Medium orange
Tasting Notes: Pleasantly sweeter than expected with ever slight hints of the roasting. Not bitter in the slightest.That’s all I wrote about the session, as I was working through some system issues at work on Friday, and hadn’t been able to properly session the tea.
Aroma: IPA, citrus, hops, & nutty
Color: Lightly orange
Tasting Notes: There was a hint of roasted notes toward the start of the session, which died down after the second or third infusion. The lingering aftertaste stole the show with notes of cooked peaches and Juicy Fruit gum. This is one of those teas that West China Tea offers that knock it out of the park.
Flavors: Fruity, Peach
Sipdown/Backlog – March 15, 2025
We had friends over during the sipping down event with this tea. Based on the tasting notes from that session, we were able to manage to get results from our experience!
Aroma: Sun tea, honey, lemon, and peach.
Tasting Notes: Smooth, lemon, & sweet.
Rating: 6.5/10
Flavors: Lemon, Smooth, Sweet
After starting the tea with my usual quick rinse, I knew that this one needed a long steep (10-minutes long). Bam! Flavors were bursting to life on the palate – there were notes of plums, citrus, sour lemon peel, roasted apple, & a sweetened delight.
Flavors: Apple, Citrus, Fruity, Lemon, Sweet
I finally started working through my backlogged teas from West China Tea’s subscription. This tea session was a subpar experience. I noted recently that West China Tea is a solid company for anyone getting into gongfu’ing tea (yes, they have some teas that rock my world, too). They have palate friendly teas and can help bring the experience to the table!
Aroma: Dian Hong smell (malty, but lacking the sweetness) & unsweetened cocoa
Color: Red
Tasting Notes: Malty, astringent, & a little bitterness. The session lasted 5-6 infusions and was over. I enjoyed steeps 3-4 the most. 1-2 was allowing the tea to open; 5-6 were slightly less flavorful.
Flavors: Malt
I nearly lost my mind checking the price of this herbal tea ($85 USD for 100g). Yikes! It was overall a light flavor profile. I had enough material from the subscription to brew this twice. Once, I gongfu’d the leaf, and it was a muted tea experience. There was very little flavor. Second, I let the tea sit in boiling water + refrigerated 24-hours. The notes below are from the later of the two sessions.
Aroma: Yeast, bread dough (raw, unbaked), & pine.
Texture: Thick
Tasting Notes: Not very strong, but there are hints of pine nuts, white bread, oats, & flour.
Flavors: Bread Dough, Oats, Pine
