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Brewed 2.5g dry Indonesian leaf in 7oz boiling water for 2 min. Neither leaf nor liquor were purple. Aroma of toasted wheat. Flavors of toasted grains, blackened potato skin, nuttiness, charcoal, and metallic. No floral notes, no cinnamon, no butter, no dill, no vinegar. A re-steep was the same, after which the rolled leaf had loosened somewhat, but never expanded. Frankly, just tastes like an infusion of vegetable ashes. No desire to drink any more of this. Rating 25 and not recommended.

An old pouch I hadn’t opened in 7 years, kept well stored. Finely chopped leaf, almost like a CTC.— and faintly fragrant. Western brew. Bleh. Brown water tasting vaguely of tea and nowhere near as good as standard Lipton teabags, which I rate at 65. This old, stale black tea tastes old & stale. Not recommended and in fairness I won’t assign the rating of 40 because of its age. If you find some of this, and like it, give it a fast sipdown because it won’t live long.

I’ve had this black tea sitting around in its sealed mylar bag for some 6 years now and am finally posting some notes here after finding it this morning. Coincidentally, I see that Steepster user @Mastress Alita posted a review of it only 3 days ago! MA’s material might be fresher than mine, but it’s no longer for sale on Tealyra’s site anyhow.

I steeped Western style, as directed, and found much the same as reported by MA, though with a weak intensity and substantial astringency. Interestingly, midway through the tea, I got hit with a few flashes of blackberry fruit flavor! Overall the tea was drinkable, with some interesting flavor and little if any extended aftertaste. I’d only rate it a 60 though I won’t post that score here (nor “recommend”) since I suspect mine has simply suffered with age. I may try overleafing it and dropping the water temperature before giving up.

FOLLOWUP: I doubled the leaf to 5g and used 8oz water at 190°F for 30sec. The result was much more intense in flavor and aroma, but no more enjoyable to my palate. A re-steep also for 30s was less bright. This tea just isn’t for me. Mastress Alita, there’s about 35g untouched leaf remaining which I’ll gift to you if you’d like to have it.

Well, there is a raft of 9-12 yr old reviews on this tea under the old name of this vendor (Tealux), but Steepster “teepland” posted a newer note a few yr ago, and I’ll tag onto it. I’ve updated the Tealyra description and photo, though. Still, it seems these pearls have gotten larger since teepland’s review (and the photos) because they report using 8+ per teaspoon, per cup, while Tealyra suggests 3 pearls per teaspoon per cup, and that matches my measure. Those 3 pearls totaled 2.5g dry wt, which is about right and matches some of those old reviews. So maybe the size varies from lot to lot? I brewed grandpa style. Pleasant, sweet, fragrant tea, with notes of honey, cocoa, petrichor, and my impressions match Tealyra’s description and others’ notes. Nuff said. I’d recommend and rate this as 70.

Today I brewed closer to the seller’s guidance, again Western style: 2.5g in 8oz boiling water for 2 min. Two steepings. And I’m liking the tea much more than previously, raising my rating to 80. The fragrant dry leaf was dark and wiry in appearance and yielded a liquor of deep clear amber color with typical Assamic nose of malt and brown sugar. Once expanded, the leaves were small but intact. The taste was sweet and malty with raisins and a bit of astringency, and some floral notes I’ve not noticed in other Assams. The flavor improved and intensified as the liquor cooled, and the long-lingering finish was superior to the forward taste! This is better than any CTC Assamic I’ve had. The re-steep accompanied my lunch of kimchee, roast pork, and vegetarian konjac pad thai. The tea was still nicely fragrant and bore flavor notes of fruit compote.

I acquired this shou 3 years ago, and have had it in 63% RH storage since then. This now 9 yr old ripe Pu-erh (2019 pressing of 2016 material) brewed up to make a very nice, thick & sweet broth that was deep brown and opaque in appearance. I steeped (western style) 5g leaf in 8oz boiling water (after a 10s discarded rinse) for 30 sec the first time, then re-steeped the leaves three more times for 15s each. I’m sure the leaf would have continued for another 4+ steepings, but a quart of tea was my limit. Each infusion tasted the same, with a strong mushroomy flavor and petrichor aroma, with accents of chestnut and tobacco. Without sourness, fishiness, or bitterness, it was very pleasant and a great value. Creamier than, and almost as flavorful as, the tangerine gong ting I previously reviewed at http://steepster.com/teas/yunnan-sourcing/93201. Still available, I’ll rate this as an 85.

I bought this cake in 2022, following sipdown of a much earlier sample, and it may have been BBTC’s last cake, because it vanished from their website soon after. I withheld my review though, not trusting my sense of taste due to CoVid recurrences. Now, today in late April 2025, I’m steeping it again, and find it to be a really swell tea that I look forward to enjoying! Strong tea flavor with hints of assamic content, lovely camphor aroma and a wintergreen taste that endured through early resteepings. Slightly astringent with just a scant bit of humidity (mustiness) in the second steep. No fishiness or sourness and lacking in petrichor or geosmin. There are some notes of leather and tobacco. A clear, sweet, amber liquor. I’ll rate it as a 90.

Sadly, the provenance of this tea is muddled, as BTTC seems to have made multiple revisions to the descriptions, both in vintage (“1990’s” vs. “2002” vs. merely “aged”) and in manufacture (“Kunming Tea Factory Green Stamp 7542 blend” vs. “probably made by a smaller factory in the Menghai area as a copy of the famous 7542 recipe”). Does this have to do with the privatization of state-owned tea factories? Or the imitations that were common during the Puerh “boom”? I don’t know, but I doubt BTTC is attempting deception. Probably just honestly revising the info as best they can, to reflect things as they’ve come to light. Even the aging is vague (“dry-stored in Taiwan” vs. “Natural dry storage”). Other variations appear in the internet archive of the Wayback Machine, though always with the same images of the cake, its wrapper, and the inner insert, which match what I received. I have not examined the embedded neifi.

Regardless of the various descriptions by BTTC, I am pleased with my purchase and would recommend a tasting if you can obtain it.

Sipdown? Well, I received this Taiwanese Oolong as a 6g gift sample with my January order, and I used it all in one session. Brewed western style, almost as directed: 6.4g leaf in 8 oz boiling water in a stainless steel infusion basket for 2 min. Dry leaf had a wonderful fragrance, which intensified while steeping. But this was way too much leaf, as it expanded out to fill my basket and poke out over the top! The aromatic, golden-colored liquor was sweet, smooth, non-astringent, and like a mouthful of flowers! Song claims flavor of Magnolia x alba, and so I’ll go with that, though I can’t say I truly know what White Fragrant Himalayan Champaca is, let alone what it tastes or smells like. It sure is lovely, and reminiscent of a dong ding I drank recently. This oolong is said to be the Qing xin cultivar (also known as “green heart”) which is well known among the high mountain oolongs, as are hybrids from it. The finish is extended, lasting several minutes on the tongue and in the nose, only finally tailing off in a mineral taste with a hint of skunkiness. Each sip was enjoyable as the cup cooled over the course of ~30 min. I never detected anything remotely of the claimed pistachio or cantaloupe (both of which are very familiar to me). A second infusion was also nice, but not as delightful as the first. Perhaps if I’d used a slightly cooler water and shorter steep the leaf might have given more, but I really liked it my way anyhow. I’ll never know because it is now sold out and next year may differ. Rating this as a 95. The third infusion continued to satisfy, as notes of cardboard and stronger minerality crept in alongside the floral sweetness. Long finishes continued here, and the cardboard notes gave way to a slight cantaloupe flavor way in the back of my mouth! Score another point for Song’s tasting skills. A fourth infusion was unpalatable and discarded. I hope other Steepsters got to try it!

Returning to this standard Dragon Well tea, now nearing 8 years in my tea cupboard, and today brewing as directed by the label: western style, 2g leaf in 8oz 175°F spring water (yes, I used a thermometer) for 2.5 min in a stainless micropore infusion basket. The first steeping produced a pale yellow liquor with the lovely umami/nutty fragrance we associate with Long Jing. (The wet leaf had not yet fully expanded, so I know it has more to give.) The flavor was a smooth floral mouthful of mineral and umami, filling the sinuses with a long-lingering aroma, as the flavors also lingered on the tongue. In the second infusion, the now relaxed olive-green leaf burst forth with floral fragrance and flavor in a golden broth that was both slightly bitter (in a good way) and astringent, as expected in a green tea. The umami nuttiness was intensified here and the aroma distinctive. As I continued to sip the cooling tea, it remained almost chewy in nature, and I got hints of sweetness. Flavors remained on the tongue for several minutes and this is a tea worthy of the time spent preparing it! I wished I was sipping with a friend this morning, as conversation would have elicited further enjoyment of the flavor and aroma on the palate. Long Jing is my favorite green tea. I hope you get to soon enjoy some!