70

Post-CoVid Tasting Note: It has now been two months since I recovered from Covid, and my senses have returned to normal. So, as promised, I am reevaluating this tea. After a 5-second rinse of a 5g portion of tea cake in boiling water, I brewed the leaf in 8 oz. boiling spring water for 3 min., which produced a straw-yellow infusion. To my nose there was a pungent aroma of young sheng puer in the hot infusion. There was some astringency on the back of my tongue, but the taste was not bitter. Nor did I detect the strong floral notes and sweetness of typical of other C. taliensis teas. I have enjoyed those flavors in jing gu white pekoe silver needle and jinggu sun-dried sun-dried silver needles white pu-erh tea, but here they did not present themselves until the infusion had cooled to ambient, and even then were subtle. While hot, there was a lingering aftertaste of gardenia flowers. I think this tea would make a very refreshing iced-tea brew! I find that even 10 min after my last sip of the cold tea, there is a lingering taliensis flavor. As a hot tea it may still be a bit young to fully enjoy the puer qualities. The leaves are still a light olive-green in color and the cake was loosely compressed. A second infusion of 2 min. was less astringent, but equally flavorful. This is a bargain-priced and unique puer that is certainly worth trying, which purists may find either delightful or, at least, surprisingly unusual.

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Bought this in spring 2022 from the YS “.us” site. [UPDATE: I have deleted most of this very negative review because it appears I have Covid, and have lost most of my sense of taste. Not fair to slam this tea under that circumstance! Look for a fresh review in a month or so, assuming I survive.]

….If Camellia taliensis intrigues you, please please buy the 25g sample size first.

Disclaimer: I am one of those individuals for whom stevia sweetener tastes bitter instead of sweet. If the reputed sweetness of this tea comes from a similar compound, it is possible that my taste buds simply don’t taste it the same way as other peoples’ might. Again, start with a sample size instead of a whole damn cake!

Flavors: Brisk, Floral, Gardenias, Orchids, Vegetal

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec 5 g 8 OZ / 236 ML
ashmanra

Oh no! I hope you feel better soon and get your sense of taste back quickly!

mrmopar

Quick recovery to you.

derk

Well wishes to you and your olfactories.

TeaEarleGreyHot

Thank you all, I’m feeling good after a somewhat lousy Saturday. Got the PCR positive result today and a script for antiviral (thanks CVS test-to-treat minute clinic). I can taste some salt and sour now, still waiting on the rest. Since I still need my caffeine kick, I’m swilling down the smoky teas I dislike, along with low grade (fishy/composty) ripe pu-erhs that are far easier to drink without functional taste buds! I told myself it’s the priciest 400 year old raw puer, and enjoy it… Because it tastes like… Hot water. :-)

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ashmanra

Oh no! I hope you feel better soon and get your sense of taste back quickly!

mrmopar

Quick recovery to you.

derk

Well wishes to you and your olfactories.

TeaEarleGreyHot

Thank you all, I’m feeling good after a somewhat lousy Saturday. Got the PCR positive result today and a script for antiviral (thanks CVS test-to-treat minute clinic). I can taste some salt and sour now, still waiting on the rest. Since I still need my caffeine kick, I’m swilling down the smoky teas I dislike, along with low grade (fishy/composty) ripe pu-erhs that are far easier to drink without functional taste buds! I told myself it’s the priciest 400 year old raw puer, and enjoy it… Because it tastes like… Hot water. :-)

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Life is too short to drink bad tea!
Pan-American: Left-coast reared (on Bigelow’s Constant Comment and Twinings’ Earl Grey) and right-coast educated, I’ve used this moniker & Email since the glory days of AOL in the 90’s, reflecting two of my lifelong loves—tea and ‘Trek.

Now a midwestern molecular biologist (right down to the stereotypical Hawaiian shirts), I’m finally broadening the scope of my sippage and getting into all sorts of Assamicas, from mainstream Assam CTCs to Taiwan blacks & TRES varietals, to varied Pu’erhs. With some other stuff tossed in for fun. I enjoy reading other folks’ tasting notes (thank you). I’ve lurked here from time to time and am now adding a few notes of my own to better appreciate the experience. Note that my sense of taste varies from the typical, for example I find stevia to be unsweet and bitter. My dislike of rooibos may be similarly rooted in genetics, which impacts perceptions of many flavors, from asparagus to stevia to cilantro.

I don’t work for a tea vendor, and I’m not a professional tea sommelier. And I don’t taste every nuance, hint of flavor or note of aroma, nor am I trained to describe those that I do detect. But I taste enough to have opinions, and do my best to be descriptive. Sensory preferences can shift from day to day and person to person, so numerical ratings are kinda bogus, especially between and among various people. But there are individual trends, and I try to reflect that. As reference points for my ratings, I give Lipton Black Tea bags “orange pekoe and pekoe, cut black” a score of 65 because it is widely available and profoundly consistent. I view it as just okay. I would give plain, hot, quality spring water a rating of 25, and I buy Crystal Geyser brand for brewing because my local well water is stinky and discolored, and my filtration & softening system leaves it salty and unpleasant. Tea should make the commercial Spring Water better, not worse, so a rating below 25 speaks for itself.

I am conversationally friendly but absolutely not here looking for dates or money, nor to sell anything. If I’ve started to follow you, I don’t mean to be creepy, it only means you posted something I liked reading, or it was about an interesting tea or event. And I’ve recently discovered that the Steepster system only notifies me of new posts written by people I follow. If you follow me, I won’t assume anything. If I do not follow you, it isn’t a snub—you’re still a good human being!
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