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I finished this one now, using it for kombucha, and it made for one of the best batches in recent memory. I should get more of teas like this specifically for kombucha :)

I haven’t had a properly focused session with this tea yet, despite drinking it on several occasions already.

Its aroma has a touch of fermented fruits, as well as notes of bog, zucchini flowers, and tobacco. The taste is grainy, bitter, floral, fruity, sweet, and also a bit sour. One can indeed say it’s a fairly well-balanced blend.

A nice enough gao shan oolong. The aroma is floral and reminds me of pineapple, custard, and green beans. The taste is crisp, sweet and buttery. There are flavours of citrus fruits, spinach and touch of orchid.

This tea is indeed quite experimental. Having sampled hundreds of teas, it is always a pleasure to encounter something new and unique. I prepared it gong fu style, but have a feeling it may fare even better and offer more balance when brewed in a large batch. I have more of it to play with and will try different ways to use it.

The dry leaf aroma is pungent in a preheated pot. It reminds me of raisins, bourbon, blueberries with a hint of chocolate. The wet leaf aroma is similar, but a bit more earthy and with the distinctive sour plum note mentioned in the description.

The first infusion is the weirdest. It is really quite sour, like a light roast coffee can be. There are many fruity notes, e.g. I get reminded of plums and carrots. From the second infusion onwards, the tea slowly peters out to become quite a basic hong oolong towards the end.

Short check-up on this tea. Its aroma is sweet with notes of petrichor, wood, cloves and brownies. The liquor is also cooling and medicinal with flavours such as plant stems, and pine resin.

The aroma of this tightly pressed tea is pretty weak throughout the session. At some point, I got a hint of bog scent, but that’s about it. The mouthfeel, however, is quite nice – soft and buttery. The taste, while nothing spectacular, is also fine for casual drinking. It is bitter and sweet wit ha floral aftertaste. There are flavours of custard, forest floor, honey, grass, bell peppers and other plants, sugarcane, and apples.

I find this tea more attractive now after more than a year in my storage. There is a more pungent aroma of wet earth and forest floor. Also, the mouthfeel seems thicker, and the taste sweeter, with stronger floral notes throughout.

I am realizing I don’t have so much of this cake left by now, but still enough to keep it aging along.

At the moment, the tea has a herbal, earthy, mineral, and sweet aroma with hints of smoke and shaving cream.

The mouthfeel is biting and milky, and can get quite astringent at times. The taste is sweet, bitter, and vegetal at first, with notes of leek, butter, and pine noticeable in the first steep. Second one brings more camphor, tobacco, honey, and parsnip. Later ones are spicy, bitter, and warming. Overall, the depth of the tea seems slightly improved over its very young state.

This oolong is not particularly distinctive in any way. It offers nice baked notes without being overly roasted. Thanks to the low oxidation they are matched also with floral notes. Overall character is quite metallic, sweet, and bitter, but also quite balanced. There are flavours of baked apple and canola oil. The mouthfeel is creamy but not very thick.

I have had this cake for a few years, but I only opened it today for the first time. Until now I would always go for the 2018 vintage. At some point, I should also do a side-by-side comparison.

The tea is really well-balanced and flavourful, and has a supple and smooth texture. At this price, one could hardly ask for more. The taste is quite sweet, but with many undertones – malt, wood, bitter, floral, citrus zest. The aftertaste has strong honey and apricot notes. A pleasant experience overall.