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A friend brewed this tea and it was really nice. It is very dark, and has deep woody flavors. You can taste and feel the time. This tea is felt in the head and body really quickly, it gave a very deep and meditative feeling of relaxation and calmness. Remarkable. Too bad this kind of tea is absolutely unaffordable if you would want to drink it on a regular basis…

Very nice, full-bodied and fulfilling tea. Very balanced, with subtle storage (‘old house’) notes and dried fruity sweetness of a warming kind. Comforting.

This tea feels light and clean, and slightly aromatic with citrusy and light spicy associations. It feels thin, watery even, and for me, quite boring. Is it too subtle for me? I don’t know. For me it would not be worth this kind of price.

Very nice and lovable dianhong. Sweet, spicy-flowery, somewhat peaty with nicely substantial mouthfeel. Just very satisfying in that particular way in which only hongchas can satisfy. Sadly it loses a bit of edge after the first brew.

Really nice Assam! Awesome breakfast tea. Great strength and aroma (malt and some forest fruits), full-bodied, grippy but still juicy, nice brisk character and good aftertaste.

Another shai hong cake. This is an interesting one. It brews a really dark red. It is thick-textured, aromawise it isn’t really strong and at first glance it might even seem a bit empty because it has no high aromatic notes, but then there is a depth to it that is just really nice. It has a smooth, deep and round dried fruits aspect that comforts and satisfies.

I think I like this one a lot. It has big leaves that are relatively lightly oxidized with quite some green shining through. The color of the brew however is a deep red. It seems like an exemplary shai hong (sun-dried black tea), lacking the caramelly honeyish notes of ‘normal’ oven-dried dianhongs and aimed more towards the darker fruity notes.

This one does have the plummy/apricot dried fruit thing that I like about shai hong, but it is relatively subtle and the brew isn´t too sweet or thick. It feels fresh and clean, but a bit subdued. I am guessing that, since it is still very fresh (less than a year old), it should be expected to attain the deeper sweetness and dried fruit characteristics in the coming few years. I am considering buying a coupe of these nicely priced cakes to keep.

This Assam is a little different than I’m used to. It has a great red color and is thick, full, malty and smooth. But aromatically it doesn’t really have the sweet, broad and mild fruitiness that I associate with most good Assams; flavorwise it seems drier, much more leathery or even almost earthy and not so crisp, brisk and lively. The dry leaves smell weirdly chemical, like gasoline or paint. It’s not my personal favorite.

I have had the 2020 version of this tea before and enjoyed it a lot. Now I’m drinking the 2022 version and I’m impressed by the differences. The dry leaf looks very similar, but the brew is completely different. The 2020 version was remarkably foamy, had strong spice aromas and was very strong and quite tanniny. The 2022 seems more like a classical dianhong, with caramel/honey and some flowery aromas, and there is a bit of a weird toasty/nutty aspect, almost like sticky/toasted rice, that I’m not really sure I like.

This tea isn’t very sweet or fruity or flowery, there aren’t any strong aromatics in an upfront way. But it is nicely thick/oily and smooth, with an active, evolving mouthfeel and really nice sensation of overall ‘substance’. Very nice and sympathetic tea.