45 Tasting Notes
Inky and rich. This is a delicious and aromatic Yunnan black tea that oozes light brown liquor. The fragrance is full of malt and caramel with allusions to cocoa or carob. This isn’t super complex, but the richness does pull me in more so than other similar Yunnan teas (like pure bud bi luo chun).
Intensely floral and fruity with notes of honey, all along with a pleasing mineral character. The wet leaves and brew also present a more subtle savory and woody character. There’s a pleasant mild bitterness that complements the sweet and syrupy brew. Beautifully floral but also rugged in its depth.
This is my favorite rock oolong to date. There’s a restraint about its character that pairs so well with the complexity. The roast is perfectly light, melding with a floral character that makes this tea sweetly intoxicating. Nectar-like aromas swirl in as well. The flavor is crisp with just a tiny hint of drying character after the fact. Overall this is a very clean, high quality tea that is a pleasure to drink steep after steep.
Balanced perfectly between sweet, savory, malty, fruited, and bready, without being overtly any one of those. That’s what I find so hard to describe about these Georgian teas, they’re very subtle in their complexity. This one brews to a lighter hue than some other the others but is still stout, flavorful, with hints of acidity but no bitterness or astringency.
I bought this from YS as soon as it was posted. When I received it, I actually did not care for it. The roast flavor was too strong, and there was a persistent bitterness.
Now that the tea has rested, it is very nice. The roast character is beautiful now, and while there is still some bitterness, it is easily managed, and is crisp and welcomed. Dan Cong character all the way, the sticks around for more steeps than you would expect. I think this will get better yet.
Edit: Drinking this again tonight, I find the aroma mesmerizing with red wine-like fruit character, a floral character that’s twisted into something almost spicy that comes across terpenous (like the ‘cannabis’ note described by YS), and an aromatic wood overtone. The mineral roasty character is great. This is a complex tea. You can peel the layers back and see the ‘mi lan xiang’-like floral fruitiness, but the roasting does a great job adding loads of complexity and swinging it in a more “masculine” direction, if that makes any sense.
While there is a common thread of flavor and aroma that runs between the Georgian black teas offered at What-Cha, this one has a particularly deep and mellow character with sweet indistinctly fruity tones. While all of the What-Cha Georgian teas are unique, I find these teas difficult to describe because they have such similar characteristics, they just point in different directions… if that makes any sense. And perhaps that is why I love having a small collection of Georgian teas: I can pick one to suit my current mood.
Super sweet and pungent smelling. I adore raw tea like this, just clean, pungent, and smooth. Some floral or fruity aromas show up a few steeps in. Definitely on the young side, the brew is super smooth and so easy to gulp down. I’m very pleasantly surprised, and enjoyed this tea thoroughly.
I got a little sample of this from mrmopar through a swap (thanks!). I decided to go into this tea blind without looking the tea up first.
My initial impression after hitting the tea with boiling water was “burly” and “tobacco”. Interestingly that went away pretty much immediately and was replaced by gentler scents of mild pine-like woodsy character, musk, and a thick sweet pungency. The rinse smelled woody. After cooling off the wet leaves smelled wonderful with that sweet pungency.
I’ve brewed seven steeps so far (10s, 10s, 15s, 15s, 15s, 15s, 20s). This tea is quite relaxing and somewhat “stoney.” The fragrance of the brew and leaves were sweetly pungent and woodsy. A more noticeable aged character slipped in around the 3rd brew. The mouthfeel was pretty nice, slightly thick for the first and second brews, and slipping to a mild drying after the third. The beautiful greenish-brown leaves were fully hydrated and open by the 7th steep. All steeps were a nice orange color.
I quite enjoyed my experience with this tea, and was thrilled to see that it is also affordable.
This is probably my favorite raw puer to date. It is squeaky clean and mellow, and carries a sweet pungency that I enjoy in young sheng. While clearly aged, this tea doesn’t carry much in the way of aged fragrances other than a very mild earthy character and a tiny hint of mushroom on the fragrance of the brew. Otherwise its just smooth sheng goodness.
To be honest I’m disappointed that I like this tea so much… but only because now I want to buy more and its just too expensive for me.
If anyone has any recommendations on teas that approach this flavor/aroma profile, I’m all ears!
