The Finest Brew

This is the last one of the TTB, and I was saving the best for last. This tea is fantastic! These leaves inside the package do not seem to decadent, but once I brought them out and gave them time to breathe, they’re one of beauty. The dry leaves are made up of little twisted knots ranging from a dark reddish brown to a brilliant gold. They carry an almost non-existent scent of smoke and cacao. I placed this gorgeous twigs in my gaiwan and brewed eastern (finally). I washed the leaves to bring out the aroma. This brew begins with a roasted red potato scent. This hearty essence filled my tea room. The scent then begins to sweeten and become more of a light rum. The taste is delicious. It begins bold and malty with a dark cacao rush. I steeped in increments of 5 seconds so as not to become bitter. This malty robust brew then sweetens and becomes a succulent syrup. It is placed as a dark grape and mahogany flavor. This tea is known as a “high end Lapsang Souchong.” Once I entered the third or fourth steep I could see how this was apparent. The smokiness blends with sweetened twigs forming a tasteful brew. This tea has distinct undertones of earth and sugarcane. This was truly a perfect way to end my experience with this TTB, and I am glad I saved this for last. I highly recommend this for anyone wanting a treat.

This is spectacular!!! The buds are a golden topaz and so fluffy! This is a brilliant Yunnan! The brew was gorgeous! The dry buds have a faint smoked scent and slight tang. I brewed western in my press. The aroma reminds me of a steak dinner and Thanksgiving all in one. This is a very hearty brew. The liquor has such depth and tastes of baked sweet potatoes and mahogany. The steeped buds give off the scent of a grand feast. I am in love with this Yunnan, and I need it in my life haha

Yabao!!! This was the first one that i tried in this tea box. I have never had Yabao and have been very interested in trying but could never get ahold of any. Finally my day has come :D Now I opened the package and it was mostly odorless. I could hint at a very light dry grass aroma. I brewed in my gaiwan with near boiling water. The aroma of a sweet and savory emitted from my vessel. This tea is unlike a lot of teas. The taste is somewhat cooked and syrupy. Its like an anise honey flavor. The best part of this brew is its colour! Its an iridescent green topaz! It’s very beautiful! I am so happy to have finally tried Yabao and I definitely will be purchasing in the future!

It was storming outside – hence I felt it was a perfect opportunity to brew some tea and feel the goodness of pouring rain and windy weather. So I set up on the verandah, grabbed some Yabao Pu’er cus its always great for times like these for its floral, intimate-with-nature qualities. And it was wonderful. Little to no color in the liquor, subtle flavor, perfect for gongfu brewing or for drinking all day as its unlikely to go bitter for a long time. Brewed about eleven times before I ran out of water.
http://instagram.com/p/y7k31pNglc/?modal=true

Its definitely not for everyday drinking. But its lovely when had occasionally and great for beginners as it has a scented-with-flowers feel to it. One of my first picks to share with a guest. A rare underrated tea, I must say I love Yabao in nature.

Hidden Gems TTB #20

This is a great black tea! Super strong and flavorful with notes of whole-grain bread, honey, and sweet potatoes. It’s reminding me a lot of Whispering Pine’s Golden Snail, but with a slightly smoother texture. There’s a little bit of bitterness in the aftertaste that I’m sure would disappear with a splash of milk, but I’m enjoying it plain in my travel mug this morning. A good way to finish off a fantastic box of samples!

Highly Recommend for the green tea lovers out there. Holy cow! Can you saw pancakes in your cup? Wow. I’m so glad i picked this one up from Ost (Thank you!). This blend is really good. The green tea has a butter richness quality to it making the tea very creamy and the rest of the ingredients added in give it the maple syrup taste that makes it amazing! Not too sweet, just the right amount.

This tea makes me happy. It reminds me very much of one of my favourite JJM’s that I bought from a now closed aliexpress store. While that tea was a little sweeter and more resilient this tea shares with it the good balance of tart fruit and malt, cereal notes, and cocoa which make it a great all day tea.

The dry leaf is quite pretty although it does not look quite as tippy as the picture and smells strongly of malt and cocoa.

My first steep was in the lower 90°C range for around 45s which resulted in a Maple coloured brew. Later steeps were short steeps at boiling which brought out more of the red tones in this tea. My steeping times were (45, 10, 12, 20s, 2min and 7minutes).

The tea smelled of hints of the upper tones of malt, cocoa, honey, plums, and cream.

I captured flavour notes of a smooth, slightly tart mix of malt, oatmeal, barley, and cocoa, with longan, plum and faint citrus notes, honey with cream, and hints of a slightly green floral note with bits of cinnamon in the first steep. Honey lingered in the aftertaste.

Subsequent steeps added notes of lychee, cream, sugar, cucumber water, cocoa butter, and mineral notes to the above. The early steeps at boiling had more assertive flavours and were more astringent. Throughout the steeps the tea maintained a medium density. Altogether a very nice all day tea.
http://instagram.com/p/yP4KSaGK7Z/

1/24/2015 10g/12oz/212F/15sec This is a lovely tea, generously shared with me by gschuschke. I’m still figuring out the best brewing params for it, because the tea I am getting in the cup just doesn’t feel like the best tea that is in this leaf. It’s a Dan Cong and me thing – I just can’t seem to coax out their best features.

Happily with this gift, I have enough leaf to experiment with a variety of brewing techniques.

This cup is a lovely light gold, with a creamy vegetal/honey aroma and taste. Like fresh picked spring peas pureed with a bit of cream and drop of honey.

I had this tea this morning. The little ball is so cute and it’s really packed tight. A bit too tight since it takes forever to break up. I gave it a couple of pokes with my pu’erh pick on the 3rd rinse just to get it going. Each ball is 7-8 grams of tea. That’s a lot of tea!

So I did 3 rinses 10/10 & 15

Then I brewed for 15 sec. It was a bit rough, really spicy/peppery and some bitterness.

4th brew – 20 sec. It was getter better. Smoother , less bitter, apricot notes were coming through. A bit less peppery.

5th brew Went back to 10 sec because this was a lot of tea for me and it was just too strong at 20 sec. The peppery/spicy note was stronger again. It started out smooth on the tongue with a slight bitterness on the finish. It had a nice silky mouth feel

6th brew-15 sec Peppery notes disappeared and it became smoother .

This tea just kept changing and getting better. I put the tea leaves aside to have some more for tomorrow. There’s definitely plenty of infusions left in those leaves. I didn’t get any orchid notes off it like they’ve mentioned on their website. Maybe that will come out in later infusions.

Another sample from Anlina! This is a gorgeous tea, all golden buds. Breathing in the steam of the brewed cup (waiting for it to cool enough for a proper taste) I get hints of malt, bread, sweet potato… and I’m getting all those in the sip as well. It is very smooth, with a lingering sweetness and a creamy mouthfeel. Maybe just a hint of honey and spice. Mmmm, this is delicious. :)

Finally getting a chance to try the samples Anlina sent me! This is very nice – a smooth, malty black tea, with notes of chocolate and fruit, a pleasant tartness, but then a lingering sweetness after the sip.

The dry leaves are such a bright green- so pretty!

Brewed according to The Finest Brew’s instructions on their website.

Brews up nutty and slightly sweet. It’s a very delicate green and I think I am picking up very faint citrus notes. I could sip this forever.

This is definitely a good quality black. I think it reminds me of one from YS but can’t think which one it is.

It’s malty/bready, smooth with a bit of sweetness. I detected a faint chocolate note in it too.

Directions on this tea said to brew 6-8 grams. I think I went conservative and only brewed 5 grams with about 4 oz water. I used boiling water initially but then tried a lower temperature.

This tea brewed up so extremely light—only a pale yellow. It was also very light on taste. I could pick up a little sweetness, hay & pine and some faint peppery notes. I could smell citrus but could not pick out anything citrus in the flavour. I did many infusions but this tea was just way too light for any flavour to come through. I’ve checked reviews from other people on this kind of tea (from other companies ) and I’m seeing many different ways of brewing (iced sounded interesting). I think I’m going to try some different things before rating this tea. I liked the flavour but it was just too faint. I plan on going up to 8 g the next time. I really need to play around with something that works for this tea.

Apparently Steepster somehow deleted about 50% of the review I made for this one last night, and it no longer makes any sense. I can’t seem to get edits to stick either so here is what I remember to be missing…

This is a really lovely sheng. Sweet, not at all bitter and quite fruity. The Finest Brew Co. mentions apricots, but I got nice ripe juicy pear. There’s also sugarcane and a nice vanilla bean ending. It has a lovely qi as well.

Steeps so far… 10s, 10s, 15s, 10s…

Oh, very nice! I’m only on my second steep and the ball has barely begun unfurling so I’ll have to give a full review later. But so far I’m loving Nice qi as well.

I’m so very impressed with the pu-erhs I received from The Finest Brew Co. and am totally bummed they sold out before I could pick some more up in their New Year’s sale.

I’ve been intrigued by yabao, so I was really happy to get a great deal on this as my first opportunity to try it.

The dry leaf is pale, uniform buds, with a faintly peppery smell.

99C, 7g, 100ml. Rinse, 10s, 15s, 10s, 15s.

The steeped leaves smell very strongly of pine, must and drying wood. It’s an intensely outdoorsy smell that reminds me of the Canadian shield.

The liquor is very pale yellow – there’s almost no colour to it. It smells both musty and peppery, like old books. The flavour is really interesting. Very light, sweet, with a slightly sour note that I find in some white teas. There’s mustiness, earth and some of that pepper spiciness, that lingers into the finish, after the sweetness goes.

Second steep has a stronger pine & wood flavour. The sweetness and sour note are toned down, as is the mustiness. Still nice and spicy.

Third steep was a bit more mild than I was hoping for, though it build as I sipped. Toward the very end, a peachy or maybe apricot note made a brief appearance in amongst the pine.

I want to keep drinking this, but sadly, I’m getting some wicked heartburn. Hopefully not from the tea, as it’s delicious, but I think I need to stop either way. Boo!

So good. Sweet and malty and boozy. Just what I needed on a totally crappy day. I woke up with my neck pretty impressively fucked, and going for a massage only helped a bit, so I’m hurting and grumpy today, and a bit stressed about work and getting ready to move, since the day is coming up fast.

I had some work booked for early this morning, so I made up a cup of tea that I knew would be delicious and reliable, and it was.

Then just after 9am, they started testing the fire alarm. Which has been going off every five minutes for the last two hours. So I’m a bit grumpy and I had to reschedule some of my day.

I’m feeling kind of thrown off, but with moving in a week, I’ve got a whole lot of stuff to do, and I can’t just write off a whole day because of a fire alarm.

Tea of the morning! I had this while getting ready for work – needed something I knew I would like. So very tasty, with sweet potato, malt and just a hint of pleasant bitterness. Really loving this one.

Ugh this is ridiculously good. I wasn’t going to try this for a while, but I opened the bag to pack up a sample to send in a swap and then I couldn’t resist. The dry leaf is large and fluffy and golden, covered with that wonderful, fine dust. The dry leaf smells like a bakery and cooked fruits and a brewery and potatoes.

I steeped a heaping teaspoon in 96C water for three minutes, drank part of the cup and then put my steeping basket in for a while longer and kind of forgot about it. Not for too long, but the tea was probably about 60C when I put the leaves back and I don’t know how long they were in there. So good. The depth of the tea just got better and better, without any astringency or bitterness developing. It’s sweet, with a thick, creamy mouth feel. Lots of bread, malt, sweet potato, and even a bit meaty, which is a quality I love in Yunnan blacks. The malt and some stone fruits stick around on the finish, and hint of smoke pops up right on the tail end.

I could drink this every day, easily. So so tasty. I am sure glad I got sucked into this Black Friday sale.

Easily one of my favorite black tea for the late afternoon.

Love the delicate look and the smell of the dry buds; captures the true essence of a delicious black tea before trying a cup of. The perfect brew sends out a floral scent, the right amount of astringency with a subtle sweet taste.

PS First tasting note :)