Alright y’all, here’s my Birthday Tea (several days ago now). I was born in 1983 — a tea one year off fits the bill well enough. I don’t feel old, even around teenagers but put in the perspective of tea years, I should be tasteless and dry by now. But I am neither! And neither is this tea. It smells a little musty, dusty and sour so in human years, I’d put this around 85 years old :P
The dry leaf smells a little of this, a little of that — sour, musty, dusty, woody, cookie, soy sauce. Warmed, it smells rich and sweet with date syrup-coffee-caramel, aged wood and pepperoni, fire-spicy, complex. The rinsed leaf smells like stale coffee, wet earth and wet vegetation. Once brewed, the tea has a forward note of ash. Its general character is spicy, woody, and mineral with a gentle unrefined palm sugar type sweetness. There’s also kind of an underlying umami-seaweed tone. There’s an awesome black sesame oil high note that pierces through everything for 4 or 5 infusions. That note smells and tastes exactly like the homemade black sesame ice cream the sushi chef gifted me with my pandemic to-go birthday dinner.
Thanks, Leafhopper, for allowing me a sample of the oldest tea I’ve had thus far! It was an interesting sip for sure and not a bad one by any means. It’s still a supple, complex oolong with a bit of an opinionated fiery bite.
Flavors: Ash, Biting, Brown Sugar, Caramel, Coffee, Cookie, Dates, Dust, Meat, Mineral, Mint, Musty, Plants, Pleasantly Sour, Seaweed, Sesame, Smooth, Soy Sauce, Spicy, Sweet, Umami, Wet Earth, Wood
Preparation
Comments
I would highly recommend it. It has that really rich volatile note that peanut oil has without the heaviness. I wonder if a coconut milk base would carry that flavor as well as a dairy base.
Happy belated birthday and how awesome drinking that young! tea :) I was closest to my actual birthday with 2000 Yi Wu puerh which I have sipped down recently. I never had black sesame icecream and I would give it a try for sure!
Happy belated birthday! I actually bought this tea because it was from my birth year, which makes us almost the same age! (Sometimes I do feel old.) I remember trying this a few years ago and not liking it much. Maybe I’ll have to give it another shot.
Another Pisces! derk, take it from me, a Very Old Tea Bag-life just keeps getting better the longer you steep yourself in it. 1983 was so long ago to me, I can’t remember what I was doing… : )
I just received a newsletter with tea from your year derk: https://www.mudandleaves.com/store/p986/taiwan-high-mountain-tea/1983-aged-shanlinxi-oolong.html
Happy (belated) birthday! That ice cream sounds fascinating!
I would highly recommend it. It has that really rich volatile note that peanut oil has without the heaviness. I wonder if a coconut milk base would carry that flavor as well as a dairy base.
Oh, thanks :)
Oh geez, I didn’t realize it was your birthday. I’ve missed so much. Happy belated birthday!
Happy belated birthday and how awesome drinking that young! tea :) I was closest to my actual birthday with 2000 Yi Wu puerh which I have sipped down recently. I never had black sesame icecream and I would give it a try for sure!
Happy belated birthday! I actually bought this tea because it was from my birth year, which makes us almost the same age! (Sometimes I do feel old.) I remember trying this a few years ago and not liking it much. Maybe I’ll have to give it another shot.
Happy belated birthday! That was the year I graduated…..youngster…. ;P
Another Pisces! derk, take it from me, a Very Old Tea Bag-life just keeps getting better the longer you steep yourself in it. 1983 was so long ago to me, I can’t remember what I was doing… : )
Happy, happy belated birthday!
I just received a newsletter with tea from your year derk: https://www.mudandleaves.com/store/p986/taiwan-high-mountain-tea/1983-aged-shanlinxi-oolong.html
What a coincidence your tea tasted like your birthday dessert! Hope it was a good day for you!
Belated happy birthday derk. Sounds like an interesting birthday tea!
Thankee all