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i felt like brewing some of this tonight because i wanted something different. this is the only darjeeling ive tried and tbh i was a little unsure weather i could brew this right. but the tea gods shined down on me and i think i brewed it perfect, with my old stovetop kettle and western pot.
part way through i started chewing on a licorice root and that was a mistake i could have prevented- o well. this tea comes out mostly clear (light gold) and it doesnt look like a black, but i gues this is a characteristic of darjeeling.
it has a sweet floral aroma and the taste is delicate, sweet, with quite a bit of umami going on. im on my last cup and its not as hot as i want it but still nice. this tea also rides a thin line between floral and verdant, and i will definitely bring this one out more often.
the first time i tried this the water temp must have been too high because i remember this being bitter. if anyone is visiting vancouver, consider stoping by blue teapot at the quay in north van, they have a wide selection plus some teaware. adios.

-nycoma

today i have the w2t poundcake brewed, thanks to mrmopar who sent this and others.

i brewed this western style. the liquor comes out a light yellowish gold, i like the look of it.
it tastes sweet with a slight maple syrup note. it has some vegetal taste too, with some peach. i get a nice rich mouthfeel- some menthol on the tip of the tongue. im really happy with this one.. could be a potential daily drinker, who knows.

its a quite sunday and this poundcake stuff is just the thing to drink while i read through mtg pdf guides. ive always had magic cards, but never bothered to play right, and since i havnt grown out of it, id like to revisit the game.

i just poured a second cup from my pot and i think there is more astringency somehow.. i ve noticed these slight changes in the past, and i assure you the basket is not in it ( although i have been known to forget it in there.) how does this make sense? anyways this is a nice tea. maybe ill set up the gongfu another day for a more in depth review.

-nycoma

heres a tea ive had for a while but have never reviewed.. so time to write one.
it looks like its rolled a little and its a darkish brown color, un brewed.

after a rinse the aromatics are heavy with roasty notes, like burnt toast and with nuttiness such as roasted almond maybe.

the first steep fluffs up the tea in the pot more. the liquid is an orange-y gold color, and its really nice to see that much color on the first steep. i just taste old stuff when i drink this tea.. of coarse theres a kind of burnt toast taste, but it really makes me think of old stuff, antiques, books, and egyptian tombs- which i can only imagine the smell of.

on the second, im thinking now that maybe this has some herbaceousness as an under note, and with some definite malt. the flavors have mended and are coming out and oh it is smooth, “so much so me brothers, that all the melanky little hairs now stand up on me arms, they do, me brothers.”

this is the first time ive gongfu’d this tea and now i know that western brewing doesnt do this tea justice. im using my cracked sky blue porcelain pot- Neptune, to brew this, with 4.20g of dhp in the mix. despite what i said earlier, i think ill steep this tea in my tumbler tomorrow morning and drink it at my class.. i brought WP’s rivendell this morning, unfortunately i should have brewed it a couple extra minutes. i digress..

3rd- and i get some astringency but it is thin and is noticed at the front of the mouth. the body of the tea is med- light in presence, as it almost evaporates. for me this tea plays out all around the front of the mouth. its not super active- kind of flat actually, but theres flavor there.

ill stop here and enjoy the fourth in peace, jk- not really. reviewing as i drink is a love/hate thing, so i may halt a review early if i just want to sip and re-watch breaking bad.

this is a good tea but i dont know when or if ill purchase again.. there are too many teas to try and not enough time.

-nycoma

this will be a short review on davids tea’s dragonwell. i tried this once before and didnt really like it, since it was very vegetal if i remember right, and i dont usually drink green teas so i was not used to the flavors. im giving this another try now, with my 60ml gaiwan with 2g tea, at 83C.

after rinse it gets smelling pretty nutty, with some natural creaminess.

first steep is weak with slight vegetal notes and some sweetness.

the second smells a little sweet and sour off the lid. it tastes ok, but im not at all excited by this probably because i drank puerh earlier and that is more my thing.

this would be good in the morning brewed in a mug.

third: smells like raw vegetables and roasted almonds. im just unimpressed with the taste which feels 1 dimensional or something. my tongue is coated. maybe im brewing this wrong.

thats it for me, ill drink more but i dont know what else to say about this tea. pce.

-nycoma

right now im drinking the last of this bulang. i have about 4.99g for my raw yixing ive dubbed, Enkil, the ancient vampire of anne rice’s books- the vampire lestat, and queen of the damned. i just love those books, so i thought id honor my pots and her characters, making Enkil my sheng pot, and Akasha my shou.

ya anyways.. after a quick rinse, the tea has loosed lots and is giving off a strong sort of sweet-hay smell.

first steep, and the brew is light, sweet, strong and palatable, with a light yellow liquid.
with just a few sips, the tea qi is already oozing out of me, and i feel soft like a pillow, ha. i wonder if its just that im excited to be back at my gongfu table.. maybe im getting a contact high..

second- the liquor has darkened and the smell is somewhat smokier now which i love, however its not a burning wood smoky, but more like a burning field. the tea has become richer and heavier feeling in the mouth. lots of the initial bite you would expect from a young sheng has actually given way to a rounder, more complex brew, with some astringent activity part way through the sip.

well the tea has come apart in this third steep. i love the strength of the aroma.. this is astringency i like; rounded with some sweetness, but very in your face. < that is from the pot. the cup is less in your face, as you would expect. some bitterness digs at the middle of my tongue and stays there when i sip. the heat & the bulangy-ness is making my feet sweat and i fear my tongue is drying up.

fourth steep- im picking up some cedar on the nose. less astringent, still very flavorful and a little sweetness to balance.

this tea is really great and i think ill be ordering more in the future, as i am now out of it. it always helps me wake up when i feel groggy. i love how this is active in the mouth and tart as f***.

im feeling wide awake and hot and kind of fidgity.. strange how fast the qi hit. im going to drink on, but the review ends here.<

-nycoma

this smells like smoked cedar or red wood or something. this is most prevalent in the smell. then there is sweetness that comes in after. i brewed this western style for about 5min right after a rolling boil. the color of the brew is not really dark and not really light.. i would call it golden. It is slightly bitter and slightly sweet (apricot is probably the best description of the sweetness,) and the two mix. astringent mouth feel on the sides of my tongue.

its another hot day and it is completely crazy to be drinking boiled water- but you know, im in a tea coma if not high on coffee and vice versa. I knew this tea from the past and fully expected for it to light me up and make me sweat like a fish (is that a saying?) im taking my shirt off to wipe tea off my computer screen, plus its bloody hot.. funny how things work out.

im on my second cup (100ml maybe) and its much more astringent (even though the basket is out.) this is actually a very tiring tea for me, since my limit for bitter is lower than this, though i could see this tea working well with a “heavy” type of meal, in which it can cut straight through and add dimension to a meal.

i never particularly liked this tea, but i thought id sipdown on some of this and contribute a lazy afternoon review.

-nycoma

I bought the brick a while back, and I’m still reaping the rewards. This brick breaks apart into some very fine scraps though, could be I’m not breaking right. I do dig deep right through the center though to get those “shelves” of tea.
I brewed up maybe 6- 7g i don’t really know, i just threw it in the french press and added the water. I let it sit for 4- 5min and used a nice ceramic mug. The rest of the tea, I put in a mason jar with the lid on. Of coarse I don’t get all the slight changes of the tea when I go western, but I don’t care right now, I’m happy to have the quantity of tea.

I’m now drinking the second cup and I just love this tea. I’ve been drinking lots of coffee lately and this is more than a good substitute, as it ( as most shou) is full bodied and rich, with a bit of bitter on the finish. I personally love the fermentation flavor, because it some how taps into the nostalgia vein, or rather just simpler times.
The mouth feel is somewhat astringent, and coats the mouth.
I don’t know if its because I’m drinking a hot drink on a hot day and the result is a heavy feeling, I don’t know, but I feel slightly tea drunk with a good sense of qi. Something tells me I’ll be brewing another pot in about an hour- savage!

-nycoma

Its late in the day and i just need a drink, something stronger than this tie gun yin. Second steep on 6min. First steep I had earlier and sadly all i remember is that it was pretty clean tasting and a typical green oolong. This time i get more creaminess and depth, not alot though.. not like if i tossed the basket and brewed some ripe puerh. But i dont play favorites so here we are. I write this review in the dark and with head phones on in the middle of my dining room, curled over the keyboard, pecking at it intently, like a prospector panning for gold. Really I am just trying to reach a conclusion for this tea. I think I should’ve brewed it longer but i dont know.
This has been the first review of this year,and the year seems almost over.. to bad. I guess I have some time to make up for. I brewed this western style, and i expect the rest of my reviews to be this way, at least for a while. I dont know much about tea, and definitely not oolongs , but i think this is just an average tie guan yin. This is a go-to when i cannot make up my mind. its been a hot day and Im tired, i need something stronger.

-nycoma

wasnt super into this one when i brewed with 120ml vessel, but now that i am revisiting this with my 60ml gaiwan i got today, im more able to drink it, simply because less water.

dry: light- med press based on sample. kind of yellow looking, maybe looks like an owl pellet. smells kind of sour with a floral after effect.

wet: light olive green leaves. a fair bit of stem. aroma more impactful, sweeter, honey, young moss after rainfall.. if i remember what moss smells like.. lol

taste: it is astringent at the front, and bitter invades your afterthoughts, and coats the tongue. kind of makes me press my tongue to the roof of my mouth. i should experiment with temp, as in bring it down some.

i dont think this sheng has much going for it. too young, maybe in time..

but simply because it has some puerh qualities, and i havnt tried a temp change, i’ll give a generous rating.

im writing this review later in the session- 6th steep i think. anyways, this cake has a lot going for it visually, it looks like a jackson pollock painting, with silver leaves, black, brown leaves and orangey flower speckled throughout. the cake is 100g but feels lighter to me. it is not pressed very tightly, you could break it in half with your hands if you tried.. this piece sheds leaves. it smells both floral and herbal with a spicy/pepper note at the front of the nose. i get both chamomile and a hint of fluoride as well.

i was surprised to see the liquor come out with the depth of orange it had on the first 5 sec steep. i wouldnt be caught tossing the first rinse/brew for this one. the color darkens and so on, becoming a little red.

im pretty sure there are buds in here..

sediment minimal.

a battle between herbal blends and floral perfume takes place, and some spice sneaks in. cant speak much on the notes here except for that its a little jarring, but i like it. i detect 0 bitterness and after you get past whats probably the chrysanthemum, its very smooth.

i would drink this late spring- summer, early- mid day. it would be nice to eat snacks with.

qi is mild and sort of a creeper.

inside the pot, what i see reminds me of a certain type of vomit. the size variation of leaf is amazing. the tea also reminds me of seaweed because it looks like it has a slick coat of something.. maybe all tea has that, maybe im crazy.

been listening to different renditions of oblivion by astor piazzolla while sipping, its a great pairing. with the music and the tea , my mind is more at ease.

- nycoma