New Tasting Notes

I really don’t like hops. This tea basically tasted like pure steeped hops, but I dumped in a bunch of French Vanilla creamer and drank it anyhow. I might have found it more redeeming had the base been more prominent, but it was not.

This may be an unfair review as I am just getting over a cold, so I will try the tea again in the near future. But for now, my opinion stands. And btw, I got this sample with my second order from TSR, where I bought a tuo of 2007 V93 and a cake of 2007 Haiwan.

Given the fame of this recipe, I was expecting much more. There’s nothing wrong with this tea, it’s just bland and simple. Sure, it tastes like a shou puerh, but without much positive going for it. The primary flavor is death/decay and not much else.

Somehow I completely forgot that I had purchased this one with my last YoT order! I found it when rummaging through my cakes. I definitely like this one more than the other Liu Bao I had previously tried. Still haven’t ever tried betel nut and don’t plan on it, so hard to say if that’s the flavor I get.

I wouldn’t say I get the medicinal notes that others get, however. I think the predominant flavors are earthy and root vegetables. Nice mouthfeel and good longevity.

2025 sipdown no. 6

The base here was too sharp for my liking, finicky and quickly becoming astringent. I tried this hot at various temperatures and cold steeped, to no avail. The base was so bothersome to me, I barely noticed the flavour, but the spices and pumpkin were there, but nothing to write home about. Finally, I mixed some Wild Quince (from Georgian Tea 1847) into what was left and that mellowed it enough to enjoy this as a work tea.

Sipdown! But only of my taster size.

I have recently been on a 52teas favourites kick as the world (well, a specific part of it anyhow) descends into nonsense. Delicious, rich, and comforting. Seriously, Anne makes the best and most perfect flavoured teas.

I had no idea what to expect for this one. The flavor was mostly slightly celery-ish chamomile plus a hit of ginger. Plain, I didn’t love the combination. Sweetened with milk, it was better, though not great. I considered adding flavoring syrup since it was a little plain.

My recent acquisitions from Tealyra included Surajamukhi Assam Orange Pekoe. I find it rather pleasant to sip, even if it doesn’t knock my hat off. 1.5g in 8 oz boiling spring water for 2 min produced a deep amber infusion with the expected Assam flavor profile. Notes of malt and raisin, with a caramel nose, enough astringency to tickle the tongue, decent aroma, pleasing aftertaste and a little stewiness as the cuppa cooled. Reasonably priced and better than grocery store CTC Assams. I’ll rate it as 75 and recommend it, with the caveat that there are richer and smoother Assamic options out there.

4.7g, 90 mL ZZZ

wet leaf: YQH storage, light smoke, sweet, dark fruit, slight barnyard

1. sweet, slight cherry, effervescent alcohol tinge to taste and finish like the other YQHs recently. some woody and underlying bitterness though nowhere to the extent of the CWS and DJYS recently. light sugary quality like watermelon

2. herbal tea. some sweetness alongside oversteeped astringent bagged tea taste on rear of tongue. relatively strong bitterness here

3. similar in taste. bitter lingers on tongue.

4. sedative. woody. YQH dark marshmallow-y taste

took a long break in between to watch the snow outside since was super lethargic already. steeps 5-7 were mostly similar, and pewtering out. Outside of my earlier criticisms on taste (bitterness not resolving well, and fairly linear), I can’t drink this tea too often, because it is one of the most downing teas I own. There are some teas that are comforting and settling (e.g., aged BYHs and most older LBs), but this is not that. It feels forceful, like you are trapped doing nothing and unable to change that for some time. For an errand-free Saturday (yay for modern day grocery delivery), it is fine. For any other day (which is 99% of the time), it hardly fits the bill.

4.4g 4GC LB 90s, 90 ml duanni

Mothball, beet smell

1. Kind of thin. Just a general beet taste, some powdery sweetness on finish. Light headiness, maybe from a recent caffeine break

2. Pushed a bit for thicker texture. Still beet, powdery finish. Some touch of floral in the finish that some dankly stored teas seem to get (like the changtai 03 bamboo spring/jinzhushan)

3. Steep color lightened. Beet, hint of spice/peppery, light warmth in shoulders

4. Color lightened here as well. Flatly sweet taste. Decided to simmer the rest for 5 min.

simmered mug was decent, drinkable enough. Not a huge fan of this one, since I prefer the woody profiles to the beet heavy ones

Stumbled on an old Hou De blog post about brewing aged oolongs. This one isn’t as old as the ones mentioned there, but anyway, adapted those parameters a little with excellent results. Will try to stick to these going forward for older oolongs.

5.4g, 90 ml ZZZ

Leaves in prewarmed pot: caramel, plum

Wet leaf: roast, inky sweet. Lid has the empty cup smell of a roasted oolong

1. 30s: tea has sour plum and medicinal in the cup. A bit bitter medicinal in taste and sweet grassy roast/smoke/plum in the finish w a strong celery/mineral note that I usually get w apparent zhengyan teas. Lingers in the throat
2. 35s. Sour plum aroma. Bitter medicinal taste and some sourness. Some aftertaste lingering smoky mineral
3. 40s. Mostly plummy. Not as much aftertaste as steeps one and two, but some sweetness on finish that builds into the lingering notes from those
4. Forgot about it but prob 1 min+. Lightened. Finish has shifted into mushroom-y and tire smoke
5. 2 min. Plummy hint

The first time where the cold remainder of the first cup didn’t actually taste chocolate-y or that great. But, over the course of steeps, the aftertaste continues to build and linger and is really lovely. A cursory glance at my notes on EoT offerings probably makes clear that I have a general indifference towards most of the teas I sampled from there, i.e., not terrible, but not worth chasing down. Happy to report then, that though this is pretty pricey, the tea is quite pleasant. Am I going to buy the full pillow pack after sampling though, probably not. One can dream about winning the lottery, but not healthy to do so too often.

Thermos’d (500ml) the rest for 2.5 hr. Was a solid but not outstanding cup the usual roast oolong thermos profile. Warming feeling that I didn’t feel during the active brew session, but tbf my apartment is sort of cold bc winter heating costs are borderline outrageous.

Simmered the rest for 10 min or so. Mostly dead but is the sharp floral of oversteeped light roast oolong w barest hint of plum on finish

5.7g, 70 ml gaiwan

Smell is roast and chocolate

1. Taste is watery roast. Aftertaste is a bit astringent, grassy, and floral

2. similar in taste. Something sweet lingers in rear nasal cavity

3. Really astringent

4. Similar watery. Stopped here

Overall not a fan of overly floral teas so DC is already not really my favorite and this one is just not very good. should be able to finally finish the bag soon.

Sipdown! I have been drinking this for a few days straight now and although I don’t think it grew on me enough to want to buy it again, I do like it and would for sure drink more of if I came across it. It almost has a savory coconut way about it that was really nice.

4.5g, 70 mL thin gaiwan

leaves in gaiwan smell super fruity, almost passionfruit like

wet leaf has a bit of smoke and a plasticky floral. standard DC territory. aroma from gongdaobei is tomato sweet like some light oolongs exhibit

1. green vine, floral. fruity notes linger on tongue

2. really nice aftertaste, with shifting florals in throat.

Did not take notes after but taste here was a bit light and did not linger as extensively as I expected from reading other notes and I felt like it was not fully extracted. I cold brewed the mostly spent leaves overnight and that was still a nice cup. Maybe both a water and ratio/size issue. My tap is decent enough, and I really don’t want to generate more plastic waste when I don’t need. Also am too lazy to customize water all the time. As for ratio/size, DXJD mentions 6-8g/100 mL as their suggestion, and have also personally had better luck with high ratios and flash steeps in a slightly bigger gaiwan (90 mL) for the last few DCs. i think 70 just does not hit critical mass for whatever reason, or maybe not fitting to my preference

5.4g, 90 mL ZZZ, water mix

wet leaf: medicinal, vanilla, sweet

1. dark, fruity, medicinal. sweet finish, a bit dank. weighty feeling

2. dark woody, medicinal, almost salty. fruity finish, a bit effervescent cherry somewhat reminiscent of the recent YQHs. serious, reflective, and a bit downing

3. bland medicinal sweet

was busy and also had to pick this up the next day after refrigerating so wasn’t quite the same and didn’t note those steeps.

5.4g, 90 mL duanni
lots of cobwebs, which I spent some time trying to pick out and then gave up because it was too hard to separate them from leaf bits. This is my shou pot, so I couldn’t distinguish if the wet leaf just smelled like shou because of that.

1. a bit gritty texture on finish from broken/powder-y bits. cocoa powder like taste and mouthfeel. bit of smoke? some bitter. mostly herbal. relaxing

2. grainy, herbal, slightly salty. last bit could be due to water though

3 and 4. similar. some happy feeling.

stopped here for work. Material is interesting, not really the bud-heavy or huge leaf ends of the spectrum for LB but sort of long gangly leaves on branches. kept leaves in fridge and simmered w 500 mL for 10 min the next day but have never had especially good results post-refrigeration or after sitting out. Tasted ok. anyway. Despite the price tag, enjoyed it more or less.

4.6g, 90ml ZZZ
wet: light fruit, smoky

1. soft woody sour. some background YQH taste. sweet cherry in finish, bitter taste when cooled a bit. same strange almost alcohol aspect as the CWS recently. slowed thoughts and motions.

2. similar. soft texture, woody, bitter, some storage.

I dropped after a few more steeps of similar notes about the texture in every steep because i was running late to something lol. Obviously have favorable thoughts on that aspect and wish I had a bit more time to sit with it. Never really reach for these, so it’s been a few years. Had tea with someone else recently and was reminded of the importance of pacing in evaluating and just waiting a bit between steeps. Have been used to chaining steeps in my routine drinking and so was often feeling overwhelmed and not picking up things as a result.

Bonus advent calendar! Roswell Strange made this calendar sound so appealing that I asked for it as a birthday present. It was so pricy that I couldn’t quite bring myself to buy it myself, but that’s what birthday presents are for :-)

So, day 1! This is a surprisingly large flower. The only other time I’ve seen a chrysanthemum tisane this big is The Qi’s royal chrysanthemum. I’m more used to seeing it as small flowers. Since it is so big and beautiful, I brewed it in a glass mug for maximum prettiness. This flower isn’t just pretty, though. It’s delicious, too – earthy and gently floral. I got a bunch of resteeps out of it too. Feeling optimistic that this will be a good calendar!

Found this while Christmas shopping at a totally bougie store in our tiny downtown. Think bougie World Market but small and curated, focusing quite a bit on Japan. Some people lose their money to gambling; if I were a more foolish derk, I’d lose thousands at this store that carries fine worldwide goods. It’s bad enough that I spent $12 on 8 sachets.

The yuzu here isn’t distinct but it does blend well with a lighter roast, grassy hojicha. Full flavor and aroma. Lots of roasted buckwheat. Bright, citrusy, mineral, roasted grass, tangy with some tolerable astringency. It was difficult to time the first steep to get it where I wanted and so I could do a second steep.

Overall, I’m kinda meh on this yuzu hojicha because of the price I paid. It’s also a daytime brew, high in caffeine. A snack or meal was necessary as I could get jittery.

I bought this sometime in 2023 to give to my coworker who was trying to manage her pre-diabetes. I saved a mere teaspoon and it’s taken this long to get to it!

Sparkling sweetness mixed with very light vegetal taste. Calm and vibrant. It’s simple and unassumingly soothing. Tonic and moistening. I’d love to try jiaogulan again!

This is another tea I drank through recently without much thought. Not until the last mug brewed with 4g:300mL did this tea really stand out as a well-roasted Anxi oolong.

Strong, sweet and fleshy floral aroma. Heady. All kinds of exotic flowers, sweet and spicy. White lily, gardenia, ylang ylang, tuberose. Good dose of galangal, a hint of cinnamon. Toasted coconut and vanilla. The roast amplifies the sweet nose and does not stand apart. Mouthfeel is not notable and the taste is mostly carried by that heady scent. One with a preference for strong aromas would appreciate this tea the most. Pretty high energy, somewhat uncomforable for me like a lot of tieguanyin from Anxi.

Better western than gongfu, so it did make a nice work tea.

Drank through 50g of this over the course of a few years without much thought. Strong purple black tea aroma. Fluid, thinner body with less pronounced taste than aroma. I love the presence of eucalyptus and mugwort mixed with the malt and juicy purple/blue fruits. Would consider buying this again if my favorite yesheng hongcha were to be out of stock.

2022 harvest

Somebody brought this into work a couple winters ago.

Smells like a combination of clove-spice cookies, molasses-gingerbread and orange sweet rolls without the really sweet frosting. While clove heavy in the aroma, the clove is much milder and smooth in the mouth, no mouth-numbing or anything. Tastes like a mulled wine tisane. Chicory gives a base to the hibiscus which is tangy-tart but not sour. Can’t say I pick up any orange. Easy to drink.