Random Steepings

This is a rather unusual tea, its a tea from Kenya. I got this at the world tea expo and Ive been really curious to try it.

I started this by brewing it in a glass teapot at 205, 2.5 grams in a 160 ml of water. I got a very clear dark liquor, bit darker than the Ceylon tea. Its also slightly sweeter and lacking the citrus flavor. Its more like dark wood or dark chocolate. There is also a hint of creamy flavor as well. The aroma wasnt quite as powerful though.

I actually like this.. there is a bit of astrigency and bitterness, but its not overpowering at all.

Recomended

I’ve been taking and studying for finals for the past few weeks, and though it didn’t go as I expected in the end it was alright. But, sadly at my school even if you have a 90% in all of your classes, if even one assignment is not 90% you will not get the credit. So, I will have to remediate my finals during the 3 days that make up “summer school”. In the end I don’t mind that much, for, I know that this semester was the first semester where I was proud of my work, and proud of what I have accomplished, even if that wasn’t enough.

Enough of my complaints let me talk about the tea! I ate a huge meal before fasting at a time called suhoor. After this meal I was absolutely stuffed, but I thought that having a cup of puer would definitely aid my stomach in the ordeal that it is going to face. This tea session was my most brief, and I think I am going to take the leaves and dry them with a paper town to save for the end of the day. I only had around 30 minutes to drink, as it was 4:00 and the start of the fast was 4:30.

In this time with myself sitting in the dark, this tea gave me so much more than it did when I first tried it. When I first tried it, I was so excited as I just received a box full of puerh, and was eager to taste what I have been hearing about for weeks. At first I only tasted pine apple, and nothing else. But, since then I think I have grown into puerh as this time I got so much more. I got apple, stone fruits, a black tea bitterness, it was absolutely wonderful. This tea is very enjoyable, but I wish it wasn’t so much of a mystery! It was very smooth aswell, with a nice cooling aftertaste. As I have found with many raws there is a bitterness at first that lasts for the first 2 or 3 steepings. However, this tea’s bitterness was more than tolerable, and it was actually something that I enjoyed in the tea. Just when the session was getting nice my alarm went off, and it was time to fast.

Ramadan Mubarak to anyone else who is observing the fast. Please, if you have any questions about Ramadan, feel free to ask!

7572 from the Here’s Hoping TTB. Don’t know what year.

This is probably one of the most boring tasting notes I’ll ever have, but all I wrote down for this tea is that it tastes like shou. This being the classic, defining recipe that it is, however, I suppose that isn’t too surprising. Kept a very consistent and predictable flavor profile throughout the entire session.

Tea: white2tea May club box: 2017 Lincang fresh puer green tea and 2017 Lincang fresh puer maocha. Reviewing them together since they’re “related” and this seems to make more sense. I’ll call the first “green” and the other “puer.” They’re both extremely green and not surprisingly somewhat similar.

Prep: 60cc gaiwan, 3-5g. I’ve used both boiling water or cooler ~90C water. Mostly flash steep x2, 10s, 10s, 20s, 20s, etc..
Sessions with th(ese) tea(s): 5+

Taste: The green has a very open and round flavor to it. It has nuttiness and vegetal notes, I suppose as expected from a fresh green. I can’t put my finger on exactly what the note is but it somehow reminds me of a breakfast cereal? The puer is very similar, but it doesn’t have as much “roundness” in the flavor. It has more bitterness and I guess I can see the beginnings of a young cake. Both are extremely aromatic, both last around the same number of steeps. 2dog notes fruitiness in these teas, which I’m not really finding, and he notes the green has more bitterness than the puer, which I find to be the opposite. He also notes the green has a cooling sensation, which I do find to be true, and is very pleasant.

Body: mouthfeel starts medium, eventually turns thinner. Moderate energy, I keep clenching my jaw after drinking these. It doesn’t sit as heavy in the stomach as a lot of fresh greens, which is a nice thing.

Summary: is interesting to note both how similar and how different these teas are. I enjoy the green tea processing more than the puer. This was a really nice club idea from 2dog.

kuding cha from LP’s mystery buy.

having this a second time; i still like it. probably going to have to order more. i’ve been using 2 “nails” : 80ml, gongfu style. last time i did it more bowl style. both are good. definitely bitter, with a sweetness. idk, i like it, but i can see how it would be polarizing. :P definitely something to be in the mood for.

I’m trying out this tuo that matu sent me—“I didn’t like it, so now it’s your problem!” It’s a “2013 Menghai (region, not factory) raw I randomly bought on eBay.”

Dry leaf has no strong smell—I’m picking up a bit of menthol or mint lifesavers or something but that might be my nose playing tricks on me. Nice and easy to pick apart, not too dense. My crappy oyster knife did just fine.

Rinse: lid smell is pretty much neutral green tea. Soup is more amber than yellow. 1st steep (5s): lid smell is underspiced pot roast. Taste is astringent and chalky, I can barely taste through the bitterness. Dumped this steep after a few sips. 2nd steep (5s): lid smell is composting dried autumn leaves. Even though the water temp fell to ~203 for this steep it is far too astringent. The aftertaste isn’t very pleasant but it is going deep which is nice. I’m getting little teases of fruit but I can’t pin it down. Also dumped most of this steep. 3rd steep (7-8s, 195F): lid smell is a children’s playground wood chip bedding after rain and a couple kids peed their pants. I’m really smelling urine deep in the background. A little bit less bitter, not sure if it’s the water temp or it’s just chilling out. Tasting orange pith. Astringency is still there and not feeling great. 4th steep (12s, reboiled): Still getting a little bit of urine smell but mostly just wet earth/wood/grass. God, why am I still drinking this? My mouth is so dry. Bitterness is manageable at this point but it is still so astringent. Getting some cigarette ash notes.

I might do as Matu suggested and use this as pick practice.

Had the ball from the pubertea group buy today. I can’t remember if that was a “surprise” from LP or if I just can’t remember what the mterial there was. Either way, I enjoyed this one a lot. This was probably my favorite tea from that buy so far. No idea what the material here was or quality, but i thought this was great. The ball took a good three steps before it really opened up at all, but steeps 4-7 were fantastic. This had a sweater than the YQH and EOT stuff and was very easy to chug cup after cup. It didn’t last horribly long, and got to pretty mellow steeps a bit earlier than I would have liked for how good the mid stages were, but I also hit the first couple rinses/steeps fairly hard to get the ball opened up.
Also, this ball had enormous in tact leaves in it for being a rolled ball. Yeah there was chopped up stuff here and there, but several huge stems with two leaves and a bud each. That alone tells me this was much nicer than your average chopped up factory scraps used for many pu balls.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about the milk tea I had at Crimson Teas tea shop. Well, I’ve been craving that milk tea—a big mug of full strength Ceylon with evaporated milk and a spoon of brown sugar— since then. Today, I stopped in to have some. Omgoshwow! Really really good.

I predict that the next time an out of town tea fren comes to visit, this will be one of our stops during our walking tour.

Where are you, Dexter?

http://www.crimsonteas.com

A sign appeared before me like a brightly lit Christmas tree, only the presents were beautiful bubble teas.

If you know me, then you know I could not walk into a shop and resist the name
Hokkaido Milk Tea. A strong desire to visit Hokkaido, Japan, with all its famous seafood, exists in my heart. I had forgotten that they send cows up there to live and that their
Fresh milk is famous.

I ordered my Hokkaido milk tea with bubbles. It is one of the chains
Most popular sellars. Well, it did not disappoint. The cold taste of fresh milk
Along with a slight sweetness and the mildness of a green tea…

Read that last line a few times.. then you’ll understand :))

I got a TGY w/ my Berylleb order. This one is nice. Not sure how often I’d drink something like this though.