Category: Tea Reviews

Tea reviews and tea tastings

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2016 NaKa Big Tree Sheng Puer from Healthy Leaf

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Healthy Leaf caught my eye for the big selection fo aged white tea, but they do sell other teas. I selected this 2016 Naka Big Tree as I like NaKa and wanted a taste of their sheng. I was smelling my blogger sample pile, I opened the bag, and smelled and WHOA must drink! I wasn’t in the mood to drink a younger sheng, but this tea changed my mind. Dry Leaf and Steeping Method This is a maocha puer, so it is loose instead of pressed into cakes. The leaves are honking big and wiry, taking up lots of… Continue reading, hoot!

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Black and Oolong Teas from Everyday Teas

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Everyday Teas‘ focus is quality daily drinker teas. I previously reviewed two years of Everyday Teas’ puer. Let’s try their black and oolongs! Gongfu Black Gongfu Black is a Da Ye cultivar black grown in Lincang, Yunnan China. It is described to be a very forgiving black tea. Dry Leaf and Steeping Method:  Gongfu Black smells nicely fruity. There is a rare fleck of gold or two but otherwise is a pitch black leaf. I used 1 gram of leaf to 12ml of vessel size, steeped in boiling water. First and Second Infusion: Not a bad hong for the price. The… Continue reading, hoot!

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Bella Luna Blue herbal tea from Adagio Teas

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Years back I reviewed BlueChai, which was pure butterfly pea flower tea that steeps up blue, but turns pinky purple when lemon is added. Since then, butterfly pea flower tea has been popping up more and more, and it is easier to find online. More and more tea sellers are making blends with it and coming up with neat teas. Adagio Teas sent me an exclusive tea – Bella Luna Blue – which they only sell when there is a second full moon in a calendar month, aka blue moon. The next blue moon is March 31, 2018. Strangely, there are… Continue reading, hoot!

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2018 February White2Tea Club feat. Sichuan Heicha

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February 2018 White2Tea club came with some incredibly interesting teas – four old Sichuan Heichas! These teas are mentioned as best/traditionally boiled with some yak butter and salt, maybe cream. You cannot find Yak butter in North America it seems, I am also horribly lactose intolerant these days so the cream is a hard pass. Vanilla soy creamer sounds quite a disgusting pairing too. I will still boil the tea though. I decided to work youngest to oldest, steeping 1 gram of leaf to 15 ml vessel size. After around 5 or 6 infusions, I took the leaf to the… Continue reading, hoot!

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2007 Hidden Gem Mahei Huangpian Sheng Puer from Bitterleaf Teas

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Bitterleaf Teas’ 2007 Hidden Gem Mahei Huang Pian sheng puer caught my eye due to storage. Bitterleaf Tea states this tea has a controlled humid storage. Likely many of us pumidor nuts located outside humid climates is gunning for this kind of storage. I guess I am in this category, but my main tea storage goal is to not get mold. Dry Leaf and Steeping Method The dry leaf is the characteristic huang pian look with big brittle leaves but also with a dark aged look. The scent is of forest floor or a basement heavy in house plants. The… Continue reading, hoot!

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2017 Rou Gui from Old Ways Tea

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This 2017 Rou Gui came along as a bonus with the Huang Guan Yin and Qi Lan comparison teas from Old Ways Tea. If you haven’t checked it out, I wrote 2 big comparison pieces on those teas. Me and Rou Gui is hit and miss. I find it is awkwardly not roasted enough for my tastes and missing complexity compared to its greener counterparts. I decided to give Old Ways Tea’s 2017 Rou Gui a try as I have been enjoying their teas so far. Dry Leaf and Steeping Method Oh man, the aroma of this leaf is killer!… Continue reading, hoot!

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Blind Tasting of 2017 Yunnan Sourcing Puer

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I was sent an assortment of puer from Yunnan Sourcing, organized by Mattcha, packaged as a blind tasting a la Half Dipper blog style. I had no idea what these teas are, but there will be an answer key at the end. There are a number of other bloggers who have already done this tasting with this set, and I’ve gone out of my way to ignore their work until I had this done. Sorry Cwyn and TeaDB. My notes are likely a little different as they got theirs done in January, and my slow owl ass drank the teas… Continue reading, hoot!

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2009 Bask in the Sun White Tea from Healthy Leaf

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Healthy Leaf has an impressive aged white selection and I happen to have a bunch of samples. Let’s start off with a bang with one of the fancier aged white teas in their shop! 2009 Bask in the Sun Ri Sha Cha is a Fuding region Baimudan. What makes this white tea fancier is that this one has more fine leaves and buds than usual. Dry Leaf and Steeping Method This is a woodsy and sweet scented leaf. Bask in the Sun was easy to snap chunks with my fingers, I didn’t need a hammer or blood sacrifice like the last… Continue reading, hoot!

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January 2018 White2Tea Club feat 2008 Menghai Puer, 2013 Baimudan, and Little O

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New year, new teas! The January White2Tea Club included samples of new teas available in their shop – 2008 Menghai Sheng Puer, 2013 Baimudan White Tea, and Little O Ripe Puer. White2Tea 2008 Menghai Sheng Dry leaf and Steeping Method: White2Tea was pretty generous to give us 50 grams. I had 2 big cake chunks and it was easy to flake the puer into individual leaves. Not too much scent from the dry leaf. I used 1 gram of leaf to 15ml of vessel size, steeped in boiling water gongfu style. The 2008 Menghai’s hot leaf smells like sour plums and steeps up an… Continue reading, hoot!

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Incense and Tea Testing – featuring Totem Tea

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If you didn’t know, incense and tea is a thing. There are cool tea and incense photos on Instagram, or maybe you have seen it at a gongfu session with all the fixings. Early on, I was put off as I bought a teapot from a tea shop that lit incense and it took work to get the smell out of my pot. That reason alone, I do not recommend lighting incense around your tea. I am big on scent – I think my sense of smell is the majority of my skill and enjoyment in tea drinking. I’m no supertaster… Continue reading, hoot!