Category: Tea Reviews

Tea reviews and tea tastings

One Comment

2016 Organic Chingjing Hong Shui Red Gaoshan Oolong from Tillerman Tea

  By ,

One of my current tea obsessions is Hong Shui oolong. There is something about a more oxidized and old style of oolong that just sings to me. Hong Shui also seems to be harder to find and if you do find them they can be expensive. I own a couple Hong Shuis at $25/oz ~ $1 a gram, which is insane to drink all the time. I was excited to see Tillerman Tea has a new 2016 Winter Hong Shui and priced at $19.50 for 2 oz ($0.35 a gram). It is organic, grown in Chingjing, and of the Qing… Continue reading, hoot!

No comments

2016 Sheng Puer Regional Blind Tasting – Everyday Teas

  By ,

Everyday Teas approach is carrying quality daily drinker teas. The owner is passionate about puer, so in their line up including a number of raw puer cakes!  Everyday Teas awesomely sent me one of each of their 2016 and 2017 puer cakes. I thought I’d blind taste them at once to remove the bias of which one I would like (likely the Nannuo) as well as tasting perceptions I have of each region. Every person I know who has done a blind puer regional tasting has told me that everyone guesses wrong, which adds some reassurance in the event I fail.… Continue reading, hoot!

No comments

2017 Yunnan Sourcing Da Zhong Shan Sheng Puer

  By ,

In an effort to find an interesting 2017 sheng puer to cake, I went to Yunnan Sourcing and searched through all the $60+ cakes and purchased samples of what sounded good. Buying random Yunnan Sourcing things is always fun! The 2017 Yunnan Sourcing Da Zhong Shan sheng puer description caught my eye – Our Da Zhong Shan tea cakes are pressed from wild growing tea leaves harvested in early spring from 50 to 150 year old tea trees growing at 1800 meters altitude!  The high mountain feeling in the tea comes out during brewing, giving the tea an almost oolong-like aroma… Continue reading, hoot!

No comments

October 2017 White2tea Club feat. Tieguanyin

  By ,

When the October 2017 White2Tea club arrived I was not excited. Inside is 5 tieguanyins and these days I personally dislike nuclear green tieguanyins. Modern tieguanyin is the most commonly found basic oolong these days that tastes super green, vegetal, maybe floral flavor. I find there’s not enough depth, say compared to a high mountain oolong and traditional tieguanyin. That said, this is the thing of monthly tea clubs – you can’t please everyone. I felt I got great personal value for what I got in November and December 2017, so I’m okay with whatever October throws at me. It did… Continue reading, hoot!

No comments

Dark Oolong Teas from TeaBento

  By ,

Continuing on from my review of TeaBento’s Black Teas, here are reviews of their Oolongs! As with their other teas, each tea is paired with an animal. Today we will be reviewing Little Dog Red Oolong and Scared Boar Shuixian. I have even more oolongs to review, but for simplicity I’ll just be reviewing the darker, more oxidized ones I have. By the way, TeaBento‘s steeping instructions are the complete opposite of what I do. TeaBento leafs a lot lighter and goes lower temperature (195f/90c). I found with the black teas it was worth dropping the temperature. I will not budge for oolongs as they… Continue reading, hoot!

No comments

2017 Storm Breaker Shou Puer from Crimson Lotus Tea

  By ,

We dubbed Storm Breaker “Storm Wrecker” at the Northwest Tea Festival. I don’t think it helped that it was one of the last teas I had at the festival on both days, but this tea has a lot of energy for a shou puer! Before the festival, I bought a sample of 2017 Storm Breaker when it was released, but sat on it for a few weeks. I was told 2017 Storm Breaker has 65% fermentation, so this tea has a lot of room to settle in and age. My innards are clenching at the “2017”, “shou”, and “65%” giving… Continue reading, hoot!

No comments

Mountain Tea Tumbler from The Tea Spot

  By , ,

I got a preview of the Mountain Tea Tumbler while visiting The Tea Spot at the 2017 World Tea Expo. What was really cool is when they handed me this new tumbler, they said they considered my feedback I gave for their Urban Tea Tumbler. Oh hoot hoot hoot, right then I knew this new Mountain Tea Tumbler was going to be good! Mountain Tea Tumbler Specs 16oz/ ml Capacity Insulated double walled Stainless Steel Larger stainless steel 2-piece infuser Lead, Cadmium, and BPA free 4 colours – Green Tea, Slate Grey, Sunset Red, and Turquoise Lake (as pictured). Handwash… Continue reading, hoot!

No comments

2016 Menghai Golden Fruit Shou Puer via Yunnan Sourcing

  By

When I heard about 2016 Menghai “Golden Fruit” Shou Puer on Yunnan Sourcing’s site, I was sold. With my last Yunnan Sourcing order, I purchased a whole cake for fun, it was only $24 for 357 grams. What caught my eye about this tea was the description: Entirely new production of Da Yi ripe called “金果” or Golden Fruit. It refers to the Peach of Immportality that grows in the orchard of the Celestials. The very peach that Sun Wukong stole and ate in “Journey to the West”. The idea was to create a peach taste in the ripe pu-erh. At… Continue reading, hoot!

No comments

2016 Trap Bird Shou Puer from White2Tea

  By ,

You know I squawked and spazzed and bought a cake of 2016 Trap Bird right at release, as you all well know I need to own anything Owl. When Trap Bird arrived it smelled way too pungent. I let it sit for a few weeks in the open air as the paired association of too young of shou makes my bowels tremble. I then tossed Trap Bird into my shou-midor and promptly forgot I owned this cake until James at TeaDB asked me about it. Then I wrote the review and it got pushed back for 2017 sheng season… and… Continue reading, hoot!

3 Comments

Daintree Tea and Tim Tam Slams

  By ,

Austrailian Tea Special! I’ve tried Daintree Tea before, but it was fairly old loose leaf not stored well. My husband’s coworker recently came back from Australia and I was given a Wallaby and a sample box of Daintree tea bags. Around the same time, I got a package from Influenster (they send free products for review, I mostly signed up for makeup swag) to review some unexpected random crap like a tin of corn, tub of margarine, fried jalapenos, and a package of Tim Tams. I’ve heard about Tim Tams as being an Aussie fav treat. I recently saw Tim Tams at… Continue reading, hoot!