Dong Ding Red from Floating Leaves Tea

As the name says, Dong Ding Red is an oolong with plenty of oxidation and roasted in May 2020. Floating Leaves Tea has some of the best Dong Dings, so with my last order, I bought 2oz of this tea for fun. Leaves and Steeping Method The rolled leaves have a caramel scent. My gongfu ratio is 1 gram of leaf per 15ml of vessel size, steeped in boiling water. After an infusion, the leaves slightly unravel and give off a fruity sweet scent, along with caramel. Tasting of Floating Leaves Tea’s Dong Ding Red Oolong First and Second Infusion:… Continue reading, hoot!

2020 Mall Ninja Dojo and Horse Girl Clique from White2Tea

Today’s review is a set of white and black teas from White2tea. Mall Ninja Dojo and Horse Girl Clique are the same puer and sun-dried material from Menghai but processed differently. I purchased samples of both as this will be a fun tea tasting to see the same material in different ways. I enjoyed the names of these teas as they brought back so many memories of the horse girls at school (gosh don’t get in a fight with them talking English or Western saddles) and the characters at the mall sword store. White2tea’s 2020 Mall Ninja Dojo White Tea… Continue reading, hoot!

2019 Shui Xian and 2013 Gong Mei from Shifting Senses

The teas on the tea table today are from Shifting Senses and Xiang Tu Cha Shuo. They source high quality teas and offer destination tastings. The teas I have are 2019 Shui Xian oolong and 2013 Gong Mei white. Shifting Senses’ 2019 Shui Xian Oolong This 2019 Shui Xian is from Da Wang Feng, Wuyishan. The leaves are fragrantly sweet and floral. I used 1 gram of leaf per 13ml of vessel size. I debated brewing Chaozhou style with even more leaf but then I would only have one shot with the sample I have. The steeped leaves and heavily… Continue reading, hoot!

2020 ‘฿∅ᄱ♥ლ⁸ᐃᗴᚨ⁹ƀɑᗲʗ.exe’ Sheng Puer from Kuura

Yes, you saw the title correctly, Kuura made a 2020 ‘฿∅ᄱ♥ლ⁸ᐃᗴᚨ⁹ƀɑᗲʗ.exe’ sheng puer. FIL, my blog search engine optimization is going to hate this. 2020 ‘฿∅ᄱ♥ლ⁸ᐃᗴᚨ⁹ƀɑᗲʗ.exe’ is a sheng puer blend and is priced aggressively to get the most bang for your buck. With my last Kuura order, I purchased this tea for fun. Leaf and Steeping Method The compression on this cake is on the tight side, but not iron mold painful. The scent is fruity and grassy. Steeped up, 2020 ‘฿∅ᄱ♥ლ⁸ᐃᗴᚨ⁹ƀɑᗲʗ.exe’ has that sticky rice in banana leaf and apricot scent. Tasting of Kuura’s 2020 ‘฿∅ᄱ♥ლ⁸ᐃᗴᚨ⁹ƀɑᗲʗ.exe’ Sheng Puer… Continue reading, hoot!

2021 January White2tea Club feat. Exclusive 2020 Amalgamation of Capitol

The first White2tea club tea of 2021! 2021 January White2tea Club is a 100 gram fire roasted bamboo shou – 2020 Amalgamation of Capitol – exclusive to the tea subscription. Also included is a tea needle for breaking said bamboo shou. Leaf and Steeping Method This was presented well and easy to get into as the top comes off and a bamboo length is already broken. 2020 Amalgamation of Capitol’s scent is mostly of roasted bamboo, along with earth, slightly funky, shou. This won’t be the perfect example of this tea as I’m taking tea from the top, which has… Continue reading, hoot!

Menna One Travel Tea Tumbler Review

Menna One is a stainless steel loose leaf tea tumbler that has the ability to start, stop, and resteep the tea leaves without having to remove the infusing basket! All you have to do is twist the button below the lid. Menna One Stats 12oz 350ml with filter Patented Double Infusion Baskets Steep Stop Resteep Ability Double Walled Stainless Steel Spill and Leak Proof Flip Top Locking Lid Hot or Cold for up to 6-8 Hours BPA and Lead Free Dishwasher Safe 2 colours (white and onyx, at this time) Wowza, the Onyx is lovely holographic black! In natural sunlight… Continue reading, hoot!

2014-2017 Fu Zhuan From Moychay

Months back, Moychay sent me their collection of Fu Zhuan (Fu Bricks). I am a sucker for Golden Flower mold in my tea as I love the honey flavor and it gets me tea drunk. These teas I often buy but I write about the most accessible ones I find. Fu Zhuan is also affordable, though quality can be low and tends to have a dirty reputation. A number of times Fu bricks come up, I have gotten an, “Ew, you drink that?” response. To the task at hand – four Moychay Fu Zhuans, 2017, 2016, and two 2014s, clocking… Continue reading, hoot!

Locking Down on Unethical Tea Covid Marketing | Sunday Tea Hoots 41

One of the disadvantages of being a tea review writer is my email gets loaded in questionable tea vendor requests. Lately, a number of unethical tea vendors have been taking advantage of Covid and I have reached my limit. Early in the Covid pandemic, I had gotten a tea industry newsletter pleading for tea vendors to not talk about the health benefits of tea and covid. As the months went on, that advice was slowly being forgotten, posting, “Tea is great for flu, maybe Covid. Blahblahblah, buy my tea.” Then a few months back someone in Japan did a study… Continue reading, hoot!

2020 December Old Ways Tea Club

This is the second box of the Old Ways Tea Club! In the 2020 December Old Ways Tea Club is 6 teas. I am happy this club is every two months, as it gives me plenty of time to drink it all! Also included is a bag of dried persimmons. It was very hard for me to keep this around long enough to photograph! The majority of the December Old Ways Tea club is made up of 8 gram packets, so I used 8 grams in a 100ml gaiwan. The Hongcha is in 5 gram packets, which I used a… Continue reading, hoot!

2020 Zero Sum White Tea from White2tea

I purchased a cake of White2tea’s 2020 Zero Sum white tea blind. A couple of tea friends said this white tea is excellent, and I have this terrible habit of blind caking all the white teas, regardless if it is over $100 a cake/ $0.50+ a gram. Since posting my haul photos to Instagram, I’ve gotten a number of requests for a review of this tea. I see White2tea doesn’t have much stock left and I dislike posting reviews of teas that are out of stock (as they are just a selfish post to myself to refer to when I… Continue reading, hoot!