Yunnan Sourcing's 5 Years Aged Da Hong Pao

Yunnan Sourcing's Description
This is a Da Hong Pao varietal grown in the Wu Yi Mountains (Fujian Province) and harvested in May 2010. It was kept in large clay jars and then roasted each year to dry it out. The result is a darkish roasted tea with a red-orange tea soup and strong sweet aroma.

My thoughts
If there is a single perfect tea for warming up after shoveling a driveway full of snow in sub-freezing temps, I think it must be Da Hong Pao. By now you've had to have noticed my love for Wuyi oolongs, and by my standards, there is none better than a good roasty DHP.

Dry leaf - As soon as I open the bag, I'm met with a potent roasty aroma. This tea has been roasted yearly since it was picked and dried, so that's not surprising as it probably needs a bit of time to mellow out yet. The leaves range from a dark brown to flat black.

Brewing parameters - 212F, 10s first, +8s after

Tasting notes - Roasty, sweet, carob, cocoa, mineral, nutty

Mmmmm, just smelling this tea starts to warm you up. The roastiness is front and center, but isn't overpowering. Instead, it brings out notes of carob, cocoa and just a hint of roasted nuts. The aroma fills the room with its roasty sweetness. The broth brews out to a dark amber hue, as expected from a Da Hong Pao.

Tasting this tea is as much of a treat as you'd expect. The smooth carob blends with the sweet cocoa, and brings out just a touch of the Wuyi minerality. The roastiness isn't as strong in the taste as in the aroma of the dry leaves, but it is still certainly the dominant flavor here, lending its warming, soothing aspect to the flavor profile.

After a couple steeps, the roastiness does mellow out and lets the carob/cocoa flavors take the lead. Alongside the slight minerality, a hint of roasted nuts also comes into play. My only real complaint about this tea is that the leaves aren't terribly generous; they tend to peter out after 6-7 steeps, while most Wuyi oolongs can go for 10+. Overlooking this small flaw, I'm still left with a fantastic DHP, likely the best I've had.

If you're not a fan of roasty teas, you may want to give this one a miss at the moment. While I absolutely love it, it could stand to mellow out and give the roastiness a couple years to fade. I'm excited to see how this tea matures in the near future, as more age could only turn this from a great to to an exceptional one.

You can buy this tea from Yunnan Sourcing here and here.

Yunnan Sourcing's Long Mei Green Tea

Yunnan Sourcing's Description
Zhenyuan a high altitude area of Simao produces this high quality delicate green tea. Picked twice a year in a 2 day period when the buds and leafs are young and small. The taste is light and fruity with slight nuttiness.

My thoughts
When I think of Yunnan Sourcing, my mind immediately goes to puerh and dianhong, and while they certainly specialize in those two, they have some wonderful green and white teas as well. I will admit that the lighter teas in my collection tend to take a back seat to the darker stuff, but that's just my personal preference. This is a tea I received in last month's tea club. I've said it before, but I love YS's tea club. It nearly always contains teas that I otherwise wouldn't order, but always end up loving.

Dry leaves - The leaves are long and twisted, and vary between a flat green and a shiny silver. At first glance, it almost looks like a white tea due to the amount of silvery color present here. The aroma is light and fruity with a hint of fresh hay.

Brewing parameters - 175F, 30s first, +10s after

Tasting notes- Fresh hay, fruity, almond, vegetal, lightly astringent

This tea begins with a very light and smooth fruitiness that brings you the feeling of summer, which is quickly followed by notes of fresh hay and almond. Just the slightest touch of dryness hits the back of the mouth late in the sip, but it's not nearly as aggressive as some green teas can be.

Later steeps lose some of the fruitiness and the hay notes become a bit more muddled into a general vegetal grassy taste, but the almond flavor really comes to the front of the profile. A bit more astringency has come to the plate as well, balancing out the sweetness of the fruit and smoothness of the almond.

This would be a great tea for spring and summer, as the crisp, lightly fruity taste could really complement the warming sunny weather. Of course, it's still great now if you need a brief break from the permanent cold gray muck of January. Is it spring yet?

You can buy this tea from Yunnan Sourcing here and here.

What-Cha's Korea Jeong Jae Yeun's Hwangcha Balhyocha Tea

What-Cha's Description
An incredibly complex and unique tea with long lingering tangy citrus notes accompanied by gentle chocolate notes, completely unique.

My thoughts
This was an entirely new kind of tea for me. Balhyocha is unique to Korea, and is sometimes classified as an oolong, sometimes as a yellow tea, sometimes as a black tea. It is all of these, yet none of them at the same time. With that cryptic nonsense out of the way, I did some digging to find out exactly what it is I was drinking.

Hwangcha is a type of yellow tea, which is processed like a green tea, but with the added step of heaping the leaves in a pile, which yellows the leaves and lightly oxidizes them. "Balhyo" literally translates to "fermented" or "oxidized" tea. The leaves aren't rolled or bruised like oolongs typically are; instead most of the oxidation and fermentation takes place in the piling process. The difference between a Korean hwangcha and a traditional Chinese yellow tea is that the hwangcha is not subjected to the fixing process that kills the enzymes. That instead happens during the piling at the end of processing. So what we end up with is something king of like a yellow tea, kind of like an oolong, and kind of like a black tea. Thanks to World of Tea for the great article on balhyocha here.

Dry leaves - I totally forgot to take a picture before pouring the water on them, so sorry for that. The leaves are fairly small, dark and twisted, fairly reminiscent of a Fujian black tea. The aroma is malty, grainy, and citrusy, with just a hint of cocoa.

Brewing parameters - 190F, 10s first, +5s after

Tasting notes - Malt, orange peel, dried hay, cocoa, cane sugar, sweet potato

This one has one of the most diverse flavor profiles I've ever seen. It's just an unique as as the process to make it. The first couple steeps start off fairly malty, with a bit of hay and citrus undertones. It is quite smooth, and has no astringency whatsoever.

Steeps 3-5 start to shift the flavors to the fruity side. The maltiness has subsided a little bit and the citrusy element has become a fairly well defined orange peel flavor. Dried hay and a cane sugar sweetness have started to come out as well. There is just a hint of cocoa at the end of the sip, which I hope will become more prominent later.

Steeps 6-8 are just wonderful. The tea really peaks here. Malt, orange, hay, cocoa, sugar, and just the tiniest touch of sweet potato have all come together to make a truly awesome brew. The flavor profile is very balanced, and no single flavor overwhelms the others.

Steeps 9-12 have mostly petered out, but still retain a similar profile to earlier. The cocoa is very subtle especially. I love chocolatey tea, and this one was sort of a tease with that. Regardless, it is still quite tasty.

I will definitely have to make a point of trying more balhyocha in the future. If they're all as good as this one, they're certainly worth the time. You can buy this tea from What-Cha here: http://what-cha.com/new-teas/korea-jeong-jae-yeuns-hwangcha-balhyocha-tea/

Ninja edit - I noticed right after posting this that this tea is out of stock at What-Cha. Hopefully Alistair will get this tea again this year, but if not there is another balhyocha available that I have yet to try.

What-Cha's Russia Solohaul Tea Estate 'Alpine' Black Tea

What-Cha's Description
A premium hand-picked Russian black tea possessing a smooth yet thick fudge taste with a malty finish.

My thoughts
My apologies for the delay between posting lately. I've been sucked into the worlds of Rothfuss and Sanderson and haven't had much free time that isn't dominated by their books.

The second of the Solohaul teas! I reviewed the first one a couple weeks ago and was thoroughly impressed by it, and have been quite excited for the other two. I've been slowly digging through my pile of Russian teas, and haven't been disappointed by any of them yet.

Dry leaves - The leaves are quite similar to the Keemun version in color, but are longer and more twisted, almost akin to something from Yunnan. The aroma is a wonderful and pungent blend of malt, fresh grain and raw cacao.

Brewing parameters - 212F, 3.5m. These parameters have worked well for nearly all of the Russian black teas so far, so I see no reason to change them now.

Tasting notes - Smooth, malt, cacao, dark chocolate

While the Keemun version of this tea was heavy on the chocolate with a malty undertone, this one goes the exactly opposite way and brings the maltiness to the front and center. Yet hiding somewhere under the malt flavors are the distinct tones of cacao and dark chocolate. It's kind of weird to have both in the same tea, but I found that both are fairly recognizable and separate from each other. Again, I've come to expect a mildly smoky tannic quality to come along with Russian black teas, and that is entirely absent here.

While the maltiness is strong with this one, it's the cacao flavors that really set it off and make it great. Malt/cocoa is a pretty common flavor profile for Yunnan black teas, and this tea manages to take that flavor set and make it all its own. It's really a unique and excellent tea. Even without the typical Russian terroir, I think this tea is still undeniably from the RF. It's yet another excellent example of the high quality teas coming from Krasnodar.

You can buy this tea from What-Cha here: http://what-cha.com/new-teas/russia-solohaul-tea-estate-alpine-black-tea/

What-Cha's Taiwan 2003 Aged Green Heart Oolong

What-Cha's Description
An aged Oolong dating from 2003, possessing a deep and complex taste of walnut shell and ripe fruit, which evolves with each steep.

My thoughts
Let me preface this review with a disclaimer: this is my all-time favorite tea, so if I begin babbling incoherently halfway through this post, just bear with me and I'll try to pull it together by the end.

While my overall favorite class of oolongs tends to lean towards the heavier roasted and/or medium oxidized family, this one is such a unique standout that it has virtually no competition. This one falls into the odd category of a light-medium roasted, unoxidized oolong (well, oxidized enough to not be a green tea anyway). I first tried this tea nearly a year ago on a whim with an early What-Cha order, and knew immediately I had found a winner. I'm not one to stock up on a single tea (I rarely have more than 50g of anything that isn't a puerh cake), but I'm currently sitting on roughly half a pound of this one.

Dry leaves - Rolled in the traditional Taiwanese way, the leaves have a deep bronze sheen with forest green undertones. They look a lot more roasted than the actually are. I don't know if that's a product of 12 years of age or what, but it certainly looks like it'd be a much darker oolong than it is. The aroma is where this tea begins to take a step above the rest: a wonderful blend of dried herbs, overripe stonefruit, a hint of malt, and deep, rich florals all mingle together to create some of the most unique smelling tea leaves I've ever encountered.

Brewing parameters - 200F, 20s first, 5s second, +5s after. A longer steep at first to wake the leaves up, then short gongfu style steeps after that.

Tasting notes - Overripe stonefruit, black walnut, dried herbs, floral, honey, wheat, minerality

This incredible tea starts out with a rich, full flavor of way overripe fruit. I can't really pin down which fruits in particular, but it makes me think something from the drupe family. Apricot maybe? Or cherries. Maybe strawberries. Ok, those aren't a stonefruit, but whatever. The fruitiness is accompanied by the flavor of dried herbs, most akin to basil and oregano I think, followed closely by a honey sweetness and the distinct flavor of black walnuts. It will take you a few cups to really catch everything that is going on in this tea, because the flavor profile is so complex.

With each progressive steep, the profile changes. I mean, this is true of most teas, but the difference between steeps here is remarkable. As time goes on, the herbal flavor slowly mellows as the walnutty flavor intensifies. The fruitiness mostly stays the same, however, In later steeps, a sweet florality starts to take hold, alongside a mild taste of wheat. Not so much malty, more like a baked bread kind of flavor. Even a trace of minerality pops up in the later steeps, which is fairly unusual for a Taiwanese tea.

As amazing as this tea is, I think the most unique aspect of it is the incredibly long-lasting aftertaste. I've talked about teas here that have a nice aftertaste, but none of them can even touch what this tea brings to the table. The flavor is one of an intense peach blossom and honey, and will hang around in the back of the mouth for nearly an hour after you finish the cup. I really do mean an hour. It's pretty impressive, this tea's staying power.

There, did I make it through without going completely incoherent? If the above is mostly unreadable, here's the TL;DR: buy this tea right now.

You can buy this tea from What-Cha here, and from Mountain Tea here.

Yunnan Sourcing's 2006 Nan Jian Wu Liang Mountain Raw Puerh

Yunnan Sourcing's Description
This is purely first flush of spring 2006 tea leaves from the Wu Liang mountains in Jing Dong county of Simao.  High altitude tea leaves were plucked and processed in the traditional manner and then pressed into these lovely 200 gram tea cakes.

My thoughts
My puerh stash is pretty heavily skewed towards the ripe end of the puerh spectrum. Not that I dislike raw puerh, but I find that many of them are fairly plain until they get some age behind them, and the more age the have behind them, the more the cost prohibits me from buying them. This one was an exception: a 200g cake will run you just over $20. That price point for a cake that's about 9 years old, plus the bonus of being from Wu Liang Mountain, means that I already know this is going to be a great tea.

The leaves in this cake are from Wu Liang Mountain in northern Pu'er prefecture, but the cake was pressed by Nan Jian Tea Factory in southern Dali prefecture, about 100 miles north of the source.

Dry leaves - The cake has a bronze-green sheen with plenty of lighter tips mixed in. The aroma has a nice florality on top of the green pungency of a sheng, but it definitely has an aged feel to it. The vegetal bite is mostly gone and replaced with a pleasant sweet aroma. This one is pretty tightly packed, so it will take a bit of work to separate the leaves from the rest of the cake.

Brewing parameters - 212F, 2 x 10s rinse, <5s steeps at first, increase as necessary.

Steeps 1 and 2: As with any sheng, the first couple steeps are still a bit rough as it calms down. There is a fair amount of bitterness and astringency right off the bat, but the flavors underneath promise that this will be a good one indeed.

Steeps 3-6: The dryness and bitterness fade away quickly, leaving me with a smooth, sweet, floral tea. It's more of a general floral taste as I can't really pick out any specific aromas or tastes from the broth. There is a definite aged flavor to this one as well, not a prominent aged feel yet, but it's certainly there. A nice pleasant kuwei bitterness has taken hold as well, and gives the flavors a bit of depth.

Steeps 7-10: The tea really hits its peak here. The smoothness is striking, almost buttery, and the florality is just wonderful. The soup has steadily increased in sweetness with each steep, and has really brought out the floral flavors with each successive brew.

Steeps 11-15: While most puerhs have faded by this point, this one is still going strong. The sweet aged floral tones are fantastic, and it only continues to get smoother as time goes on. The aroma is almost like a dried spring bouquet.

This is a great budget sheng, and certainly worth your money. It's a good tea to drink now, but I think this one will really hit its prime in another 5-10 years or so, after it's had a bit longer to mellow out.

You can buy this tea from Yunnan Sourcing here and here.

What-Cha's Fujian Wuyi 'Zi Hong Pao' Purple Varietal Oolong Tea

What-Cha's Description
A most unusual Wuyi oolong possessing a thick and smooth taste of roasted plums with a sweet finish.

My thoughts
This one has all the aspects of my favorite teas: highly oxidized, Wuyi, purple varietal, and it's even from What-Cha. I mean, how could it go wrong at this point? This is a newer offering from What-Cha, and I received 10g of it as a sample with my last order. I had a 50g bag of this tea in my cart, but then removed it because I was spending too much money already. So I was quite excited to see that Alistair had included a sample of it.

Zi Hong Pao is a naturally occurring purple varietal mutation of the classic Da Hong Pao varietal.

Dry leaves - Yup, it looks like a yancha. Dark twisty leaves with an amazing fruity, roasty, mineral aroma that makes my mouth water. Notably, this one is quite different from any of the Wuyi oolongs I reviewed from last month's Verdant tea club. Not that I could ever get tired of drinking tea from the Wuyi mountains.

Brewing parameters - 212F, 5s first, +3s after. I brew lots of different teas in many different ways, but yanchas and dianhongs are always brewed gongfu style.

Tasting notes - Smooth, sweet, candied plums, floral, roasty

Based on the sweet roasty plum aroma of the leaves, I really expected the soup to be purple. I was only briefly disappointed when it turned out a light golden hue rather than a royal violet. The aroma of the liquor is one of candied plums, mild roastiness, and a touch of minerality to give it that distinctive Wuyi feel. This tea is almost like a candy in liquid form. Something something visions of sugar plums...this would make a great tea for the holidays.

The first steep is much like I expected from the aroma: sweet roasted plums and a bit of that Wuyi minerality, and it goes down wonderfully smooth. It has an almost lip-smacking sweetness to it that persists for a long time after finishing the first cup.

Steeps 2-5 balance out quite a bit, with the sweetness mellowing out slightly, and the roastiness and minerality bringing the candied plums down a notch. But only a little. This is still an extremely sweet and fruity tea, and it quickly becoming one of my favorite Wuyi oolongs.

Steeps 6-9 don't change the profile much, but a mild florality has cropped up under the roasted plum taste. It really compliments the plum flavors well, and was kind of unexpected this late in the session. Not that I'm complaining. I don't think I could find anything wrong with this tea to complain about anyway. Steeps 10 onward are much more subdued. It seemed to drop a lot of it's flavor after #12, but I still went through 15 total. The sweetness is still there, but most of the individual flavors have disappeared.

This is a fantastic tea, and one of the best Wuyi oolongs I've tried so far. I was honestly surprised it was not only so different from a typical Da Hong Pao, but markedly different from any other tea I've ever had.

You can buy this tea from What-Cha here: http://what-cha.com/new-teas/china-fujian-wuyi-zi-hong-pao-purple-varietal-oolong-tea/

What-Cha's Russia Solohaul Tea Estate 'Keemun' Black Tea

What-Cha's Description

A premium hand-picked Russian black tea possessing a full and sweet malty fudge taste.

My thoughts

Alistair posted a slew of new Russian teas literally moments before I placed my last order at What-Cha. I'd been running low on one-steep-and-done morning teas to take to work, so I went only slightly overboard and ordered at least a sample of each the new Russian black teas. I'll eventually get all of them reviewed here, but this is the first of the group.

Dry leaves - The flat black and variously sized leaves look fairly typical for a Ceylon tea. For a Russian tea? Not as much. I'm used to seeing smaller and fairly uniformly-sized leaves coming out of Russia. These new teas from Solohaul Tea Estate break the typical Russian mold in just about every way. Another example: the aroma, which is a deep, rich chocolate fudge smell with just hints of malt beneath. Again, not typical for a Russian tea. And I'm seriously excited to give this one a taste.

Brewing parameters - 212F, 3.5m. Russian teas fall into the same category as Georgian teas. That category would be "slow to impart flavor and virtually impossible to make bitter". Long steep times make me twitchy, but they work here.

Tasting notes - Smooth, sweet, chocolate fudge, malt

Mmmmmm. Seriously, do I need to write more than that? This tea is extremely smooth, certainly the smoothest Russian tea I've ever had, and carries a wonderful sweet taste of rich chocolate fudge. A mild dark malt follows close behind the fudge taste, but never overwhelms the chocolatey flavor. The typical Russian terroir of smooth tannic smokiness isn't even remotely present here. I'm really going to have to try this one gong fu style sometime and see how it performs that way.

I have to keep reminding myself that this isn't from Fujian, because it would fit better there than from the more northern latitude of Krasnodar. If you handed me this tea and asked me where it was from, I'd likely guess Fujian first, Yunnan second, and Ceylon third. Russia would likely never even cross my mind. I'm not sure if "Keemun" was the most accurate name for this tea, as Anhui black teas have more of a smoky/cocoa/stonefruity taste, and this one has none of those. Regardless of the naming, this is an excellent tea and a great example of the tea coming from southwestern Russia.

You can buy this tea from What-Cha here: http://what-cha.com/new-teas/russia-solohaul-tea-estate-keemun-black-tea/

Puerh Shop's 2013 Zenpuer 1306 Menghai Ripe Puerh

Puerh Shop's Description
A new ripe Pu-erh tea made by using pure Menghai raw materials, no off taste, rich enough tasting profile is the key for a long term storage and enjoyment. Ripe and expressive, with explosive pear and lychee flavors mingling harmoniously as they swoop into the polished finish.

My thoughts
While on my hunt for Black Friday sales, I stumbled across a new-to-me tea shop simply called Puerh Shop, located just a few hours from me in Troy, Michigan. They have a puerh selection rivaling Yunnan Sourcing and prices to match, so I figured I'd order a couple of the cakes they had on sale. This is a 250g cake, which cost me a whopping $10.

Dry leaves - It's a fairly average looking cake, nothing really standout about it. The aroma is one of a pungent earthy sweetness with a bit of spiciness to make it interesting.

Brewing parameters - 212F, 2 x 10s rinse, 5-15s per steep adding time as necessary. Pretty much standard for a puerh.

Tasting notes - Smooth, sweet, earthy, cedar, persimmon, spicy

First thing I notice is the complete lack of fermented taste. I mean, there is literally no flat or fishy off-taste from the fermentation whatsoever, which is unusual for a shou that's only 2 years old. Second, this shou is sweet! A wonderful sweet earthiness hits me right off the bat, and lingers long after the sip.

Steeps 2-4 are starting to bring out the individual flavors, though they're still a bit muddled. The sweetness is just amazing, and easily rivals Crimson Lotus' '08 Bulang in that area. A hint of fruitiness is beginning to rear its face behind the sweet earthiness, but it's too early to tell what it is just yet. A mild cedar spiciness is mingling with the flavors as well.

Steeps 5-8 are where this shou really shines. The fruitness has taken me a few cups to pin down what it is, because it's been quite a while since I've eaten one: persimmons! Spefically, Hachiya persimmons, the kind that need to be practically a liquid before you eat them. I don't really notice any pear or lychee like the description states, but the sweet honeyed flavor of the persimmon more than makes up for that. The earthiness has mellowed out and let the fruitiness take hold.

Steeps 9-12 keep a similar flavor profile to the previous bunch, but have mellowed out significantly. The liquid is still extremely smooth and sweet, and the persimmon flavor hasn't let up yet. Steeps 13+ struggle to keep the flavor going, but I'm not stopping until I've wrung every last bit of flavor from these leaves.

This one really did surprise me. For ten bucks, I expected a shou that tasted like ten bucks. This one tastes like it should cost 4-5 times more than what it actually does.

You can buy this tea from Puerh Shop here: http://www.puerhshop.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=13_14&products_id=1898

Verdant Tea's November Tea Club - Wuyi Oolongs

Going to try something a bit different here. I received my first box from Verdant's tea club recently, and rather than review each tea separately, I'll post a slightly abridged review for each tea here. At least then this blog will have some sense of organization. I mean, I like to think it does anyway.

This month's theme are all Wuyi oolongs from Li Xiangxi's farm in Tongmu, Wuyishan in the northern slice of Fujian. They are all new to Verdant's site and were just posted a day or two before I received my box. All were brewed gongfu style with 5-6g of leaf in roughly 120ml of water.

Bai Ji Guan
Brewing parameters - 185F, 5s first, +3s after

This is the greenest of the five oolongs, and one of the most unique Wuyi oolongs I've had thus far. All Wuyi oolongs are fairly heavily oxidized, but this one falls on the low end of that spectrum. The leaves are a mottled bright green, yellow and deep burgundy and smell strongly of florality and minerality.

A quick 5 second steep in 120ml of water, and these leaves produce a light pale green soup that emits a wonderful floral/mineral/vegetal aroma, most reminiscent of cherry blossom and honey with the classic Wuyi minerality. Cherry blossom and lotus come through prominently in the taste, followed by sesame seeds, mineral, and just a tinge of honey.

Bai Rui Xiang
Brewing parameters - 208F, 5s first, +3s after

Wuyi oolong #2 is a much darker variety than the Bai Ji Guan. The Bai Rui Xiang leaves range from dark green to flat black, and smell of vanilla, incense spices and minerality.

As soon as the water hits the leaves, a wonderful tangy aroma arises. It's still distinctly Wuyi, but it delivers an citrusy, spicy lily, and almost jasmine aroma. If the tea liquor is anything like the aroma, I'm sold.

And the tea does not disappoint. The broth is wonderfully complex and brings notes of vanilla, mineral, cream, and lily florality, all with a slightly roasty overtone. It mellows out gradually with each steep, and the vanilla and cream elements take over the forefront of the sip.

Huang Mei Gui
Brewing parameters - 208F, 5s first, +3s after

The darkest oolong so far. The aroma of the dry leaves is significantly less pungent than the previous two, but release a mellow infusion of rose, minerality, and roastiness. The leaves are a dark flat brown and mostly uniform in color.

The leaves create a light amber brew that is highly floral, but still much heavier than the last two. Rose, nectarine, barley, mineral, and roastiness all combine into one to make a mellow, yet flavorful brew. I was able to detect a hint of raw cacao coming out in the later infusions as well. While this is still a great tea that I thoroughly enjoyed, I think it's probably the least unique of the group. It's fairly similar to what you'd expect from a mellow Qi Lan.

Mei Zhan
Brewing parameters - 208F, 5s first, +3s after

I've been looking forward to this one for a while now. Not really sure why, it just piqued my interest for some reason. The dry leaves are almost as dark as the Huang Mei Gui, but are slightly larger and less uniform in size. They also have a similar aroma, but more pungent, mixing sweet orchid, mineral and roastiness.

Wow, this one is aromatic. The smell of thick, sweet orchid and rose blends with roasted almonds to fill the room. The taste is just as wonderful, with the roasted almonds taking the lead, followed by a smooth creaminess and just a touch of florality and grain at the finish. The soup was surprisingly less floral than the aroma, and the minerality isn't as strong as the previous teas.

Fo Shou
Brewing parameters - 208F, 5s first, +3s after

The fifth and final tea from this box, and also somewhat of an outlier from the other four. The thick and chunky leaves don't have much special in the way of aroma, but they are easily twice the size of any of these other teas.

The taste contains a woody element that I hesitate to call cherry, but it's something in that neighborhood. Rosewood maybe? I'm not familiar with that taste, but it reminds me of rose, but without the cloying florality. It is accompanied by vanilla, cinnamon and only a bit of roastiness, while the minerality is the weakest in this tea. I can also detect a slight fruity aftertaste as well.

These are all excellent teas, and if you missed out on the club this month, you can still pick up each of these from Verdant's website (click the name of each tea above for a direct link). I think my favorite of the bunch was the Bai Ji Guan, simply because of the green uniqueness of it.

Yunnan Sourcing's Imperial Pure Bud Black Tea

Yunnan Sourcing's Description
An incredible premium pure bud black tea. Made from the highest quality high altitude material from Ning'Er county of Simao. Only young bud sprouts are picked and then expertly processed into this delicate and textured Imperial grade black tea!

My thoughts
Yass! More dianhong! This beautiful tea came with last month's tea club, and I was excited for it because this tea has been on my wishlist for some time now. In my book, you just can't go wrong with a malty, chocolatey tea, especially not one from Simao district.

Dry leaves - This tea is gorgeous. Easily one of the prettiest dianhongs I've ever seen. The fuzzy leaves are a rich, bright golden yellow, and curled slightly to make a soft, cushiony pile in the teapot. They smell of malt and cocoa, richer than a typical fengqing dianhong; just from the smell I can tell that this would make a great dessert tea.

Brewing parameters - 200F, 5s first, +3s after. Most black teas I brew western style, but dianhongs are strictly brewed gongfu style. Just my preference.

Tasting notes - Dark chocolate, malt, sugarcane, sweet, raisin

Everything about this tea is delicious. The aroma is a rich, sweet, and malty with a touch of dark chocolate, and the color is a beautiful dark amber hue. For the first couple steeps, the maltiness is the most prominent flavor, followed closely by dark chocolate and raw sugarcane. As the fuzzy leaves release their trichomes, it imparts a tingly mouthfeel. It's certainly not astringent, but the tingle is quite enjoyable.

In steeps 3-6, the chocolate comes quickly to the forefront and joins hands with the malt. The sweetness is still quite strong, and begins to bring the mild taste of dark raisins as an afterthought. I drink a fair amount of various dianhongs, and I can say with some certainty that this is one of the most richly flavored chocolatey dianhongs I've had the pleasure of drinking so far.

Steeps 7-12 are still extremely sweet and mellower than earlier. At this point, it's beginning to remind me of the mu shu hong cha black I reviewed last month. That one skipped the chocolate entirely, but with that addition it probably would have tasted quite similar to this tea now. The raisin element is still subtle, but it is also accompanied by a slight fruity florality that I can't really place.

This is a wonderful tea, and I can't recommend it enough. It's definitely one of my favorite dianhongs in my stash, and is a great tea to impress company or just to drink yourself

You can buy this tea from Yunnan Sourcing here and here.

What-Cha's Fujian Zhangping Light Roasted Shui Xian Cake Oolong Tea

What-Cha's Description
Possesses an incredible floral aroma and taste as expected of the best Shui Xian oolongs with a smooth texture and a very slight detectable trace of the light charcoal roast.

My thoughts
I reviewed the heavy-roasted version of this tea in the very first review on this blog back in September (see here), and that one is outstanding, so when the light-roasted version showed up at What-Cha a bit later, I knew I had to give it a shot. Green oolongs are very hit-or-miss for me. Some are excellent (i.e. Taiwanese Jin Xuan), while others are just deplorable (i.e. green tieguanyin, seriously, green TGY is a heresy). Knowing how good it's darker brother is, I had high hopes for this tea.

Dry leaves - Like the heavy roasted version, these are pressed into loosely packed square cakes, roughly 10g each. Coloration ranges from a bright chartreuse to an autumn orange to a dark forest green. Quite the color contrast going on here. The aroma is a light springtime floral/leafy scent, with just a hint of charcoal.

Brewing parameters - 185F, 15s first, +5s after

Tasting notes - Smooth, daffodil, lilac, lily of the valley, sweet citrus, charcoal

A light fruity citrus takes the forefront of this tea, followed closely by a smooth, sweet florality that just screams springtime. The citrus is more of a sweet tangerine than grapefruit like the heavy-roasted version has. The thick, vegetal/soybean element that I tend to associate with green oolongs is not present here in the slightest, which is nice. After 2 steeps, the cake was still mostly intact, so I broke it apart before the third steep.

Steeps 3-5 really took the floral sweetness and knocked it up a notch (bam!). Breaking the cake apart brought out the flavors quite well, and rather than just a general floral taste, I can detect daffodil and lilac quite easily, and even a touch of lily of the valley towards the finish. The tangerine/orange is still present and is present throughout the sip, but not overwhelming. I can taste just the tiniest hint of the charcoal roast long after the sip as well.

Steeps 6-9 mellow out significantly and the flavors become a little bit muddled. The charcoal flavor is just barely hanging on underneath the floral/citrus tones, and I can no longer pick out individual floral notes. It's still quite sweet though, and is incredibly smooth.

Like it's heavy-roasted cousin, this tea is a bit pricey so I doubt it will become a daily drinker for anyone, but it's a great tea to break out for company, or just to lift your spirits from the grey wintery crap that is moving in.

You can buy this tea from What-Cha here: http://what-cha.com/oolong-tea/china-fujian-zhangping-light-roasted-shui-xian-cake-oolong-tea/

What-Cha's India Arunachal Pradesh Hand-Made Black Tea

What-Cha's Description
A strong tasting hand-rolled black tea with a malty taste and gentle smokey finish, perfect as a breakfast tea.

My thoughts
I'm fairly well versed in Chinese geography. Indian? Not so much. I had to look up exactly where Arunachal Pradesh was on a map. Turns out, this tea comes from the extreme northeastern edge of India, just a few hours' drive from northern Yunnan, at nearly the same latitude as Darjeeling to the west. There isn't much tea that comes from this area, so I was pretty unaware of what to expect from these leaves.

Dry leaves - They look fairly typical for an Indian black. The aroma is somewhat unusual, starting with a strong odor of malt and wood, and ending with a slight smokiness. It reminds me almost of a Russian tea, rather than something from India.

Brewing parameters - 200F, 60s first, +15s after

Tasting notes - Malt, cocoa, wood resin, cedar smoke, maple syrup

The soup brews out to a lovely dark amber color, and emits a pungent aroma of malt and smoke. Taste is quite strong for the shorter steep time, but not at all bitter. This would definitely be a good wake-up-in-the-morning tea. The maltiness takes the forefront, but quickly gets pushed aside by the woody, sappy, resinous taste and a well-defined cedar smokiness. Cocoa notes show up slightly under the rest of the flavors, but they are pretty subtle at this point.

Steeps 2 and 3 lose a lot of the woodiness and smokiness, letting the malt and cocoa take over the ride. It tastes a lot more like I'd expect from an Indian tea now, though I am somewhat disappointed that the cedar smokiness has dissipated because I rather enjoyed it. I am noticing a very slight sweetness at the end of the sip that is almost certainly a mild maple syrupy flavor. The pungent resinous taste of the first steep has mellowed out to a smooth and satisfying brew.

Steeps 4 and 5 are mostly a malty, tannic, cocoa-infused tea now. My final steep I left sit for 5 minutes and the smokiness began to show its face again, but it was much more subtle than the earlier steeps.

This is a great, strong black tea, perfect for mornings. The typical darker Indian black teas (i.e. Assam, Ceylon, and Nilgiri; Darjeeling is in its own class) have a tendency to taste very similar to each other, but this one breaks the mold with it's resinous, smoky pungency, which is more akin to something Russian than Indian. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to explore the area further.

You can buy this tea from What-Cha here: http://what-cha.com/sale/india-arunachal-pradesh-hand-made-black-tea/

Yunnan Sourcing's 2013 YS "Jing Mai Mountain" Wild Arbor Raw Puerh

Yunnan Sourcing's Description
Entirely hand-picked and processed at every stage makes this an awesome tea with perfect profile and aging possibilities.  Tea trees are between 80 and 150 years old growing naturally without the use of artificial fertilizers or pesticides!

My thoughts
Continuing on the puerh binge I've been on lately. I received a sample of this sheng in an earlier monthly plan from Yunnan Sourcing. I love when tea vendors offer a varied selection in the monthly tea clubs because oftentimes it ends up being a tea you would never have tried otherwise. Case in point, this gem. This is YS's own brand of puerh, which I have found can quite easily stand up to anything the big Chinese tea manufacturers make.

These leaves originate from Mangjing village at the foothills of Jingmai Mountain in southwestern Yunnan.

Dry leaves - It looks pretty much like you'd expect from a sheng with a bit of age behind it: more of a brownish-greyish-green than the bright silvery green of a new sheng. The aroma though is what sets this apart. Amidst the typical green pungency, there is the almost unmistakable smell of cherry blossoms. It's a very light floral stonefruity aroma, definitely none of that nasty cherry cough syrup smell.

Brewing parameters - 212F, 2 x 10s rinses, then <5s steeps at first, adjusting time as needed.

Tasting notes - Smooth, cherry blossom, kuwei bitterness, white grapes, mild astringency

Steeps 1-3: This sheng starts off not nearly as pungent as I expected. Wild-growing leaves can have a pretty wicked vegetal bite to them, but this is much mellower. The sweet cherry blossom aspect carries over nicely to the broth, and permeates the taste from start to finish. There is a very slight astringency that hangs around after the sip, but again it's not as strong as I expected from wild leaves.

Steeps 4-7: The astringency is gone already, leaving me with a smooth, sweet, cherry-infused soup. The mild bitterness is a little more prevalent here, but it's certainly not overwhelming; it's balanced very nicely with the sweetness. A bit more fruitiness is starting to crop up here, but I can't really place what it is yet.

Steeps 8-11: White grapes! That's what that fruitiness is. The grape component is quite a bit more prominent here, but sweet cherries are still the primary flavor. The broth is quite sweet now, overpowering the bitterness and is extremely smooth, with an almost lubricating mouthfeel.

Steeps 12+: Most of the individual flavors have faded by this point, but it's still a very sweet, smooth tea. I stopped at 15 steeps, but I'm confident I could have pulled at least another 5 from these before they gave out completely.

For only being two years old, this is a great tea. I could see this aging into something really special a few years down the line, and would certainly be a great addition to anyone's raw puerh collection.

You can buy this tea from Yunnan Sourcing here and here.

Crimson Lotus Tea's 2008 Bulang Imperial Grade Shou Puerh

Crimson Lotus' Description
This dark puerh comes on strong quickly. It will brew thick and dark at the beginning but then mellow into a light sweetness. The leaves are all small buds and carry the name "Imperial Grade".

My thoughts
This was one of those teas where I heard nothing but stellar reviews no matter where I went. Everyone just raved about it, and any time I saw a "find me a good shou" question, this one was almost certainly mentioned. So contrary to my normal cautious attitude towards new shou, I skipped ordering a sample entirely and jumped in headfirst with a full brick. I don't regret it at all.

Dry leaves - The brick is fairly tightly compressed and takes some work to pry apart the leaves without breaking them too badly. You'll notice the leaves are quite small compared to most puerh leaves (gong ting/imperial grade), and are a bit more tippy than what I'm used to seeing. The aroma is fairly earthy and sweet, with just a hint of wood and camphor.

Brewing parameters - 212F, 2 x 10s rinse, then <5s steeps at first, increasing time as needed. These leaves impart a lot of flavor very quickly.

Tasting notes - Smooth, sweet, wet wood, leaves, earthy, cacao, wheat, cherry, thick mouthfeel

This shou immediately kicks it off with a very smooth, thick, sweet broth. There is no trace of mustiness or fermentation at all, making this an incredibly flavorful and enjoyable tea right off the bat. Early on, it's a mostly sweet earthy brew, reminiscent of a fresh forest floor. Notes of clean earth, peat, dry leaves, and wet wood all mingle together to make a fantastic, inky black soup. The slight bitterness is balanced perfectly with the thick sweetness.

Steeps 2-5 mellow out somewhat, yet still retain the wonderful earthiness of earlier, but with the addition of a mild woody spiciness. It definitely doesn't have the bite of say, something out of the Menghai tea factory, but there is a bit of a spicy tinge on the back of the tongue after the sip. A nice savory huigan is starting to take hold as well.

Steeps 6-9 are really bringing out the complexity this tea has to offer. The earthiness is quite mellow now and the spiciness has disappeared, but notes of raw cacao, wheat, and even black cherries are beginning to appear. The liquor is a deep, crystal clear brown now, more akin to a dian hong color.

Steeps 10-onwards just take the complexity and run with it. The flavors have mellowed significantly, but the cacao and wheat are hand-in-hand with the earthiness now, just subtle notes of cherry and even tobacco peeking in with each sip.

This is really an incredible tea. I don't like to say "favorite", but this one is certainly high up on the list of ripe puerh. My only word of caution is this: if you are new to ripe puerh, don't start with this one. It's so good it will spoil you and other shou just won't measure up.

You can buy this tea from Crimson Lotus here: http://crimsonlotustea.com/collections/shou-ripe-puerh/products/2008-bulang-imperial-grade-shou-ripe-puerh

What-Cha's Vietnam 2007 Wild 'Dark Forest' Ripe Dark Tea

What-Cha's Description
A brilliant wild growing dark tea with a smooth and lingering wood taste.

My thoughts
This was the very first dark tea I ever tried, and I remember thinking "why does this smell like wood and dirt? Is that normal?" So I suppose this tea is partially to blame for my current obsession with shou cha. These leaves originate from the Ha Giang province in northern Vietnam, which borders the southern edge of Wenshan prefecture, Yunnan.

Dry leaves - The aroma coming off of these leaves is quite pungent. It's primarily woody, hickory and oak to my nose, and slightly medicinal. There is just a hint of smoke there as well, almost like a wood fire grill. They are pretty small and broken into fragments, not CTC grade or anything, but smaller than most tea leaves.

Brewing parameters - 212F, <10s steeps at first, adjust accordingly thereafter. I treated this like a normal puer, and it does just fine that way. Longer steep times work just as well, but you get fewer infusions.

Tasting notes - Dry hardwoods, cedar, vanilla, cinnamon

This is certainly a woody-tasting tea. I can't really pin down a specific hardwood, it's more of a blend of many different types, though I think hickory and walnut are the most prominent. I can detect a hint of spicy cedar as well, but it's primarily a hardwood-esque taste. The short steeps times seem to work very well too and the soup is plenty strong for my tastes. The woodiness is definitely not akin to fresh woods, but it's a bit more pungent than just dried wood. Something like a mildly-roasted not-completely-burnt-yet hardwood charcoal. I have no idea if that makes sense or not, so just go with it.

After a couple steeps, it really starts getting good. The woodiness mellows out significantly and notes of vanilla and cinnamon begin to take hold. A very slight sweetness starts to poke around as well, but it's still a very savory flavor.

Steep #5 and onward were my favorites of the bunch. The vanilla notes really take hold here and balance out the savory taste of the wood. It's certainly not like a thick, sweet shou, but it does have a very mellow tinge of sugar that really enhances the overall flavor.

This one is highly recommended as a dark tea from a more unusual source. It's not your typical fermented tea by any means, and is certainly worth your time if you like to explore the different locations that produce tea.

You can buy this from What-Cha here: http://what-cha.com/dark-tea/vietnam-2007-wild-dark-forest-ripe-dark-tea/

What-Cha's Malawi Satemwa Antlers White Tea

What-Cha's Description

A truly unique tea which is composed almost exclusively of stems, it produces an incredibly smooth and sweet taste composed of lychees and honey. An incredible tea which is completely unlike any other tea produced in both material used to produce it and taste.

My thoughts
I've been trying to post every 3 days or so, so apologies for the delay. Jessica Jones took up pretty much all of my free time for the past few days. Killgrave is a d'ast terrifying villain.

Normally when you find lots of twigs and stems in your tea, that's a sign of crappy tea, or companies who are trying to add filler to their product to save money. But here we are with a tea that is made entirely of stems. On purpose. No leaves in this one. Satemwa Tea Estate specializes in teas that break the norm. This oddball originates from the Shire Highlands in the small southeastern African country of Malawi.

Dry leaves (twigs) - Yup, they're twigs. Most of them are roughly 2 inches in length, though there are some longer that I broke so they'd fit in my teapot. The emit a mildly spicy, sweet, woody aroma that is almost mouth-watering.

Brewing parameters - 175F, 60s first, +15s after. As usual, I stick with shorter steep times than are recommended, though I can confirm that the full 3-4 minutes still produces a great tea.

Tasting notes - Woody, sweet, honey, lychee, cane sugar, vanilla

This is surely the sweetest tea I've ever tried. If you typically add a sweetener to your brew, I'd recommend foregoing it completely with this one. Honey, lychee berries and cane sugar are right up front with this tea, followed closely by a mild woodiness that lingers on the tongue for long after the sip. The woodiness is nothing like a shou puer, it's a much lighter taste, kind of like walking through a forest at autumn.

Subsequent steeps bring out a wonderful vanilla component alongside the honey and lychee sweetness. If it was at all possible, it's even sweeter now than the first steep, and the twiggy flavor has mellowed somewhat.

This is certainly one of the most flavorful and complex white teas I've ever tried. I'm hesitant to call it a white tea because there aren't any leaves present, but I don't know what else to call it, though "twig tea" has a nice ring to it.

You can buy this unique tea from What-Cha here: http://what-cha.com/white-tea/malawi-satemwa-antlers-white-tea/

What-Cha's Georgia Natela's Gold Standard Black Tea

What-Cha's Description
A most unusual hand processed tea with soft tannins and slight malt with hints of toffee.

My thoughts
Georgian teas have become somewhat of a morning tradition for me. Ever since I first ordered the old Discover Georgia set from What-Cha back in May, I knew this tiny country made some really special teas.

To paraphrase What-Cha (and give you a brief history lesson), Georgia was part of the Soviet Union until 1991, and most of the tea produced there was shipped directly to Russia. However, the tea fields were kept unprotected, so Georgian workers would take tea leaves back to their home towns and process them manually themselves. This resulted in each village having their own unique methods to hand-making tea, which have been preserved over time and are still used today. This tea is made by Natela Gujabidze of Nagobilevi village.

Dry leaves - The long twisted leaves are a deep, rich brown with a few golden tips mixed in, quite similar to what you'd expect from an Assam or Ceylon tea. The aroma is what sets Georgia apart from the rest of the tea world: brisk malt, minerality, and just a hint of smoke and citrus. The Georgian terroir is (unsurprisingly) quite similar to Russia's, but both are extremely unique compared to any other place in the world.

Brewing parameters - 200F, 4 minutes. Yes, 4 minutes. It gives me a serious twitch, but it works very well with Georgian teas. I have yet to try this tea gong fu style, and I truly have no idea if it would perform well that way or not.

Tasting notes - Malt, toffee, tannic, caramel, stonefruit, mineral

Oh this is a nice one. Even by Georgian standards, this is a nice one. It starts off a smooth malty brew with hints of a slightly smoky toffee, then gradually transitions into a sweet caramel taste, and finally ends by shifting back to the toffee-ness with just a touch of ripe stonefruit at the very end. Many other Georgian teas match the taste and aroma fairly closely, but this one is something entirely different. The taste is nothing like what you expect from the aroma of the dry leaves.

I added 30 seconds onto the second steep time, and was greeted with a much mellower soup this time around. The caramel and toffee are still there, but have begun to hide behind the maltiness, which is now joined by a slight minerality and smokiness. It's a bit more like a typical Georgian tea now, which certainly isn't a bad thing, but it's a bit disappointing that the wonderful flavors of the first brew mellowed out so much. Sometime I'll try this with shorter steep times and see how it holds up.

I highly recommend this tea to everyone. If you want to really explore what Georgia has to offer, do yourself a favor and grab the Discover Georgia set so you can compare notes between all the different teas. There are still a couple I haven't tried yet, but I have no doubt that they are all excellent.

You can buy this tea from What-Cha here: http://what-cha.com/black-tea/georgia-natelas-gold-standard-black-tea/