Tea and Zen

To get this clear right from the beginning: this is not the same as What-Cha's mystery tea's. I know the owner's pretty well and on occasion we exchange teas that we really like. This was one of two teas that they gifted me that you cannot get out of China. They told me the names but I forgot them almost immediately. This one is amazing! The other is as well. They are probably some of the best WuYi I've ever had the chance of tasting.

Dry leaf

I only had 2.3g of this tea left, so I put it in my 60ml gaiwan. I used 100C water, rinsed once, first brewing 5 seconds +5 seconds for each additional brewing. Because of the low leaf to water ratio the liquor won't be even half as potent as it would otherwise. It will be delicious all the same!

Brewings

The scent is a little smokey and vaguely reminds me of Lapsang. It has a dark chocolate scent to it paired with the classical WuYi minerality.

The aroma of the brewed leaf was like dark chocolate mingled with dates and honey. The liquor was incredibly silky and smooth. For this cup there was primarily the classical WuYi minerality in the taste. In the aftertaste jasmine and honey mingled with hints of oak.

The aroma of the second cup smelt very much like the first. The taste of the second cup was also much like the first except there was more minerality and something sweet I couldn't quite put my finger on.

The aroma of the third cup was like dates mingled with cream and mineral. The liquor in this brew was much gentler than the last. There were subtle hints of elderberry, raspberry, and melon mingled in with the minerality and slight woodiness.

The aroma of the fourth cup smelled like honey mingled with cream. The liquor reflected this with a touch of melon and raspberry. The melon, honey, and raspberry were very present in the aftertaste.

The fifth cup was more or less the same as the fourth cup but with a much stronger honey tasted mingled with cream and vanilla.

The sixth cup was rather weak in taste but big in aftertaste. An explosion of jasmine, honey, and elderberry danced across my tongue. Despite this, the tea was coming to it's last legs. Since I should ideally be using at least 3g instead of 2.3g that would be why the tea is dying off so early.

The seventh was a weaker version of the sixth, but with more elderberry, so I decided to stop here. I really wish I had more leaf to make this a proper ratio. A .7g gram difference is huge.

For some reason Blogger doesn't like the wet leaf picture. I tried several and it made all of them somewhat blurry like the above regardless of size.

Rating

Overall I give this tea an 8.5. It was very complex, yet not too complex, and sweet even in a low leaf to water ratio. When I had 5g/120ml the first time I had it the taste of this tea was tenfold. The sweetness lingers on your tongue for hours afterward. As I'm sure you've figured out at this point, aftertaste is a crucial part of what I consider to be a good or a bad tea. The longer it sits around on your tongue, the better (if it tastes good). I ate some food and had a sweet drink after the first time I drink this. After the initial taste of the food and drink had disappeared, this still lingered on my tongue. It hung around for eight hours, even after brushing my teeth!

Leaf samples

That is a hella strong and and amazing aftertaste. It's just the kind I crave. The leaves were somewhat unwilling to unroll, but it did not take away from the flavor and complexity. A lot of times leaves that don't like to unroll will.

This tea is complex but not too complex, savory, sweet, fruity, and spicy. It hits almost every main flavor category. The liquor is silky smooth without a hint of astringency. What more could one ask?

To have more of this tea! I wish it was available for y'all to buy because it really is a beautiful example of what WuYi has to offer.

This is part of my Sample Demolition: Verdant Tea series.

This is the last of my samples from Verdant Tea. The remaining teas are all in 25g quantities and haunting my nightmares... that is a lot of one tea to get through considering all the other teas I have hanging around now. Despite that, I have a game plan for how I'm going to get through them. You guys will see that soon enough.


I used 5g/120ml, 100C water, washed once, first brewing 5 seconds + 3-5 seconds per each additional brewing.

Brewings

This tea has the scent of chocolate, the classical WuYi minerality, cream, and a very subtle hint of honey and brûlée. It's a nice smell but all of it isn't very strong. I was very, very underwhelmed by their Special Grade Shui Jin Gui so I am really hoping that will not be the case here, it wasn't a cheap tea ($25.50/25g). This tea is also very expensive at $28.25/25g. That comes out to be a little over $1/g. 

Once I heated the gaiwan and lightly shook the leaves three times, the chocolate, cream, and brûlée were heavily embedded in the aroma. 

The aroma in the first cup was heavily of chocolate, brûlée, and jasmine. The liquor was smooth but somewhat flat. You could clearly taste the minerality in the liquor. In the aftertaste there was jasmine and honeysuckle. 

There wasn't much aroma to the second cup. Bad sign! The liquor was mostly the same except now you could taste cedar and honey. Jasmine was the main flavor in the aftertaste just as before. The liquor was very flat now as well. Pretty disappointing. 

Some aroma had come back for the third. There was jasmine, a hint of hay and earth. The liquor was a little rounder than the previous cups, but still fairly flat. There was an earthy flavor mingled in with the usual WuYi minerality. As it's something I couldn't quite put my fingers on perhaps it is the "wet granite" flavor that Verdant has on the profile. Seems like such an odd flavor but whatever. Peat and cedar with a tiny hint of jasmine lingered in the aftertaste. 

I sipped on a little water after the third to see if it would bring anything out as it usually does with a WuYi.
It didn't.

The fourth smelt almost exactly the same as the third. The liquor also tasted more or less the same except there was more cedar present. If it didn't change much in the next cup I was going to stop at the fifth. No point in trying to make a stagnant tea change when it clearly won't. This tea wasn't even remotely old! 

You'll be shocked: it didn't change at all. Well, it did, but it became weak and almost flavorless. I'm very sad that this met my expectations since they were very low. When I ordered this sample and the Special Grade Shui Jin Gui I was expecting something very special considering the price and flavor profile. It's really everything but.

Rating

This tea get a four. For something so expensive you would think that the liquor would be more complex. I've had much cheaper WuYi's that are much better. C'mon Verdant, this is two of your most expensive teas that are really not anything fantastic. That's a shame! 



In general I have come to notice that a WuYi oolong is either very average (or less than average) or it blows your mind away with how fantastic and complex it is. There doesn't seem to really be a middle ground.

If you are interested you can purchase this tea here. 

This is part of my Sample Demolition: Verdant Tea series.

Dry leaves

I've had a lot of TieGuanYin. Far more than any other Anxi Oolong I've had the pleasure of sipping on. I've had "meh" and I've had some fantastic TGY. This one is hands down one of the best TGY I've ever had. From Verdant Tea I've had every TGY that Master Zhang has to offer except his 15 year aged TGY. This is my favorite of all of his offerings.

For this session I used 5g/120ml with 95C water and added 3-5 seconds per each additional brewing. 

Gong Fu Brewings 1-5

The aroma is extremely floral. From that alone I could taste orchid and honeysuckle with a hint of raspberry and melon. 

The first sip of the first brewing had a light, sweet taste like snap peas or sweet grass. Melon, raspberries, lilac, honeysuckle, orchid, jasmine, and cream being the tastes lingered all over my tongue in the after taste. The liquor was buttery smooth and had a very long finish.

Liquor

In the aroma of the second cup I could pick up on marzipan and cream mingled in with the floral notes. The flavor of the liquor was now explosive. Strawberries, sweet grass, and jasmine glided over my tongue. In the aftertaste, the jasmine was the strongest by far, lingering on the back of my pallet.

I found that raspberries had the strongest aroma for the third cup. There wasn't a whole lot of flavor aside from the sweetgrass, but the liquor was even lighter and had become more buttery than the first cup. Jasmine remained the main flavor in the aftertaste, but it mingled with raspberry.

Wet leaves

Raspberries and jasmine remained the main aroma. In this cup the floral sweetness of the tea began to disappear and become a little rough. The sweetgrass was the dominant profile, and I could barely detect some raspberry and boysenberry mixture at the back of my throat.. In the after taste fruity notes began to strengthen as the floral notes weakened. The boysenberry was barely present, the raspberry as strong as the past few cups.

In the fifth cup the liquor began to become astringent but it wasn't unpleasant. I could taste jasmine and melon at the back of my tongue mingled in with the sweetgrass. In the aftertaste it was a mixture of jasmine and raspberries once again. There was cream as well. I almost didn't notice it.

Gong Fu Brewing 6-10

In the 6th I primarily smelt sweetgrass with a tiny hint of raspberry. The astringency from the 5th brewing was gone. The mouthfeel was very silky now, still very full but no longer buttery. I mostly tasted sweetgrass and watercress (without the raddish-y part of watercress) in the liquor and aftertaste. At the sides of the back of my tongue and two spots on the center of my pallet I could taste melon and blueberry. I hadn't tasted blueberry yet so that came as a surprise. Raspberry and cream was still present, but it was very hard to detect.

Steeping leaves

The aroma was more or less the same as the 6th cup in the 7th. At the tip of my tongue I could taste cream, all across my pallet I could still taste sweetgrass, and at the back of my throat I could taste melon and raspberry. A hint of jasmine lingered in the aftertaste at the back of my throat.

I wasn't getting much aroma in the 8th cup which was a good sign to me that this tea was now on it's last legs. In the liquor I could taste water mingled with the sweetgrass which was the main flavor. The aftertaste was a gentle mix of jasmine, cream, and raspberries.

Since I was already this far, I decided to do two more brewings. They were more or less weaker versions of the 8th. In some of the earlier cups there was something sweet and savory I wasn't able to quite put a finger on because it was so subtle. Since most of the fruity and floral flavors had left, I was able to figure out it was caramelized banana. It was very nice.

Grandpa Style 

I don't have a whole lot to say about this tea grandpa style. It never went bitter, it was lightly floral and a little vegetale. It was definitely better when brewed Gong Fu style. I had it over a period of four hours. I used 3g/350ml, used 95C water for most of the time.

Best tumbler ever

Leaves in cup once done

Rating

This tea is fab. The aftertaste lingers forever. I had this tea with a friend before making this review and we ended on the 5th cup. The aftertaste that lingered was much stronger than the one that lingered when I went up to ten. So, I recommend stopping at the 5th or 6th brewing if you crave a wonderful, long lasting after taste like I do.

When I was with my friend we went out to eat. I had a buffalo "chicken" panini. The chicken being seitan, which is wheat gluten with a very meaty texture. After we were done it wasn't long till I could taste this tea again. A good TGY is supposed to have a sweet, floral and/or fruity aftertaste that lingers for a long time. This one certainly delivers.

Please take a moment to look at the leaf samples below. As you can see, many of them are not fully unrolled and are chipped/broken in many cases. I opened/flattened out a few of them on the left side. Most of the wet leaves never opened up fully even after all these brewings. While the liquor is absolutely delicious, this says something about the leaves: they're not very high quality. The price reflects that. Hojo of Hojo Tea has a very nice article Tips of Tea Quality Inspection that goes into some detail about this. I think it's a good, educational read. If you're familiar with tea it'll reinforce knowledge you probably have, and if you're new to tea it'll offer some new knowledge.

Gong Fu leaf samples

Grandpa leaf samples

Overall I give this tea a 9. If you do decide to try this tea, I suggest trying it next to their Traditional TGY or their Autumn TGY. You'll be able to taste and see the difference in quality. I have a review on their Autumn TGY if you are interested.

If you are interested in trying this tea, you can purchase it here.

This is part of my Sample Demolition: Verdant Tea series.

You ever had one of those days where it's really hard to spell for some reason, and English/some language just doesn't want to come to you?

August 5th, as I write this, is one of those days for me. I'm currently learning German and that is coming to me easier than English is. That isn't a good sign. I am sure that this fog is due to the fact I haven't had enough sleep lately and almost every day I've been running around. Sitting down to have some tea was very nice. It gave my brain something to do. Plus, caffeine!

Dry leaves

I've had the Autumn Tie Guan Yin before. It was the TGY that came in my "5 teas for $5" a while back. It was pretty tasty, I liked it enough that I bought another 25g in my last order. I have around 10g left and I'll be using 5g here. If I don't use it soon it'll begin to lose it's flavor and aroma.

I'd hate to have that happen.

Here I used 5g/60ml, 100C water, washed twice, five seconds for the first brew and an additional 3-5 seconds for each additional brewing.

Brewings

As TGY should, it had a lovely floral aroma. It reminded me of vanilla and cream with orchids. The liquor was buttery smooth and had a hint of something green, it reminded me of wakayanagi without the astringency. The finish was very long, and a few moments after the liquor has left your mouth, an elderberry and raspberry flavor clung to the back of my tongue and a light melon and vanilla flavor to the front sides of my tongue.

In the second cup the aroma of orchid and saffron was very strong, but not overpowering. The liquor still reminded me of a bancha like wakayanagi, with hay and watercress, minus the radish-y part of watercress's flavor profile and not astringency.

Liquor

The third was much the same, but the mouthfeel was even more buttery. The sides of my tongue strongly tasted of saffron and the back of my throat of elderberries and strawberries.

The fourth and the fifth cup were more or less the same as the third, except a very mild astringency began to appear. The fifth also left a lingering taste of strawberries.

Brewing leaves

From here on out there is a light sweetness and the body stays fantastic. I mostly kept drinking it because of the hints of vanilla, orchid, and melon and that beautiful, smooth, buttery mouthfeel. It's not until the 15th or 16th brewing that it begins to become astringent, even though most flavor is gone around the 7th. I often find aftertaste to be more important than the initial taste, and long after the initial taste is gone, the aftertaste still delivers.

I'm going to take a moment to talk about the leaf quality in this TGY compared to other lightly roasted, rolled oolongs.

I did a review on Hojo Tea's Dong Ding Oolong. The opened leaves were big, beautiful, and full.

Leaf samples

You don't quite see that here. For whatever reason I didn't take a picture of some sample leaves from the gaiwan for Hojo, but just from the steeping and wet leaves picture you can see that it is damn fine.

For a moment, please take another look at the above leaf samples and the brewing leaves. You can see that they had a very hard time unrolling (even after 16 brewings). The price and the flavor and depth of the liquor already tell us this, but the leaves are not high quality. Hojo of Hojo Tea has a very nice article Tips of Tea Quality Inspection that goes into some detail about this. I think it's a good, educational read. If you're familiar with tea it'll reinforce knowledge you probably have, and if you're new to tea it'll offer some new knowledge.

Rating

This tea isn't bad by any means, especially for the price. I like it, and I think that this makes for a nice everyday TGY. Overall I give this tea a 6. Hojo's Dong Ding is most certainly on a different tier so you can't really compare these two, but I thought this would be a good chance to show a difference in quality to price for rolled teas as a visual for why some cost so much more than others.

If you are interested in buying this tea, you can purchase it here.

Next I will be releasing a review of Verdant Tea's Reserve Tie Guan Yin. That tea is fantastic, so if you find you enjoy this tea, the Reserve Tie Guan Yin blows this out of the water.

This is part of my Sample Demolition: Verdant Tea series.

Way back when I found Verdant Tea I bought their "5 Teas for $5" and this was one of them that showed up. I hadn't tasted Da Hong Pao (Big Red Robe) from many retailers, and I still haven't. It's one of the wu yi's I am much less familiar with. I remembered the tea being pleasant. With that in mind I went into this tasting with high hopes I would indeed enjoy this tea again.

Wet leaves

The leaves weren't very aromatic. I picked up the distinctive "wu yi" rock minerality smell, honeysuckle, and a hint of vanilla.

I used 5g/120ml, 100C water, first brew was five seconds and added on 3-5 seconds there one out. Before tasting, I washed the leaves twice.

Brewings

After warming my gaiwan and gently shaking the leaves, they had a lovely chocolate aroma mingled with wood and a hint of melon. The liquor was incredibly buttery and smooth. There wasn't much to taste yet. I had hints of melon, honeysuckle, vanilla, and the characteristic minerality present in wu yi oolongs.

Dry leaves

 In the scent of the second cup there was some kamut (a grain) that I hadn't smelt before. The liquor still tasted minerally, but it had a strong, but not overpowering taste of vanilla and honeysuckle. The taste of melon clung the sides of the front of my tongue, and a raspberry-honey like flavor at the very back.

The third was more or less the same, except that the overall flavor had died down a little. The aftertaste was stronger.

Sipping on some water after the third cup made the aftertaste even more pleasant. The melon/raspberry flavor at the back of my tongue mingled with vanilla and honeysuckle in the middle of my tongue.

Liquor

The fourth steeping was very nice. I actually said "wow." It was more or less the same as what I've said up to now, except the flavors of the aftertaste were present while the liquor was still in your mouth. The liquor was now somewhat astringent, but not in an abrasive way. I was somewhat sad to see the incredibly smooth, buttery mouthfeel leave.

In the fifth the aroma was not nearly as strong. This was a sign to me that the tea is nearing it's last legs. The distinctive mineral taste had left, leaving the honeysuckle to run the show.

The sixth was my last cup because the aroma was all gone. There wasn't much in the liquor either aside the lingering aftertaste of honeysuckle. Unfortunately the wonderfully complex aftertaste from cups prior was more or less gone. I could still taste some vanilla on the sides of the front of my tongue.

Brewing leaves

Rating

Overall I don't think this was a bad tea. It wasn't anything to celebrate over, but I enjoyed it. The aftertaste was very pleasant, the body was amazingly smooth, and the liquor wasn't bad. I give it a 7. It's above average, but not absolutely incredible.

I unfortunately forgot to take pictures of some tea leaf samples when I made this. But, from the wet, steeping, and dry leaves I believe you are able to get a good feel of the leaf quality. 

If you are interested in buying this tea, you can purchase it here.

This is part of my Sample Demolition: Verdant Tea series. 

There is nothing quite like being dead tired and feeling like you're on autopilot. That just about sums up how I've felt the last few days. I had my blood drawn on the 1st. I've had much more than that drawn at once, so I wonder if the heat has anything to do with this.

Wet leaves

Anyway, despite feeling very "meh" I was excited to try this tea. It smells kind of like roasted chestnuts, a hint of nutmeg, and wood. Something sweet as well, perhaps melon and blueberries. After heating up the gaiwan and gently shaking the leaves, they had a wonderful, dark chocolate smell mingled with lilacs.

I used 5g/120ml, 95C water, rinsed the leaves twice, the first steeping was five seconds and I added 3-5 seconds for each steeping thereafter.

Brewing 1-5

As I have already stated, this tea has a very lovely aroma. My scent cup didn't show me anything I hadn't already smelt, yet. The liquor had an incredibly smooth, almost silky mouthfeel. For the first cup, there wasn't much to taste, just a hint of chocolate. But, it had a very lovely aftertaste. It reminded me of melon, honey, raspberries, and blueberries.

Dry leaves

The liquor of the second cup was very lovely, a nice shade of gold. I picked up on notes of pine/evergreen (pine being 'spicy' and the evergreen being 'vegetal') in the taste of this cup, mingled with orchids, and a hint of dark chocolate. The aftertaste was much the same as before, except with orchids and it clung primarily the sides of my tongue near my throat.

The scent of the third cup was very chocolatey. It was much more present in the taste as well. The after taste was now more like chocolate mingled with orchid, the orchid lingering on the sides of my tongue, and pine at the back of my throat. A slight astringency showed but, but it wasn't anything abrasive.  

2nd brewing liquor

I sipped on some water after the third cup and it strengthened the aforementioned aftertastes. Before sipping on the water I didn't taste anything on the roof of my mouth, but this revealed the flavor hiding up there. This is why when making rock wulongs you sip on some water after the third cup! Sipping on water after drinking some teas can bring forth wonderful surprises or enhance and already lovely tea.

The fourth and fifth cup tasted primarily like the pine mingled with the orchid, as was the after taste. The orchid flavor was particularly pleasing on the fifth, it tasted as if it was mixed with vanilla.

Brewing leaves, apologies for image quality, I had thought it was better

Brewings 6-8

The aroma of the 6th cup reminded me of sugarcane. The liquor tasted like sugarcane with a hint of wood. At this point the tea appeared to be on it's last legs, so I decided to do two more brewings.

The following two cups had a strong aroma of wood, but only tasted like orchid. However, the 8th had a very silky mouthfeel without any astringency like the first few cups.

Various wet leaves

Rating

Overall I think this was a pretty good tea. However, compared to other rock wulongs I've had of the same price range, I don't think it was that good. The aftertaste was very pleasurable but didn't linger for nearly as long as the other rock wulongs I've had in the same price range, regardless of leaf varietal. While good, the overall flavor of the liquor also didn't stand out as much as others I've had. With that in mind, I'll give this tea a six. Nothing to truly celebrate out especially for the price.

If you're interested in buying this tea, you can purchase it here.

I love Hojo Tea and Mr. Akira Hojo is always wonderful to work with. If you've never purchased any of his tea, I highly recommend him. This particular tea was a sample that came with a Kobiwako Hohin I purchased from him. Some of his teas are very expensive, but you get what you pay for. He has many very affordable teas as well. I am yet to have a tea by him that disappoints me so I went into this with the hopes it would have the same high standard as every other tea I've had by him.

Leaves soaking around the 7th infusion. Bright, plump, and beautiful.

There was 4.9g in the bag. I did not use the guidelines that are recommended on the website, but the method I used was very close since it's standard gong fu brewing.The gaiwan is 60ml.

I used 100C water and rinsed the leaves twice. The room filled with a soft, floral and lightly vegetale smell. Since I'm sitting in an 30C (≈ 85F) room, that made the heat bearable.

For the first brewing the tea had a very full, round, soft mouth feel. The first sip gave me strong notes of grass and hay. For a moment I had thought I was drinking a nice gyokuro is sencha, but much less intense. There was a small, honey-like sweetness at the back of my tongue. It was exactly as he describes on his website.

I had difficulty catching the true color. In person it has the usual light green of a "green" oolong.

The second cup was much less vegetale and the honey sweetness began to flower more. It was very smooth and pleasant.

The third brewing was wonderfully floral. A sweet, but not overwhelming taste rolled over my tongue. It reminded me of a nice, gentle jasmine. They honeyed aftertaste became stronger on the sides of my tongue.

The fourth was very similar the the third, except that the liquor was much softer and buttery than the prior three.

Come the fifth brewing and the flavor was beginning to disappear. The aftertaste remained as it was before and the liquor was still incredibly buttery and smooth.

Liquor for the second brew

I had thought that perhaps I wasn't brewing the tea for long enough, so for the next two infusions I let the leaves soak several seconds longer. I was right. The liquor was once again deeply floral and sweet.

From there on out the liquor remained deeply floral and sweet but it did not change very much. While this tea was pleasurable, at the same time it didn't strike me as anything particularly special. I enjoyed the floral, honeyed taste and the buttery feel of this particular Dong Ding.

However, something I've begun to notice lately is that greener (so lightly roasted) oolongs aren't quite doing it for me anymore. I had my first one several years ago and then didn't touch them much for the last three or so. I spent most of that time drinking Japanese greens, various whites, and familiarizing myself with the very wide world of Chinese greens.

Wet leaves after the second brewing.

As I've continued to drink greener oolongs a lot the last year or so, they've begun to lose their zing to me, again. They're good, but they lack the complexity of many other teas I drink. A good TieGuanYin can do it for me, but even then, it has to be an exceptional one for me to say it's anything more than average. I find that greener oolongs are more about aroma than they are complexity and flavor.

Rating

Overall, I'd give it an 8.5.

Part of the reason I've been drinking greener oolongs an awful lot for the last year or so is because I've been introducing my friends and family to the world of fine tea.

Japanese greens are one of my absolute favorites, there's just one caveat with this: most people detest the green flavor of a rich Japanese green the first time they taste it, so I tend to stay away from that. I understand why a lot of people don't like it, it is admittedly and acquired taste. To avoid this I'll start by giving them something less intense like genmaicha, wakayanagi, or perhaps some lower grade sencha in the event I am dead set on having a Japanese green.

I normally let my friends and family decide what they want me to prepare by letting them smell the aroma and examine the leaves.
Even though I let them examine everything I can always make an educated guess as to what they'll choose. I'm almost always right.
It'll be one of my greener oolongs or a jasmine. If they're not overly sensitive to the green smell of Japanese greens (and some Chinese depending on what I have in stock) and pick up on the floral notes one person may choose that, but not the whole group.

The point I'm trying to get across here is that I think green oolongs make for a great introductory tea. Their aroma is incredibly pleasing. I never tire of the smell of TieGuanYin and I don't think I ever will. There are some very fine green oolongs out there I've experienced and would love to again, but a vast majority that are affordable are a little above what I'd call average in terms of liquor complexity.

If you like greener oolongs or tea that is very floral and sweet, I recommend this tea. It was very pleasant and was exactly what I expected. Mr. Akira Hojo never fails to please with the quality of his teas.

If you would like to purchase this tea, please email Mr. Akira Hojo at info2@hojotea.com

Here is the pdf with prices for all his teas.