2005 CNNP Big Blue Mark Puerh from Teacuppa

Scent: light woodsy scent
Brewed in: porcelain gaiwan
Steeped: 5s x 6
Cup: porcelain tasting cup, china tea cup

I took some great pictures of this tasting last night, and promptly deleted them in my uncaffinated state while trying to download them from the camera this morning. Sorry about that - pictures to come with the next reviews.

I bought this cake based on a sample that I really enjoyed from Teacuppa. This is the first time I've tried the cake, and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. It's light, smooth, and very mellow. I drank the first couple cups out of the tasting cup, and then mixed the rest of the infusions together for a larger cuppa.

Either way, this is not a strong tea. the viscosity is nice - not too thin, but not soupy either. The flavor is a typical wood and earth puerh taste, though the earthiness isn't very pronounced - it's more of a background complement. The wood and leafy tones are lovely, and make up the majority of the flavor, with a hint of light pine smoke running over the tongue.

The semi-smokiness lends a gentle astringency to the tea, and ties all the other flavors together well. All in all, it was soothing and relaxing, both of which I really appreciated last night.

It's probably not a top-shelf tea according to the "experts", and certainly it doesn't have the depth that a more aged tea would have, but it's sweet and mild, the perfect "before-bed" drink (which is when I drank it, and I can hardly keep my eyes open to finish this review).

A most enjoyable way to finish the evening.

CNNP Orange Mark Puerh from Teacuppa

Scent in package: Amazingly wonderful, woody, smokey, fresh, with a hint of fall leaves.
Brewed in: my little green gaiwan
Steeped: 5s rinse, 10s, 15s, 10s, 12s, 15s, 20s, 20s @ temps very close to boiling.
Cup: 1oz. porcelain tasting cup

I was so impressed with the scent of the dry leaves, still somewhat compressed from their time in a cake, that I thought surely this had to be a wonderful-tasting tea. It was a small sample sent by Teacuppa in my last order, and I’ll admit, I didn’t use as much as I probably should have, because I wanted two sessions with it. So I used my smallest gaiwan, and only half my sample. In hindsight, that might have been a bad idea.

The first infusion smelled wonderful – sweet and smoky like a Lapsang (which I love). It had a lovely light wood fragrance, and the brew was beautiful, golden and clear. The taste was thin though, and very sharp, with a slight bitterness – clearly at “war” with the sweeter fragrance. It kind of irritated me, actually, that the tea didn’t taste nearly as good as it smelled.

The second infusion was too long – my mistake. It was much more bitter, not even a hint of sweetness, and very sharp on the tongue. Two of the things bothering me the most at this point was the lack of texture – the tea was very thin for a puerh – and the lack of complexity…the tea was somewhat “flat”, for lack of a better word. This is when I started regretting my decision to only use half the sample. Maybe more leaf would have brought out the flavors better?

The 3rd – 5th infusions were much the same…and reminded me of the taste one might expect from chewing on charcoal. It wasn’t bitter, just very sharp, and the smokiness wasn’t pleasant as it should have been, but instead was just irritating, and all I could really taste.

The 6th infusion was lighter, more drying, but the charcoal taste eased up, and it left my mouth sort of “tingly” afterwards. The 7th was much the same, though a little sweeter, but still with that persistent charcoal “bite” on the tip of the tongue.

All in all, it wasn’t terribly bad…nor was it good. It was boring, to be honest…no flavors aside from the smoke and charcoal, and I missed the woody/earthy tones present in the puerhs I really like. And on top of the mediocre-ness (I know, not a word, but it is today), I kept burning my fingers on the gaiwan (something I don’t often do). Perhaps it just wasn’t a good day for that particular tea.

In any case, I have no idea if this tea would age well or not (there was no date on the sample package, but I’m assuming it’s the 2004 cake they have listed on their web site). I’ll admit to being tempted to order a cake and see if it improves, simply because they claim the recipe was created in 1975 (my birth year), but at $38 for the cake, I think I’ll probably pass. I am curious as to whether the charcoal taste would mellow over the years, and give way to more complex flavors, but not curious enough to spend that kind of money to see, especially given my less-than-perfect environment for aging tea.

In any case, I found it boring and bite-y, and if I were considering buying it to drink now, I wouldn’t. But it truly does smell absolutely wonderful…

Rou Gui Oolong Showdown

One main goal motivated me to do this particular showdown – I wanted to find out if Rou Gui actually did taste like cinnamon or not! I’d read descriptions of it, and tasted some teas individually, but never really grasped why anyone would compare it to cinnamon, so I thought perhaps if I tasted several varieties, maybe they would yield more info than previously. I also decided to brew them gong fu style, using gaiwans and filtered water. I ended up having to use a smallish fair pitcher for my third gaiwan, since I only have two, and had tea from three vendors.

The three rou gui’s I have are from Teacuppa, Stash, and Teaspring. I don’t know what year the Teacuppa variety is, as it was a sample included with an order, and they didn’t mark the year on the package. For that matter, none of my rou gui packs had years marked on them, so we’re in the dark there. I used filtered tap water to brew with, at around 180 degrees. I tried to use approximately the same ratio of leaf to cup for each type…around ¼ the gaiwan of leaf. Unfortunately, it was dark in my kitchen, so the pictures are less than spectacular, but you can sort of get the idea. In all pictures, Teacuppa is on the right, Stash is in the middle, and Teaspring is on the left (as you’re looking at them). I did rinse each of the teas with a 5 second rinse that was discarded.

So, right from the start, these three versions of Rou Gui all had a unique scent. The Teacuppa scent was sweet and woodsy, with almost a floral tone lurking in the background. The Stash was also sweet, but bolder, and with a more grassy fragrance. And the Teaspring was nothing other than a deep, chocolaty scent, a surprise since not one of them smelled like cinnamon, and all were very sweet and different.

The first infusion was 30s for all three. And they couldn’t have tasted more different! The Teacuppa was sharp, and very cinnamon-y, like straight ground cinnamon without the benefit of sugar to tone it down. It was a thin brew, and bitter, but not drying. The Stash was very bold, more of a roasted flavor, rather than cinnamon (I actually didn’t detect any cinnamon flavor in this one). It was bitter as well, without being astringent, and thin on the tongue. It was more complex than the Teacuppa brew. The Teaspring had more of the roasted flavor too, but was also very smoky, like charcoal more than liquid smoke (ie, not like a lapsong). There was no bitterness, it was slightly sweet, and another thin brew. Very interesting and complex.
The second infusion was 40s. The Teacuppa was lighter, smoky sweet and more woody, still with the cinnamon “bite”, but very drying in the mouth. The Stash was slightly smokey, carrying a very bold flavor with the distinctive cinnamon “bite” on the tip of the tongue. It was less bitter than the first cup, with a hint of astringency. The Teaspring was very roasty & smoky, but less flavorful with no bite, bitterness, or much of anything else.

The third infusion was for 50s. The Teacuppa was sweeter, less astringent, and had a good cinnamon flavor with less of a “bite”, and more texture to the brew. The Stash however was thin, very drying, and less flavorful, with only a slight cinnamon taste. The Teaspring was thicker and smoky, but with much less flavor, and very drying (though still not bitter).

It seemed like all three teas were wearing out around the 3rd infusion, even though the color was still quite good for all of them. I brewed one more infusion for a full minute, that resulted in very weak, thin brews not really worth commenting on. I think had I heated more water, and brewed hotter/longer, I may have been able to squeeze them a bit more.
The leaves were interesting as well. Unfortunately, I didn’t get good pictures of them at all – too dark. Surprisingly, the leaves from Teacuppa were the smallest…something I would have expected more from Stash. The leaves from Teaspring were the largest and prettiest when unfurled, though all were a lovely mixture of very dark brown and olive green.

I’m hard-pressed to decide which of these I like best, simply because they are all so different. This tasting did leave me with an incredibly dry mouth…not something I particularly enjoy, and warmed me up quite nicely. The teaspring version really had no cinnamon flavor to speak of, which is supposedly traditional in Rou Gui. I think for the perfect mix, I’d have to blend the Stash and Teacuppa versions together – for a smoky-sweet roasted cinnamon brew.

Even so, not my favorite kind of oolong, largely due to the very drying aspects of the tea (it really reminded me of trying ground cinnamon straight…very sharp and astringent). Perhaps I’d like it better if I brewed a teaspoon of leaves for 3 min. or so, English style. I may have to try that sometime.

So no clear “winner” for me, but I don’t think the Teaspring version does justice to the common description of “cinnamon flavor”.

Honey Orchid Dan Cong Oolong from Teacuppa

Scent in package: light honey, roasted
Brewed in: tea for one/metal infuser
Steeped: 4 min.@ 180, 2 min.@ 200
Cup: Café mug

My Oncidium orchid is blooming, and so this afternoon I reached for a new oolong to try from Teacuppa. I was a little disappointed when the tea didn’t have even a hint of orchid scent in the package, but went ahead and brewed it up anyways. Needless to say, I should have read the directions for brewing on the web site first, which suggested hotter water/shorter brewing for the first couple of infusions.

So my first cup was a bit more astringent than your average oolong, and I wasn’t terribly impressed with the taste, but it was still drinkable. The scent was strongly “cooked”, a result of my steeping it for too long. It was also far too dark golden brown for good scent or taste. I chalked it up to my poor brewing choices, and tried again with a second infusion.

The second infusion was much better – the scent is more on par with what I’d expect from an oolong, honeyed and with a hint of floral in the background. It was much softer in the mouth, though strangely, still drying on the tongue and the back of the throat. There is a honey taste up front, but I didn’t really taste much of the fruit that was promised at the beginning (though I did taste it somewhat in the first infusion). The floral aftertaste is noticeable, but light, and again, nothing like my “real orchid” (I do have an oolong that tastes as the orchid smells…one of my favorite oolongs).

All in all, while this certainly isn’t a bad tea, it kind of bored me. It seems like an everyday, run-of-the-mill oolong that you could pick up anywhere, rather than being the exquisitely special tea that it’s billed as. Frankly, I’ve been spoiled lately with many of the oolongs I’ve had, and while this one would have probably suited me fine last year, it’s just not doing anything for my palate after all the better oolongs I’ve had recently.

So an “okay” tea, but there’s better out there, in my opinion.
And for your viewing pleasure, a picture of my orchid blooms.

Australian Tropical Black Tea from Teacuppa

Scent in package: fake fruity smell, citrus
Brewed in: unbleached filter bag
Steeped: 5 min.@ 212 degrees
Cup: Café mug

I guessed I was in trouble when I first opened this package. The tea was not really leaves at all, but more dried tea “crumbles”, like something a bit larger than you’d find in jar of powdered iced tea, but with bits of dried fruit peel mixed in. It smelled citrus-y, but something was “off” about it. I was hoping that the tea would taste better than it looked.

It didn’t.

This is a pretty sorry excuse for a tea, and I’m somewhat shocked that a company like Teacuppa would carry it in their inventory alongside their much higher-quality teas. Not only does it resemble a larger version of powdered tea, it tastes much the same as well, lacking depth and any “tea” flavor whatsoever. The only flavor that comes through at all is a sort of fake orange taste, presumably from the dried peel in the mix. And on top of all that, the tea is astringent, like a dark brown orange flavored mess (but not even as good as mixing the popular orange Tang powdered mix with a decent hot tea).

Do yourself a favor. Avoid this like the plague. It doesn’t take much to find better tea than this, even in a teabag.

Yunnan Red Tip from Teacuppa

Scent in package: malty & strong
Brewed in: tea for one/metal infusor
Steeped: 5 min.@212 deg.
Cup: Café mug at work.

I normally drink a lot of Yunnan Gold…which is basically Yunnan black tea with golden tips. It’s smooth and malty like oatmeal, and perfect for breakfast. So I thought I’d see how this Yunnan Red Tip tea stacked up.

It looks a lot like a gold tip tea, except the leaves are darker, and the tips less prevalent. The scent is stronger too…less sweetness, and more “punch”. As it brews, the malty-ness really wafts through the air, and it almost made my mouth water (as a good Yunnan should!).

The taste was a bit disappointing though, I’m afraid. Rather than smooth and sweet, it’s more astringent than what I’m used to with Yunnan teas, and not really the flavor of oatmeal, but rather a some what sharper, almost (but not quite) bitter malt.

It’s a strong tea, and will wake you right up if that’s what you’re after. I can see myself downing a cup in the morning to get the blood flowing to the brain more quickly. But it’s not really a tea I’d probably sit down to just enjoy…it lacks the depth of flavor and natural sweetness that I’ve come to expect from Yunnan tea. Call me spoiled, but this seems more like a “knock off” than the real thing.

So I’ll certainly finish off my package, probably first thing in the mornings, but I won’t be reordering this one. If you want a thinner, more drying Yunnan taste, this is your tea.

Shou Mei White Tea from Teacuppa

Scent in package: unremarkable, no smell, really.
Brewed in: small glass teapot w/glass infuser
Steeped: 3.5 min.@ 180 degrees
Cup: Porcelain teacup

I ordered this tea because of the description – it said it had a stronger taste for a white tea, reminiscent of an oolong. So I figured I’d try it and see. I brewed it up last night, and honestly, it was the most interesting tea I’ve tried in quite awhile. The dry leaves are interesting - they look like dried fall leaves, rather than the tender green shoots one normally identifies as "white tea".

The taste and color were stronger than a normal white tea…the brew was golden yellow, honey colored. And the scent was like a mixture of barley and alfalfa, which is almost exactly what it tasted like as well. It did indeed remind me of an oolong, as the texture was a bit thicker than other white teas, and there was a lingering honey-like aftertaste that is very soothing on the tongue. It was not astringent in the least, nor was there any bitterness at all, even as it cooled.

It took me three quarters of a cup to decide I actually did like it, and didn’t merely find it interesting. The flavor is unlike anything I’ve had before, and the texture and strength is unlike any other white tea I’ve had, but refreshingly so. I quite enjoyed it, and finished off the pot.

It’s not terribly expensive at $5.50 for 1oz., so if you’re looking for something incredibly different and reminiscent of barley/alfalfa fields, order some (or a sample, which is cheaper). Whether you like it or not, I’m positive you’ll be interested in the unique taste and texture of this fascinating tea.

Planning Tea Purchases

I get paid tomorrow. Sometimes it seems like my life hinges on paydays, but hey, gotta have something to look forward to! July will be an expensive month for various non-tea-related reasons, but I’m still making a shopping list for tea, and thought it might be interesting to post, in case anyone wants to compare notes (or see what will be up for review later in July).

So this is my post for today – my list of tea/teaware purchases I hope to make in July.

Adagio: New carafe for my triniTEA (you don’t realize how much you need something until it’s gone!) I’m just going to pay for them to send me a new carafe if possible – I hate shopping, and don’t feel like running around town to find one that fits.

Art of Tea: 2003 Fucha Vintage Dark Tea, if I can get some before they run out (the way they’ve been advertising it, I expect it will be quite popular when it goes on sale July 1st). It sounds and looks intriguing, something different. Depending on the cost, I may get some of the other TNT’s as well. I also need more Garden of Eden for icing, and Chocolate Monkey Rooibos. I need more filter bags too, might as well order them at the same time.

Teacuppa: 2005 CNNP Big Blue Mark Puerh cake

Dragonwater: whatever 3 samples I get with my monthly tea club purchase. For those who don't already know, Dragonwater has the only tea club I've found where you can pay by the month, and suspend your membership when you need to. If you like trying new teas every month, head over there and sign up! It's the only tea tasting club I'm in, simply because you have to pay for all the others in advance. Do check it out if you have a minute.

And that’s it for July. A few new things to try, and one to store…other than that, I need to keep drinking down the stash I already have. That includes plenty of teas to review, never fear. Lots of whites and greens yet to try. I may have to have a tea party soon, to clean out some of my extras.

Anyone else planning any tea purchases in the near future?

2005 CNNP Big Blue Mark Raw Puerh from Teacuppa

Scent: mild, earthy, nothing special
Brewed in: small gaiwan, about 1/3 leaves
Steeped: 10s rinse, followed by around 12 infusions (didn’t keep good count), at near boiling for first few, then lower.
Cup: Small porcelain tasting cup

Yesterday I finally received my order from Teacuppa, after almost a full month of waiting. The package must have gotten held up in customs, because one end was open when I finally got it. But everything was there, including two teas I ordered and two puerh samples as well. As usual, I decided to try one of the samples first, and opened the one marked “Blue Mark Puerh”. I found the complete name and year on the web site this morning.

So last night I decided to just “drink tea” rather than focusing on notes, pictures, and such. I prepared a tea tray with my new gaiwan, pitcher, one of the new cups and a teapot of boiling water, and settled into my chair in front of the TV (we were watching an old movie). It was only after the session that I decided to take a few pictures, since I did really enjoy the tea. The dry leaves pictured are what I have left, the wet leaves are the ones I brewed up last night. The "setup" picture is my new teaware, with the exception of the stash teapot I used to hold hot water.

The taste of this tea wasn’t really all that special – it was quite light and sweet, and notably not bitter like the young puerhs that I have on hand. The liquor also wasn’t anything special – it was thinner than I would have expected. The difference with this tea was purely one of sensation – I actually experienced that camphor-like quality with this tea, and was just the slightest bit light-headed towards the end of the session and into the evening. I believe only one of the puerh’s I have presented those qualities when I was tasting them, and I really did enjoy the overall experience with this particular sample.

Now if young puerh should be bitter to age well, this one may not be so great in a few years. It’s astringent – more so towards the last infusions, but not bitter in the least. But it is very pleasant to drink right now, and I’m very tempted to spend the $35 for a beeng when I get paid. It left me very satisfied, and with a good feeling afterwards, and it would be interesting to try it side-by-side with others that I have. I have a little bit left of the sample, and will try it again before I decide.