I may have gone a bit overboard this past Black Friday. I was splurging on tea orders right, left, and center. Normally those orders would be for flavored teas but a friend of mine was ordering from websites that have huge selections of straight teas and I decided to join in on her orders. One such site was What-Cha. I have had several of their straight teas thanks to others sharing samples with me and I’ve always been impressed.
More than just straight teas, I decided to go wild when it came to the oolong sections of these sites. In hindsight this was a weird choice for me since up until recently I wouldn’t even try a flavored oolong tea, let alone a straight one. I guess as time goes on, your tastes change and my tastes are moving towards oolongs. What Cha must have sensed that because this tea, Vietnam Gui Fei Oolong Tea, arrived as the sample in our order.
This tea has a really nice honey sweetness. That is what stands out sip after sip. As I continue to drink it does become a bit more nuanced with the honey giving way to a touch of signature oolong toastiness. The more I focus, the more I can taste. In addition to the honey, the sweetness has a slight taste of stonefruit and raisin and a little citrus zip intermingled with the toastiness. Also, floating about is a touch of rose/floral that could be present because I expect that in an oolong more than because its actually there.
What is nice about this tea is that the sweetness gives it some body and that body reads almost like a caramel / malt making this come off like a dessert tea despite it having no dessert flavorings. It is light and rich at the same time which makes it easy to drink again and again.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: What Cha
Description
A highly aromatic oolong with a wonderfully sweet honey aroma and taste accompanied by citrus fruit notes of orange blossoms and peach.
Gui Fei is notable as it requires the leaf to be nibbled by leafhoppers just like Oriental Beauty. The tea plant responds by releasing more polyphenols into the leaves, resulting in added sweetness and complexity in the tea.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Kenya Silver Needle White Tea from What-Cha. . . .
Time and time again I have shared my preference against white teas, specifically bai mu dan and shou mei teas. I don’t like the floral notes nor the soapy quality they can often have. If I am going to have a white tea, I tend to reach for either a White Rhino because it tends to be more robust like a black tea, or a Silver Needle.
I also have now tried a few What-Cha teas and been pleased with all of them.That is why when I came across this What-Cha Kenya Silver Needle White Tea, I had to give it a try.
Following the recommended steeping parameters, I brewed this for 2 minutes at 175 degrees. I was left with a pale and translucent liquid, typical of a white tea.
This tea boasts sweet notes of corn and it delivers, despite the packaging suggesting that this is best before June 2017. It’s so simple and yet so good. Flavorful without being in your face which means it is a tea that can be reached for again and again without becoming tired or boring.
I don’t reach for white teas often, especially straight white teas but when I come across Silver Needles like this, I am reminded that they can make a pleasant alternative to all the dessert and fruity teas I usually drink.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: White Tea
Where to Buy: What-Cha
Description
A very sweet and smooth silver needle with notes of melon and sweetcorn without any traces of bitterness or astringency.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Thailand Sticky Rice ‘Khao Hom’ Oolong Tea from What-Cha. . . . .
I can’t recall a time that I personally have had sticky rice. I believe I have but can’t be sure and certainly don’t remember to say whether this accurately depicts that flavor.
What I do know is this smells like popcorn. Buttery popcorn. And it tastes like buttery coconut rice and floral oolong. It reminds me of the coconut rice I get when I go to a Japanese/Thai restaurant called Spoon & Fork. Sweet and ricey and delicious, plus floral.
It’s thick and has the mouthfeel of a rice pudding. Well, as much as a liquid tea could resemble a rice pudding. Nonetheless, the thickness helps to sell the whole notion of sticky rice.
I will say I think there is a disconnect between the buttery and almost toasty rice notes and the floral oolong base. This could be due to my own bias against oolong teas, which I am only starting to enjoy, but the two just seem disjointed. I hoped the coconut flavor might bridge that gap but no-go it seems.
Nonetheless, I am enjoying this tea. It is one of two teas by this company I have tried and both have been quite lovely. There may be a What-Cha order in my future yet.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong Tea
Where to Buy: What-Cha
Description
Has a creamy texture and sticky rice aroma, imparted unto the tea during processing by heating the sticky rice plant’s leaves along with the tea leaves.
Sticky rice scented tea is a specialty of northern Thailand, although traditionally green tea is used, Jin Xuan Oolong produces just as good if not better results.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Georgia Mr Ramirez’s Hand-Made Black Tea from What-Cha. . . . .
There was a time when I was young, and I was afraid of straight teas. So, it just tasted like, um, tea? Without anything in it? What was the appeal?
I’ve since realized that tea by itself can taste like anything, depending on what type of tea it is, and where it was grown. Like grapes and wine, tea leaves can be altered by circumstance.
So Georgia is a black tea. But it’s also more than a black tea, without anyone having to do anything. Which is kind of crazy.
This tea has heavy-hitting notes of fruit. I’m getting a very sweet raisin.
It reminds me a lot of Sun-Maid raisin boxes my mom used to throw in my lunch when fruit wasn’t on sale.
(Did you know that honeycrisp apples are around $3.99/pound right now? Even crappy apples like Red Delicious can get costly for a family of four. Raisins are a steal, friends.)
I loved those boxes of raisins. I loved how the beautiful Sun Maid lady was in a circle-halo like the Virgin Mary. I enjoyed pulling the stems out of the raisins. I liked their squishy pop. I was super-into digging into the bottom of the box to get the last raisins that were stuck down there. Raisin-scraping was just as satisfying as picking my nose, but socially acceptable. Every box was a project unto itself. No raisin was left behind.
I’d like to thank this tea for bringing back a very cherished childhood memory I’d completely forgotten.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black Tea
Where to Buy: What-Cha
Description
A smooth fruity black tea with a sweet gentle taste of apricots and prunes and completely free of astringent tones.
Completely hand-produced by Mr. Ramiz, who at over sixty years of age, is one of the most experienced and respected tea producers within Georgia. Mr. Ramiz produces small monthly batches of tea from his own private garden, which rarely exceed 20 kilograms in quantity.
Sourced direct from tea nomad Petr Sič who travels to Georgia multiple times each year in search of the very best teas and works very closely with the producers.
Tasting Notes:
– Brilliant smooth taste
– Sweet and light taste taste of apricots and prunes
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Nepal Pearl Oolong Tea from Wha-Cha
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Wha-Cha
Tea Description:
An incredibly rare and unusual oolong with a great taste of apricots and nectarine combined with a brilliant aroma. .
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Alright. . .for anybody that has this tea in your stash and don’t want it. . .let me know! This tea is amazing! Amazing pearls of tea loving goodness! If you can’t tell, I’m quite smitten with this tea.
This gorgeous tea is a lovely pearl of oolong tea that gives you a satisfying sense of what good tea is supposed to be like. Each pearl is gorgeous and I loved watching the tea leaves uncurl in front of my eyes in my tea steeper. I used two balls because I want this tea to last as long as possible. I steeped and prepped this up per the instructions on the package.
Once the tea was all prepped and ready to try out, I took my first sip. A gorgeous sip of smooth, sweet, and slightly astringent delicious notes. This is one of those teas that needs the contrast of the sweet and astringent notes but the notes are incredibly soft and subtle. Almost like that sweet yet spicy or sweet but somehow sour notes in other foods. The two complimented each other so well. Seriously, this tea is gorgeous from the very beginning.
The sweet notes are what made me just sigh with happiness. They resemble those of a stone fruit like an apricot. This is one of those teas that tastes exactly how it is described on a website. (And this is one of those teas you hoard for those days when you need some extra tea loving to get you thru the day. ) Those sweet notes of apricot just elevate the tea to a different level.
At one point, I had a meeting at work and came back expecting a cold bitter brew awaiting me and that wasn’t the case at all. I was greeted with a lovely cold oolong that just kept my afternoon going.
I’m now on infusion four and still the tea is giving. I just love it. From the moment I opened the package and saw the pearls to the moment when I first tried the tea, I was in love with this oolong. One of the best teas I think I’ve tried so far this year. That’s how good it is!
Highly recommend this one!
