Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: What-Cha Tea
Tea Description:
A unique black tea rolled into huge marble sized balls. With a sweet aroma and taste, and an incredibly thick texture.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
These pearls are beautiful! They’re larger than a jasmine green tea (or white tea) pearl, about double or maybe even triple the size of one of those smaller pearls. So, you don’t need quite as many to produce a cup of tea (I used five for my 12 ounce cup of tea). The aroma of the dry pearl is somewhat earthy with notes of leather and sweet notes of honey and cacao.
Rather than brewing these pearls in a teapot, I chose my glass teacup so that I could watch the unfurling process. They unfurl rather quickly, and after the first minute of steeping they were open and revealed many different leaves. For this first infusion, I steeped the leaves for 3 minutes. After those three minutes and observing how the leaves unfurl and seeing how much leaf is in the glass strainer, I think that for the next cup, I might only use four pearls! Each pearl has a whole lot of tea in it!
The color of the liquid is a dark copper and it smells very much the way the dry pearls smelled: earthy, hints of leather and a strong overtone of cacao. Nice.
So good! I love a good Yunnan tea, and this Dragon Pearl is one of the nicest I’ve had. It’s so rich and full-flavored. After steeping the five pearls, I have a robust cup of tea – this is the strength I like first thing in the morning! It’s got the gusto to shake the sleepy right out of me, you know what I mean? On those days when you need an extra kick to wake you up and get you going, just drop another pearl into the cup.
Beautiful top notes of cacao – delicious! There is an undertone of caramel that keeps everything sweet, and the cacao is more of a dark, bittersweet chocolate that balances out the sweeter notes. The earthy tones and notes of leather offer a solid backdrop of flavor while the malty tones, cacao, honey and caramel play in the foreground.
It’s sweeter right up front, but then as the palate explores the sip, I find notes that offer some contrast to the sweetness. I’m also noticing notes of stone fruit, reminiscent of plum and peach and faint hints of flower dance in and out of the sip. This has a lot of complexity for such a robust cup!
This is a remarkably good black pearl. I’ve tried several different black pearl teas now, and I’ve enjoyed the various ones that I’ve tried. This one from What-Cha is really good, one of the best! And I highly recommend re-infusing the leaves! The second steep is almost as good as – and in some ways, even better than – the first steep! The second steep is a little lighter … it’s not quite as hefty as the first cup, but this allows for more exploration of the complexity. It is sweeter and I’m picking up on more of the notes of fruit and flower. Amazing!
Yunnan Graceful ‘Zi Juan’ Purple Varietal Green Tea from What-Cha Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Purple/Green
Where to Buy: What-Cha Tea
Tea Description:
A brilliant and rare tea produced from purple varietal tea plants, with a smoky aroma and taste combined with a wonderful smooth texture.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Wow!
It’s been a long time since I’ve had a tea grown from the purple varietal tea plant, so I was excited to try this Yunnan Zi Juan Purple Varietal Green Tea from What-Cha. And it definitely did not disappoint! This is LOVELY!
The texture is smooth and silky. There is a mild overtone of smokiness with a sweet undertone. There is a delightful fruit note to this tea that evokes thoughts of melon and plums. There are faint vegetal notes that are nicely accented with a buttery tone.
It’s a really delightfully complex tea, reminding me more of an Oolong than of a green tea because of it’s silky smooth texture and its deliciously creamy butter notes. But just as I’m thinking that this is more of an Oolong tea the vegetal notes come through to say, “Hey, I’m green!” In the distance, I’m picking up on some light florals.
With all the amazing complexity of this tea, I decided to steep the leaves a second time to see what more I could discover with these leaves. The second steep is even more flavorful than the first!
The smoky notes have softened somewhat now, and the fruit notes have melded into a unified flavor. The vegetal notes are still there, but they are still faint … and there is still a beautifully creamy butter note to complement those vegetative flavors.
I’m tasting a little more floral notes. These floral tones are moving forward, out of the distance and a little more into focus in the foreground. This tea is still delightfully sweet. With the first cup, I mentioned how this tea reminded me a bit more of an Oolong than a Green … but with this cup, this tastes much more like the green tea that it is.
This is a truly delightful cup of tea. If you resteep it, this becomes two truly delightful cups of tea. And you really should resteep it!
2006 Fengqing Raw Pu-erh Tea Tuocha from Teavivre
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
Tuocha, a compressed tea in hollowed hemispheric shape, is mainly produced in Yunnan. This 100g Tuocha is from Fengqing, Lincang, Yunnan.
The materials of Tuocha are from Fengqing large tea speices. Fresh tea leaves will be made into dry tea in traditional craft method after being picked, then will be pressed into nest shape. The appearance of Tuocha reminds you of mountain. While smelling the faint scent of Sheng Pu-erh, you will have the feelings of being in beautiful scenery of Yunnan.
Sheng Pu-erh has strong flavor for first sip. Yet the sweet aftertaste will bring you a wonderful impression. You can feel a hint of sweet as sugarcane remaining in your mouth.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Sweet! This Fengqing Raw Pu-erh Tea from Teavivre has an enjoyably sweet flavor, a sweetness that is balanced with notes of sharpness and notes of vegetation, wood and earth (think mushroom). As I continued to sip, I started to pick up on notes of stone fruit.
I like that with the very first infusion (following a 15 second “rinse”) the flavor is strong and well-defined. I could taste these flavors with this first cup, I didn’t have to wait until the third or fourth cup to start experiencing the lovely flavor. I usually find that Pu-erh tends to have a mellow flavor, but this is a bold Pu-erh, and I’m appreciating the differences that this tea offers.
Later infusions surprised me with even stronger flavors! I still experienced the amazing sweetness, fruit notes (I think I even tasted a hint of grapefruit!) and woodsy tones. Full-flavored with notes vegetation, but this isn’t like the same kind of “vegetation” that I’d experience if I were drinking a green tea. This is more like the vegetal flavor you’d experience from a woodsy mushroom. It’s deep and earthy and flavorful, but in the distance you can taste notes of vegetation.
A deep sweetness – the description above suggests a “sugarcane” like sweetness, and I agree with that assessment – is present throughout the sip, from start to finish. It lingers in the aftertaste.
A really enjoyable pu-erh experience! I managed eight infusions from this tea and I suspect I could have gotten even more – the flavor wasn’t quitting! This tea has many different flavors to explore – a delightfully complex tea.
And when I visited Teavivre’s webpage for this tea, I noticed that this will be part of the #3 Sale Round from August 4 through August 5. Mark your calendars!
Kokang Green Tea from Shan Valley
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Shan Valley
Tea Description:
This first flush green tea is from the Kokang region of Myanmar, close to the Yunan region in china. This is considered the highest quality tea that is available to the public in Myanmar.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This tea is interesting because it really seems like two different teas: when it is served hot, I get a different set of flavors than as it cools. Both are really delicious, though!
When served hot, I get a fresh and exhilarating flavor that is rich and brothy without tasting overly vegetal. In fact, there are very little distinct vegetative flavor to this green tea and I found that quite surprising.
There is a lovely buttery note to this – not so much a creamy, sweet butter flavor but more like a browned butter. I’m picking up on a slightly smoky note to this as well as distant notes of flower and a nice fruit note that is like a hybrid fruit of melon, sweet green grapes and a hint of citrus that is particularly noticeable toward the finish.
The hot cup is a beautifully sweet tasting tea with notes of savory and smoke. As the cup cools, I notice the flavors changing a bit. I still get a pleasantly sweet cuppa, but, the aforementioned buttery note becomes more creamy now and less like a brown butter.
This is sweet and creamy! Mmm! I still taste those notes of fruit and flower, and I’m not tasting quite as much of a smoky element as I noticed with the hot tea. It’s still very subtly there in the distance. The fruit notes seem more pronounced now, and I’m tasting primarily fruit and cream with the cooled tea.
A really WONDERFUL tea – I’ve been so impressed with the 2014 teas from Shan Valley!
Daughter’s Ring Early Spring Green Tea (Ming Qian Nu’er Huan) from Teasenz
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Teasenz
Tea Description:
A farmer needs to work seven days, just to produce about 1.5 kg of this artisan tea, picking only the most-tender leaves from large-leaf tea trees in Simao, Yunnan. Afterwards, each ring is carefully hand-rolled piece by piece, requiring patience and mastery of advanced tea processing skills. A pure organic and luxury green tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Beautiful! These leaves are so amazingly graceful! They are rolled in perfect little rings, and the leaves feel soft and fluffy as they’re still covered with their downy fuzz.
They slowly unfurl in hot water, and it’s fun to watch them do their thing as they brew. I highly recommend steeping these in something that you can watch the brewing process. I realize that the website recommends a ceramic teapot for brewing, but I brewed this in my gaiwan so that I could watch the tender leaves do their graceful dance as they gently infused the hot liquid.
The cup that sits before me now is the results of the first two infusions, and this tea is delicious. It is delicately fragrant. The flavor is lightly vegetal with notes of butter and nutty tones, reminiscent of a nutty browned butter. It isn’t bitter, grassy or overly astringent.
There is a subtle floral note to the cup that seems to gradually build, and is especially noticeable in the aftertaste. The notes on the website suggest a jasmine note, but, I don’t know that I’m tasting jasmine. It is a very gentle flowery note that melds seamlessly with the other flavors of the cup.
This is a really remarkable green tea from Teasenz: I love that it’s organic, I love that it offers several delicious infusions (I got two cups of tea out of one measurement of leaves, infusing the leaves for a total of four times), and quite simply, I love this tea! Then again, I’ve been very impressed with all the teas that I’ve tried from this company! This is one company that you should put at the top of your shopping list!