2022 年 8 月茶俱乐部

Continuing to sip things down Western brew style. This is another tea that I actually like better this way. It's very sweet with floral and berry notes without some of the earthy notes of before. It's fun seeing which teas do better with different brewing styles.

I'm bumping up the rating for this tea. I'm not sure if it's aged well or I used better brewing parameters this time. The floral taste is sweet and strong without being overwhelming. It does get a bit vegetal in later steeps, but not terribly so. The aftertaste is also nice, and my mom loves it!

A very interesting Bai Mu Dan. Complex. I like it better than the last one I tried. Another lovely tea session. Loved drinking Bai Mu Dan with the Tea Pals, and I finally got to try the Nai Wong Bao I made last week.

Fairly calming and focused. Has body and is filling. Really changes with each brew: sweet to tomato to mineral and drying to nettles and dry grasses. Nice as a cold brew So nice to spend time with friends and tasting this nice little Bai Mu Dan ♥️

Eyes - Dry Leaf: a mix of fuzzy white buds and fine green leaf pickings Nose - Dry Leaf: marzipan, baking chocolate, and vanilla Nose - Wet Leaf: partially baked sesame buns, mixed tart fruits, and some florality Eyes - Liquor: viscous pale-yellow liquor Mouth - Texture: thick and lush moving to juicy Mouth - Taste: creamy and sweet marzipan/vanilla/honey moving to fermented plums/grapes Mouth - Finish: dry on the tongue and juicy in the cheeks with a distinct fruitiness and florality; crab savoriness? Nose - Empty Cup: osmanthus Eyes - Wet Leaf: tender, slightly oxidized leaves and buds Body - Sensation: relaxed and at ease

The dry leaves are a mix of pale green, yellow green, and darker brown green. They all start bleaching to a much paler green over time. Their floral aroma hits immediately. The liquid is pale with golden hues. There's a lot of scruff. The taste is the orchid room at a botanical garden. It's floral and mineral with a bit of soil. It's not at all sweet, but it's pleasant. It helps that it's associated with such nice memories! The tea squad is all here! Christian joined Elissa and me for my last few days in California. We had our first tea in the Golden Gate Park. It was very fun!

Ratio is a little off on this one, I preferred the 150ml to 6ish grams Still delicious and still want to get some more of this type of tea! I have to stay up late tonight so took the opportunity to have a rare evening white tea. Finished off a silver needle tea that I got in a subscription box from MyTeaPal years ago!

This tea was pleasant enough, although I liked the other silver needle I have better. The sweet aftertaste was especially nice here. It was very consistent, making for boring notes! It probably could have gone a lot longer if we didn't do a super long steep for the heck of it.

An interesting aged Silver Needle. More grassy than previous Silver Needles I have tried, which I suspect is due to the aging. Another fun session with the TeaPals. Silver Needle is one of my absolute favorite kinds of tea, but I’d never had an aged one before today. At first, it tasted quite similar to other Silver Needles I have had, but in later infusions it took on the grassy quality I associate with green teas. Overall, a very interesting tea.

First time drinking white tea so hard to judge it. Overall it tasted very weak to me. I used about 3.5 grams for 80 ML of water. I almost wondered if I had used too little tea at first, but I think I need to try more white teas to become more familiar with what to expect. My rating of 3.5 stars is very subjective given it’s my first white tea experience. I let the 6th infusion brew for about 3 minutes and enjoyed that infusion best. I upped my star rating to 4 based on this. Today I had white tea (silver needle from the August club) for the first time. It relaxed me quite a bit. Feeling a bit sleepy from it. Pleasant experience. Taste was a bit more mild than what I expected but I can’t compare it to other white teas since this was my first white tea experience.

Eyes - Dry Leaf: flat, plump, very furry buds Nose - Dry Leaf: honeysuckle and marzipan Nose - Wet Leaf: caramel, nuts, and bright flowers Eyes - Liquor: semi-viscous pale beige liquor Mouth - Texture: thick and soft Mouth - Taste: marzipan sweetness and hazelnut/pine nut with a high, sweet, and zesty florality of honeysuckle and citrus blossom Mouth - Finish: dry mineral tingle on the tip and sides of the tongue moving to a long, juicy florality Nose - Empty Cup: flowers, vanilla, and nuts Eyes - Wet Leaf: plump, healthy looking green buds Body - Sensation: alert but utterly relaxed Very good first showing from this month’s tea club

The tea was way more consistent this time. It was like drinking vegetables the whole way through. It was entirely sugar snap peas for me. My mom briefly got green beans as well. There were minor clay notes. I'm not really sure why it was so much less complex than last time.

Really great tea, tasty. Fruity and floral with great mouth feel in the middle of the session. Raspberry notes were strongest and lasted throughout with honey sweetness lasting as well. Brief complexity in the mid session with some darker fruit flavors. Overall made me relaxed & contented, slightly energetic.. Sad this is my last session with this tea. It's become a favorite. Glad I pulled the trigger on the Black Friday deal for MyTeaPal if just to discover this bonus tea. Thanks, Vincent!

I do like this better cold! It's still vegetal, but it's not at all bitter, and there's just enough floral aroma to make it interesting. I'm mostly impressed by how well the flavor persists (though in this case, it would be nice if the aftertaste were also more floral and less vegetal!).

The leaves are much darker than the fresh version. The liquor is also darker, and there's more scruff. The taste is more floral and earthy. It's only briefly bitter, so I like this version better! I'll try the leaves brewed overnight and see how I feel about it then.

Eyes - Dry Leaf: small compressed square of brown, red, and green leaves Nose - Dry Leaf: fermented plums and honey Nose - Wet Leaf: raspberry jam Eyes - Liquor: medium-thick orange liquor Mouth - Texture: medium-soft and vaporous Mouth - Taste: stone fruit moving to a very sweet honeyed character and a high floral aroma Mouth - Finish: lots of florality in the nose and an incredibly long lasting honeyed finish Nose - Empty Cup: floral and honeyed, with fruity undertones Eyes - Wet Leaf: Body - Sensation: very calm and relaxed Had to cut short because of a bad kettle, but very enjoyable tea!!

This tea tastes fresh and sweet, with a hint of flowers. It’s a new favorite of mine. Drank Aged Shou Mei today with the TeaPals. Probably one of my favorite sessions—the conversation was wonderful and the tea was delightful. It is sweet and a little floral and warms up the body.

A delightful white tea. Sweet, full of honey. A nice session on a Saturday. This tea is sweet and full of honey flavor that lingers on the tongue.

“I don’t think there is any tea better then a good white tea”… is also what I said when first trying sticky rice puerh, and also what I said when discovering ripe puer, also said when switching to drinking more raw puerhs. Man, this tea journey has been wonderfully enjoyable! Tea is LIFE!

Green Pepper, cooked spinach, paper books, oily mouth feel. Absolutely delightful Shou Mei! WOW *one to boil after session *cold brewing leaves over night Warm body sensation. A wonderful tea! If I had more time I would boil the remainder of these but instead I am going to cold brew these leaves over night

This is a very nice tea. I like the sweet vegetal flavor and the floral notes are nice, but couldn't pin anything down specifically. I think side pours are better as directly lead to a bit of astringency. Very calming, relaxed body feel from the session. Rating Criteria: 0.5 - bad, flavorless, or worse very astringent, teabag 1.0 - mostly bad, flavorless, most teabag tea 1.5 - not good, but maybe something to like 2.0 - slightly disappointed, not my kind of tea, but still can appreciate it - probably the worst rating I would give a loose leaf tea (at least one that hasn't turned bad) 2.5 - mixed feelings, like it, but there is something off about it I don't like 3.0 - good, I like it but nothing stand out about it or a very good tea with one critique that holds me back - probably the highest I would give a teabag tea 3.5 - very good, a tea that I was very happy to have but content with what I had, wouldn't seek it out for additional purchase 4.0 - great, very happy with the experience, would seek out for purchase, but only occasionally 4.5 - a favorite, one I love and want very often 5.0 - life will be very sad without it, reserved only for my favorite (roasted tie guan yin), room for more hopefully I prefer the aged version to this tea - will go into a deep dive on that one as well.

I haven't had many tea bricks yet, so this is neat! The liquor color is also a pretty gold. The aroma and flavor start off vegetal and mildly floral. Unfortunately, it turns super astringent for me. I really can't tolerate anything too vegetal well, most vegetables included! Whatever tannins these are just don't play nicely with my taste buds. (It's a testament to my love of tea how much of this I drank anyway!)

A delightful tea. Interesting flavor combination: a little sour and spicy in the finish, but floral in the sip. Another session with the tea pals. This Shou Mei was quite complex, with hints of spice and a little bit of sourness on the finish, but I think I prefer the Aged Shou Mei.