Search found 107 matches

by Sunyata
Mon May 26, 2025 7:30 am
Forum: Oolong Tea
Topic: What Oolong Are You Drinking
Replies: 2894
Views: 2395528

Re: What Oolong Are You Drinking

Taking a break from sheng puerh, and decided to drink my Matouyan Rougui. Till date still my favorite rougui with its pungent resinous, almost metallic-like, fragrance that arises at the back of the throat after swallowing. This is a tea that I take out on special occasions, or to treat myself.. as ...
by Sunyata
Thu May 22, 2025 2:14 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: A single cateogory of tea is such a rabbit hole.
Replies: 7
Views: 1259

Re: A single cateogory of tea is such a rabbit hole.

I have a 2015(?) Fuding Yinzhen that I suspect was lightly baked because it has that warm freshness to it, doesnt havent the typical "hay" or green bean character which I dislike in white tea. Instead, the baking preserves the freshness - i didnt detect any herbal aroma that comes from ageing despit...
by Sunyata
Sat May 03, 2025 9:13 am
Forum: Black Tea
Topic: Lapsang Souchong
Replies: 102
Views: 100119

Re: Lapsang Souchong

https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=613563812975&price=735&sourceType=item&sourceType=item&suid=f231332c-5c1d-425a-995f-ca064775ee3a&shareUniqueId=31427720428&ut_sk=1.Z8jq86G6rdcDANACgj%2Ff%2BFJj_21646297_1746229492026.Copy.1&un=882e7455b677f927d3f1f9680a0b488c&share_crt_v=1&un_site=0&spm=a2159r.1...
by Sunyata
Fri May 02, 2025 9:10 pm
Forum: Black Tea
Topic: Lapsang Souchong
Replies: 102
Views: 100119

Re: Lapsang Souchong

https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=613563812975&price=735&sourceType=item&sourceType=item&suid=f231332c-5c1d-425a-995f-ca064775ee3a&shareUniqueId=31427720428&ut_sk=1.Z8jq86G6rdcDANACgj%2Ff%2BFJj_21646297_1746229492026.Copy.1&un=882e7455b677f927d3f1f9680a0b488c&share_crt_v=1&un_site=0&spm=a2159r.13...
by Sunyata
Fri May 02, 2025 11:03 am
Forum: Oolong Tea
Topic: What Oolong Are You Drinking
Replies: 2894
Views: 2395528

Re: What Oolong Are You Drinking

As much as I would like to avoid trashing famous big brands and focus on the good stuff, I feel the need to warn those relatively new to the deep rabbit-hole of yancha who are made aware of a particular XiGua brand which is based in Huiyuankeng, perhaps equally famous as RuiQuan based in Shuiliandon...
by Sunyata
Fri May 02, 2025 10:30 am
Forum: Black Tea
Topic: Lapsang Souchong
Replies: 102
Views: 100119

Re: Lapsang Souchong

I got it off the official store on taobao, which is cheaper than the international lapsang store. I don't think tea labelled as wild in the yefang/semi-wild sense of the term applies to Wuyi yancha or Tongmu hongcha, since the good terroirs are properly managed to a greater degree than perhaps the m...
by Sunyata
Fri May 02, 2025 2:51 am
Forum: Black Tea
Topic: Lapsang Souchong
Replies: 102
Views: 100119

Re: Lapsang Souchong

Zhengshantang's JJM 2025 (18 April was the release date) is so full, creamy, thick, luxurious in the mouth that makes me think that its all about the texture. The fragrance is fine-tuned, very clear and singular, and has a gentle rose-like flavor (not maltiness) - not the tart fruity you find in oth...
by Sunyata
Fri Apr 25, 2025 1:04 pm
Forum: Black Tea
Topic: Lapsang Souchong
Replies: 102
Views: 100119

Re: Lapsang Souchong

It’s their signature product, so probably should be good. So tea growing in natural conditions (in the forests of TongMu), among other plants, without much intervention is labeled as yefang. I would think this would be very difficult to harvest with small yield, so very expensive and hard to get. I...
by Sunyata
Tue Apr 22, 2025 9:37 pm
Forum: Black Tea
Topic: Lapsang Souchong
Replies: 102
Views: 100119

Re: Lapsang Souchong

Wild has 2 meanings. The kind of tea that is of minimal intervention, grown in natural conditions, harvested once or every few years, is designed as 'yefang'. You can think of yefang as 'forest' tea. Qizhong means native variety, as opposed to the more commercialized varieties. They tend to be slowe...
by Sunyata
Wed Apr 02, 2025 9:29 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Water Water Everywhere... What’s Your Water?
Replies: 491
Views: 473127

Re: Water Water Everywhere... What’s Your Water?

Reporting back... I've had Voss and while its better than most other European water brands, it has a kind of weird plastic taste especially if its stored in warm warehouses. Water with especially high silica, that is sourced from underground volcanic rock or passed through layers of rock formation, ...
by Sunyata
Tue Mar 11, 2025 2:21 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Water Water Everywhere... What’s Your Water?
Replies: 491
Views: 473127

Re: Water Water Everywhere... What’s Your Water?

Continuing with my water experiments, now using Volvic water to brew sheng pu and yancha. I got to say that its disappointing. Muffles and mutes the sheng pu, while it performs better with yancha - it doesnt bring out the flavors of yancha. The only positive thing I see is that for those adverse to ...
by Sunyata
Tue Mar 11, 2025 1:23 am
Forum: Vendor Discussion & Recommendation
Topic: Green Tea Vendor Topic
Replies: 94
Views: 615184

Re: Green Tea Vendor Topic

I recently emailed Hojo about Mingqian tea and he had very strong opinions in his response: We do not carry Mingqian tea at our store. The reason is simple—Mingqian tea is of poor quality. While it is commonly believed to be high-quality, this is merely a marketing tactic to sell tea to uninformed ...
by Sunyata
Thu Mar 06, 2025 9:56 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Water Water Everywhere... What’s Your Water?
Replies: 491
Views: 473127

Re: Water Water Everywhere... What’s Your Water?

https://down-sg.img.susercontent.com/file/sg-11134207-7rent-m296osl1o4w0c7 Trying out Tibetan water. It's very soft and makes tea sweet and clean, however it does pull out more astringency and my teas tastes flatter with it, barely any "body" or texture from my brews. So far not impressed, will try...
by Sunyata
Wed Mar 05, 2025 8:00 pm
Forum: Blogs, Podcasts, & Vlogs
Topic: Wuyi Hype
Replies: 16
Views: 26799

Re: Wuyi Hype

I've been thinking about old trees yan cha recently. Recently I saw a video from a guy who was drinking an old tree yan cha and talking about it like old tree yan chas are better. This has been the opposiute of my personal expirence. When I go to Wuyi I often get shown old trees - Lao Cong- with a ...
by Sunyata
Mon Mar 03, 2025 8:14 am
Forum: Black Tea
Topic: Lapsang Souchong
Replies: 102
Views: 100119

Re: Lapsang Souchong

I bought small samples of Hojo's Lapsang Souchong Hua Xiang and Lapsang Souchong Qi Zhong, but haven't tried them yet. Yesterday I had the 2015 Yanxun Xiaozhong from DXJD and it was super smokey, even after ten years of age. It wasn't tannic or bitter, just full of clean pine smoke. I couldn't real...