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Haha, that was too funny @LeoFox. I’m hoping you bought some +-$1 gram yancha from OWT as well, so you are not left with only painful memories . Even Taiwan oolong at that very low price point in USD would be a challenge. I can recommend from OWT his Gold Medal RouGui $0.91 gram but I don’t think it is available now. Anyway, I hope you order some higher quality oolong from him so you can get a fair assessment of what he has to offer. I wonder if he sells the cheap stuff to restaurants. I have a bunch of lower value yancha from Adventures in Every Cup out of Singapore and at first I though that it was pretty bad, dry dust and left overs, but then I served one after dinner with some friends and it became a very nice compliment to a rich meal, breaking down some of the heaviness.

Victoria wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 26, 2021 12:26 pm

Haha, that was too funny LeoFox. I’m hoping you bought some +-$1 gram yancha from OWT as well, so you are not left with only painful memories . Even Taiwan oolong at that very low price point in USD would be a challenge. I can recommend from OWT his Gold Medal RouGui $0.91 gram but I don’t think it is available now. Anyway, I hope you order some higher quality oolong from him so you can get a fair assessment of what he has to offer. I wonder if he sells the cheap stuff to restaurants. I have a bunch of lower value yancha from Adventures in Every Cup out of Singapore and at first I though that it was pretty bad, dry dust and left overs, but then I served one after dinner with some friends and it became a very nice compliment to a rich meal, breaking down some of the heaviness.

Honestly, I've had decent taiwan oolong at this price point that is completely drinkable, though lacking in wow factor and complexity. I dont think I will order anymore from this company. To me, presenting this low quality material is such an insult to consumers that I cannot trust them for sourcing higher end leaf. I have put in a large order from lazy cat across their whole range so I am looking forward to that.

As others have mentioned, a drinkable yancha at that price point would indeed be like finding a white whale... on Mars... with its stomach full of black swans.

I tried a couple of the "budget" alternatives from lazy cat a couple months back, and it served as a reminder as to why I almost never drink yanchas. Priced out of anything even close to being decent (beside the occasional small samples that I buy now and then) I'd rather spend my money elsewhere.

Will be interesting to hear your opinion of the lazy cat teas! Hope you find something for your liking, although for OWT's sake I kinda hope you don't

@LeoFox, I'm really sorry to hear of your problems with OWT. They are really good, honest vendors and their higher priced teas are quite enjoyable (I must say, however, that your tasting notes are hilarious!). Another vendor I would suggest is Wuyi Origin, based in Wuyishan. The company is run by Cindy Chen and all of the teas on offer are from her family production (she also has Dancong from her husband's family). Website is https://wuyiorigin.com.

After the awful yancha, it is such a pleasure to drink wonderful roasted oolong from Taiwan at a great price point.

Today, an old favorite: muzha TGY from eco cha priced ~0.25/g. (Just slightly more expensive than OWT's throat shredder rougui)

Based on vendor description, this is about 3/4 tgy and 1/4 jin xuan. The super tight balls expand generously, giving off an aggressive roast smell not too different from the cheap yancha. However the taste is another story. Highly aromatic with powerful upper register notes for 6-7 infusions. The flavors of dried fruit, toffee and a certain greenness is strong across the first 4 infusions. Later infusions are more nutty with mild medicinal sweetness and menthol cooling after effect. What a fantastic value.


Brewed 6g in 85 mL gaiwan. From experience, I know it is even better brewed in peter kuo's wood fired pot, hahahaha.

Taiwanese oolong here too, enjoying the last few steeps of HY Chen’s 2020 winter dongding on this uneventful (thankfully!) Sunday evening. Aromatic, flavorful, full-bodied. In one word: nice.

(in the background of the photo below: the last two steeps of a quite different tea are cooling down - on account of the discussion on hot beverages and esophageal cancer)

@Balthazar & @LeoFox. I also selected a Taiwanese oolong, but on a warm and sunny day here, I chose Winter Lishan from Zhang Xie Zhu's garden.

Balthazar wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 07, 2021 12:51 pm

Taiwanese oolong here too, enjoying the last few steeps of HY Chen’s 2020 winter dongding on this uneventful (thankfully!) Sunday evening. Aromatic, flavorful, full-bodied. In one word: nice.

(in the background of the photo below: the last two steeps of a quite different tea are cooling down - on account of the discussion on hot beverages and esophageal cancer)

Having HY Chen’s winter 2020, 100 year garden medium roast DD as well. @Balthazar, did you also get his new organic garden DD, or any other teas from him? Wish I’d gotten two extra jin, it is so good, especially after a couple of very lean years. His rich roasting style aligns with my preference perfectly.

Seeing your last steeps in the background, reminds me to mention I always do overnight steeps after the first four during the day. It’s a rich treat the next morning, having cooled down the flavor is more pronounced.

Imagine reading through LeoFox's reviews and commentary, while staring at the same, still-to-be-drunk box of yancha samples on your bookcase out of the corner of your eye, as I am

Won't beat a dead horse, but I'll just reiterate what others have said - I guess I also underestimated how challenging yancha may be at a certain price point, as I've had other oolong, certainly from Taiwan and even dancong, that's quite drinkable there. The Tie Luo Han and Old Tree Rou Gui I had this weekend were quite flat. I gave up on the latter ($.68/g) this afternoon after finding it lacking in flavor, in favor of some High Mountain Alishan. Though not my favorite from Taiwan, it was easily 2x as good (to me) as the Rou Gui at 1/2 the cost. It also has me eagerly looking forward to the spring harvest.

I did acquire a modern hongni from EoT with yancha in mind, though I may just dedicate it to red tea or another class of oolongs. I've been brewing and judging in a porcelain gaiwan, so the potential muting effect from a new unseasoned pot hasn't been the culprit. So for it has played nicely with high mountain oolongs (and red tea).

McScooter wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 07, 2021 3:19 pm

Imagine reading through LeoFox's reviews and commentary, while staring at the same, still-to-be-drunk box of yancha samples on your bookcase out of the corner of your eye, as I am

The worst of the lot even overpowers my cheap smoked lapsang souchong from stash tea! Learned that when i made my first attempt at a russian caravan blend. The blend still tasted much better than that rougui by itself, hahaha.

viewtopic.php?p=33924#p33924

I am still waiting for my order from lazy cat. I have high hopes given its good reputation among some trusted connoisseurs and I have purchased from across their entire range.

LeoFox, I found your yancha tasting notes interesting. I've had similar experiences with some vendors, though I'm reluctant to name names, tastes being subjective.

Even though it doesn't fall into the unattainable/unattainable expensive category others have mentioned, I've found most of the yancha I purchased from Wuyi Origin enjoyable. Months ago, I did a side-by-side comparison of Cindy's laocong shuixian with another vendor's laocong shuixian. Hers was smooth, soft, and had that floral-roasted-mineral character I, at least, enjoy when drinking yancha, while the other tea was noticably rough and disjointed.

It may not be the best yancha in the world but I found it enjoyable enough to keep me from giving up on yancha entirely!

A word on negative reviews. While @Chris not mentioning names is a nice gesture towards people who’s livelihood may depend on sales of tea, I do find a negative review much more likely to contain truth than a positive one. All taste are subjective to a point, yet if a certain amount of people dislike something it’s more like to be so for more people than the opposite.

I’ve done my share of following and checking out perceived good teas and sources by reading raving reviews, following the hype, even though I should have know that I’ll be disappointed (also due to my geographic location). And disappointed I was.

After all the likelihood to be exposed to something mediocre or bad as far as tea for the West is concerned is much higher than the opposite, ergo the standard to which a new tea is going to be compared to is low. So much better than a terrible tea dust bag, might still be a low quality tea. The range is huge.

I for one would have wished for a few more critical voices to save me some money... On the other hand, ignorance is bliss, so maybe things as they are, are normal?

Next up da hong pao from tea habitat at ~1$/g.

The leaves are large and smell of heavy roast

Brewed 6g/85 mL gaiwan using 90 tds water
Rinse, 20s, 30s, 45s 1min, 1min25s, 1min45s, 2min, 2min30s, 3min30s 5min, 8min, steeped out

The fragrance is nothing to write home about. The flavor is interesting. The tea is light and dominated by higher tier notes of candy and mango. The early steeps, including the cooled down rinse, has a slight chalky texture and light chocolate/coffee notes. There is almost no astringency. The later steeps are creamy, and overall has a dessert like quality. There is a lingering sweetness and minerality. Everything is subtle. I cannot imagine brewing this in anything other than porcelain due to the lightness. However, despite the lightness, the tea steeped out many times consistently and had good persistence.

Worth the price? Maybe ... I feel my mouth watering as I post this... but...1$/g? Questionable.. is it 4x better than the muzha TGY I had earlier in the day? No way.

I get the feeling this tea demands very low tds water, as it was selected per Imen's preference.

Hello, long time no post. Just dropping by, checking what's up in these parts. Drinking some leftover RG this morning.

tjkdubya wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 07, 2021 10:06 pm

Hello, long time no post. Just dropping by, checking what's up in these parts. Drinking some leftover RG this morning.

I heard you are launching a yancha company?