Rah's Thoughts on Tea

Origin: Greenland Organic Farm, East Nepal

Harvest: First Flush

I decided to try What-Cha’s Nepal First Flush Silver Oolong today; Alistair decided to pepper my latest shipment with only one Nepali tea, but numerous Indian ones, I can’t help, but think he is desperately trying to improve my opinion of Indian tea or perhaps cement my feelings on their superior Nepali neighbors. Regardless I am not really fond of white tea, generally they feel a little too expensive for me, even though I wouldn’t bat an eye at spending two or three times the amount on a green tea, and I generally prefer the jasmine scented ones rather than a straight white tea.

Dry Leaves: It has a very nice pungent orange blossom aroma. The leaves look like typical silver needles, perhaps a little greener then some in this price range, but they are a little reminiscent of a Bi Lo Chun. They are very soft and have a nice downy feel.

First Steeping

Temperature: 176^oF

Brewing Time: Two Minutes

Aroma: Orange blossom and Sage

Flavor: Cane Sugar, Orange and Vegetal

Tasting Notes: I almost wanted to say this has a floral aroma in addition to the orange blossom, but it’s not quite there. I feel this way in my subsequent infusions, it’s almost like there is a ghostly floral present that is simultaneously present and not. Regardless I rather liked this tea, I am not normally one for white teas especially silver needles, but I found this was quite pleasant. It reminded me a lot of those “enhanced teas” with orange blossom oil, but it has a much cleaner taste and scent.

It is a very perfume-y tea, but not overpowering. It reminded me a little of a Darjeeling oolong, but not as rough around the edges. It has that orange taste that is present in many Indian oolongs, but not as blunt as an Indian oolong. This was probably my favorite of the three infusions, although I most note this was a difficult decision to come to; each infusion was stunning, but this had the sharpest taste and I tend to prefer the sharp cutting flavors over mellower ones.

Second Steeping

Temperature: 181 ^oF

Brewing Time: Three Minutes

Aroma: Orange Blossom and Sage

Flavor: Floral, Cane Sugar and Vegetal

Tasting Notes: The sage aroma is stronger this time and offers a nice contrast to the orange blossom. And there was a Floral taste to it this time, I am not that confident in describing it as violet because the second time I brewed it I was getting orchid. I am a little sad that I don’t have more of this tea.

This was a very nice infusion; the vegetal notes are becoming stronger and are on the verge of becoming the key flavor.

Third Steeping

Temperature: 186 ^oF

Brewing Time: Four Minutes

Aroma: Orange, Lettuce and Sage

Flavor: Cane Sugar and Vegetal

Tasting Notes: I was surprised at how strong the cane sugar became. I thought the vegetal notes were going to become the key player in the last infusion because the cane sugar was becoming lighter, but it made come back. Otherwise it is very nice, a little simple by now, but there is nothing bad about that.

I was surprised by how much I liked this tea, even though it came from one of my favorite tea stores and from my favorite tea farm in the region.  This tea is definitely worth trying and for $8.63 for 50g it is not that bad of deal. If this was a Darjeeling tea, I imagine it would be sold for a much higher price.

I’ve been sitting on these samples for a while and finally decided to try them. I bought the Discover VietnamSampler from What-cha and while I am not that interested in the Wild Black or Wild Dark teas, I am not sure if I’ll include my thoughts on those in the second part.

Vietnam Red Buffalo Oolong

Origin: Moc Chau, Son La Province, Vietnam

Elevation: 1000m+

Dry Leaves: This was the tea that was the most interesting, for some reason it reminds me of a dark roast TGY. It has a lot more red and browns then the picture suggests, although the leaves are predominantly black.

Temperature: 194^oF

Brewing Time: One Minute (adding thirty seconds each subsequent infusion)

Aroma: Charcoal and Oak

Flavor: Charcoal, Smoke, Floral, Honey, Cinnamon and Malty

Tasting Notes:  I didn’t like this at first, it felt too much like a dark TGY. While I am not a big fan of darker oolongs, but with each sip it grew on me. The initial charcoal taste was a little off-putting, at first I couldn’t taste anything else, but I started to taste a smoky honey taste. It is a little reminiscent of a purple tea; it has a nice smoky edge that gets stronger with each subsequent steeping while the charcoal taste grows weaker. This has a nice staying power; I got seven infusions out of this before I started to notice a considerable loss of flavor.

This was the tea that I was the most excited for, even though I prefer greener oolongs, and while it is not my favorite it is quite nice. It did take me a couple steepings to appreciate this tea, but at $9.60 for 50g it is definitely worth it. I may or may not buy this again, I don’t like having a lot of dark teas, but I could see myself buying this again if I don’t care for the new Indonesian TGY has sourced. 

Vietnam Flowery Oolong

Origin: Moc Chau, Son La Province, Vietnam

Elevation: 1000m

Dry Leaves: The leaves looked fairly typical of floral oolongs although there was quite a bit of stems showing which was nice. In my experience the floral oolongs with stems tend to be of a higher quality than the floral oolongs that are just leaves (think Beautiful Taiwan Tea’s DaYuLing). Although the pellets were really small.

Temperature: 194^oF

Brewing Time: One Minute (adding one minute each subsequent infusion)

Aroma: Floral

Flavor: Floral, Honey and Raw Sugar Cane

Tasting Notes: This is definitely a filler tea. I don’t mean this in a bad way, but it is a very non-offensive tea that I could easily see this blended in with a Taiwanese High Mountain Oolong. I’ve been hearing for years that Taiwanese farmers mix their oolongs with cheaper teas of equal quality from Vietnam and Thailand, and never really believed it until now.

While this is a very good flowery oolong, I am not sure if I would buy it again even though it is easily worth the $9.60 (as of writing this), but it has a lot of tough competition in this price range. I know Alistair has sourced some High Mountain Oolongs recently and I am curious how this compares to them. I can easily say that this is my favorite of these three regardless while I like more complex teas, this was quite nice. I said before that this is filler tea and I was considering trying to be more diplomatic about it, but I decided against doing so. While the leaves may have been rolled way too pass as a Taiwanese Oolong, it is the perfect tea to blend with more expensive teas without changing the taste. In fact I used my leftover leaves and mixed equal parts with Beautiful Taiwan Teas DaYuLing and a nonpareil DaYuLing that I got from Teavivre and I honestly could not tell the What-Cha/BTT Flowery DaYuLing & What-Cha/Teavivre Nonparel-Flowery-DaYuLing from the unblended DaYuLings.

Vietnam Wild Mountain Mist Silver Needle White Tea

Origin: Soui Giang, Yen Bai Province, Vietnam

Elevation:  1200m+

Dry Leaves: The leaves are fairly typical of Silver Needle teas, although they were surprisingly crisp most Silver Needles that I have had has been very pliable and soft. Besides that for the most part these leaves are fairly uniform, I did notice the occasional fuzzy leaf, but for the most part the leaves are lightly twisted and have a pleasant pine needle smell.

Temperature: 176^oF

Brewing Time: One Minute (adding one minute each subsequent infusion)

Aroma: Pine and Citrus

Flavor: Melon, Smoke and Vanilla

Tasting Notes: Wow. This is quite a strange tea, even though the packaging clearly sells it has a gentle smoke taste, I was not really expecting it; like the Red Buffalo, this taste like a purple tea.

I could see myself buying this again even though for 50g at $16 (at the time of writing) it is a little expensive; I have not encountered any smoky silver needles before. Normally I am not a fan of unscented silver needles, but those smoky notes make this tea really interesting. At first I wanted to say that this was my favorite of the three teas I looked at today, but I don’t often drink white teas and I always feel Oolongs have an unfair advantage over all teas since it has an incredible range of tastes; although the pricing isn’t that unusual, Teavivre has two silver Needles for $17.90 for 50g (at the time of writing this) of a comparable quality.

Overall I was very impressed although, foolishly, I was expecting to fall in love with the Red Buffalo, but I am not too disappointed. Perhaps I was being too optimistic about the Red Buffalo when I have a history of preferring green and floral oolongs over roasted ones. Regardless I am excited to try the three greens next and a little anxious of the Dark and Black tea that was included in this sampler.