Rah's Thoughts on Tea

Mountain Tea’s Light Roast Sumatra Oolong Fall 2014

So I finally decided to get to writing my review of Mountain Tea’s Light RoastSumatra Oolong, I’ve been drinking this for quite a while, but I never got around to writing anything about it, not because it is bad or anything like that, but because I’ve been drinking it so often. If this is your first tea from Mountain Tea prepare to be shocked by the outrageous price. At the time of writing this five ounces of this is being sold for thirteen dollars. Let that sink in for a second. Thirteen dollars for five ounces of tea. And it is definitely worth more!

I had quite a bit of trouble photographing this tea session, for quite some while I’ve been having trouble with steam, so be prepared for my normally bad photography to be even worse.

Dry Leaves: The leaves are a strangely shaped, they are not exactly tightly compressed, but they are almost twisted like a baozhong. Regardless there is a light floral aroma to the dry leaves.

First Steeping

Temperature: 190^oF

Brewing Time: One Minute

Aroma: Sugar Cane

Flavor: Roasted Chestnuts and Honey

Tasting Notes: This was very interesting. I know Mountain Tea describes this tea as being reminiscent of both honey and Roasted Chestnuts, but I didn’t believe them. I’ve had nutty teas before, but not like this before. It was rather interesting taste; it had that meaty chestnut taste as well as a very light roast taste, despite being a green oolong. So far I love this tea, it’s not as complex as I like my high mountain oolongs, but it is very good (especially considering the price) as a daily drinker.

Second Steeping

Temperature: 195^oF

Brewing Time: Two Minutes

Aroma: Fruity and Sugar Cane          

Flavor: Roasted Chestnuts, Muscatel and Honey

Tasting Notes: Pretty similar to the last infusion, although it has a new fruity aroma and a muscatel taste. Otherwise it is pretty much the same as the last. I don’t favor this infusion over the last or the next, because it hasn’t changed enough. The honey and roasted chestnuts tastes have pretty much the same intensity, and the new muscatel taste doesn’t add much to the overall feel of this tea; although the muscatel taste doesn’t negatively affect this tea.

Third Steeping

Temperature: 200^oF

Brewing Time: Three Minutes

Aroma: Fruity

Flavor: Nutty, Honey and Malt

Tasting Notes: So the roasted chestnut taste is finally starting to wane and becoming a more generic nutty taste; I almost wanted to describe this as almond, it certainly is reminiscent of an almond taste in later infusions, but it isn’t exactly almond-esque, there is a something in it that reminds me more of heavier meatier nuts. Otherwise I was disappointed to see the sugar cane aroma disappear, but c’est le vie.

Regardless this is a very good tea that if you are a fan of oolongs and are in a need for a new daily drinker this is a tea for you (and even if you aren’t it is so cheap). I wish I had more to say about this, but it is a very simple tea that is amazing regardless of its simplicity.

(Tea Provided from Review)

So I decided to try my Laohuangpian sample from Wymm tea before the others mostly because I found the description of it interesting:

The name Laohuangpian literally means “old yellow leaves” in Chinese. The picking standard of pu-erh tea has been 1 bud, with 3 to 4 leaves. Usually the 3rd and 4th leaves’ shape are not as ideal after processing. For the best aesthetics of final product to the consumers, tea farmers usually filter out these bigger leaves so that the remaining ones are neat and symmetrical when pressed into pu-erh tea cakes. These bigger leaves are often kept by the tea farmers themselves and are rarely found in the market. Unknown to the general public, these larger and plumpish leaves are more flavourful and sweeter as it has been grown on the trees for a longer period of time. Laohuangpian undergoes the same production method as other pu-erh raw tea we have and possesses the same quality. This tea is worth trying if you wonder what the local tribe and tea farmers in Yunnan are enjoying on their own.

While I am by no means new to puerh, I am not sure if I ever had a laohuangpian, or at the very least a tea that advertised itself as old yellow leaves; and I do have something of a bad habit of buying puerhs based on their looks. I’ve been burned much more than I am willing to admit on puerhs with beautiful silver leaves mixed with golds and greys, I’m trying to be a little smarter when picking out puerhs, but many stores have poor tasting notes and all I have to rely on are the photos. Regardless you may remember I recently had Crimson Lotus Tea’s Sheng Education Tasting Set where I tried four grades of the same tea and was surprised to find I tended to like the lower grades more than the higher grades; so I was really looking forward to this tea since it seems to be the kind of tea that is sadly overlook because of superficial buyers like myself tend to prefer “prettier” teas. What’s that old saying about eating what the chef eats rather then what they serve? I was really interested in trying a tea that is more often than not consumed by the people who grow the tea itself.

Dry Leaves: I love the rustic packaging, my sampler set was wrapped in a paper similar to butcher paper tied with twine and had a nice leather-like tag then the actual samples were wrapped in a thin onionskin like paper. Now onto the tea itself; the leaves are mostly blue and green, but there are a few fuzzy white leaves. It has an interesting, but slight aroma; mostly green grass and a little smoke. I was rather surprised to find a tea that looks to be so tightly compressed, I am not an expert by any means, but in my experience tightly compressed puerhs tends not to have an aroma to the dry leaves. I had to do four rinses (five seconds each with boiling water) before the tea started to break up.                                                                                                          

First Steeping

Temperature: 175^oF

Brewing Time: Thirty Seconds

Aroma: Spinach, Hay and Honey

Flavor: Spinach, Honey and Hay

Tasting Notes: So I decided to start off at a fairly low temperature, I tend to do so with shengs that are new to me, generally I go for a higher starting temperature, but I am always a little cautious with teas that are new to me since I tend to prefer longer brews. The tea has a rather nice mouthfeel; it’s pretty creamy for a puerh, let alone for a puerh that is brewed at such a low temperature. The tea is a little light though, perhaps I should have done another couple rinses, as you can see from my horrible photography that the leaves are not exactly fully broken up (I rarely address how much tea I use when brewing tea, but I used seven grams in my 75ml gaiwan, these leaves are deceptively heavy! I know it looks like I didn’t use a lot, but trust me I did.).

It had a rather interesting taste, at first I didn’t get the spinach taste until the tea started to cool down. But other than that it is very smooth and simple, definitely leaning more towards a daily drinker.

Second Steeping

Temperature: 180^oF

Brewing Time: One Minute

Aroma: Spinach and Hay   

Flavor: Spinach, Honey, Hay and Mineral

Tasting Notes: I decided to double the brewing time, I had a hunch that this tea does really well over the longer it brews and I was right. The aroma is pretty much the same as last time, but much stronger than the last infusion. As for taste there is a new mineral-ly element now that is a rather nice addition, it reminds me a little more of rust, but not exactly. I almost want to describe it as wet stone, but there is a certain iron taste to it.

As the tea starts to cool the spinach becomes the dominant flavor and the hay is becoming greener.

Third Steeping

Temperature: 190^oF

Brewing Time: Two Minutes

Aroma: Hay

Flavor: Spinach, Grass, Mineral, Smoke and Honey

Tasting Notes: The honey taste has become weaker, but it is starting to linger a little. Other than that it is pretty similar to the last infusion, but there is a slight smoky edge now and the hay taste from the previous infusions have become grassy. In subsequent infusions I started to taste a lot of legume notes. As I said before I am not an expert on puerh, or any tea for the matter, but I’ve always been told that teas that have green bean tastes early on tend not to age well and are meant to be drank immediately. I am not one to age puerhs, I don’t have the patience to hide a way a tea for a couple years and let it mature, so I tend to buy puerhs meant to be drank immediately, as I said before this feels like a daily drinker and while I may develop more depth in a couple years if I were to buy a cake of this I’d probably buy it to drink immediately. 

I liked this tea, it lacked the bite that many young shengs have which was a little disappointing since I like those teas with very sharp tastes, but even without that bite this is rather nice. It feels like a nice introduction to shengs especially for someone who likes greener teas. And for $12 (CAD) for a sampler that includes three other teas this is too good of deal to pass up.

Origin: Mynamar

I thought I had a sample of the 2013 harvest of this tea, but sadly I do not so I can’t do a proper comparison between years, but I am assuming this is made from either the Summer, Autumn or Winter harvest of the First Flush plants, but I could be wrong. Anyways, let's get on to the Shan Valley Valley Green tea.

Dry Leaves: The leaves are slightly twisted, but they still are quite flat otherwise they are similar to the Shan Valley First Flush 2014 harvest, I don’t see as many stems, but it has a fruity aroma, although not the same aroma as the First Flush closer to stone fruits and has some tangy smoky notes. The 2014 First Flush reminded me of barbeque sauce, this one not so much although I could distinguish a little cooked artichoke in it.

First Steeping

Aroma: Fruity

Flavor: Metallic, Cherry, Grass and Seaweed

Tasting Notes: It’s quite interesting how similar this tea is to the 2014 First Flush, yet how different. It tastes like a darker version of the first flush although the individual flavors are quite different. Most notably this lacks the honey notes of the First Flush, but it has a rather sweet cherry taste. Unlike the first flush the metallic taste is not as sharp.

Compared to my first infusion of the 2014 First Flush, this comes up a little short. This teas is a little darker and has more astringency, a little too dark for my tastes.

Second Steeping

Aroma: Fruity                     

Flavor: Ocean, Metallic, Stone Fruit and Seaweed

Tasting Notes: It is developing a strong unami taste that I don’t remember in any of the other Shan Valley teas I had so far. I was sad to see the cherry notes become less distinct, but this infusion was much more pleasant than the previous. 

It is a little reminiscent of Japanese greens, but is nowhere as subtle. I think that is the fatal flaw with this tea it has too many strong contrasting flavors.

Third Steeping

Aroma: Fruity and Floral

Flavor: Ocean, Metallic, Fruity, and Nutty

Tasting Notes: This was very different from the previous infusions, but it was the best. It still struggles with balancing one strong flavor with another. Definitely my favorite of the three infusions, most of the astringency has gone by now.

My problem with this tea is it has too many strong overwhelming flavors fighting for attention. I prefer the First Flush over this, but Shan Valley is selling this for $1 an ounce (or 6 ounces for $5 at the time of writing this). I was a little curious as I was writing this and searched Steepster and a couple tea review blogs and was a little surprised at how poorly received this tea is, while it certainly is the ugly sister of Shan Valley’s teas (that I tried) I’ve had much worse. As you can see by my photos I have quite a lot of this tea, I plan on roasting some of this and aging the rest, some of Shan Valley’s other greens I’ve compared to puerh in previous posts and I am curious if this has any potential to improve with age.