u/dannysilverghost

I had this bai mu dan from yunnan sourcing, it was spring 2024 harvest and I usually go for silver needles but this one was so great. It was creamy and thick without the woody/hay undernotes that I tasted in other bai mu dans. So, did anyone try this one before and what else can you recommend similar to this one?

p.s. I've tried the Fuding one from YS, it was nothing like this one.

Not the best plating but this was divine. Just discovered a new strawberry ice cream and I whipped some cream with matcha to complement it. I usually prefer usucha but this combination is really too good to pass.

I've recently got a couple shengs from bitterleafteas, so here a new cake unwrapping asmr. I wanted to do a first impression but frankly everything tastes a bit off these days. The dry smell was amazing, I just couldn't taste it in the cup.

Btw I drank Secret Garden 2026 couple days ago and even though my taste buds are severely compromised I could still taste that one. Can't wait to go back to it once my palate is normal again.

Yunnan Sourcing, Spring 2026, Imperial grade pure bud Bi Luo Chun.

I don't think this performs that well with my usual green tea temperature, at 80 C with flash steeping it was slightly fishy, which was a bit weird. I've got brothy and umami notes around 4th and 5th steep when I brewed them longer than 3 minutes each.

I think for this one, higher temperatures and longer steeping times might be better way to go. Overall I'm not blown away but it is nice.

I was looking for a good stoneware teacup and this one is really fun. I have 45-50 ml small cups with a similar glaze but sometimes I want to be able to chug down a good amount of shou puerh and this one holds around 120 ml.

I whipped cream with matcha and served it over vanilla and strawberry ice-cream. It was truly happiness in a spoon.

I love our Turkish teas but never had the chance to delve into green tea category from local sources. Here is a relatively new brand on the horizon called Vrosi Tea. They have a very limited product line, inlcuding an oolong and a whole leaf black tea.

Now let's talk about their green tea. It's taste profile is on the sweet side. I like to brew it at 75C and it is impossible to over brew, it just never gets bitter. After the sweetness creamy floral notes comes along, very similar to unroasted Taiwanese Jin Xuan oolong and vegatal umami notes rounds it up. It is very tasty but also very gentle and not as powerful as Japanese greens.

And the price is basically a steal for what this is, 100g package is only around 7.5 dollars. I'll be definitely trying out their other products and I recommend their green tea to anyone who can get their hands on.

These days I have surplus tea that is just not really good enough for gongfu or even western style brewing so I'm planing to make lots of cold brews. The first one is actually super affordable yet also great tasting so I wanted ease myself with something I'd actually drink.

This is Xinyang Mao Jian(g.628) which I've gotten from Beta Tea, it was 2.3 usd for 50 grams. The taste profile almost reminds me of Anzac, a sheng puerh from W2T, it can get really astringent with hui gan when pushed, it is lovely to drink both hot and cold. A bit floral too. My recipe for the cold brew is 15 grams per 1.5 Lt water, 18 h in the fridge.

Now onto my second brew which was a total gamble on a cheap gyokuro, from Beta Tea again, it is just not reminiscent of a proper gyokuro and at the price point of 9 dollars for 50 grams I wasn't expecting much but it was on sale from 17 dollars so I was more than ready to make it at least drinkable. I've used 10 grams Gyokuro + 1 gram of dried Osmanthus flowers in 1.5 Lt water and I let it sit for 12 hours in the fridge. Result was almost like a high mountain unroasted Taiwanese oolong with all those flowery notes coming from the Osmanthus and the vegetal notes from the gyokuro. Overall I think Osmanthus is quite the hack for any tea with rather lackluster quality.

I also made a batch of my favorite cold brew with Jinggu Sun-Dried Silver Needles White Pu-erh Tea Cake from Yunnan Sourcing, if anyone has it on hand you really should try it as a cold brew.

I have a Mao Feng, another Mao Jian but no where as good as the one I've mentioned above, a really upsetting Longjing nearing the end of its life, a yunwu which is not half bad but probably an old harvest just like the rest. I've got them all from Beta Tea for 2.3 dollars per 50 grams so I'm not mad at the quality but also that makes me really free to experiment on them without any guilt. So, as of now I'm open to every crazy suggestion that can improve an old withering green tea batch.