I’ve mentioned Cher on this blog a few times, mostly because she has an insane amount of tea and always brings interesting teas to our tea sessions. Her dedication to tea is such that while on business trips to China, she ended up making friends with a few farmers and tea-merchants. As you can imagine, her tea collection is insane. We’ve always joked that she should start her own tea business and well, now she has!

As her friend, I was determined to support her by buying something; I always feel that if a friend is going to try to make it on their own, the least I can do is to buy their products and talk about it. After all, if I talk about teas that I buy from other businesses, why can’t I talk about teas I buy from friends? [1]

So that’s what I’m doing in this post – I bought her teas, tried it, and now I’m reviewing it. The sample box consists of six teas (10g samples per tea):

Yinghong No. 9 (Black Tea)

The leaves here were gorgeous – long and thin with lots of golden tips. Even before brewing, there was a rich malty scent. When rinsing the leaves, I was struck by how intensely sweet the fragrance was. The tea liquor was a dark red/brown and had a very sweet aroma and taste. To be honest, I was surprised at how sweet this was – it’s on par with the Milanxiang I have. The tea lingers pleasantly in the throat.

This is probably my favourite tea in the sample pack.

Light Roast Tie Guan Yin

The oolong balls here were very green with a fresh scent. The brewed tea was a very light greenish-yellow with grassy notes. In terms of taste, I got mostly grassy and vegetal notes. While there were some floral notes, this tea reminded me of a green tea rather than an oolong.

To be honest, this wasn’t my favourite. There’s probably a lot of personal preference here, given that I prefer the higher roasts for oolongs (something I realised in Kenny’s oolong workshop), so while it’s not for me, people who like the greener oolongs may like it.

Sparrow’s Tongue

I don’t actually have a Sparrow’s Tongue in my current tea collection so trying this was fun! The leaves were black and had a smoky note to them. The tea liquor was like the leaves – dark – and with a smoky scent [2]. Oddly enough, the spent leaves gave me some impression of ‘freshness’ alongside the smokiness. The tea is very different from my dancongs (as expected from a yancha!) and was almost umami when I drank it. It’s very smooth with hints of bitterness at the top of the tongue and back of the throat.

This is something that I’d drink again: in fact, I should start exploring yanchas soon.

Liu An Gua Pian

This may be the shortest review out of the six because this Liu An Gua Pian is very much like the one I already have. It’s not surprising because Cher was the one who helped in the group buy for my Chinese tea haul and it’s probably from the same farmer.

Duck Shit Dancong

I take back my words. The Liu An Gua Pian, this Duck Shit, and the Milanxiang below are going to be equally short because Cher was the one who had the contacts for the group buy. This was pretty much like the Duck Shit I already have – smooth and floral. I enjoyed this and it’s nice to have a little bit more so I can share with friends.

Milan Xiang Dancong

The Milan Xiang was also pretty sweet and floral and it works great as a cold brew tea as well. I love the fragrance and how the honey-sweet notes linger in the mouth. I brewed this the traditional way first, and then made a second batch for my friend. It’s a really accessible tea, even for people who don’t really drink tea, and I found that the cold brew version is interesting enough for most people to realise that straight tea is worth appreciating too.

Original (ie longer) review here

Overall

This was a fun box to try. I already have three of these teas so only three were new, but out of the three, I was extremely impressed by the Yinghong No. 9. I have quite a few black teas because that’s what my family likes, but I haven’t had one so sweet in such a long time. I wasn’t super impressed with the light-roast Tie Guan Yin, but that’s mostly because I prefer the higher roast versions.

If you haven’t bought from ourteafam before or if you’re trying to figure out what kinds of Chinese teas you want to explore, I think this box is for you. 10 grams per tea is enough for two sessions and you can get multiple steeps from one session, so I think it’s enough for you to decide if you like a particular tea. I always have a problem with finishing teas yet wanting something new, so this was the perfect way to try new teas without having to worry about my tea cupboard expanding too much.

Notes

Ourteafam Sample Box: It’s OOS now, but Cher says that it’ll be back once she’s found replacements for the OOS teas!

[1] Okay, I know there’s bias and all that, but I’ve always been very honest with Cher about whether I like the teas I drink and I’m not going to stop now.

[2] “Smoky” here is not the best term. It’s not a full-on smoky note like what you get with lapsang souchongs, but I can’t think of any other term. Lightly smoky? Slightly smoky? Embers?