Lychee Black

I’ve only had one other lychee black tea and I have no idea what lychee tastes like (or lychee blooms smell like). So yeah, slight handicap when rating this tea. On top of that, my brain has yet to fully engage this morning. So take this review with a grain of salt.

The taste is nicely floral. I’m not a huge fan of rose teas and this is very similar to a rose tea, but it’s probably the smoothest, least perfume-y rose-tea-like tea I’ve had. I didn’t really taste the lychee fruit, just the rose-esque finish, but the tea was lightly sweet so I’m thinking that’s the lychee aspect coming through. The tastes of the tea and lychee/rose combine nicely so it doesn’t seem like tea is overlaid with perfume.

Because I’m not a huge rose fan this isn’t something that I’d have to have, but it is very nice to drink and I enjoyed it.

Hrm. This one is very light, but interesting.

Yet another takgoti + Samovar = awesome treat! The leaves here are quite tiny, and they smell of rose, almost. Very fruity-floral.

I’ve only had lychee in terms of lychee jelly in bubble tea or lychee-flavored juice drinks. I’ve never had the fruit itself, but when I think of lychee I think juicy-sweet, so I’m a big ? is appearing over my head. The other big ? is that takgoti said to steep this up between 170-175, which is interesting for a black tea.

So I watched this steep to a lovely light nut brown, and the smell coming from the cup smells like sweet, candied roses. My first sip… I was surprised at how light this one is! Very ethereal, if I do say so myself. Gossamer-like.

The black tea base here is more cuddly than substantial, and it fades softly into a floral-like note. It tastes like a rose tea, almost. What differentiates it a bit, though, is the juicy sweetness that is the endnote of every sip. It’s very lychee, if I do say so myself.

As it cools, the floral note becomes more of a blanket for the lychee fruit taste, which I actually really enjoy. So juicy and full and luscious. I can imagine this one being awesome iced, as Samovar recommends. It might bring the fruity notes out a little bit to the forefront. I’m finding I’m enjoying this one more lukewarm than hot-out-of-the-pot.

I can’t see myself craving this all the time. It’s really delicate and serene, which is wonderful, but I could see myself tiring of this. Iced, on the other hand, might be pretty awesome. I actually might try it like that and see what happens.

I’m sort of becoming a big fan of this Samovar-thing. takgoti, you devil, you… you are the ultimate converter to the Samovar experience.

Second Samovar sample of the day. I’m now out of Samovar black tea samples to try until I come out of lockdown and can order again. It looks like there are only two that I haven’t tasted yet.

Does anyone else occasionally look at their tea log and go “wow, I can’t believe there are even that many teas in the world, let alone that I’ve tasted X number of them, let alone that I’ve written about Y number of them?” It’s a little mind boggling to me sometimes.

Wow, love the smell of the dry leaves. Floral. My first thought was lavender for some reason. Maybe my smeller is still off from being sick. It’s really rose.

The tea is a little too red to be called mahogany, but otherwise pretty close. And it has a sweet, fruity, floral aroma that is difficult to pin down. I’ve only had lychees in restaurants and I don’t really care for them as dessert offerings, but I like what their flavor does in this tea. It gives a sweetness to the tea that is a departure from the usual malty sweetness I get in Samovar black teas as it is lighter and fruitier. Nectar-like, really. There’s a slight nuttiness to it too, which is consistent with my experience of lychee in general.

This is one I’d like to drink next to some other rosy florals for comparison purposes. It seems to be a bit more subtle in its floral qualities than some others, which I like, and though I’m not an overly enthusiastic fan of the lychee by itself, at the risk of repeating myself, I will say I do like what it does in this tea.

Samovar sampler pack – rather nondescript black loose leaf, with a nice sweet and floral aroma from the lychee. It steeps up to a medium dark clear brown liquor which has a light sweet smell to it, no longer immediately recognizable as lychee. The first taste is more floral than anything else, and if someone told me this was rose tea I’d believe them. It’s quite mild, with very little astringency or bitterness even after a fairly decent steep.

With cream and sugar, the flavors are most present in the aftertaste, where it’s now finally starting to really come through as lychee flavor rather than rose or generic “floral”. It’s lighter tea than I expected, but still very enjoyable.

I had this sitting to cool off, when the fire alarm went off (thanks to the dryer) so I brought this outside with me to keep me warm~

It is a great flavor for a black tea. I didn’t think lychee could work in a tea but it worked. The flavor wasn’t too strong, but it was night lighter flavor for a black tea. I really enjoyed it. On my second cup of it now and the lychee flavor is a little stronger, and I’m not liking it as much… But this is definitely a really great tea. I feel like steeping it for 2 minutes versus 4 makes the lychee flavor less prominent?

So I got a black sampler set from Samovar, but something weird must have happened in the shipping because everything smells a bit of lapsang souchong (not the best for me). So the fact that I didn’t love this might be because of the faintly smoky smell and taste of it. Otherwise: total flowers. I’m abstaining from applying a numerical rating since the LS scent would cause me to lower the rating and that might just be a one-off thing in my sample.

I should really make this iced next time. I hear so much how everyone loves this tea iced, but I always brew it hot. I wish it were summer. Oh, how I love the heat! But on to the tea.

This is a perfect lychee tea, in my opinion. It tastes exactly the way I would expect a lychee black to taste. No disappointment here!

I wonder what those rose notes are that everyone else is tasting and Samovar includes in the description. I’m not smelling or tasting rose at all. It’s just very strong lychee to me.

Either way, this is a strong black tea that requires a little bit of milk added. Maybe I’ll use a shorter steep time next time. I think I’ll like it better that way. Although as it stands, it’s still a pretty great tea.

So, like Auggy, I don’t have much past experience with lychee in any form so I’m not sure if my rating has much merit… But I will at least rate it strictly on the terms of how I like it.

In terms of the looks of the dry leaves, I think this is probably one of the most black and thick leaves I have seen… but once they’re wet they turn into the usual black tea leaves.

I knew there would be a floral aspect to this tea but the look of the leaves don’t give off that impression. The smell gives it away, but I think I wasn’t expecting so much floral flavour from this. It’s becoming a trend, this whole “not expecting certain flavours” thing.

I’m not sure if I would call this one “light”. Maybe I steeped it longer than others, but it seemed pretty dark and full bodied, just with strong hints of lychee.

Not sure if I would get this one again simply because I’m still not sure if I care about lychee that much, but it’s definitely a good tea to try and I’m grateful that I tried it.

The aroma of the cup reminds me of the tea base of Zhena’s Gypsy Rose, but with a light fruit aroma in place of the sharp, floral rose of the rose tea. The tea aroma is spicy. From this aroma, I am expecting a taste from the tea that is biting.

I am surprised to taste a so-smooth, and more importantly, soft tea flavor. By this I mean that the bitterness is soft and faint (sides of the tongue, nothing in the back, no sharpness up front), and there is no astringency to speak of. I get some malty and sweet flavors from the tea.

The lychee flavor is there, but it is so light it is like a reminder of a flavor that reminds me of lychee. Lychee is not one of the most commanding flavors in the fruit world, so this light tea is a great match. The whole package is quite relaxed.

The aftertaste is, surprisingly (to me), of the tea flavor, with some stronger lychee flavor, not a bitter or sweet aftertaste.

I shared a small pot of this. One of us thought this was the cat’s pajamas.

Every time I spot another lychee-flavored tea, I have to add it to my shopping list immediately. I love the fruit, but I have yet to find a tea that tastes as good as it smells. So far, I’ve tried the Lichee from Lupicia, the Lychee Black from Samovar, and the Lychee from Chado Tea Room. They don’t deviate too far from each other as far as ratings go in my book.