Thank you Teavivre for this free sample. Alright, here we go. My first unflavoured black tea for a long time, since I’m more into greens, whites etc. lighter teas and don’t really like those strong flavours that shu pu’erh, black tea and other darker teas often have. But blacks will get a chance and this is the one that will either make me black tea drinker or they will just sit in my cupboard longer. Since Teavivres Tie Guan Yin made me light oolong liker in a second, I’m willing to try if this has the same effect.
Dry tea looks really good, it has tiny leaves that reminds me a bit from Bi Luo Chun green tea. They’re black/dark brown colored and some of them have golden hair on them. I can smell some chocolate and maybe some raisins in the dry leaf aroma, not so bad than I expected.
I used Chinese gongfu method and my lovely 1dl porcelain gaiwan. I used fewer leaves that suggested since I think it’s too much for most teas. 85C, lower than 100C that I’m used to. Wet leaves smell just like I remember black tea should, it reminds me of rye bread. Leaves are now chocolate brown in color and tea is reddish brown with orange hue. Tea smells same than wet leaves, but milder.
And now the moment of truth, taste. Not that horrible actually, it has malty flavour and bit bitterness and astringency that bring nice refreshing layer but it’s still quite sweet, honey like sweetness.
It wansn’t that bad, I drank it all. I can recommend it, but black did not become my favourite. But I will get my black teas finished.
Flavors: Astringent, Bitter, Chocolate, Earth, Honey, Malt, Sweet, Sweet Potatoes, Wheat
