338 Tasting Notes
This is a really good black tea. Its soft glossy dark syrup sweetness, with some spicy fruit, a bit long the lines of a very nicely balanced dongfang meiren. Low malt, ripe wood flavours. Lasts a good amount of infusions. Does not get sickly like some oriental beauty can. Some good fruits in there too – raisins? stonefruity
I’m not a big fan of blacks really, but this one took me by surprise. This and the other black I got from what-cha (the taiwanese wild chan cha – 25% off this august as the tea of the month!) are some of the nicest black teas i’ve tried in a good while.
I brewed it gongfu and got a load of steeps from it, i’m really sure black fans will be able to get a lot of pleasure from it western style as well. You can get a whole lot of flavour from it & possibly create a much more complex cup than I got – its nice and gentle gongfu.
So I’m on holiday in the limousin, France. No Internet signal so I didn’t have my phone but found a dammann freres.
My French is terrible but the lady didn’t have bai mu Dan but said this is ‘a grade up’ from it.
Not sure how bad their bai mu Dan is, but this is not what I would consider a grade up from mine.
Its also a different tea altogether, being greener and thin wiry compared to the image on their website. But they describe the dominant note accurately : ‘plain’.
Its very plain, with gentle green bitterness. No florals or any complexity, no white wine, no white tea even.
Just didnt know what to make of it, very boring.
That is awesome, enjoy your vacation!
Oh, I meant it like ‘I was on holiday’, ive just come back
Beautiful place! Great food, and decent amount of tea culture compared to the UK
Ah cool, yeah, at 2am, I didn’t catch that particular usage of the present tense.
I imagine! But I’m sure the UK has a pretty amazing tea culture too. :)
not the same imho! There is even small fancy tea shops in small towns, and more of a cafe culture. Ours is such a pub culture
i’m still confused about this tea if anyone knows info more than the website
Delightful stuff. Dreamy, soft, fruity, with flowers in my head. Any fuss is kept in the background, little in the way of pungent leafy flavour, and whats there is good.
I noticed a nice energy or vibrancy in the taste – which I love, while being oh so soft. It has that pearlescent streak of fruity sweetness that just lifts it into (insert happy place)
I like the food pairing recommendation on the website – ‘by itself’ :)
Flavors: Honey, Lychee, Peach
Preparation
Short notes from holiday:
The roast and fruit taste are mixed together into one thing, I dont even know what fruit it is. Its also mellowed a lot, quite soft.
Nice and rich milky in a galaxy chocolate vs 90% dark chocolate kind of way.
i’ll re-review this when I have more time as now back in tea HQ.
Have to cut them in half or its too much flower for my gaiwan. I mean seriously these things are like little bombs of flower.
Some fruit hidden away somewhere but the soup is like orange coloured with all the thick cashew florals.
Overpoweringly delicate
Cheap Milan Xiang – 10p/g.
Tastes like it too – but actually I have enjoyed this the most compared to other cheap ‘dan cong’ (which can be horrendously bad). Its pretty non-offensive, where other dancong can be a bit too fussy for their price, this is more down to earth, but lacking in substance/depth/emotive-ness. Plus points is there is a honey aroma & its soup has thickness. I would drink it but bland and no magic.
Not too bad really considering I got a 50g bag for under a fiver.
Flavors: Honey
This stuff is the bees knees – I took some tea to sample on holiday in Limousin, France for 2 weeks with no phone signal, let alone internet. And this one was my favourite.
Medium-heavy roast Wuyi goodness. I cannot describe the joy I have had drinking this – the smell & taste & huigans & pure relaxed chi that comes out of the first 5 steeps is something close to heaven. My notes are sparse but it created tasteual colour (yes thats the word) that bordered on magical, for me its the fact there is a Floral-fruity-something in there thats expertly interwoven with the roast that knocks it out of the park.
After that it disappears. Quickly. – and if this was expensive I would be disappointed (later it tastes like really cheap store oolong!)- but its not. Its like 20p/g and this actually added to my impression of it because I dont always want to drink an Oolong you need to dedicate a day or wallet to. So its just a quick sesh of brilliant wuyi.
‘5 steeps in heaven is better than no steeps in heaven’ As they say.
Loved this – has vegetal, floral, fruit that mix about in my head, each characteristic never overpowering the next. Just tastes & smells & feels totally right.
The roast is so light and unnoticeable, but backs up the aromas perfectly with this dense nut thickness.
Delish – tastes ok when pushed a lot with sourer greens coming out
ooh
yeah its a pretty epic black tea – actually I am going to try it western in a mo with the other half of the sample and see how it goes.
nice, i’ll keep my eye out for your thoughts. tossed it on to my wish list…hoping to get to another what-cha order “soonish”
Just tried it – compared to gongfu it is stronger, tree-sap, fruity aromas, spiced fruit and other things. More raisin notes. Dates? I preferred the exploration gongfu – but i’m not a black tea person so your mileage will vary a lot more if you are.
I could definitely taste it being special, thats for sure. Theres a distinctive fruity aroma that reminded me of a candy I couldnt place, but its melded with the darker bolder flavours. Reminded me a bit of the YS wild arbor assamica if you know that one.
If you like all that stuff its a great cup!
It does have the usual black tea woodsy malt(ish) flavours but not dry & chocolatey like dian hong
Sounds like something I’d enjoy!
From your description, it taste like another Georgia’s black tea which I like very much – Mrs Leila Hand made.
yes, all the georgian teas I have tried have a similar smooth taste