Ruby Black

Yay, my swap from TastyBrew arrived yesterday, & she is awesome! Most of the samples are in foil pouches with her own cool logo on them: it’s a tea mug with a beer bottle in it, & the label on the bottle has her name on it! How cool is that?

Here I am, still rolling tea up in baggies, like the old dope dealer I used to be.

Ruby black is my first sample from the wonderful array of teas she sent. From the description, it sound like a super sweet & malty cup, and although it isn’t bad, it doesn’t really follow its bio.
The leaves are a nice dark reddish black, crazy & twisty like an oolong. TB suggested a steep time of 5 minutes. 4 min is usually my preferred time for black teas. I started steeping, dipping a spoon in for a slurp every so often, as I do for new teas sometimes, just to make sure I don’t go over. I let it go to 4min. The resulting brew is dark in color, sweet, with an orange veggie taste like roasted squash or carrots, & lightly malty. Definitely not the bold Assam like character I was expecting! There is a little tongue tingling sensation, & I think next time I’ll give it 5 min to see if it changes anything.
Thanks TastyBrew! I’m bringing Methode Noir to breakfast with me!

This is my tea of choice for work today. Thanks Sil for sending this my way.
I’ve decided that Taiwan blacks aren’t normally my favorite. I usually find them too mild and slightly astringent. Not this one. This works for me. As always I’m not really sure what it is that I like about it, but it doesn’t have much/anything that I don’t like. It’s just a nice smooth, flavorful, black tea. I’ve enjoyed my time with it at work today

I’d read the tasting notes but had forgotten what was said. I brewed for 2 minutes, then 2:30 for the second steep. Next time I’ll try longer as recommended!

I had the opposite problem to those trying to get more oolong though. From the rich amber brew I expected something malty and sweet. Although malty and sweet wasn’t what smelling the dry leaves suggested I was going to get, I couldn’t seem to let go of that expectation. What I got was vegetable – not roasted and caramelised, but something fresher, maybe lightly cooked sprout, the kind of thing I would have resisted eating when I was 3. I’m not saying it tasted like Brussell sprouts, but it troubled me that I was having to fish through my mental flavour library to try to get closer to it. Then I got it! It tastes like oolong, green oolong, not the complex buttery, floral or fruity notes but the underlying oolong tea taste.

I think I’d rather have an oolong. Or a black. I’ll see how I like this next time, now that I’ve got a better idea of what to expect.

I really like ATR’s sample packs. There’s masses of leaf in this packet, so I’ll have plenty of chances to make up my mind. I nearly didn’t write this note. I was feeling a little embarrassed about the number of new teas I’ve acquired lately. I had to fight down an urge to keep this one a secret. There’s no need to be shy here, right?

What a weird tea! I got this from TastyBrew…I’m on a roll today with the teas we swapped. Thanks TastyBrew! So, this tea looked like an oolong, both in dry leaf form and when steeped. A dark oolong. It smelled vegetal once steeped, like an artichoke. Let me tell you, this tasted like drinking liquid artichokes, in a good way, if that’s possible. I actually really liked it, and I’ve not been fond of vegetal teas. So weird! It also seemed to taste like a squash or potato with a hint of cinnamon, but only in the aftertaste. Weird, but good!

Very nice, very smooth. I agree that it could probably go longer than 2 minutes, but I’d also advise paying attention and not oversteeping. Temperamental? Yes, but worth it.

After my good experience trying the Milk Oolong again after many months I thought I’d try another tea that I had tasted early on in my teaventure that I hadn’t enjoyed much, but was highly reviewed. I didn’t enjoy this one much then and I’m disappointed to say I didn’t enjoy it much now either, so I guess I haven’t evolved that much. ;-)

I steep this one for 4 mins about 1 tablespoon for 16 ozs. This is one of my favorite black teas. It is a change up from the standard black yunnans that I like. Yet it has similar qualities as a true Chinese tea as I find it drinkable w/o sugar (unlike assams). And at the longer steep time, I can detect a subtle burnt sugar flavor?

I have a sample of this; I chose it because, as others have described, it LOOKS like an oolong (very long, twisted leaves), and a black tea/oolong hybrid sounded interesting and different.

I’ve had it 3 times now, the first 2 I took their suggestions for 2 minutes at nearly boiling. It tasted like a black tea with a hint of cinnamon. It was good, but I didn’t know why it didn’t seem anything like an oolong, and so I didn’t think it was very remarkable. But I didn’t want to just give up on it, so I tried it for 3 minutes today…

It was much better! I was getting all kinds of fruity oolong flavors on top of a high quality black base. I knew it wasn’t possible for it to be made in Taiwan and look like an oolong and yet not taste like one!

So if you give this one a shot, steep for at least 3 minutes.

I’m a sucker for long twisted leaves and this tea has them in spades. The instructions call for this tea to be steeped for two minutes but I think it would probably do better a bit longer. As is the tea is sweet with fruity notes and the slightest frisson of cinnamon. I do not taste the maltiness that the package claims. It is an excellent tea. I will definitely put this one on my shopping list.

“This tea smells really good, you know?”

Ah, the innocent words of a not-so-innocent 5 year old who just knocked over my cup of tea.

Ruby Black is indeed a nice-smelling tea. It smells like tea. I really do like the way it smells. When I opened the package, as usual, I held it to my nose and sniffed. Very nice. It’s a nice toasty scent. The tea’s color… beautiful! Like a reddish-black. Love it! I appreciate the aesthetics of tea, the whole experience.

I followed the instructions and used the Breville at 200 degrees for two minutes.

The scent when brewed changed, but it’s still very nice. It has developed into a more vegetal scent, but still with that hint at toastiness.

Now, for the taste. It’s definitely a black tea and I’m not (in general) a black tea lover. I don’t add milk or sweetener to tea. It’s bold, but an understated, not so in-your-face bold. It’s like an underlying strength. It tastes very vegetal. So much so that I almost feel like it could be something on my plate. (That’s not a plus in my book.) Still, it’s a mysterious taste with a hint at spiciness, but not really. Just a tiny touch. It’s almost a thick taste, without the feeling of weight. There is a maltiness to it.

Overall, it’s nice. I do like it, but it hasn’t converted me to black tea. (I’ll keep trying them all, though!)