Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Bread, Honey, Molasses, Tobacco, Cherry Wood, Malt, Mineral, Smoke, Caramel, Chocolate, Earth, Cinnamon, Oats, Vegetal
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Joseph Wesley Black Tea
Average preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 15 sec 4 g 20 oz / 578 ml

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From Joseph Wesley Black Tea

There are only three Chinese black teas that ever receive consideration as being a “classic” Chinese tea. One of those is the famed Tangyang Congfu created by the tea masters in the Tangyang Village of China’s Fujian province. We partnered with these famous tea growers and producers to bring you Joseph Wesley’s Black Tea No. 5. This stunningly complex and varied tea has all the characteristics of an outstanding Chinese black tea: tightly rolled leaves, crystalline auburn/red liquor, sugary aroma and an unforgettably sweet taste that grows in complexity the more that it is steeped. We are honored to work with some of the most highly acclaimed tea growers and producers in the famous Tangyang village to bring you this extraordinary tea.

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27 Tasting Notes

818 tasting notes

This was a tasty keemun. It had some smoke, some fruit, and some caramel. Pretty good. The smoke lasted throughout several infusions. I probably would have preferred it to change a bit more, but overall, it was good.

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93
309 tasting notes

Delicious!

Grabbed it with a bunch of my other blacks and put it near my bedside table near my tea/hot water maker as part of moving all meds and comfort items nearby because I am fighting a cold that could win at any moment… And last night was feeling like it may have. Happily this morning I’m back to fight-off symptom levels.

Grabbed this one to make out of just random, really… Looking over the packages gauging when I’d had this or that last, that sort of thing, and decided to go with this.

I’ve twice now at the Coffee & Tea NYC festival bought things from them and enjoyed, grabbed this with 2 last-year ones I liked.

So, on waking this morning I prepped and turned on my Breville with it and am having it.

First mouthful was an actual “yum!” thought in my head, the word. I’ll not go into all the colors and details this review as I know I’ll have it again and can then add more, but right now: molasses, orange color in back of tongue but not throat area, moderate brown richness on mid-tongue, and lots of little finer notes that will add. It’s a medium strength black.

Absolutely a buy again.

2.25g/6oz

Flavors: Molasses

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 2 g 6 OZ / 177 ML

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87
871 tasting notes

Another sample from the amazingly awesome Scribbles!

On first smell of the dry tea, I get strong vanilla and cake/pastry notes. Which I found odd for a keemun but I am keen to continue.

When the hot water first hit the tea, the smokiness of the keemun wafted up. It was sweet, slightly smokey.

In order, the first flavour notes I got from this tea were: malt, smoke, tobacco. Delicious. There are definitely light undertones of vanilla cake. The smokey flavour was quite light. There was a very natural sweetness to this tea, that complemented the smoke flavour. The tea liquor was thick, it was moderately bold, there was no astringency which was quite nice (and also a surprise).

My all time favourite teas are Assams, but keemuns do come in a close second.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 2 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 10 OZ / 295 ML
Kittenna

I think Keemuns are one type of black tea I’ve never really been fond of – they’re always astringent. I might have to get my hands on some of this to try, because it sounds pretty good.

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60
737 tasting notes

Think this is also my last sample from QueenOfTarts! Took me a while to get to this one since I wasn’t really sure about Keemum, but figured today seemed like a good day to try it finally.
I had a feeling it was gonna be really earthy, and I was right! XD
It’s super earthy…with slight, ever so slight hints of malt.
But that’s really all I’m getting :/ So not really disappointed since I didn’t have really high hopes for this one anyway, but didn’t really surprise me or anything.
Not for me!

Flavors: Earth, Malt

Joseph Wesley Black Tea

Hello Ost, we just read that you didn’t enjoy our Keemun Congfu. I’m sorry to read this. Unfortunately, we do not have any aromatics or tisanes to offer. Only straight black teas. I wish we had something to offer that fit your preferences. With that said, thank you for trying our tea! -joe

Ost

You don’t have to apologize for your teas not being great on my taste buds. There are plenty of people that love this, I’m sure! This one’s just not for me and that’s fine! I like other straight black teas. Just not sure if Keemum is my thing is all. Glad I tried it though. (:

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83
3986 tasting notes

Time for another lazy note because I was distracted by gaming! This is the last of the Joseph Wesley samples generously provided by scribbles. The leaves are small, thin, black, like most Keemuns I’ve seen. Dry scent was musty hay, maybe some grain. I did my usual black tea steep.

Yum, this one is very creamy with bread and oat flavors. There’s also some honey and maybe the slightest touch of cinnamon? Also some slight vegetal notes near the beginning of the sip, maybe greens? A fairly simple, but tasty, tea. :)

Flavors: Bread, Cinnamon, Honey, Malt, Oats, Vegetal

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
Joseph Wesley Black Tea

Thank you for the nice review Cameron. I’m happy to read you’ve enjoyed our teas. Cheers, Joe

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84
618 tasting notes

The scent of this tea isn’t as interesting as other black teas I’ve had in that I can’t really pick out layers. It does smell very comforting and brings back memories of having black tea and milk with friends. I pick up on something that resembles lemon, as if someone has placed a slice of it on the side of the cup.

Sipping… this is a very nice, crisp tea. It’s got a lovely citrus brightness to it, but also remains true to it’s “black tea” flavor. I can see this being a nice morning cup of tea. It’s brisk enough to wake you up, but not so heavy and alarming as some other teas can be. So far, not my favorite from Joseph Wesley, but definitely a lovely and bright tea.

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100
1353 tasting notes

I’m skipping the queue with this one because THE TIME HAS COME! I have opened the tin. I have sniffled it. Happy birthday to me! (I thought that would be an auspicious day to try it, don’t you?)

I should make some preliminary introductions to this one and tell why it’s so extremely special to me that I had to have it, shipping fees be damned. This tin right here was the very thing that made me order from JW at all. Everything else that I got to taste from the company was purely coincidental and taking advantage of the fact that I would be paying shipping charges anyway. I’ve been looking at the unopened tin of it for weeks now, simply just enjoying that fact that I had it. Petting it now and then and enjoying looking forward to it while waiting for the right time to taste it for the first time.

As you all know (or ought to know at this point!) I’m partial to a Chinese black, and if it comes from Fujian, it simply cannot go wrong. Fujian is my most favouritest tea growing area in the world and has been for a number of years now. My very very favourite tea is Tan Yang. It is the benchmark of fabulousness to which all other black teas must measure up. Another favourite type is Keemun, usually grown in Anhui. Life-giving and delivering a solid cup of tea every single time.

What we now have here in this tin is both a Keemun and a Tan Yang, and it is not a blend. It was grown near the Tan Yang village in Fujian, but the bushes are the Keemun variety transplanted there from Anhui. The very idea of this awesome on an epic scale!

The leaf smells both Keemun-y and Fujian-y. It has the Fujian cocoa note and the Keemun-y grain. Mind you Fujian usually also has a lot of grain in it, but I tend to find it more prominent in Keemuns. There’s something else in here that reminds me vaguely of some kind of tart berry or something. Perhaps one which has been dried. Like dried cranberry, I think, but not nearly as sweet as those are. If I take a little leaf in my hand and breathe on it before sniffing, I get a strong note that reminds me of when Husband makes beer, just at the point where he puts the hops in.

Okay that it, I can’t wait for Husband to start cooking breakfast (full English, yay!). I need to make a pot of this NOW!

After steeping it doesn’t smell so beer-y, but rather more like freshly baked rye bread. Courtney understands this note fully. I suspect Marzipan does as well. It’s grain-y and dark and also somewhat sweet. There is some of the Fujian cocoa notes there as well, but they are under the grain and so I have to really look for them.

I’ve started sipping way too soon. It’s far too hot still and I can barely taste anything. I did, however, pick up the fact that it’s a strong tea we’ve got here. It even seems to have a rather smoky note to it, which ♥♥♥♥♥

I can sip a bit more now. It’s quite cocoa-y with grainy notes underneath and a fairly large amount of smoke and then finally quite sweet on the swallow. I can definitely see the characteristics of both types in this. It’s like the best qualities of one combined with the best qualities of the other. It’s hard for me to even come up with anything to write at this point.

Oh yes.

Mind = blown.

kisses tin

Marzipan

I have a funny rugbrød story! My husband misses it terribly, so I decided to make some for his birthday. I contacted one of his sisters, who is trained as a cook, and she sent her recipe. I started converting it to English and non metric, and found that the ingredients were just CRAZY – ten pounds of rye flour for example. So, I broke down and asked Karsten for help.

I had converted it correctly but it was a recipe that made many many loaves. We cut it down and I started making the bread.

It was still huge. But what I wasn’t used to is that it doesn’t really rise at all. The mass that you have is pretty much the mass that you bake. Most of our bread wishes until it’s double so I was pretty worried about the malty, slightly sour enormous mass of dough I had. It turned out fine and he loved it. Reading this it isn’t as funny as I remembered. Now the story where I tried to find hjortetaksalt and thought I was going to get arrested…..that was funny.

Marzipan

Wishes= rises. I can’t edit my comments?

Angrboda

Then you are intimately familiar with the way it smells just as it comes out. :) My mother would bake some for Christmas but during the rest of the year it’s just store-bought. :)

Marzipan

I miss leverpostej and Anthon Berg the most. :(

teataku

Happy birthday, indeed!

Angrboda

I know how you feel. We can’t get baked beans here for scratch. Heinz is the only proper brand, but it’s hard to find. We’ve tried a number of other ones that are available but they all range from meh to nearly-if-you-squint, so… :/

Angrboda

Thank you, teataku. :)

looseTman

Yes, Happy birthday to you! Excellent review!

Angrboda

Thank you (on both counts)

Marzipan

American/Danish birthday song. Happy fødselsdagen to you, hurra hurra hurra! I dag er Angrboda’s fødselsdag, tillykky med birthday to you! ♥ ♥ ♥

Marzipan

Darn it, tillykkE

Angrboda

Gosh, Danglish! O.o

caile

Happy birthday!! I’ve been looking forward to reading your review on this – I’m glad it skipped the queue for your special day!

Angrboda

Thank you. :) I was looking forward to writing about it. :p

I’ve had three (Western-style) steeps on these leaves so far and am wondering if a fourth is worth the bother. The third steep was a bit on the thin side.

caile

Maybe best not to do a fourth then; it could just be disappointing. Three steeps is great though! :)

caile

Although…for experimentation sake, it wouldn’t hurt to try the fourth steep just to see how it turns out. :)

yyz

Happy birthday! Lovely when a tea becomes an instant favourite!

MzPriss

Happy Birthday! This makes me want to bust out my sample of this. Maybe for breakfast tomorrow.

Joseph Wesley Black Tea

sorry we’re late to wish you a happy birthday, but we’re in China for this year’s harvest. Anyways, better late than never so: Happy Birthday! (and thank you for taking time to write such a nice review.) Cheers!

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2816 tasting notes

I was super interested to try this after SimplyJenW’s review. I would not really call myself a Chinese tea connoisseur however and keemuns are one I have tended to shy away from in the past.

I know I could have gong fu’d this but I didn’t see any particular instructions on the website so I decided to steep it Western style. The tea liquor brews up to be a clear reddish brown and the aroma is that of roasted chocolate.

As far as flavor is concerned this is a very interesting tea. I’m getting a tiny bit of smoke along with notes of roasted grains. There is a faint bitterness here and something of pipe tobacco with cocoa. hmmm. Don’t know about keemuns, I keep trying to make myself like them but I’ve only had a few that I really love. I liked this better with milk than plain but it still seems a bit “winey” to me. Might need to gong fu the remainder of this sample before making a decision but it’s more something I am forcing myself to drink than it is a pleasant experience. Must be my tastebuds.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
MzPriss

I LOVE Keemun. Haven’t had this one, but I need to put it on the list. I want ALL the Keemuns.

TeaBrat

MP-how do you normally prepare yours?

Sil

keemun + maple syrup = the best.

MzPriss

Just saw this question. I normall do Keemuns Western style. I do about 200-205 for about 3.5-4 minutes. But if I get a new one that I’ve never tried before, I try to follow their suggestions the first time and adjust to my taste in subsequent steeps. I like them plain but I have been known to add a little honey or maple syrup like Sil and the occasional drop or two of milk.

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96
985 tasting notes

Tea of the morning……

Wow. I was honestly not expecting much from this one. It looks pretty much like any other Keemun I have tasted. (There are little windows to see inside the sample tins.) I was pretty sure it was going to be the one tea out of four that I was seriously interested in trying from Joseph Wesley, that I could easily eliminate from my list. Well, I was completely wrong. Reading the description, it comes from the region of my favorite Tanyangs. So the opinion that this tea falls somewhere in taste between my beloved Tan Yang Te Ji from TeaSpring, and a high quality Keemun makes sense.

Ever so slight hint of floral, but this totally works. The sip is smooth, with a classic Keemun flavor (super light on the smoke, but it is there, more of a chocolate note than cocoa, and an earthiness). The mouthfeel is heavy. I have tried other Keemuns that leaned more floral in the past, and for some reason, they did not appeal at all. This one definitely makes it work, and work well. Yeah, I need some of this.

(Darn you, Joseph Wesley! As an avid Chinese black tea drinker I was almost sure you could not surprise me, but really, you are 2 for 2!)

Usual mug method.

PS Be sure to read the comments where Joseph Wesley explains the origin of this tea a little more.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 14 OZ / 414 ML
TeaBrat

ooh, I want some samples too. he hee!

Angrboda

How can it be a Keemun if it’s really a Tanyang??? I’m confused! Keemuns come from Anhui. Is it some sort of cultivar sort of thing like that Taiwanese Assam, maybe?

SimplyJenW

Yes, confusing. Keemun cultivars in Tanyang sounds plausible. I just know it is good, and might inquire at a later date!

SimplyJenW

(Hmmmm. Could also be a loosely named Tanyang…….)

Angrboda

If ever you decide to seek additional information, do let me know. :)

Joseph Wesley Black Tea

First, I’m happy to read that you enjoyed our Keemun Congfu and am especially tickled that you noted the distinct characteristics of this tea. Second, it is true that the name “Keemun” would normally be associated with teas coming from Keemun or Qimen County, Anhui. But, we chose to retain the name Keemun not only because this producer sells the tea domestically under the name Keemun Congfu but because the cultivar used is the same traditionally used for Keemuns. We cannot label the tea “Tangyang Congfu” because it is not made from the cultivars traditionally used for the famed Tangyang Congfu. I went to Tangyang last year, hoping to include a Tangyang Congfu in our collection. What I found, however, was either that the price was too high for me to take the gamble and introduce the tea into the US market (as a nonestablished brand) or the tea was more a showcase tea that might have looked interesting but really didn’t taste very good. What I didn’t expect to find in Tangyang, however, was our #5. As stated in the review it has a delicious savory uniqueness not often found in Chinese black teas. Because of this uniqueness I decided to include it in the lineup even though it is grown in Fujian (not to mention these producers are one of my favorites, and I’m a sucker for kind and passionate growers!) Finally, I originally intended to introduce a Keemun Mao Feng from Qimen County but ran into problem and was not able to get the logistics sorted before I launched last July. I’m headed back to China in April with mission No. 1 being to secure a lot of the Keemun Mao Feng from the producers I met last year to bring back a more traditional Qimen tea in the collection. Thanks again for your support!

SimplyJenW

Thank you so much for the explanation. Of course, I ordered a tin before knowing because it was just so good!

Angrboda

Cultivars! I guessed it! \o/

Thanks for the explanation, Joseph. Keemun is one of my favourite types (Tanyang being the most favouristest favourite, where I am not above drawing hearts one the label), and Fujian is my favourite tea producing area, so I’m very intrigued by this. Do you by any chance ship to Europe, and if you do, what would it cost for, say 100g + some samples in a rough estimate? (If you don’t ship to Europe, I may have to ally myself with a friend who can shop for me and forward it… Very very intrigued indeed.)

Joseph Wesley Black Tea

Angrboda – we don’t generally ship to Europe but can work out a way to get you tea offline. We’ve the done this in the past with customers in South America. You can go to our website www.josephwesleytea.com and send a message. I receive directly all of these emails and will be able to work something out with you. cheers, Joe

Angrboda

Thank you very much! I have done so. (Don’t tell Husband!)

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