2018 Go-Juice Black

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Pu Erh Tea
Flavors
Cocoa, Drying, Malt, Spices, Wood
Sold in
Compressed
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Cha Crusade
Average preparation
Not available

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5 Tasting Notes View all

  • “A fire crackles. Walking towards it, you see a lone man, sitting on the ground. Beside him, a beat up kettle hangs over the open flame. Pitch black liquid churns inside at a rolling boil. From...” Read full tasting note
    32
  • “Gong Fu Sipdown (314) Prior to drinking this today, it was one of the 4 teas I had in my focus box of old teas. The box had 2 teas from the last half of 2018 and 2 teas from the first half of 2019....” Read full tasting note
    63
  • “I had one of these coins last week, Gong Fu, with some golden berries and it was quite a lovely experience. I’ll admit, when I placed my Kuura order I definitely did want to try these, but I only...” Read full tasting note

From Kuura

‘GO-JUICE’ is a black tea from Yunnan, pressed into single-serve ~8g mini cakes.

The convenient form factor makes these easy to brew in many different styles. Designed as a workhorse black tea that can replace anyone’s daily drinking tea.

Steeped lighter, the tea has a fruity fragrance and taste, and is smooth and easy to drink. Steeped heavier, the tea can hold up to milk and sugar to make a malty, smooth treat without that tannic bite.

This is tea for everybody, even the most staunch and stubborn drinker. Tea for the people.

The tea was made and pressed in Spring 2018. Each purchase is for a single mini-cake, which vary between 7-8 grams each.

About Kuura View company

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5 Tasting Notes

32
2 tasting notes

A fire crackles. Walking towards it, you see a lone man, sitting on the ground. Beside him, a beat up kettle hangs over the open flame. Pitch black liquid churns inside at a rolling boil. From beneath the wide brim of his hat, the man lifts his eyes to meet yours. With his face now illuminated by the flame, you realise he is not just any cowboy, he is me! I stand up and extend my hand in greeting. Offering you something to drink, gesturing to the pot. Before responding, you notice a small wrapper roll across the ground like a tumbleweed. It depicts a can of gasoline, and reads: “KUURA TEA COMPANY. ALL DAY EVERY DAY BLACK TEA.” This is not Cowboy Coffee…this is TEA! You steal my horse and run away.

Talk about a punch in the face. On first sip, I let out an audible “wooh!” From how aggressive the tannins were, hitting the roof of my mouth. I’ve never experienced cowboy coffee, but this is how I imagine it to taste. It reminded me of what happened the time I cut open a black tea bag out of curiosity, and tried to steep it’s contents outside of their little home. I really wanted to be fair with this tea, but it gave me such a visceral reaction, that writing about it in a neutral way wouldn’t be honest. The color of Go-juice is intense dark. When poured, lighter liquid hits your cup first, followed by an inky brown that consumes it. Tasting notes: unsweetened baker’s chocolate, with an unidentified fruit hanging out in the background. No matter what parameters I used to brew this with, the dryness and astringency was too much for me to find enjoyable. If you enjoy a strong builder’s brew, perhaps Go-juice is the tea for you. For me? It’s time to hit the trail in search of a different budget friendly yunnan black.

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63
6444 tasting notes

Gong Fu Sipdown (314)

Prior to drinking this today, it was one of the 4 teas I had in my focus box of old teas. The box had 2 teas from the last half of 2018 and 2 teas from the first half of 2019. This is part of the latter category because despite being a 2018 coin, I only received it from Roswell Strange in January 2019. So I mark my teas from when I receive them (unless I know specifically when they came from). Nevertheless, what I am getting to is that this was a nice sipdown since it was 1 of my 4 oldest teas. Also, thank you Roswell Strange for sharing!!

I read in one of Roswell’s notes that she used the whole coin in a 100 ml teapot. I figured I would follow suit and use the whole coin in my 100 ml gaiwan. However, I maybe shouldn’t have done that since this is a particularly robust tea.

My first 3 steeps were very tannic and drying. They mostly tasted strongly of leather and bitter astringency. In fact, the first steep I jotted down notes such as “very dark, looks like black coffee, tastes like it too”. The second steep had a touch of smoke. Mostly, they were just very drying and bitter so they got tossed for the most part.

The 4th steep is when I started getting some good steeps. I cut the steeping time right down to 10 seconds and I took a mouthful of a different/fruity tea to get rid of the drying flavor from the tannins in the first 3 steeps. I could actually see the bottom of the cup on this steep since the liquid wasn’t quite so dark and I got a leather flavor, like before, but with no tannins this time. I also got a touch of what could have been bitter chocolate.

It was at the 5th steep that I started to get a little bit of malt and more clear bitter chocolate notes, but they weren’t dessert-like or really rich flavors. The 6th steep was similar but had some leather and smoke as well. It was also a smoother steep.

My 7th steep was similar to the 4th in that it was leather without tannins. However, this steep was better because it was smoother and even a touch of that maltiness crept in. This was my final steep because after I finished, I was called for lunch. I definitely think I could have pushed this a bit more though.

I could see the later steeps of this pairing well with fruits or cheese. The sweet or creaminess of those foods would cut through the tannins and provide a nice balance to the more bitter notes of this tea.

Cameron B.

Yay for sipdowns! ❤

VariaTEA

I think my goal will be to finish the 2018 teas by the new year

Cameron B.

How much do you have left of them?

VariaTEA

A 6 oz serving of one and then a full 52 Teas taster pack.

Cameron B.

So jealous that you have small quantities! Mine are all full 50g+ amounts. T.T

Sil

i was going to try and make it so my cupboard was only 6 months old (ignoring the puerh) but there are a few i don’t want to drink up haha

VariaTEA

@Cameron B. I usually try to only order sample sizes. Or I have worked through larger amounts a bit. Or I trade away when I have a lot…

@Sil, when I come across those teas, I send them to you :P

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15575 tasting notes

I had one of these coins last week, Gong Fu, with some golden berries and it was quite a lovely experience. I’ll admit, when I placed my Kuura order I definitely did want to try these, but I only added as many of them into my cart as I wound up with because it was the cheapest way for me to hit the free shipping threshold during their Black Friday sale…

I steeped this in a yixing pot; it’s a yixing pot that I haven’t really seasoned prior to now and I’m still not totally sure how specific I’d like to get with what I dedicate to it. I’m thinking probably just black teas with stronger chocolate-y notes to them!? The point is, however, that because it’s a barely seasoned pot I definitely expected that I’d be experiencing some flavour ‘suckage’ when steeping this.

I think I probably did, though it’s hard to gauge exactly how much. The session was still lovely though, even if the tea wasn’t able to hold its own for more than the eight infusions I brewed it for. It also wasn’t really paired WITH the goldenberries since the flavours wound up not being super compatible; they were much just a thing I snacked on in between steeps.

The tea was nice; malty and chocolate body notes for basically the entirety of the session – just in fluctuating intensity. After the first few steeps, there wound up being a sweeter, smokey note present in the cup too. Almost leather-y? I really liked it alongside the deep chocolate notes: sort of a beautiful marriage of bitter & sweet cocoa and savory (and maybe just a little salty) smoke? Quite lovely! Also, somewhat more unique compared to other blacks I’ve had recently too. Last few infusions almost has a spice quality, like cumin, to them as well.

Fascinating tea, and I am actually glad that I wound up a decent sized handful of these.

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