98
drank Laoshan Black by Verdant Tea
39 tasting notes

While I’m eagerly awaiting some new teas I’ve ordered, I thought I’d put in another quick note about an atypical experience I had with Laoshan Black over the weekend. On Sunday morning I woke up a bit late from staying out tango dancing past 1:00am the previous night, and I was in a big hurry to catch the bus to another tango workshop I had that morning. . . So no time for gongfu cha. :P

I thought I’d just brew up a mug of black tea western style, which is now a rare thing for me. I usually reach for any assam on hand (creamed and sweetened) if I just want an quick caffeine kick like this, but I had drunk a really good golden needle black tea the previous morning, and on the heels of that the thought of assam made me wince a little. So my alternative was to try the Laoshan Black western style.

Brewed about a teaspoon and a half of it in a mug for four minutes. I decided to try it plain first and see what it was like. Smooth and tasty! I could definitely have enjoyed the whole mug straight, but I also wanted to experiment out of curiosity. So I pulled out some milk and very carefully poured a very small amount in. It really doesn’t need much, if you’re going to use any. With the same care, I tried to sweeten it ever so slightly with honey. Not the best idea. This tea is delicate and transparent enough to be overwhelmed by additives, and the honey flavor will take over. Thankfully, I only used a little bit. If you’re going to sweeten, very small amount of sugar would be better than a sweetener with more if its own flavor character.

In any case, it worked well enough, though in the end I think I would’ve rather had that mug of tea without any adulterants. Lesson here is that if you’re going to add anything to this black tea, be very very modest. My preference for preparing and drinking this tea will always be the gongfu method, and that is what I would recommend to others as the best way to fully enjoy its wonderful characteristics.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec

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Bio

Tea drinking, tango dancing, rock climbing, and reading are my main activities of interest.

Currently obsessed with Fenghuang Dancong Oolongs and Wuyi Yan Cha. My fascination with Pu’er is steadily growing, and I imagine it will take over one of these days.

I typically don’t feel ready to say anything conclusive about a tea (and thus, say nothing) until I’ve tried it three or four times, which helps prevent both false positives and false negatives, and offers a more comprehensive sense of a tea’s dimension and character.

As of 01/12/2012, I’ve accepted full-time employment as the Business Development Manager at Verdant Tea. From that date forward I’ve decided to stop rating teas on Steepster due to my professional stake in the tea business. I have no interest in manipulating the rating system in our favor or against other tea businesses. All my ratings on Steepster were made before my employment with Verdant Tea, and reflect nothing more than my personal opinions as a tea drinker.

I want to continue writing tasting notes without ratings from time to time, for both our teas and teas that I enjoy from other businesses; but as my life has now become much more busy, my activity on Steepster will be lessened. And in any case, my future contributions here will have to be made on my personal time.

Location

Minneapolis, MN, USA

Website

http://verdanttea.com

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