drank Black Tea by Shan Valley
592 tasting notes

I’ve been trying to scrounge up some more black teas for my sipdown drawers since I’ve mainly been cold brewing oolongs lately. Anyway, this is one that I had forgotten about, so I stuck a tablespoon into my water bottle and into the fridge for maybe around 7 hours. Anyway, I should have guessed from seeing that it is a CTC that it would be strong, but it still caught me off guard a bit with the heavy smokiness. I can tell that there are some other flavors there in the background, but I’m too distracted by the smokiness to be able to really tease them apart. If you couldn’t tell already, I think it was too smoky for my own taste, but I will definitely try steeping this one hot to see if anything changes.

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I’m a California girl temporarily located in Boston for school (brrr). I only recently got into teas because I’ve never really liked coffee (too bitter), but I have been a daily barley tea drinker since I was little.

Through some timid tastings and exploring, I so far like:
-Japanese green teas (genmaicha, hojicha, sencha, etc)
-Oolongs! (Most kinds except formosa and dan cong so far)
-Straight black teas
-English Breakfast teas
-Fruity teas (peach, apple, strawberry, other berries)

NOT a huge fan of rooibos, matcha, heavily artificial tasting teas, or anything gingery or peppery, but I’m trying to keep an open mind and taste everything that I can!

I’m trying to sample more straight teas and have been having pretty awesome discoveries so far. Thank goodness for sample sizes!

My tentative rating system:
90-100: Woohoo! I’m loving it, and I’m definitely restocking when I get the chance and/or crying when I’m out.

80-90: Yum! I’ll try to restock if it fits in my budget when I run out.

70-80: Probably would not buy again, but it was nice enough to finish the cup.

50-70: Would not choose this tea for myself if given the situation, but would not reject it if someone offered it to me and would gulp down politely.

50 or less: Nope. Don’t care to taste that tea again, sorry!

I’m always down to swap, so send me a message if anything in my cupboard is calling your name!

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