Taiwan Sun-Moon Lake Black Tea, Small-leaf cultivar

Looking inside the bag, I see beautiful long twisted leaves (and this is the small leaf cultivar! lol). So right from the start I decided this was a tea for the gaiwan, because it’s my favourite way (besides glass teapots/mugs) to admire tea leaves.

First sip, suddenly reminded of another Taiwanese tea I’ve tried (Hualien Feng Mi), except this is not as roasted. Then I’m picking up on a menthol/minty like flavour that I’ve heard about before with this sort of tea. There is also this soft malt flavour, but it’s not a “in your face” type of maltiness, it’s more like Ovaltine drink. It has a very smooth texture from the initial sip and an almost fuzzy, chocolatey, velvet aftertaste.

Second steep I’m picking up more of a honey flavour, with the other notes becoming more muted. Same fuzzy, chocolatey, velvet aftertaste (but muted).

At this point I examined the leaves before trying a third steep. The wet leaf is long, thin and has a hard leathery feel to it.

Third and final steep is a bit too muted for my liking. Still picking up notes of honey and malt. Enjoyable, but it can’t compare to the experience from my first steep.

This came along with a Red Jade sampler, so I can’t wait to try that as well. Also I’ll be playing around with the rating by the time I go through this bag (score might go up). So far I’m very fond of it, just not sure if I’ll become smitten by the last teaspoon. ;)

The brew is a very pretty honey gold. This one didn’t have any steep parameters on the site, so I after some thought, I decided four minutes couldn’t hurt.

The leaves are quite large (not as large as Dawn, but big), and didn’t need a strainer either.

The brewed smell actually REMINDS me of Dawn. Dark, dry, dusty. The taste is similar too, although not without its differences. I didn’t know how to describe that tea when I drank it, thus making this one difficult as well, but—it has a sort of dark dryness, like Dawn’s cocoay taste. This is lighter though; I don’t know how to describe HOW it’s lighter, just that it is. There’s an aftertaste that sits pleasantly, sort of sweet. Overall, it’s earthy but bright.

I really like this. Although I still think something’s been going on with my tastebuds for the past few weeks.

Edit: The tea cooled right down to room temperature, and from that I got a few notes of Assam.

Second steep SMELLS like an Assam. THat sort of… deep berry (but I doubt anyone else would agree with me using the term ‘berry’ with assam, but I don’t know). The dusty taste of the first infusion is completely gone, and it tastes somewhat like an assam, but different, milder.