Vietnamese Marble Mountain (BV01)

I am pretty sure I have tried Vietnamese tea before as I have vague memories of staying up late last year to watch Full Metal Jacket and drinking a pot of it. I searched my tasting notes but I have over 470 and I can’t find it amongst them or even remember where it would be from. I suppose that is something most people don’t know about me, I am very interested in the Vietnam war. I’m not saying that I agree with war at all but I am just drawn in to it like a moth to light.

My point from the above text is that even though I have tried Vietnamese tea I have no vivid recollection of flavours or smells so I will be going into this tasting session blind. I enjoy doing blind sessions sometimes because it’s the now knowing that makes it interesting.

In raw form this tea has a very earthy, musky, leather like aroma. Very potent and thick. The leaves are black/brown in appearance and have been chopped into small pieces with a few small stalk pieces amongst them. There are also dots of green and yellow leaves amongst the dark contrast. Everything I would expect so far from an Orange Pekoe (OP).

Once steeped this tea is burnt orange in colour with a malted, earthy, wooden and subtly sweet.

The tea tastes sweet, slightly citrus, earthy, woodsy and rich. The fist few sips start with a sweet velvety slight smokiness which progresses into a light wood that gets deeper and darker until you are left with a rich earthy after taste. It’s not particularly strong but it offers enough flavour to be pleasing.

It reminds me of a Keemun but with earthier tones or perhaps even a mil Yunnan. I don’t think it will be a regular purchase but I can certainly enjoy it whilst it’s on my shelf.

I’m not sure if I’ve had a vietnamese tea before. An oolong I think, but another black? I’m not so sure. Consequently I haven’t a clue what to expect here. I’m the second one to post about this one and the other poster thought it was great, so that’s a good beginning.

IF, that is, his taste in tea is similar to mine.

The dry leaves have a strong aroma of tobacco and leather. Sort of dark and spicy. I don’t know why I know what tobacco smells like actually. I shouldn’t logically know as the few people I know that smoke all smoke cigarettes. My grandfather smoked a pipe when I was a child so that must be how I remember, but still… Memory is a pretty funny thing.

Anyway, after steeping the dominant note has a hint of something more Darjeeling-y with that slightly grassy sort of greenness but the grain-y part of it is dominant. I’m getting rather a lot of freshly baked and still warm rye bread out of this.

That rye is there in the flavour as well. There is TONS of it. This is very robust with lots of flavour and like the Chinese that I prefer, no astringency to be found. It’s well rounded off and gradually builds that rye bread aftertaste that makes you feel like you’ve actually had something to eat as well.

It has a fair bit of a smoky note as well, which makes the whole thing rather remind me of a less refined, less civilised Keemun. This is like a Keemun that has strayed from the path and gone rogue.

The funny thing is, though, that while this little number displays all this Chinese behaviour, it doesn’t taste Chinese at all and it’s got some of the same strength and power that you find in Indians and Ceylons. It’s rather like the middle of the road between those two ‘directions,’ if you can call it that.

I’m finding I quite like this. I think that it would be an excellent tea for the breakfast table and that people who tend to prefer Chinese blacks over Indian or Ceylon, might get a number of good things out of this one. I’m not certain yet if it’s one I’ll want to own, but I would certainly not be opposed to having it again.

I always keep a stock here and it’s one of my regulars to drink with meals, so I’m a little surprised that I haven’t made any tasting notes. So I’m making a special couple of infusions to do so.

The dry tea is made in the conventional wiry twists, but very, very finely so, so that it’s very easy to spoon out, and with a sprinkling of the little golden tips mentioned in the dealer-info; though they’re not heavily in evidence. Surprisingly, I really don’t get any aroma off it, even when rolling and crushing a little in my palm.

I made a brew with a heaped teaspoon steeped for three minutes, boiling water.

This made a brown infusion, perhaps just a hint reddish, and showing greenish-yellow round the surface circumference, and clear but so intensely-coloured as to be opaque until the level in the mug is quite low.

In the nose, I get good basic tea and a ‘fruitiness’ that I really can’t define more closely. There’s a tiny hint of chocolate.

In the mouth I get good basic tea and a toffee or butter note. It has that ‘satisfying’ feel to it and a sort of smooth ‘thickness’.

I made a second infusion with the same tea, three minutes again.
It’s an intense but transparent orange-brown, showing a greeny-yellow round the surface circumference.

I’m not getting a very strong aroma: there’s some basic tea and a slightly metallic hint; there’s possibly a touch of pizza base.

In the mouth I get basic tea and a touch of dark chocolate and a touch of butteriness. There’s possibly a hint of an ‘unsweet’ cut grass element, but it’s elusive and I’m really not sure of that.

Overall, I’d describe these two infusions as satisfying and quite enjoyable, but not particularly complex or interesting. I normally use this as an accompaniment to breakfast or lunch, rather than concentrating on and properly tasting it, and, concentrating on it, as I have with this brew, I’m rather surprised not to find it better than I do. It’s probably time I rethought my choice of ‘everyday’ blacks (that’s code for ‘a good excuse to get a pile of samples next time I put in an order’). It may turn out better with a different brew on a different day, of course – I obviously at some time was tasting it as something special.

Un té vietnamita negro con reminicencias de sabor a darjeliing sin astringencia, al principio un poco amaderado y ligeramente ahumado.

First cup of the day at work, and my last teaspoon of this – note to self: bring some more in from home! – Delicious. A nice full, round taste. Flavourful, yet smooth. No milk required. Might try to get a second cup out of the leaves later.