Bai Lin Kung Fu

Another real winner from Shang Tea!
Full review on SororiTea Sisters on the 28th but here are some snippits:

Bai-Lin Kung-Fu Classic Red Tea from Shang Tea is quite spectacular! The aroma is like a malty black tea with aromas of cocoa, hay, and maple. My first reaction when smelling this while steeping was Mmmmmmmm. A deeper inhalation of this tea brings forth some berry aromas as well. Yet there is also something savory about this tea. My mouth was watering while I patiently waited for my tea to cool just a tiny bit so I could indulge!

This is not a tea for the faint of heart, it is bold, robust, not shy at all. It wakes you up and perks you up as it presents itself with a hearty “Hey there! Bet you weren’t expecting me!”

Its a bit sweet, a bit saucy, and all attitude!

If I were going to take a trek through the country I think I would take this tea along with me.

Another sample from Shang Tea – and one of my favorites so far…

I used my whole sample in a mug of tea, the aroma is floral but also with some honey and molasses fragrance. The cup brews up a dark red is very smooth and mellow, clean tasting. There is some cocoa and molasses in the flavor as well along with a little sweetness. Definitely a good tea if you want to avoid anything astringent or bitter…

I am very stressed out this morning but thankfully a cup of this is helping me to feel better and more relaxed. I would say this has a very strong molasses-y aftertaste so if that’s not a flavor you like you might want to stay away from this.

I did resteep a second time and it’s still very nice. This is a big ol’ cup of sweet yum!

Backlog:

A really enjoyable black (Red) tea from Shang Tea … thank you Azzrian for sending me a sampling of it! This is really good, hints of chocolate-y tones, lovely fruit notes with a honey-esque undertone. One of those teas that you just … want to keep drinking and start missing the moment you finish the last sip! A delight … a very memorable tea!

Today’s shared morning pot, and I’m surprised to see that I’ve yet to post about it. I could have sworn I posted about it earlier! Or was that the Bai Lin that Auggy sent me? Now I’m confused…

At any rate, if the Tan Yang Te Ji (♥) is my favourite ever tea, then the Bai Lin comes in at a very close second I think. I just really really REALLY love this province, I just do. Where does one sign up to be a fan of a geographical area?

Consequently, it’s also really hard for me to post about it on its own merits instead of making it just a list of the ways in which its different from the Tan Yang. I could say I’d try, but knowing me I’d probably not be trying very hard if those were the words that came naturally to me while drinking and writing. But then again, I’m not trying to bring you the Facts of Tea Forever, am I? I can only tell you what I think, and I think that Bai Lin and Tan Yang have very similar flavour profiles, but with some note-worthy exceptions.

Given the fact that they are as similar as they are, Bai Lin also lands at at least 90 points by default. Any further study of it and subtraction or addition of points is based from that outset.

Yes, I think the black teas in general from this province are THAT AWESOME!

Now, onwards. Bai Lin is like Tan Yang’s good twin. Tan Yang is the wild and powerful of the two, with the heavy cocoa notes and pseudo-smoky notes on the second steep. The Tan Yang is not a tea you want to mess with, because it knows exactly what it’s doing and it will take you to task for any insult to its name.

Bai Lin is by nature gentler, happier and far more sensible. It doesn’t have the pseudo-smoke or the heavy cocoa, it’s much more sweet and with a natural touch of oranges or mandarins.

Or perhaps on second thought, these two are not really twins, but more like a sweet little sister and a protective big brother. :)

Bai Lin, as mentioned, has notes of oranges or mandarins in the flavour, but they’re not really as clear as if it had been actually mandarin flavoured. They’re more like the ideas of the citrus fruits. I can’t tell exactly which part of the flavour that reminds me of them but the association is strong none the less. Whatever it is, it also lends a lot of the sweetness to the cup.

Furthermore, we have an insanely smooth cup. It’s thick and creamy as if it had milk in it, and I have often heard that this quality is indicative of something going well with milk. I can’t imagine that in this tea, though. It’s far too delicate and subtle to be able to carry milk. I suspect with milk all you would get was a cup of non-descript tea-flavoured warm milk, and that’s not really the purpose with it at all. So drink it as it is, ignore any and all urges to try it with milk and just close your eyes and drink. Then, if you are a of the persuasion that tea should have milk in it, you might actually be able to pretend it already has.

I can find very little bitterness and next to no astringency in this cup, only yummy goodness. After it has been allowed to stand still and develop a bit, the mandarin-like associations seem to become a little stronger. In addition to this a new note is poking its head out at this point, and there is now an underlying semi-spicy touch to the floralness of it. Quite akin to the pepper note in a good golden Yunnan, if you can imagine that note without the strong flavour of hay.

Yes, we are definitely coming in just behind the Tan Yang on the Favourite Scale, here. It’s coming in so close, in fact, that I strongly suspect I would be fully able to quench the Tan Yang cravings with this one if Tan Yang is not readily available. I need to always have one of these two in the house. Obviously, being my favourite, I would prefer the Tan Yang, but this one is a totally acceptable substitution. I don’t feel the need to keep the both of them around as Standards, though. Either one will do.

I can’t believe I haven’t logged this yet. It’s yet another of Shang’s reds made from white tea that is amazing. So smooth, so clean. An exceptionally clear tasting tea.

I need to go pick up some more soon!

It has a nice sweet caramel, fruit, and tea fragrance and the leaves are of a nice size. It’s not the long twisted leaves of Dawn, but still very nice. The liquor is a deep ruby color. It has a slight bitterness but no astringency. There is an additional taste that I cannot identify along with the tea taste. It is an acceptable tea but not stellar.

I used a bit higher tea-to-water ratio, all 3.5gm of the sample to 6oz water, in an yixing clay pot, and steeped it 5 times … 2, 3, 5, 8, 12 min. While the overweening aroma and taste I got was toasted grain, there was a significant herbaceous component which was hard to define … something like lightly steamed green beans (or green tea?) with a tiny citrus note. While another reviewer reported slight bitterness with no astringency, my take was the opposite … slightly astringent with no bitterness. There was a slight floral note in the first steep or two, but I didn’t identify the fruit and caramel which others have found in this tea. Even at a 12-min steep, it didn’t get bitter. I got a quart of tea from 3.5 grams, and think it would make a refreshing iced tea, especially if you could just steep it for a half hour one time, or overnight. I drank it hot, over an afternoon, with crunchy granola bars. The herbal notes were the most interesting part. A tea I will gladly drink, but not seek out.

Not quite as good as the Golden Needle King that Shang offers, this is still a good black tea. Since Shang makes all his teas from white tea leaves they are all much more subtle and smooth rather than strong and robust. This one is no different, and although you can taste the smokiness that comes from oxidation, you can also taste the underlying white tea that was used to produce this.

So my order from Shang Tea came the other day. First let me state how happy I am with the customer service from them. So a big thanks and from what I’ve seen and tasted so far more orders will be coming your way (at the very least from me).

So this tea is the one that I expected the least from in what I ordered from Shang Tea and thus it is the one that startled me with how much I liked it. Having drank it multiple times up to today I can already say it handles multiple steepings well. The flavor improves after it cools a little and makes me look forward to each additional cup/steeping (3 seems to be what I can get from this). This tea is a black tea but made from white tea leaves. Since I love both…

So lets start with aroma. It has a typical smell of red (or black as some of us call it) tea, however this one has notes that I normally expect from a white tea as well. In addition I get a sweetness of honey and something slightly but only slightly floral. Very layered in the smell department and quite a treat for my nose.

Taste is good, varied and interesting. Again the mixture of styles here is probably why it hits me this way. I’m tasting both red tea and white tea notes layered in a way that I find starts bold (and primarily red tea like) and then switches gears to subtle tastes (and more white tea like) near to swallowing. In trying to compare the taste to other teas basically I am thinking of a good lighter red tea crossed with a white peony or silver needle… Quite a mouthful from the taste standpoint.

This easily is better than Ceylon from Adagio which before I found the Red Dragon was my morning cup of choice. Everyone I’ve shared it with so far has also liked this. This tea is now on my list of teas that I always want in my cupboard. I’m looking forward to the two other teas that I have ordered from Shang Tea. Until then happy steeping everyone!

I typically have been using two slightly mounded teaspoonfuls of tea to a little less than 2 cups of water steeped for 1:30 and added 30 seconds for each additional steeping.

I agree exactly with Teafreak. This is a good red tea, and while not outstanding in the way that Shang’s Golden Needle is, it is pleasant, warm, and radiant and has a kind of delicacy derived from its white tea base.