Chinese black tea frightens me because it either tastes like mouldy dirt, cigarette ashes, death, or all of the above. But I actually enjoyed this one! I found it mildly malty, with just the tiniest edge of ashiness. I could quite happliy drink an entire pot, go the Yunnan!
Miss Sweet
3 tasting notes
One of my new favourites, I had to rate it higher! Interestingly the smokey aspect of the tea is largely in the smell of both the leaves and resulting brew. While a tea like Lapsang Souchong is quite confronting/disgusting because it tastes exactly like the smell, the Yunnan does not.
The aroma of this tea is an incredible comforting malted-wood-smoke, while the taste is a smooth malt with just an aftertaste of woody-smoke. I drink this with a gererous splash of milk and it is delicious.
The perfect tea to brew up all day for when its dreary outside and you’re cosied up inside with Frank Sinatra and ‘The Story Of Tea’…
ETA: Can also be reinfused a number of times, I got around 3 decent cups out of one lot of leaves :D
Still an incredibly yummy tea! Its very very smooth and goes down nicely. The touch of ashyness goes perfectly with the malty, almost Assam-like, taste. Drink this plain, milk will mute the taste almost completely! If you like this you should give Russian Caravan a try – it has the same hint of smokyness only the flavour is more bacon-smoke than ashy-smoke. Mmmm bacon…
