Bailin Gongfu Black Tea

Oh, have I missed Steepster and all your great reviews lately, extremely busy at work for the past 3 weeks , and at home with my godchild (babysitting the little angel while my sister is on a well-deserved vacation!) I’m catching up today by reading all of you…

Not only am I Canadian, I’m French Canadian, a proud «Québecoise» to be more precise. That explains why my choice of words or the way I phrase things might be a little incorrect form time to time. I hate using translators, good old fashion Merriam-Webster dictionary is what I go for. Aside from a few English lessons in high school, I learned English by myself. When I was a teenager, I decided I would become bilingual and read tons of English books. I also spoke English as often as I could, to all my friends who didn’t understand a thing and thought I was a little weird. It paid off, by the time I was 18, I was almost perfectly bilingual.

Now in my adult life, I do speak the language every day (I work in the financial world), but from time to time, I just can’t find the perfect word to illustrate to the fullest what I really want to say, the way I could in French.

So today, how do I love this tea??? INCOMMENSURABLEMENT! (google it! ha! ha! I just wanted to show off!!)

This tea, oh my, this tea… I have to thank Teavivre for the sample I got about 3 weeks ago. After drinking the life out of it, I ordered a large supply and decided to wait and drink it again before writing my review. (I wanted to make sure it was for real and that I wasn’t a victim of some kind of tea rush hallucinations).

I finally received it this week… I am sorry to say that this one will not be shared with anybody!!
So many of you have already said many good things about it and they’re all true.
This tea is a symphony for the taste buds and for the soul… Bold and delicate at the same time. It does have a natural cocoa feel to it, paired with a distinct caramel sweetness very hard to describe.
It does remind me of Teavivre Yun Nan Golden Tip, in a more complex way.

Haaa, sip, sip, I am having it right now, sooo freakin’ goood!!

After another crazy week, the beau and I are sitting down to finally try this sample from Teavivre – Thank you Angel! We are off to visit my grandmother in an hour or so, so we’re just slipping this one in before we continue the madness that this week has been.

The dry leaf smells decadent. It smells very rich, I find it has a chocolate characteristic and it instantly brings to mind the Golden Snail from Harney and Sons (which I have only a small amount of and am hoarding because it has been out of stock for months and months). I might want to try these side by side at some point and see if it’s just memory playing tricks on me. I steeped this for 3 minutes at 85 degrees (package specifications) with one sample package (approx. 2 teaspoons). The leaf has a surprising number of tips, it’s very attractive, even if the leaves are perhaps a bit more crushed than I might prefer. That could be due to shipping, storage, etc.

Steeped liquor is a golden amber, a little paler than I expected, but still with a bold aroma. I find the smell is very similar to the dry leaf – bold, rich, chocolatey. I hope I’m not the only one getting chocolate! (a side note, to be fair: I’ve been in the mood for a beautiful pure black tea that has chocolate notes for weeks – the thought that this one has been sitting idly by while I rushed about makes me cringe. I’m in love with the aroma, so far!)

First sips really match the aroma. So far this is a very consistant tea. This is bold. I do get chocolate in the taste, dark chocolate with a hint of something that could be considered bitter but doesn’t make me pucker. There is a sweetness in the middle of the sip which tapers off to the richness I am experiencing in the chocolate notes. Right now, this is heaven! I think there might be a tiny hint of astringency, as my lips are feeling a tiny bit dry, but there is nothing that tastes bitter or drying. Who knows, maybe this is my lips trying to wake up. : )

General consensus: yum. Very yum. Hopefully I can eke out a re-steep before we leave and see if these leaves can go the extra mile. This is definitely a tea that I am going to want to have on hand and will definitey go on my teavivre order once I’ve tried the rest of my samples. Mmmm!

I can’t believe how many people assume that all tea tastes llike bagged orange pekoe. While I can appreciate the place for bagged OP, I find it so hard to explain to someone just how delicious all teas (and especially black teas) can be. There is so much variety out there – so much more!

As I have no doubt mentioned before, I’m not much of a drinker of unflavored blacks. There are a couple that I have to admit are pretty tasty (Harney’s Golden Monkey, Teavivre’s own Yun Nan Golden Tips), but I still don’t seek out unflavored blacks often. But of course I accepted a sample of this one in my latest round from Teavivre… how could I not, with these reviews? I admit I was still skeptical that I would like it. The leaf is nice looking twisted strands with a scattering of golden tips, and it smells malty and dark and teaish.

This is another one that surprised me with the brewing parameters. 185°F for a black tea? If you say so. The tea came out a lovely dark amber color and again has that malty, sweet aroma. I have to say, alright Teavivre, you got me, this tea is delicious. It is smooth and tasty, with notes of cocoa, raisins, a tiny bit of caramel, a hint of honey, bready, malty… it isn’t actually sweet on the tongue, but it seems sweet, if that makes any sense. Also, this is very similar to the base of The Tea Spot’s Organic Chocolate “O” tea, even though they aren’t the same variety. A big thanks again to Teavivre for this sample; these opportunities really help me step outside my usual teas and experience things I wouldn’t have bought on my own.

This morning’s first cup before heading out to do errands.

My Teavivre order of a ton of samples arrived yesterday morning – woo hoo! Since I had the most samples of this tea, I decided to start with it first.

Three grams of leaf in 8 oz of water at the below preparation notes yielded a delicious cup of black tea. There was heft in the cup, but no sign of bitterness. Some have said this is reminiscent of beer and I’d agree with that. There’s a malty-sweetness to the liquor. I had no desire to add anything to this cup to make it taste any better – it was that good!

Resteep: Water was just under boiling for a 3 minute soak. This turned out to be another delicious cup similar to that of the first cup.

I could see this as an everyday tea, but not something I’d necessarily want if I needed to be kicked out of bed in the morning. But a very nice change to the usual black-tea-with-milk-&-sugar routine.

Thank you Teavivre for the samples I won on your Facebook page woop!

It’s exciting for me right now – I’m in a place where I’m delving into straight teas more than I have in the past (and not just oolongs, even though they’re my favorite). I found it very exciting when I correctly identified the unmarked tea from my aunt in China as Big Red Robe!
With this tea, I’m discovering what makes it a fujian – and right now for me that flavour is in the realm of pumpkin seeds and caramel.

This particular tea had a hint of savoury tomato in it, which to be honest is not my favorite when I catch that flavour (as I have in many Adagio teas), but after the first steep it settled into a nice, rich, dark profile that I did enjoy.

There’s a little too much malt for me, and the tomato notes aren’t really for me either – but this is a quality tea and I did enjoy my half sample of it. Thank you! :)

Once again, thank you Angel and TEAVIVRE for their generosity for this sample!!
I only used 1 tsp.
Dry smell: fresh cut hay
Taste: grainy (but not in a bad way), slightly sweet like caramel but not as sweet as I thought it would be from all the reviews on here. I might try a 3 minute steep next time and see how that goes
2nd steep: 90degrees, 3minutes, less grainy, a tad sweeter
3rd steep: 95degrees, 4minutes, I found this to be the sweetest steep, and not as grainy, so this is now very smooth, this was my favourite steep.
I would have went for more steeps, but I was out and about for too long and had to throw out my leaves.
I am so excited I finally got to try it!

1 tbsp for 375 ml

Smooth taste with black tea dilute lemony note. Very faint leathery tone. Bordering on a steamed spinach type of taste. Faint almost chocolate in background. Hint of smokiness.

Thanks to Sil for passing this on to me!

So I’ve been absent from Steepster for awhile. I have an autoimmune disorder and when I get sick, I get sicky sick. It’s just a reality of life every now and then that I have to disappear. But I’ll always come back! I’m sorry I can’t do a backlog, it’s been too long.

Therefore, I’ll start with this morning’s tea. Bailin Gongfu. I sure was hesitant to try it when I smelled it. It smelled like hay. Then when I brewed it, it smelled like wet hay. What the heck, I thought, my senses might not be all there yet. So I tasted it. Wow! I loved it. My taste in unflavored blacks runs to English Breakfast, which technically is blended, and that’s about it. So this was a revelation. The more I drank, the more I enjoyed it. I’m sorry I couldn’t pinpoint the flavor I was getting with this tea, but it was different. My girlfriend thought it was OK until she sweetened it, and then she liked it a lot more. I had sweetened mine as a matter of course. I was glad it didn’t taste like wet hay though. :-)

It’s great to be back!

Been a l-o-n-g week; reentry after the holidays has been nuts. So I needed something really good to coax me out the door this morning.

Thanks to the lovely jacquelinem, I have just that—a cup that starts out cocoa-sweet at the beginning with a tangy, fruity sign-off at the end. Really too good for a workday morning. Highly recommended.

THANK YOU Teavivre for sending me this sample MANY MONTHS AGO. I apologize for not opening it – I was on a tea hiatus of sorts and am now back.

This tea smelled like chocolate when I opened up the package.

The result has very little astringency and a light malty flavor that is slightly sweet. As the tea cools the sweet notes emerge. I really enjoyed this sample and recommend this tea!

Thank you to Bonnie for this amazing sample from Teavivre!!

I woke up this morning excited to start the day! Tuesdays and Thursdays mean “swim” class with my daughter – although it’s really more like splash around in the pool at the rec center. Regardless, at 15 months old she is a ball of energy and I love the time we are able to enjoy together doing anything at all. 45 minutes of romping in the shallow end left me waterlogged and ready for brunch so it was home and happy in the kitchen next for me! Bonnie was so kind to send me a wealth of samples which I received last night, and I promptly set aside this BaiLin Gongfu knowing that it would be the perfect way to start delving into the myriad of duct tape labeled packages with steeping times and anecdotes jotted carefully across them. This was my first taste of what Teavivre has to offer and I must say that I was very impressed! I was admittedly doubtful when I saw the sample packaging, thinking that it looked more like a bag of novelty candies than tea.. however it is very efficient and locks the flavor in nicely.

After having tried other loose black teas that went vindictive and downright hostile if steeped for more than 3 or 4 minutes, I decided to play it safe and stay just inside the low end of the company’s guidelines and let it dance in the cup for 2:15 on the first go. The result was a smoothly balanced liquor of salted caramel, toffee, and signature black with just a hint of clove in the aftertaste. All in all a deliciously understated cup that left me very pleased with myself for not overdoing it! But..

I couldn’t help myself. The kettle went back on the boil and then over the unwitting leaves before they knew what was coming. 2.. 2.5.. 3.. 3.5.. 4 minutes of rolling red liquor later and I sat down to the business of hoping I hadn’t taken a beautiful thing and marred it with my ambition to pull a toasted monster from the wreckage. Oh WOW! THIS IS THE BEST BLACK TEA I HAVE EVER TASTED!! Sorry for shouting. I promise it wasn’t at you, although it was at the cup in my hands! Take every flavor I mentioned from the first steeping and crank it up 20 notches, then dip it in mocha and you might begin to get a feel for what the evil geniuses at Teavivre are concocting! Bravo!

First Review and thank you to Teavivre and Angel for this fine sample (ample sample)!
What a spectacularly beautiful tea! I used a double glass cup so that I could see the color of this tea and WOW! The tone is golden amber lit by firelight. I didn’t read the reviews on this tea so that I could form my own thoughts on it. Caramel was my first opinion..very light..with a little buttery pie crust taste(I used to bake pie for contests so I know crust!). There is a smidge of vegital but not a green note…more like a yellow wax bean or raw sweet potato when you cut it (not a yam). I never would have sipped this even a year ago and snapped my fingers and announced…“Ah now this is a good Chinese black tea!” For all I knew black tea would be …eh…dark…and bitter…and in a bag! ergh! This is fit for a Queen…and I suppose that sans an abusive ex-husband…I’ve become a Queen! I quite like my new TEA life and I quite like this tea for sure! 3min steep did it for me!

I love black tea and this is truly an outstanding cup. Leaves smell of chocolate, coffee and raisins. Brews up to be a gorgeous dark chestnut color. Has a natural sweetness reminiscent of caramel and raisins. It’s so mellow I can drink it without soymilk which I don’t often do with black teas. I am pretty pleased with this! I will also need to find out more about Bailin Gong Fus.

I love this product !!!!

Many thanks to the Teavivre team for a nicely sized sample of this beauty. I’ve tried this tea several times now and I have to say that this is a pretty good tea. It is light yet rich, smooth yet bold. There is little to no astringency, but there is a pretty decent caffeine kick from this. This is one of the few black teas that is great for multiple infusions. The cocoa notes seem to come out more during the 2nd.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my round of samples from Teavivre and I will be putting the company on my “To Buy From” list.

So I have waited and waited to write this review. Mainly because I have been drinking a lot of black teas lately and some were blending together for me. I had to come back to it after I had paired it with food. I paired it with a chocolate croissant the 3rd time and then with a blood orange the next.
I like this..but it did not blow me out of the water. After reading so many reviews I wanted it to, but It did not do it for me. It is still a good cup of tea..

The first cup for me has a chocolate note to it. With a little oat to round off the finish. The second has more oat and a little astringency to it.

Okay, I admit my taste buds might already be compromised. The fiancé decided to cook steak and habanero peppers in his cast iron skillet. Basically, he poisoned the air. I had to retreat into the bedroom because the air was so peppery I couldn’t stop coughing and sneezing. My nose is now running like crazy, so I’m not sure how reliable this tasting note will be.

The dry leaves smelled like tea. Yeah, I know, not very descriptive. But really, there wasn’t much to it. No overtly recognizable scents. The brewed tea aroma is a similar experience. It smells like Teavivre’s other black teas.

Now let’s see if I have any better luck describing the taste. It’s much stronger than I anticipated. It tastes like it could be a great base for blending. No bitterness or tannins detected. I feel like it’s a little peppery, but then again that could just be from the air. Toasty might be a better description.

It came in pre-measured, individual, little, red packets. So, maybe it tastes strong to me because the leaf is more proportional. When I measure the tea leaves out myself, I almost always err on the side of too little. Still, I think the Yun Nan Dian Hong Black Tea was more to my liking. It just had more flavor.

Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t flavorless. It just tastes kind of standard to me, like something I would drink as my morning cup of tea. Oddly enough though, the Teavivre site says it has minimal caffeine (less than 15% of a cup of coffee). I guess that’s a good thing since I’m drinking it at 8pm on a weekday.

But I usually choose black tea for its taste as well as caffeine content. So, if this doesn’t have much caffeine in it and the taste is lacking, there’s not a whole lot of point for me to drink it. It is a good cuppa, just not my favorite. Despite its high quality, the taste just isn’t enough to my liking for me to reach for it often. So, if you like Bailin Gongfu, you’ll like this one too!

Now it’s time to peek out tentatively like Groundhog Phil and see if it’s safe to come out yet.

I thought the Tie Guan Yin I got from Teavivre was good but this stuff right here is AMAZING. I didn’t even consider myself a big black tea fan before because I was naive to what a truly high quality black tea was. I didn’t even know that black tea could possess the kind of flavor “wow” factor that this does, my eyes are now open. For me, the most dominant smell/flavor in this is that of maltiness with little hints of chocolate and raisins, in a more refined sense it kind of reminds me of those Whoppers candies (the malted milk balls). This is smooth, comforting, a little sweet, a little earthy, chocolatey, malty… Just all around delicious. I drank it with homemade General Tso’s chicken and fried rice and it really complimented the meal. I will definitely be buying some of this.

Thanks Angel for the sample!

I just love it when a tea is good enough to outsmart the questionable water in my office. We had this hot water spigot which was already shady enough, but lately the water has come out smelling of unknown chemicals….so I have been using my trusty old Zarafina. It’s good but it generally handles black/dark teas better than green or white.

On to the tea itself….this one has a full-bodied bakey goodness that I love in a morning tea. I used the entire little bag (~7g?) for 16 oz of water and it was really good. It really caters to my need to have pastry-ish things in the morning without actually needing to consume a pastry. Also, as I accidentally found out, quite good cool/cold as well. Forgot a bit in my cup and when I came back and took a sip my first thought was “heh…cookie”, although I would have to go with a generic cookie as it didn’t taste like a cookie long enough to make a distinction. :P

Overall, quite tasty. I will probably end up bringing most of the rest to work. Part I will keep at home to test different steeping conditions.

Tea of the evening……

First, I must thank TeaVivre for their generosity in sending samples, very generous samples. I love the way they are double packaged so there is a heat sealed package inside a resealable pouch, and then sent in a box. Very impressive. There is also more information about the origins and production on this tea than I have seen from any other vendor.

(Yes, I know I usually don’t drink tea in the evening, but we are headed out for some pre-New Year’s festivities that involve bowling and loud rock music. It is not scheduled to end until 1am, so I needed a serious evening pick me up!)

Onto the tea…I guess the way I brewed this cup is more what is called western style. I did want to try it out brewing according to the usual way I brew a black tea just so that I would have a good frame of reference for the taste. One thing I did completely differently…..I drank this one straight up. I usually have to add a little sweet in order to bring out the flavors in a tea, but not so with this one. It is perfect on its own. It has flavors similar to a high quality dark chocolate or a really good porter (Yes, I do usually prefer my beer as a porter and my wine as a dry red.) Plus there is a hint of molasses in there. I do think the next time I try it, I will add just a hit of sweet just to see what other flavors it has to show me. However, this one is remarkable for me in that it is wonderful on its own.

Brewed by my usual mug method…..15 oz. mug, 2 tsp tea, freshly boiled filtered water, 4 minutes.