Bailin Gongfu Black Tea

Yeah, more samples from Teavivre! Haven’t even tasted it yet and I am loving it. I used half of one of the 4 sample packets. The dry leaf looks small but smells amazing. First, I noticed malt. As I waited for the water to heat, I keep wondering where is that chocolate scent coming from? Oh yeah, it’s the tea. Steeped 2 minutes (increasing on later steeps) with below boiling water per instructions furnished on the sample label. The brew has a slight caramel aroma and is a deep reddish golden color. The wet leaf has a bit of a coffee edge and swollen leaf reveals small broken pieces.

I tried this without sweetener and thought is was a bit beige. So as is my custom, I used sweetener. Now the sip is what I would classify as medium bodied. You don’t have to work at tasting it, but it doesn’t grab you by the throat and kick your teeth in either. Nice. Smooth caramel taste, lightly malt, and creamy. The aftertaste lingers without being offensive. A civilized cup for when you have the time to enjoy it. Three infusions from the leaves.

I don’t normally drink a lot of straight black hot tea. This is my second black from Teavivre. These teas are really winning me over. I honestly didn’t know a black tea could have this much depth. Only problem is my cup keeps going empty! Very nice tea.

This tea is crisp and clean. It smells very strong but actually is nice and light tasting. Not quite malty, but I think if I would have steeped for longer it would be malty. It tastes a bit roasted. There is a floral fragrance smell to the dry tea and taste to the brewed tea. I would say it reminds me of burnt caramel. But not burnt as is scorched, burnt as is when you are cooking caramel, and the longer you cook it the darker it gets.

I brewed this one up my version of western style. But I can taste in the tea how it would be great for drinking gongfu style.

I had very high expectations for this tea based on the reviews and so I was mildly disappointed when it did not live up to them. Perhaps my own anticipation and expectation of flavor got in the way. As the tea cooled somewhat, the somewhat malty and very dark chocolate flavors came out, reminding me somewhat of the Numi chocolate puerh I had this morning. But the deep chocolate flavor in this tea did not taste like something added to the tea. I like the tea, but do not love it. I think it would be interesting base for adding other flavors (fans of this tea might think I am crazy).

My Teavivre samples came in! I am so excited. I managed to pick this one to try first because it is a different black than I have been having.

For having such a short steep time, the tea came out surprisingly dark. It has this nice toasty aroma to it that is making my mouth water. I am slightly sleep deprived right now and head deep in literature, so I might get a little flowery with my description later on. Or I might not, but I figured I would give warning just in case.

I think I might have gotten the water a little too hot for the first steep. It tasted earthy and black. A pleasant taste, but kinda flat. It could be because it is a new tea to me and I’m just not picking everything up right now.

The second steep was better. I brewed it a few seconds longer and I started to get a hint of caramel. The water was cooler at this point. I’m thankful that Teavivre sent such a large sample of this tea because now I can play with it and get my brewing method down for me.

I’m too full of tea right now to try for a third steep. I think the tea might be able to take it though. It is good, but I’m going to wait to rate it until I get a few more cups of it under my belt. I’m going to use a little bit cooler water next time. I wish I had a variable temperature water kettle, but I’ll stay with my stove top kettle for now.

Edit to Add: the last of my cup was cold by the time I drank it. Cold enough to make me think that this would be a really good lightly sweetened iced tea. Like a two serving bottle of tea with a teaspoon of honey dissolved in it kind of lightly sweetened. That would make an even better iced tea than our normal iced tea.

Ashmanra got a sample from Teavivre today and shared a pot with me. Yay! I didn’t see the dry leaves but the wet leaves are good size and smell a bit sweet & kind of like molasses. It brews a medium brown. It tastes toasty, vegetal and has a lingering sweet afternote. It is similar to Teavanna’s Golden Monkey and Southern Season’s Zhen Quo Super China Black.

Truly an outstanding tea. The dry leaf has a hint of pine in the nose, but the taste is pure caramel. Not a hint of astringency or bitterness, but this is by no means a “flabby” tea either. Delicious, simply delicious.

I discovered something interesting today. If I brew this with the usual amount of leaves(for a black tea) and gongfu style – I don’t like this tea at all. But I quite like it made western style. Nothing insane but at least the cup was nice.

I wanted a nice strong black tea while getting ready for a long work day, so I went through my bag of samples and found this gem from Teavivre that I haven’t yet tried. The sample size was so generous!

This tea smells perfect and tastes wonderful! It is perfect just the way it is you don’t need to add anything to this tea (I generally don’t anyhow). This tea has a natural sweetness to it. In fact I think it’d be a shame to add any sweetner to this. It’s hearty and malty with no harsh tastes to the sip at all.

I think this is the perfect cup of black tea! This stuff is seriously awesome. Love love love it! I’ll be taking the second infusion to work with me and plan to continue infusing this throughout the day =)

Edited to remind myself that I used 2 tsp per 14 oz water.

This black tea is beyond fabulous. It’s rich and bold while smooth and void of bitterness at the same time. I’m enjoying my second steep and this caramel flavor comes out nicely in the finish. This is the cup ‘o’ black I’ve been searching for. Many thanks to Teavivre for creating such a masterpiece!

Loved this tea, a good morning start of the day at work type tea, strong but still with a very good flavor, it could easily replace coffee for me, enough caffine to get me through but without that jittery kick.

The leaves are little black needle affairs, when it steeps it looks and smells delicious,
I steeped it a little longer then expected, but at a lesser temp, came out nice and golden brown, mixed it with agave sweetener, which complimented the strong smokey flavor well.

Going to try it at a high temp tomorrow, but I definitely have a new work tea.

Between taking up my range during an ill-planned cooking extravaganza and just general busy-ness, I have been sticking to tried and true teas and chugging apple cider. But I have a new mug from my favorite hockey team (go Stockton Thunder!) and I just received a new bunch of samples from TeaVivre, so I figured it was time to get adventurous again.

I’m not really sure how to describe the smell of this one. It sort of reminds me of roasted nuts, but without any hint of nut, if that makes any sense. Roasted tea? I don’t know, but it’s nice.

I went with the water a little hotter than recommended because I am impatient. The aroma turned very slightly sweet or maybe a little malty once the water hit the leaves. Again, having trouble placing the scent, but it’s still very nice.

The tea is fantastic. I think I’ve said that about everything I’ve tried from TeaVivre, but I have been really impressed with all of their teas and this is no exception. It’s not malty at all, but it does come through with a smooth, strong black tea flavor that turns very slightly sweet and nutty as it hits the back of your tongue. I’m getting maybe some chocolatey hints, too.

Overall, this is one of those teas I could drink all day (and one of these days, I’m going to pick up those empty sachets and start bringing good tea to work with me so I can do just that).

(Sample provided gratis by TeaVivre for review.)

This is a black tea that will appeal to the mild child in most of us. It’s more savory than sweet, with a strong topnote of chocolate, some spice, hints of wine as it lingers on the palate. Nothing overpowering in any direction, simply a smooth cup of black tea.

That may be why it’s called gong fu – a nod to it being one of the oldest black teas produced in its region. At some point you learn to do it right, n’est-ce pas?

What’s interesting to me as well is reading TeaVivre’s description of the caffeine content. It’s lower in comparison to a cup of coffee, so it might be a good nightime tea, but that’s also a relative statement. If you’re preparing it “gong-fu” style, that might be a moot point as well.

A really intriguing tea that I would venture to call a possible gateway tea for the hot chocolate drinker in your life who’s looking for something new to try.

Pics and further thoughts in my full review on my blog : http://bit.ly/t131TI

This is very roasty, and bold! Smooth and not a hint of bitterness. very nice.

This is the last of my samples from Teavivre – thanks again for the generous samples!

The dry leaves are quite pleasing to the eye-exquisitely twisted black leaves flecked with warm golden buds.

This tea is smooth, sweet and contains notes of grain. Maybe rye? Zero bitterness or astringency. This is one of the highest rated teas here at Steepster and is a very high quality tea.

Just arrived!

Thanks to Teavivre for the samples I received in the mail today! I’m very excited to start my tea journey moving away from Teavana products!

I just steeped my first cup of Bailin Gongfu.. and here goes the first sip.. please hold..

First sip, I noticed its smooth bold and sweet flavorful taste. Second sip.. lead to a third, so I’m sure to say ITS YUMMY!

Bottom line- if you like black tea and you’re willing to wait up to 2 weeks to get it in from china DO IT!

I’ve fallen in love with this tea. It does such wonderful things in my mouth I can’t help but love it.
Dry: Smells malty to me with dark dark chocolate coco notes. Nice twisted leaves.
Liquor 30s: Nice amber color which tastes like umami and salty flavours (salty like a calmed down soy sauce..). Very nice on the tongue. To be honest – I don’t get carmel or sweet type flavours at all. All of them are malty umami soy sauce. I am extremely happy those are the flavours I get as they are ridiculously good in such a surprising way (hence why I have been drinking this often).
45s: I think I get a lot of these umami and salty flavours when its hot. That is when they are most prominent to me. This is definitely more smooth in the initial taste.. then unfolds into a sparkly malty deliciousness. I still sense the same flavours from the first steep, but this time they have changed slightly. Some sips I even encounter a surprising smooth creaminess. Fantastic tea.

I will write more steeps another day. Today I must conquer genetics. Hmph.

Thank you to Angel from TeaVivre for these very generous samples!

WOW. This was really fantastic. This is my first experience with TeaVivre and it
was excellent from the packaging to the tea quality. The tea is packaged twice for maintaining freshness, something I did not expect and was impressed with. I made
a large teapot with 2 of the internal packets and this tea impressed the heck out of my visitors from the very start. We did 2 infusions and it held up very well to the 2nd infusion.

The tea flavour was very unique: unlike anything I’ve tried before. This was very interesting and unusual, in a great way. My friend said, “It smells like honey.” I got notes of honey as well but the clearest image in my mind while drinking this tea was, “This is a Green Tea, gone Black!” It really reminded me of the flavour and enjoyment of a good green tea, it just happened to be a black tea! That was a surprising though, but as I drank further that thought continued. Very good! Great with milk or straight-up. A really unexpected and rich flavour, excellent.

As soon as I opened the packaging, I liked this tea. It has that classic tea smell, earthy, smoky, sweet, all in one.

I love how much this tea tastes like caramel. I go through caramel obsession phases and I am in the midst of one right now.

It’s a good, hearty tea that is absolutely perfect to have with how cold it is here today. Perfectly smooth, just a tad sweet, and not at all bitter.

I have been drinking a lot of golden Yunnan lately, so I’m having to let my tongue adjust a bit, here.

And yet, perhaps not as much as you might think.

I would describe this as a more subtle, more gentle golden Yunnan. Very similar notes of roasted fruit, citrus zest, caramel and molasses… just less so. A much more gentle way of easing into one’s morning than a full bodied Yunnan would be. Or a great way to settle into a quiet evening’s repose, perhaps.

This tea drinks like a meal—it feels chewy and full of grain, kind of the way stout makes me feel (not in taste necessarily, just, the heavy “sandwichiness” of both). And I get that toasted bakery rye or maybe even pumpernickel (there’s some molasses, especially on resteep) bread thing again! (Why am I the only one who smells and tastes that? Weird.) It almost feels savory to me somehow, not sweet. One serving’s worth of leaves could easily last me all day, because after a single cup you just want to lay back and pat your tummy, pacing your gut, aaaand it resteeps a buncha times. Very thick body, as thick as a heavy coffee.

Does this thing where upon resteep it gets sweeter AND slightly more bitter/toasty at the same time. Kind of impressive, that. The bittersweetness gives it a sort of chocolate-y effect. Also, second go-round it looks and feels like coffee in terms of opaqueness and body to the point of being nearly indistinguishable (not a bad thing).