Laoshan Black

Wow perfection! This is the good stuff mixed in with Chocolate Chamomile Curiosity Brew! Just last night I was wishing I had some of this black tea without all the extras for morning and lo and behold David was two steps ahead of me having snuck a nice sample of this in with my order!
Yup THIS is the tea I want in the morning. THIS is the tea I want to mix strawberries in! This is bliss!
Flavors: Malty, Sweet, Chocolate, Leather, Spice – cinnamon and black pepper.
Mouthfeel is heavy and thick, creamy, and full.
Not drying on throat, no astringency, no bitterness.

This is incredibly good. I have the Laoshan Northern, which is now sold out, but, the Autumn harvest is what is now avaiable through Verdant. I wonder how different in flavor the two harvests are. Anyway…

This is very good… at first, I am reminded very much of a Fujian black tea with the rich, full body of this tea and the chocolate-y undertones. But as I continue to sip, I notice some differences. This tea has more of a honey-like sweetness versus the caramel-y undertones I might experience with a Fujian black, and this one has more of a malty front note. Both are spectacular teas … a good tea cupboard would include teas from both regions!

Very yum, this Laoshan black!

Spoilers for Steepster Select’s final box… I probably shouldn’t post this yet, but I’m excited.

This is the first SS box I’ve gotten. I was about to brew a cup of Teavivre’s Fengquing Black Dragon Pearls (quickly becoming my favorite black) when the mailman showed up. Okay, I’ll see what’s in the box. I’ve never tried a Verdant tea before, but I’ve been dying to.

So I saw this and immediately decided to brew up a mug. The dry leaves are really soft and smooth, and almost remind me of plastic. And they have a strong, unique scent – sort of like dark chocolate, malt balls and whole wheat bread. It’s enticing.

Steeped, it’s a deep chocolate brown. I’m liking this already. My sister, who’s sitting across the living room, just asked me “Are you making brownies?” No, Jenny, it’s my tea. “Oh. Is it brownie tea?”

First sip: dry astringency and wheat. It’s still a bit hot, so it wasn’t a proper sip. Trying it again: dark, bitter chocolate with wheat in the background. I think I steeped it a bit too strongly, but that’s totally okay. This tea is somehow dry and smooth all at once. Delicious.

Thank you to Sil for sending me this sample.

I drank this while preparing the menu for Easter this year. It’s my turn to bake and I am planning on baking my sanity away this week with the Easter pies, the Creme Brulee and the cupcakes. It calmed me and kept me from having a good bit of panic. Laoshan Black may just be a miracle drug for me.

1st Steep-1 minute
Holy Laoshan Black. Normally I’m one of those people who think I’ll hate what everyone else loves. Usually it’s true but with Laoshan Black, I couldn’t be wronger. Is wronger even a word? It’s beautiful. That’s all. It tastes like chocolate and cinnamon. There’s also a nice creamy note. I let my mother who hates tea sip this and she loved it. That is a special tea.

2nd Steep-2 minutes
The chocolate is even more intense with a nutty note. This tastes like Nutella. I hate Nutella for the simple reason that they try to pretend there is no chocolate in there—clearly a lie— but this tastes like it. And it is so so good.

3rd Steep-3 minutes
Still very chocolaty but it has transformed into a milk chocolate whereas the other steeps were a heavier dark chocolate. There is also a bread note which is bringing back the whole Nutella feel. Nutella on toast is my childhood in a box.

4th Steep-4 minutes
The cinnamon came out of nowhere and took over. It tasted like I had steeped a cinnamon stick. Not spicy but sweet and flavorful. The chocolate was still there but it was firmly in the background.

5th Steep-5 minutes
Caramel and cream. A bit of cinnamon. It’s not losing much of its flavor at all.

6th Steep-15 minutes
This is my extremely long, ill-advised final steep. It tasted kind of like graham crackers and marshmallow. Does that sound insane? And after steeping for 15 minutes, there was no astringency at all.

Laoshan Black is an experience. I was all prepared to be the odd duck in the room who didn’t like it but I loved it. I am tempted to hoard 4oz or so but I already hoard way too many teas and it’s starting to become a concern. Either way, this tea is a staple.

Look, I have nice logical tasting notes written out for this tea (another delightful share from Angrboda) but there are lots of good tasting notes here talking about the chocolate and cinnamon notes, the delightful sweetness coupled with the light rye-ish grain taste. I mean, it’s delicious, that’s pretty obvious. (And how awesome is it to find natural cinnamon in a tea?!?)

But let me tell you exactly how delicious this tea is. This tea is so good that I had my first cup on Tuesday and by Tuesday afternoon, I ordered 4oz of it. (It should arrive today!) And now I’m having my second cup and I want to go order more because no way will 4oz be enough of this tea. The only tea I’ve done that with before is CTG’s Keemun which remains my favorite tea of all time. (I bought 200g when CTG closed, even though I still had 100g in my pantry. And I wish I had bought more.)

This kind of makes me want to flail around like Kermit the Frog it’s so good. (There actually was a little flailing and some cheering when I saw that tracking had my package out for delivery.) And today it’s giving me hot cocoa – like creamy mouthfeel and everything – which makes me want to flail even more. I love this tea. It’s fantastic. Two cups (plus resteeps) and it has earned a place on my Desert Island Tea List.

I ♥ this tea.

(ETA: The second steep today is cinnamon-y with the endnote of rich dark chocolate. The husband is outside mowing in almost 80° weather but I’m having to restrain myself from going outside to make him try this. I’m sure the last thing he wants right now is hot tea, even if it tastes like a decadent Mexican hot chocolate.)

my 300th tasted tea! i’ve reached a milestone.
i ordered this tea a long while ago and kept saving it sealed for the right time.
i woke up early so i would have time to sit with it. i used my special very British porcelain tea cup and saucer. and i read fanfic by one of my favorite authors.
it was my peaceful & quiet special tea party.

Huge thanks to the amazing Sil for sending me a sample of this to try!

So I haven’t tried too many straight black teas in my life…. Darjeeling, Tetley (ew), Assam. Not much of an extensive background as far as that goes. I wanted to try this based on the reviews.

I never understood how people are able to taste all these different levels of flavour in a straight tea. Now with this one, I get it. I don’t have the knowledge to be able to tell you exactly WHAT I’m tasting, but it’s slightly floral, slightly nutty, a little bit smokey or leathery almost (not in a gross way, in a distinguished way!) …. Not really getting any cocoa but can see how someone might draw that conclusion. It tastes kind of dirty, not in a bad way, earthy I guess is a better word. I can tell that I’m drinking something that grew in the ground, haha.

I’ve definitely never had anything like this tea before. I am drinking my second steep now, and to be honest it just tastes like the first steep to me, just weaker.

I may as well go all the way and tell you that every resteep I’ve ever had of any tea ever just tastes like a weaker version of the original steep. I’m not getting it when people go on about second steeps tasting like vanilla and whatnot. After all, at the end of the day, tea is just infused hot water. I really like food (REALLY), so it’s a huge stretch for me to try and get different notes out of infused hot water. Especially a straight tea.

The resteep was very similar to the first and I will try a third. It’s unique tasting black tea, that’s what this is. I am not sure I’d order this anytime soon but I will never forget it!

I might return to this later on in my tea journey!!

“This particular review of Laoshan Black was very helpful!” said no one ever.

(Boiling water, 3 min)

I have waited a really long time to try this tea.
A Big Thank You to SIL for giving me a sample so I can finally try this much loved (at least by Steepster folks) tea.
And I thought this would be a good tea to re-introduce myself back into the tea tasting world.
Yes, I do think I finally beat this horrid upper respiratory flu thing that had me down for nearly 3 weeks now.
I still get horrible coughing attacks that last about 10 minutes, but I believe my full taste and smell has returned.
I could not keep my nose out of the brew basket when I was making this tea.
It smelled SO good brewing!
I smelt chocolate and avocados, some earthiness and something sweet.
Wow! If this tea tastes half as good as it smells, I am really in for a treat.
Then the dreaded wait time till it cools enough that I can sip.
The color is stunning, such a rosy gold, it so lovely to look at sitting in my bodum cup.
Taste is more delicate than I thought it might be, however that does not mean it lacks flavor.
Chocolate and honey.
Avocado and wood.
Floral and creamy.
Baked goods and earth.
This tea has it all, gently unfolding in taste, like a journey where you are not sure what is around the corner.
This tea is a real treat and is well deserved of its Steepster love.
Thank you so much Sil, for giving me the chance to try such a delightful brew.

Wow, this is such a unique tea, like no other black I’ve had before.
The dry leaf smells heavily of chocolate and raisins; so delightful that it took me many minutes to get my nose out of the pouch and proceed with the brewing. The brewed tea has an aroma that I can’t put a name on, but if I close my eyes, I see corn fields and sun. It is very calming.
The flavor is malty, getting sweeter with each subsequent infusion – I’m on my 6th now, and it is still amazing.

I must say that there is a complexity in this tea that has effected me in a way that few teas have done. It’s not a simple tea and one that I feel deserves, even requires, a more in-depth observation. I usually don’t drink the same tea each day, however I have been drinking this one for three days now, and no end yet planned. I am greatly enjoying my sessions with this tea.

I have also noticed that most people have done very long infusions (a few minutes), whereas I have been having this gongfu in my pretty little gaiwan, lots of leaf and very short infusions. I’m wondering if I’m missing out on something by not doing a very long infusion, however I am so enjoying this tea my way that I don’t wish to waste the little leaf I have.

Well done Laoshan ! (and Verdant Teas too, for bringing us this tea).

It has been a while since I’ve had time to sit and enjoy a cup of tea. Thank goodness for a busy Saturday agenda. We’re participating in a charity walk for juvenile diabetes today. I decided enough was enough and I put an end to my tea hiatus.

Thankfully.

This tea is such a lovely reminder of how much I need it. The tea in the package smells fresh and almost grasslike, which surprised me for a black. I decided to go with a lower temperature for steeping and treated it more like an oolong. The result is a delicious cup of tea. The black is malty, most certainly, and almost tastes of roasted pumpkin seeds. It’s slightly vegetal, but surprisingly full of flavor. The tea is smooth, without any astringency or bitterness. This is the perfect cup of tea for those who dislike the bite that many black teas bring with them. I daresay that this will find a way into my permanent stash.

Autumn Harvest:

mm oh I am in heaven.
There is a lot I want to say about this tea, the 2012 Spring Tieguanyin and Verdant tea as a whole, but I’m too overwhelmed to put it into words at the moment.

Suffice it to say, this is the second tea that has brought me to the emotional brink. It’s hard to “type” about – it has made me speechless, breathless.

More notes to come – but I just want to say, this one reminds me SO much of homemade roasted pumpkin seeds – which is one of my most favorite things in the world.

I’ll be back!

This is so intriguing. I have some experience with unflavoured blacks, but this is a totally different universe. I get a really rich thick liquor, almost brothy. I get what I refer to as cocoa notes, but I don’t know that it is cocoa per se. At first I wasn’t sure what I thought, but it grew on me through the cup. I wanted to use words like grainy and roasty and even malty, but I don’t know if those are associations or just words that got stuck in my head. Won’t rate until I’ve tried it again as this tea demands attention.

The beau pointed out that it has honey notes and I didn’t get that in the tea itself but in the aftertaste. Dark chocolate in the sip (but not at all bitter!) and sweet honey in the aftertaste.

Steeped 3/4 tsp in smallish gaiwan with boilling water for around 3 minutes.

Well, I wish I liked this as much as most folks seem to but unfortunately…Thank you to Darby for sharing this with me before I placed an order and ended up with a lot of this. :)

I will say this: it is exactly as chocolate as the description implies. Like drinking the aroma of chocolate, if that makes any sense. Notes of burned caramel in the background. And later steepings did indeed have more of a raw cacao flavor with more spices – what ones I’m not sure but they seemed odd to me.

This is just not going to be my thing. I am not a big chocolate tea person at all and this is completely a chocolate tea. Not sweetened but not bitter – just chocolate tea with an earthiness to it. I can see where the devotion to this tea comes from. If this kind of taste were to your liking, it’d be all that and a bag of chips. If you are looking for a tea that truly does taste like chocolate – this is it.

I passed this on to a Tea Club member with no review other than to say that it wasn’t my thing and I’m anxious to see what he thinks of it.

I hesitate to rate this since it is indeed what Verdant describes it as – it just isn’t for me.

Oh my! This is perfection! Big thank you to Terri HarpLady, she spoiled me a little.
I like this one almost as much as Golden Fleece! This is creamy and sweet! I need to buy this! I might share the next steeps with my mama!

At long last I get to try the well loved, almost worshipped, Laoshan Black. My experience with the fancier straight black teas is that I totally miss whatever people say they tasted. Maybe I’ve burnt my tongue too many times on hot tea or more likely pizza, but I don’t have the sophisticated “taster” tongue that many appear to have. Regardless, I was hopeful that I would still enjoy this, even if I couldn’t taste all the chocolate or other flavors so often mentioned.

Well, that was not a problem at all. Holy chocolate! And it’s like a slightly burnt chocolate, in a good way. Yum! I’m not going to rate this yet or even comment much on the flavor as I had a less than ideal first go round with the brewing. My rinse went according to plan. My first steep half spilled all over my hand (ouch). I didn’t want to burn my hand again, so for the second steep, I moved the tea leaves into a strainer that had previously brewed a chai so that flavor still permeated. Finally, I moved the leaves to a simple clear brewer that you drain out the bottom. At that moment, the little Bean woke up from her nap so any kind of short steeps were out of the question. So from then on I just poured some hot water into the brewer, watched it for a minute or two and then drained it into my mug and continue to chase the little creature. No real rhyme or reason to it. All the steeps (even the one that I forgot) were really yummy except for the one that still had the chai flavor. Tomorrow I hope to try again. And I hope the Bean stays asleep a little longer this time. Nap time is sacred. She’s been skimping on me lately.

I forgot to log this for some reason, but just as well, since my opinion has changed. Most reviewers have found it superb, but initially for me, brewed Western style, it was not a favorite, not that it is not a quality tea-I was comparing it to Golden Fleece, which I adore, and decided Laoshan black was a little too strong for my tastes. Today, I am drinking it Gongfu style for the second time with 5gm/4-5 oz boiling water, and very short steeps as instructed on the package. Gongfu style has made all the difference. I have been enjoying cup after cup (Verdant says you can get 15 steepings this way). I have discovered it is really worth trying both styles of brewing. When I don’t have time to linger with multiple steepings, it is nice to be able to brew Western, but when I have time, I’ve had some great experiences with traditional Chinese brewing, that is lots of leaf and short steeps. So yes, I like this tea! Would I re-order? Yes. And by the way, it is very nice brewed double strength with ice added. I’m curious about the Laoshan Village Chai-it is next on my list to order.

This tea deserves a much better review than I can provide it at this exact point in time.

You see, we started drinking this about six hours ago, with the first steep. The flavor was pleasant, very reminiscent of the bailin gongfu I so enjoy from Teavivre. But it was smoother, with a little more of a cocoa taste to it in place of the malty, grainy taste of the bailin. Well, the Laoshan has a grainy taste as well, but it is more mellow.

Then we did a second steeping, and we both started doing some cleaning around the house. The second steeping was a little sweeter, and not noticeably any weaker (I should mention that these are western brewings, not gaiwan). I didn’t get the cinnamon notes, but that could be my own personal lack of refinement ;)

Missy did the third steeping while I was making dinner. Again, that same sweet and smooth taste, with a mild graininess. Quite enjoyable. But I sat down with my nice, char-grilled steak, a warm cup of tea, and started watching Boardwalk empire. Three steeps into this tea, and I never sat down and really thought about what I was tasting with enough detail to write a good, handy tasting note.

I do enjoy this tea quite a bit, all of what I’ve heard of the quality of Verdant’s tea is true. This is a very smooth, very crisp, enjoyable tea.

Steeped this gong-fu style in a gaiwan, as usual.

The smell of this dry tea from David’s big bags is great- like sticking my nose into a bag of dark dark chocolate chips mixed with dried cranberries or pit fruits. The wet smell continues on the same them: a dark chocolate bar with currants or raspberries or tart hibiscus. In fact, the smell and the first tastes really reminds me of this delicious bar of chocolate from Rogue Chocolatier (try them! try them! try them!) called the Hispaniola: http://www.roguechocolatier.com/products-page/

Apart from the chocolate, this new picking just strikes me as particularly autumny. It seems leafy (fallen leaves), with lots of toasted grains. Notes of buckwheat and, of course, honey. Some may disagree with me, but I think this one is even more malty than the last spring picking (but maybe I was just really in the mood for that taste, and so I found it in abundance).
There is also the taste of brown sugar that, in a way, reminds me of aged Gouda. You know how aged gouda has these really awesome crystalline structures of salt that burst open as your eating a piece? This has that same feeling, but with brown sugar crystal-nuggets instead of salt.

As we steeped this out, I was reminded a bit of the jingling/ringing mouth-texture of Verdant’s big red robe, but this is accompanied by the brothy, honey full feeling. Later flavors remind me of honey nut cheerios, but with more honey. I like Geoffrey’s notes of creme brulee in this one; I taste that, too.. but a creme brulee that’s more complex than most, with cinnamon sweetness and carrots and raisins and cream. Final flavors are those of perfectly toasted marshmallows!

If I’m going to drink a black tea, it’s going to be Dien Hong, or it’s going to be this one. This tea gives me absolutely everything I want out of black tea. Yes, I’ll keep trying Indian blacks and I’m not going to turn down any opportunities to try other Chinese blacks. But here’s the thing: I really cannot stand bitterness at all. There have been times I couldn’t make it through house salads because the greens they used were just too bitter for me! So I have a feeling that when I drink Indian blacks, I’m going to say to myself.. HmmmmMm.. this would be really good if it just weren’t so bitter…Now where’s my LaoShan black? And recently when I’ve had Chinese black teas, their flavors seem to fall very clearly into the Dien Hong camp or the LSBlack camp, without offering something very distinctive all their own that helps me understand what makes that tea unique. When I find another Chinese black that really grabs me and shows me why someone can dedicate themselves to that tea, then you will be sure to see a happy review from me. Until then, I’m going to enjoy hunkering down for the winter with this Autumn Lao Shan black.

It’s so good. I am so very happy to have the opportunity to try this tea. Imagine: last year, no one outside of China had ever tried this village’s black tea. How lucky I am to find it in my cup now!

Delicious. Everything I love in a black tea. Tangy, roasty, chocolatey. Am I tasting cinnamony too? While it tastes kind of similar to the Fujian blacks I adore, and kinda similar to The Simple Leaf’s Dawn (!) it definitely also has it’s own thing going on. I keep on tasting a variety of nuances each time I sip. Buttery? Fruity? Bready? This is one that you don’t want to rush through, and one that will reveal different facets of itself each time you drink it.

Also – the Verdant $5 try me pack? Talk about an offer you can’t refuse! I was so pleased with both the amount and variety they sent. So excited to try the others.

I was scared to try this for two reasons. One, I was worried I overhyped it in my head too much and would be disappointed. Secondly, yesterday was a tea DISASTER. I ruined every cup of tea I attempted to make in various ways. So I was worried that curse would follow into today.

The result of this experiment? One of the most delicious teas I’ve ever had in my whole life. I cannot believe that this isn’t flavored. It’s SO thick, and SO chocolately. I feel like I’m drinking liquefied brownie, thick texture and all. My tongue feels coated, but in that pleasing indulgent way, except this is even better since it’s with zero guilt!

Stop trying to buy a chocolate tea. Seriously. Stop. Now. Buy this. Trust me. It tastes like rich, thick, heavenly dark chocolate, and it’s not forced in any way. This is just how the tea tastes naturally on it’s own.

This will clearly last multiple steeps, and I’m looking forward to each and every one of them.

(And now to PANIC to Verdant Tea’s website and order more before it’s all gone.)