Laoshan Black

This tea is different every time I drink it. It is some kind of magic.

Yesterday on the second steep, after it had been sitting for about an hour, I could swear I was tasting rootbeer notes by the end of the cup. In all fairness I had previously been drinking a rootbeer flavoured tea, but I was still amazed. I also sometimes get cinnamon out of the second steep.

This morning on the first steep, I am getting a lot of fruity flavours. Very much like a dark, sweet plum. It is very creamy. There is some sweet tobacco notes, almost like a hint of clove cigarettes. And I feel like there is just the slightest hint of nutmeg and cinnamon. It tastes almost like a coffee cake.

I often do not get much chocolate or cocoa out of this tea like many others. But it doesn’t matter, it is still good. It is almoste like this tea is whatever you need it to be :P

Verdant needs a mobile friendly website. My bag had zero steeping instructions on it, so I tried to pull the site up on my phone, since it was in the kitchen to time the steeping…but it kept crashing my browser. So I had to hurry back to my bedroom and pull up the site and find what to do. I wrote the instructions on the package so I guess I’ll probably go through my others so this won’t happen again. I cut it close!

I’m going to get started re-watching The Walking Dead since I kind of stopped after the first season. I feel some weird obligation to watch everything filmed around here for the most part (I have to throw that disclaimer in because I would rather lick a battery than have anything to do with Scary Movie 5, as this brought in BOTH Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan.) but I did enjoy it so time to retry, yay Netflix!

I can probably tell you all sorts of places it filmed though! Like this! This is Forsyth Street, right near important to me school buildings! http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbnkjbS0yU1qz5e5oo1_1280.png They’re mostly well outside Atlanta, which is where all the TV shows end up, but in the first episode they were on my campus! This happened too in The Change Up. The first time I saw a trailer I was like WAIT I WALK THROUGH THERE ALL THE TIME. It’s kind of fun.

So this is my pot of tea to go along with it and a plan to resteep as much as possible through the night!

I’m terrible at keeping track of things but I’ve had this for awhile so I don’t know what description where applies to this tea anymore. I bought it in April. Wow, that’s embarrassing
that I’m just now getting around to trying it. Jeez.

This first steeping smells purely of chocolate. It tastes like a malty cinnamon brownie. It’s rich and satisfying. It’s not as cold today but this feels good to drink!

I’m amused that this tastes more like a cinnamon brownie than the tea I have that’s supposed to be one. Ha. There are some caramel notes too but mostly I get chocolate with a nice hint of cinnamon.

The second steep is getting kind of a toasted cereal flavor, but still chocolatey. This actually reminds me a lot of a dark oolong and I really am not a fan of many of them, but I am enjoying this tea. What do you call that chocolatey hot cereal stuff? CoCo Wheats? That’s what it reminds me of!

This will probably be it for the time being, because I want to sleep tonight. I’ll have to try it in a gaiwan next.

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.

Been drinking the Laoshan Black again for the past two days. And I have to up my rating of it a couple notches. I knew this tea was special from the moment I first smelled the dry leaves. And now, several months later, it is proving itself more special than that initial impression.

Constancy and poise are keywords here. What follows might be a funny analogy, but I impart it in earnest, so please indulge me. When I’m drinking other black teas, I always remember this special one from Laoshan as that rare and truly great love. She fully knows her worth, but is very far above holding it over anyone. In calm fortitude, she knows that I’ll always come back, and patiently tolerates my occasional carousing with other teas. Every time I return to her I recognize how in love I am, and also that I’m almost undeserving of her attention. . . . but she loves me. And so it goes.

Laoshan black is indeed my favorite black tea. What great good fortune that these farmers at Laoshan decided to “try out” the production of a black tea for the first time. If you ask me, it was an experiment touched by some kind of grace. And may they continue producing this tea indefinitely!

Sipdown!! (169)

Thank you Cavocorax for sharing this with me. I am not usually one for straight teas but this is definitely delicious. I remember it being more chocolatey and vanilla last time but now it is more malty with notes of honey. Delicious but different and now it is gone.

In other news, I have learned the hard way that leaving cold brews in the fridge for about a week causes them to go bad and get sort of moldy :(. I just had to dump a number of bottles. Now I know.

ETA – Ok guys, I get it now! I tried this again with more leaf and wow, what a difference! It was so rich and malty, and the cocoa notes came through much stronger. Kind of like chocolate beer in tea form; it was a real treat this time. Up goes my rating!
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I finally got my hands on some of this! I think it was so hyped in my mind that I was expecting fireworks to go off above my head when I took a sip. That didn’t quite happen (it was more of a single clap), but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

The taste was rich and malty with a slight berry undertone. I’m getting hints of grains, coffee, earth and cocoa powder. The end of the sip tastes like the roasted fennel seeds that my mom serves as a traditional digestive/breath freshener after a meal, so it reminds me of visiting home (and being in a happy food coma).

I brewed according to the western instructions but I think I could even go a bit stronger. Has anyone ever tried this, or would that be a recipe for tea-saster?

Backlog from yesterday, I only had time for one cup of tea, so I made it reaaalllll good.

And it was.
I got to resteep it last night .

It’s so chocolatey and delicious.
Since my husband refuses to try any tea ever, I make him smell them all, haha. I asked him if he could smell the chocolate in my cup and he actually said yes!

That’s a big deal for an unflavored tea. So you know this is amazing. <3

Thanks, to my good friend tunes&teas for sharing this with me.

At last, I finally get to try this lovely Laoshan Black tea! The dry leaves are so dark, twisty and shimmery. The smell of the pre-steeped leaves are chocolaty and sweet.

It’s so hard to comprehend the diversity and variety in the black tea family (all teas for that matter), such as – the region that it is picked, altitude of origin, soil conditions, climate, season of harvesting, level of oxidation, method of processing and many other things. You can really have unlimited options to try and experience. I truly enjoy this about our shared passion of the leaf. It’s teas, such as this one, that truly drive the point home and make you aware of the complexity and potential of great tea. Even smelling the dry and wet leaves, knowing all the info concerning the tea and it’s background – none of these things replace the experience of tasting the tea for yourself!

This tea truly delivers all the hype and advertising. Once the leaves are infused and you try it for yourself, you find that it is far greater than what the smell or aroma indicated. Yes, you taste the rich cocoa base, but there is a cinnamon creaminess that is present as well. The brew is full bodied and has a nice texture or feel inside the mouth. Very smooth.

I started with 3 sec steep on the 1st, then 7 sec on 2nd, 12 sec on 3rd, 17 sec on 4th, 23 sec on 5th, 30 sec on 6th, 2 min on 7th. Each of these produced a very tasty cup of tea and there was no found bitterness during each of the infusions. One interesting thing that I noticed, was that after 3 or 4 steepings, the wet leaves had more of a fresh hot pepper smell to them – green Thai peppers or red habaneros. I didn’t not, however notice any of the spiciness in the brew. That would have added an extra little kick!

This is a great tea and is best suited for a time when you are not in a hurry and can allow the tea give all that it is desiring to release. Of course, you can drink it on the go! Just don’t throw the leaves away. The rested leaves while you are gone will be more than ready to pick back up where you left off. Very nice tea indeed!

Resteep of last night’s leaves. This brewed up a little light so I was worried the taste would suffer, but it’s actually really good. The lighter notes (malt, wood, caramel) are still going strong. There’s a bit of chocolate to this still but it’s darker and there’s an almost roasty quality to this cup. Delicious!

Working on my 2nd steep of this delicious tea. Is there anything better to start a Sunday morning off with? I have been freezing inside my house wearing winter clothes thanks to drafty walls and poor insulation, but this tea is doing nicely to warm me up with its dark chocolaty malt goodness. Now if I can only motivate myself to make a hot breakfast after enjoying this hot cuppa. :)