Ailaoshan Black Tea

Sipdown! I received this tea as a generous sample in my first Whispering Pines order. The description on their website intrigued me, so I was excited to give it a try. I had enough to make two cups, as per the steeping directions. I just wish I had more experience with describing straight black teas… I do find Chinese black teas delicious as a rule, and this one was no exception. I was able to detect the “fruity” notes for the first time, the kind that more experienced tea drinkers describe in certain black teas. It really did remind me of plum, just like the site description says! Similarly, I detected a roasted cocoa note in the scent, and I found a certain savoriness in the taste, which I enjoyed. No real astringency that I noticed, and a smooth yet slightly powdery mouthfeel (though that may have been due to the smaller bits of leaf that fell out of the pouch with my second cup, whoops!).

This tea also resteeped very well. I’m so glad I got to try it! I’m definitely considering purchasing more for my next order.

This tea is good but very malty. I taste a variety of complex notes including malt, burnt sugar, cocoa, and caramel. I am afraid I don’t notice the whole list. It is very good but a little too malty for my taste. By malt I don’t mean chocolate malt.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with boiling water and 3 tsp leaf for 3 min.

I drank this tea two days ago but am just now getting around to noting that I had it thanks to Steepster’s craziness.

Thanks to Cameron B. for a sample of this tea! I will definitely have to write a better note the next time I have it. For now I will just say that to me this tasted a lot like a Taiwanese black tea. But as far as I can tell this is a mainland tea? It has those fruity notes with a touch of honey. Of course there is that odd fruity character that is present in Taiwanese blacks that isn’t my favorite note, but this was a pretty tasty cup of tea anyway.

This is really really good. I taught my first lesson today for student teaching, a social studies lesson. Went really well overall, and only made a couple very minor mistakes out of nerves. But it meant that in the morning (and this whole week) I am waking up extra early (I leave at 6:40am) to rehearse my lesson and such, and this is perfect to wake me up. It is toasty and a bit fruity and earthy and super yum. I steeped it a second time to take in the car with me.

I’m starting the day with a sipdown from my TeaFairy collection, :)
This is such a rich & nuanced tea, that I don’t know where to begin. It’s sweet, thick, & tangy, heavily, but naturally, perfumed with an oolong like floral quality, sweet potato & apricot. And more.
That’s all I can say, I gotta get out of bed & cook breakfast!

sweet potatoes and bread and..honey? Thanks for sending this one my way dexter While it’s a lovely tea, I prefer the way the eldergrove blend tastes. This was one that i would have picked up, so i’m happy to be able to cross it off my list, though it IS tasty. Keep up the great work brendan! :)

Wowzers! This tea sure was delicious! This is hands down the best black tea that I’ve had up to this point. It just makes me feel all warm and cozy on the inside. Like many others state about this tea, it reminded me of baked bread and sweet potatoes. A year ago I would have been disconcerted if someone told me that their tea tasted like bread and potatoes. Now I’m like “mmmm bread-tea om nom nom”

I definitely plan on attaining more of the delicious nectars that are Whispering Pine teas!

Thanks for the sample Marzipan!

Everyone is right, this is very good stuff! Rich, sweet malty and full of cocoa goodness. I feel a Whispering Pines order in the future…my husband is in love with Golden Orchid :)

Cameron B sent me so I could try some Whispering Pines teas. After I brewed it, I got a scent of sweet potatoes, and a some baked bread. The flavour made think of raisin bread, except a bit dark, and maybe molasses.

This is very nice blended with the Fujian black tea.

This is one of those teas that when I have, I want to smack old me on the head. For some reason I used to avoid unflavored black teas like the plague. I guess I assumed all black tea tasted like McDonalds sweet iced tea (which, as much as saying so might get me stoned by the cult following said tea has down here, I can’t stand).
Thankfully, and to my total surprise, straight black teas can actually be good! Especially this tea. I get a great amount of cocoa out of this tea. Cocoa and caramel are the two strongest notes I get. I’ve never had caramelized plum (sounds divine) I can imagine that the dark, tantalizing, fruity undertone that I’m getting here is just that.

Absolutely amazing, this tea is a symbol for everything I was missing when I was shunning black teas.