I recently found a bunch of samples from Harney & Sons that I bought last year and forgot about after storing. Naturally, I have been taking time to work through them. This was the second one that I finished, but as of the completion of this review, it will be the first to receive a formal right up here. I am normally a huge fan of the Chinese black teas sourced by Harney & Sons, but this one did not thrill me much. It was not bad, but it most certainly was not for me.
I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose leaf material in 4 ounces of 212 F water for 3 seconds. This infusion was followed by 15 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 5 seconds, 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes. I generally prefer to extend black teas to at least 5-7 minutes when I brew them gongfu, but cut this one off at the 3 minute mark as I did not want to keep pushing it.
Prior to the rinse, I detected aromas of prune and raisin balanced by a hint of malt. The rinse brought out tobacco and some woodiness on the nose. The first infusion then brought out the aroma of honey as the indistinct woodiness exposed by the rinse turned into a definite scent of pine. In the mouth, the liquor offered notes of honey, pine, raisin, prune, cocoa, and malt that were stronger than anticipated. Surprisingly, I also got some hints of molasses, cream, caramel, smoke, damp grass, and black walnut towards the swallow. Subsequent infusions brought out hints of tobacco on the palate and some stronger notes of caramel, molasses, cream, damp grass, smoke, and black walnut. I also found new notes of brown toast, minerals, cinnamon, and dates. The final infusions mostly offered a heavy mineral note balanced by thinner impressions of brown toast and malt, though at times, I could still note some fleeting, almost ghostly hints of honey, cinnamon, and caramel.
This tea simply did not come together in the way that I would have preferred. None of what it displayed took me by surprise; as a matter of fact, the aromas and flavors I was finding were precisely what one would expect to find in many Chinese black teas. It just seemed that the notes I found to be the least enjoyable were the ones that were the most consistently prominent and persistent for me. At this point, I should add that the fact that I did not find anything all that unique in this tea led me to quickly grow bored with it as well. All in all, I would not go so far as to call this a bad tea. I would instead emphasize that it was simply not the sort of black tea for which I generally go.
Flavors: Brown Toast, Caramel, Cinnamon, Cocoa, Cream, Dates, Dried Fruit, Grass, Honey, Malt, Mineral, Molasses, Pine, Raisins, Smoke, Tobacco, Walnut
