Fujian Baroque

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Chinese Black Tea
Flavors
Chocolate, Smoke, Toast, Toasted Rice, Roasted, Smooth, Sweet, Tannin, Autumn Leaf Pile, Cocoa, Earth, Fruity, Hay, Malt, Mineral, Seaweed, Bread, Burnt, Cherry, Smoked, Wheat
Sold in
Loose Leaf, Sachet
Caffeine
High
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by JulieWyant
Average preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 45 sec 3 g 9 oz / 264 ml

From Our Community

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85 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Amazing what a decent night’s sleep will do to your taste buds. I can actually TASTE. Interesting to read previous notes on this one; all are a little different. First thing that comes to my mind...” Read full tasting note
  • “The other tea that my brother got me for my birfday. I noticed the comparisons to Golden Monkey in other notes, so that is pretty much what I was expecting. The leaves are not particularly similar....” Read full tasting note
    86
  • “Normally I don’t drink Chinese blacks with milk apart from the occaisional keemun. Yunnans, which this tea resembles a bit, in particular don’t work well with additives I’ve found. None the less...” Read full tasting note
    78
  • “OMG I just noticed this morning that Ricky’s no-icon-uploaded-icon isn’t actually, because it’s mirrored! Never realised that before. I’m feeling a little more human today, so I’ve made a pot of...” Read full tasting note
    61

From Adagio Teas

Fujian Baroque is a black tea grown at 800 meters above sea level in the Fujian province of China. Its general attributes are similar to the Golden Monkey, but the leaf is finer and the aroma even more pronounced. The exquisite tapestry of naturally sweet cocoa notes, fruitiness, and glimmers of spice are unmatched by any other tea. Softly sweet and velvety, with leafy autumn notes and soft, mineral aftertaste. Fujian Baroque can be brewed light or strong; the taste will remain smooth with very delicate astringency.

Ingredients: Chinese black tea

Steeping Instructions: Steep at 212° for 3-5 minutes.

About Adagio Teas View company

Adagio Teas has become one of the most popular destinations for tea online. Its products are available online at www.adagio.com and in many gourmet and health food stores.

85 Tasting Notes

2985 tasting notes

Amazing what a decent night’s sleep will do to your taste buds.

I can actually TASTE. Interesting to read previous notes on this one; all are a little different. First thing that comes to my mind is “malty darjeeling.” Really good malty. Thinking this will be tasty iced a little later today.

SimplyJenW

I am thinking I need to try this one iced, too!

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86
382 tasting notes

The other tea that my brother got me for my birfday.

I noticed the comparisons to Golden Monkey in other notes, so that is pretty much what I was expecting. The leaves are not particularly similar. Darker and not as crazy curly. Like Golden Monkey, it brews up pretty light, and it certainly does have something of the sweet, malty taste that characterizes GM, but it is still, very much it’s own tea. It has a very interesting spicy note to it, cinnamony perhaps? It’s neat because although overall it is a lighter tea than the Yunnan Noir, it is more complicated. The yunnan was quite uniform throughout, whereas this one has layers of taste and not even a hint of astringency – so big props for that.

A very nice afternoon tea, I’d say. Not enough kick in the morning for me, though.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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78
1908 tasting notes

Normally I don’t drink Chinese blacks with milk apart from the occaisional keemun. Yunnans, which this tea resembles a bit, in particular don’t work well with additives I’ve found. None the less I decided to experiment this morning and added a splash of skim milk, which to my surprised worked out quite well. It really brought out those faint cocoa notes and gave the whole thing a nice, smooth finish.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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61
1353 tasting notes

OMG I just noticed this morning that Ricky’s no-icon-uploaded-icon isn’t actually, because it’s mirrored! Never realised that before.

I’m feeling a little more human today, so I’ve made a pot of one of the remaining Bethany-teas.

I’ve tried sniffing the leaves, but they didn’t really seem to have much in the way of a smell. Pouring a few out in my hand, all I could really smell was my skin. I’m fairly certain the leaves aren’t actually supposed to smell like me, so I’m assuming it’s actually me smelling like me.

My expectations based on other people’s posts about this are dangerously high, so I’m a little worried about that. It’s always better when it’s the other way around. Low expectations → pleasant surprise. I’m also dangerously impatient and tempted the start before it’s really done steeping, even though I know that this rarely gives a good result.

Right, it’s ready now. Cocoa notes, check! And I’ve only poured the first cup. Fruity notes, check! They’re loud too. It smells a bit like when I was little and my mother made homemade jam from the blackcurrant bush we had in the garden.

What a surprising flavour! It’s very fruity in flavour. I’m surprised that this is supposed to be a plain tea. It definitely tastes like there’s been some sort of addition to it. I’ve checked the other teas that Bethany sent me, and I don’t think it sounds like any of those have rubbed off.

First there’s a little bit of a peppery sort of note, just a hint, and then there’s the tart fruity flavour. I can’t pick up the cocoa in the flavour, only in the aroma. Or maybe there is a small hint of it on the finish, but I’m not finding that on every sip, so I’m a little in doubt as to whether or not it’s something that I’m convincing myself that I can find because I really want to find it.

It’s good, but my enormously high expectations haven’t really been fulfilled. I could have lived with the fruit note not being quite this strong.

(Are we sure there isn’t any flavouring in this?)

ETA: I’ve pushed the rating down again as I’ve been drinking. This fruityness is getting a bit… much.

Ricky

Haha, yeah I couldn’t figure out an avatar (steepster really needs some default ones for us to choose :D) so I was like why not be different and reverse the little blue teapot :)

Micah

gasp…. I noticed that once but I didn’t think anything of it. Not so good at connecting the dots over here…

teaplz

I noticed that, and I got really confused, because I was wondering HOW you did that. I thought it was maybe because you were a male, and they got a different teapot… but I was WRONG. Nice job, Ricky!

Auggy

This makes me wonder if the blackcurrant smell I get off of my Teance Yunnan Gold is actually in the tea or from sitting next to a blackcurrant tea when I first put it in my pantry. Because the smell seems to be getting stronger since it has been in the tin, but at the same time, it just seems… wrong.

Angrboda

Ricky, I feel like I totally outed you now. :D

Auggy, that makes me wonder if we ought not try and get some of our mediocre teas at least twice from different suppliers/shopping rounds… You know, to see if it’s consistent. But if it was mediocre, why would we want to spend more money on it? Dilemma!

Ricky

Ahhh, my secret’s been blown! I’ll think of a new icon soon enough. Actually, I was given this icon, because the steepster gods wanted to play tricks on me :(

takgoti

One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just isn’t the same…

@Angrboda Too bad there weren’t cocoa notes in the taste. I feel like that would have really toned down the fruit. Was it cloying? Or just…loud?

Angrboda

Takgoti, I wouldn’t say it was cloying the way the vanilla note in the ML Orange Jasmine thing was towards the end of the pot (don’t know if you’re familiar with that one. It’s from Mighty Leaf), I’d say it was more just loud. A sort of flavour that was okay in smaller quantities but after a while it was just too sour and sort of un-ripe. Bit like if you add some salt on food, for example, and accidentally add a little too much. In the beginning it’s fine, but after a while it’s just too salty. So, okay, maybe a little cloying but not all the time. Or something. If any of this makes sense. I feel like I’m contradicting myself a lot here.
If I had been blind-tasting this one, I would have sworn it was some sort of berry flavour.

takgoti

Ah, okay. I’m not familiar with ML Orange Jasmine, but I completely get what you’re saying with the salt thing.

sophistre

This is an unexpected review for this tea, but interesting. It has definitely been on my list of stuff to try. Since I don’t normally go in for overt fruity flavors, maybe I should stick with a smaller sample…thanks for the useful info!

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74
772 tasting notes

Almost to the end of this, although I think I may have another bag of it in my giant box of unopened teas. I’ve been eating too many sweetened things so this has been tasting almost dull but it’s okay. Too much going on to enjoy it completely.

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80
985 tasting notes

I have a little of this one left. 12 yo DS wanted iced tea today, and he requested it be black tea and plain (none of that fruity frou frou). It is so cute because he is always wanting to taste my tea anymore. He does prefer iced tea, though. It won’t be long until I can win him over to the dark side. He likes coffee, too.

This one is really good iced!

Fiestaware Disc pitcher (about 50 oz), 9 actual tsp tea, freshly boiled water, 4 minutes. Allowed to cool to room temp and then slightly sweetened and poured over ice.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec

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77
4294 tasting notes

thanks starfevre for sending some of this in our trade! The only other Fujian tea I’ve had that I remember is an oolong that I really didn’t like because it was so charcoaly. It was too much for me! Luckily, this one is much better. The dry leaves are mixed — some are longer, twisty and black while some are yellow. The flavor is a lighter black. It does have a bit of a charcoal flavor, but just a hint, and also something like tobacco. This one is very good for a light black tea (and much better than the Adagio Irish Breakfast that I tried recently), but I like my black teas super dark and strong! It’s almost like I’m either craving a strong black tea or something like an oolong, but I’m sure sometimes I will want a lighter black tea and I will have this one! It’s kind of simple while also unique. If that makes sense.

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75
2816 tasting notes

Tea of the morning here, a sample I got from Adagio. The reviews here seem to run quite a range between very positive and very negative!

So sipping this plain I am getting a lot of cocoa notes at first, followed by something in the finish that reminds me of a keemun, I think it’s a slight tobacco taste. In the middle I am getting some of the fruity notes other people have mentioned. Adagio recommends steeping this for 3-5 minutes so I did mine for 4 minutes which I think is way too long for this tea. I have a suspicion it might be much better at the two minute mark. I think I will avoid rating this for now.

Preparation
4 min, 0 sec
gmathis

This is one of my favorite Adagio teas. Been a while, so I can’t remember what my “perfect” steep time was…memory slipping…

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63 tasting notes

Ok, well, I didn’t want to sit too long on the less-than-glowing review of this tea from a few days ago before trying it again. This time I used 7g to match the treatment I gave Teavivre’s Bailin Gongfu and also the same 1, 2 and 3 minute steeps.

1st steep: It’s definitely stronger this time than it was with either the 3 or 5 minute steeps with 2.6g I used last time. It much darker in the cup, feels a little thicker (though not much), and the flavors are richer with freshly baked bread, cocoa and some peach. But it’s also got a stronger bitterness, with some sweetness developing after a while. But at least that means the flavors stick around longer too. This is no where near as deliriously good as the Bailin Gongfu: I don’t get the same flooding tide of inspiration with this tea. Right now I’d just consider this a good, sturdy cup of tea.
2nd steep: Astringency and bitterness seem to dominate this cup, but it’s still drinkable with some sweetness in the middle of the sip. There are flavors of bread with some cocoa.
3rd steep: I added a little honey this time. The dark color of the first two steeps is still there, but not much else. It feels thin. The honey is masking most of the bitterness even though I hardly put enough in to taste it. That’s really all I’m getting here. Just a rather tasteless cup of tea with an intermittent flavor of honey. Oh well.

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49
98 tasting notes

Dry Smell: Like 86% dark chocolate from Ghirardelli.

Steeped: I don’t really have anything to say, which is a little odd. There really doesn’t seem to be anything that discernible about this tea from any other black tea I have had in the past. It’s not bad, just very run of the mill.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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