Hongyu Hongcha Nantou Ruby #18 SUN MOON LAKE BLACK TEA

One of those days when I open the drawer and rifle through the dozens of sample packets and toss them aside one by one. No, not that one. Had that one recently. Eh, not wanting to steep that many times today. Oh wait, what did I put in this tin? Well hello! I forgot I had this one. What a really nice black tea. No bitterness. Just wonderful flavor. Cup two was even better than one. The only negative thing I can say is this is a sip down. Tunes: The 5678’s I’m Blue, Klaatu – Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft, Joey Ramone – It’s a Wonderful World

Thank you Fong Mong Tea for this Sample

The weather is windy this afternoon, cloudy with a sprinkle of rain now and then. I am always tempted to gather my tea tray and a black tea or pu-erh when the clouds gather. Storms excite me. I huddle on the couch and watch between the pulled patio window curtains…wondering if there will be lightening over the mountain behind my house.

There was a single Black Tea sample packed in the sample box from FONG MONG TEA this week. Lucky me!

The flavor of this tea was very chocolatey with light malt (a bit like the Laoshan Black Tea from Verdant, but milder). This was sweet and wet on the tongue without astringency. An icy coolness was tingling my whole mouth and was perhaps what was refered to as mint in the Steepster notes. However, I didn’t taste mint like mint leaves…but felt the coolness. The flavor is light but has depth. Real character.

So much of the world drinks Black Tea with additions. I try now and then to comment on tea for people who prefer drinking it that way.
With sweetening, this tea was enhanced a great deal (which is not always true). It became a very mellow chocolate dessert tea, with an aftertaste that was like taking a bite of pastry…and the flavor lingered!
With milk, (cream in my case)…Heaven! I could serve this to the Royals! Superb!

Here’s another bit of information I looked up. If you want to make your own “Bubble Tea” this is the tea to use. With sweetener, condensed milk, tapioca pearls, ice in a blender… this Taiwanese Tea is the type that is used. (Don’t put the pearls in until after blending of course and you can add fruit also).

Really tasty tea. The flavor does not end. I mean it! It’s been a while since I finished my cups of tea and I can still taste the flavor clearly! I want more!

This is my first sample from Fong Mong Tea as well as my first Sun Moon Lake.
Is it possible that a black tea can taste vegetal?
I think so – to me anyway.
Smells like a warm inviting soup broth.
Mmmmmm
Mushroom soup! Thats it!
This tea is one to savor – like being invited into a top chef’s kitchen and offered to sip from his big pot of slowly simmering soup. A “soup” that needs to be allowed to breathe and collect subtle nuisances of flavor over time. An aged soup perhaps? If there is such a thing.
This tea speaks to you as if it is knowing of secrets held within old trees, running streams that have spread gossip from one watering hole to the next and the memories of vegetation along the way.
I think of immense spans of wooded lands, with the ripe smell of oak moss and dew on green leaves. Intoxicating!
Yes vegetal, spicy with flecks of sparks dancing on the top and tip of the tongue. Leather, woods, mushrooms, and chocolate notes bow like a gentleman before my palate.
A champagne tea that sparkles all the way down.
Happiness.
Thank you Fong Mong Tea for this gift of a sample of your precious collection!

I definitely jumped on the chance to get some free samples from Fong Mong Tea, especially after early reviews for their teas were coming back really positive. I asked for this one in order to further my education of black teas! I’ve never had a black tea from Taiwan. The leaves are very long and spindly and difficult to dish out, but hopefully I got the right amount in my cup. They smell kind of chocolatey, but also kind of roasted and they remind me a bit of a dark oolong in aroma.

After steeping the scent is fairly different from the black teas I’ve been drinking regularly. Almost floral? It’s kind of weird, but I think it’s just cause I’m not used to a black tea smelling floral. What a unique tea! It’s like I can taste more standard black tea flavors underneath it, but over top there is a flavor profile I am just not used to. I agree that I get the sensation of mint without actual mintiness. The chocolatey-ness comes out, but there are some… florals? I guess? It’s hard to put my finger on. Maybe piney and minerally, the way some dark oolongs are piney and minerally. Maybe a bit resin-y, like a retisna wine. I think I might have used a little much leaf as this cup has the tiniest hint of bitterness to it, mostly in the aftertaste.

I reall appreciate the chance to try this tea, thank you Fong Mong! It isn’t a flavor profile I normally go for but I am definitely enjoying the cup.

Finishing this sample off, this is a very good tea :-) thanks to Fong Mong Tea for these awesome samples, I have one more oolong to try still I have enjoyed all my samples.

My samples arrived today from Fong Mong and of course I was excited and had to try one immediately. :)

I used about 3g of tea in a 10 oz. mug, steeped Western style, my tea liquor is dark orange.

This tea has a nice flavor profile, to me it seems malty with some cocoa and flowery notes and a quality that reminds me a bit of red wine. As the cup cools I am getting a lot of tannins which is definitely not something I look for in a tea because it makes my stomach feel queasy.

At the moment I am not quite sure what to make of it but I think I will try a shorter steep in the morning and perhaps that will improve things for me.

I am very grateful for the sample!

This is a sample I received from Fong Mong Tea.

Of all the teas I have seen being sampled from Fong Mong, this was the one I was most excited about. Ruby #18 from A Southern Season was the first “expensive” tea I ever bought, one of the first I enjoyed without additives, the first that resteeped really well for me, and when Paul M Tracy sent me Black Ruby I was stunned by the rich, dark, raisiny flavor.

It is amazing to steep a black tea for 5 minutes and then pour a yellow liquor into your cup! This is such a unique tea. I think this one has more flavor than the one from SS, and remember I really love that one! This will likely be a replacement for it, as it is quite good.

This tastes more like an oolong than a black to me, and it is at once malty, fruity, sweet, and vegetal, light, yet having presence. Everyone should get to try a Taiwan Ruby tea!

Thank you, Fong Mong Tea, for the opportunity to try this delightful tea!

I have tried a couple of different Sun Moon Lake Black teas now, and I’m really enjoying them. They are certainly unique!

I love the aroma – rich and delicious with hints of fruit, and a little earthy, with notes of wood in the distance. It has a warm, comforting kind of fragrance.

Delicious. Sweet fruit notes, hints of sour, bold and invigorating while at the same time soothing. Hints of chocolate and an earthiness to it that reminds me of mushrooms. It has a woody/vegetative kind of taste too. It’s nice and complex… it has enough interest to it that it keeps me sipping.

Sure…I have LIKED the other Sun moon Lake’s I have tried but THIS Sun Moon Lake is my fave thus far! There is ‘that flavor’ but magnified! It’s right where I want it to be! This is right up my alley! I’m grateful for this tea! It’s Dandy! It’s cocoa-E but with an aroma of hint of wine. It’s malty and smooth and the chocolate-E notes are quite remarkable.

Last of the free samples from Fong Mong, sorry this took so long to get to reviewing this one. This is my first Taiwanese black tea so I might not have the best reference points. It is so unlike the Yunnans I have been drinking lately, absolutely no roughness or savory notes. However it does remind me a smidge of Bailin Gongfu and Laoshan Black. It definitely has cocoa notes but it’s sweetness is not chocolaty but mineral (which is something I love). Of course I am brewing this starting at 15 secs so that does bring out a lighter more sparkling quality. Looking forward to spending the day with this and I have enough to brew western as well to compare.