Bailin Gongfu Black Tea

I am finally getting towards the back of one side of my cupboard and I found this gem with a few other blacks I have never tried yet. Excited! This is also perfect because it is a lower caffeine tea and I am planning on going for a run today before work. Double happy because I am not a fan of jittery trotting. :)

Dry: The loose leaf is thin and compact with tightly rolled leaves. There is some black and orange coloration to the individual buds. The dry scent is wonderful! Fragrant, sweet, malty.

Steeped: This makes quite a beautiful rich red-brown clear liquor. The steeped scent is also very enjoyable with an intensified malty-sweetness that is lovely to someone that enjoys teas from this spectrum like I do.

Taste: This tea is flavorful without being overpowering and naturally honey-sweet without being cloying or dessert-like. I brewed it Western style and did not add anything to it and it tastes fresh, medium-bodied, malty, and enjoyable naturally. NO astringency whatsoever. I think this one might be a good tea to introduce someone to Chinese black teas for the first time.

I’ve had this for quite awhile, and I’ve drank it on and off for that time. Finished it this week at work. I really need to get better at logging teas.
This is a good black tea. I like it. I don’t really have much to add that others haven’t said. This is in the style of black that I enjoy. This would probably make my 10 list, but not my top 5. Good – really good, but not my favorite.

Second tea of the morning. Enjoying with the LTF.

I love how reliably comforting and delicious this tea is. Sweet and malty and cuddly.

I am so very glad I got a shitload during the recent Teavivre sale. I never want to run out of this.

The Leaf: small, long, tightly curled; almost needle-like. Mostly dark black leaves, with a few occasional golden ones in the pile. The scent is good and strong with a definite malty and slightly sweet tone.

The Brew: The liquor is nice and golden brown, crystal clear, but with lots of visible fuzz from the leaves. The aroma is very apparent and almost identical to the leaf scent. The flavor is very malty, rich, and has an underlying smokiness to it. Leaves only a slight dryness on the tongue, but also leaves a nice lingering aftertaste throughout the mouth.

I drink all of my teas cold.

Enjoyed two delcious cups of this yesterday evening. It’s so much “darker” in flavour than the other two Chinese blacks I’ve sipped down over the last couple of days. I’m not usually a fan of smoky or leathery teas, but I did enjoy this one. It will make a return to my cupboard before long, I’m sure :)

I received a sample of this from Angel and the folks at TeaVivre. Thank you!

This came in a vacuum sealed packaging with brewing instructions written on the package. My verdict is still out about the magical Fujian black teas. I have liked most that I have tried but are they really THAT good? This tea may just make me a believer. One sip of this and I was in tea heaven. It is smooth and sweet. For me some sips had a dark chocolate note, and others had the malty caramel. I have had some Fujian black teas and I would describe a lot of them with the term sweet potato. This one however, did not have as much of that. I would describe it as more of a baked bread taste than a sweet potato.

I re-steeped this and the 2nd cup was just as amazing as the first. I will definitely be ordering this in the future, and probably more like the near future. Thank you for allowing me to try this one!

Brewed in the “Chinese Gongfu Way” described on the tea’s website (rinse & discard water, 20s, etc.), as brewing the “Western Method” resulted in an intensity of leather flavor that I couldn’t take.

Today was a Minecraft sorta day. I woke up not feeling the best (copious amounts of tea later and I feel a bit better) and decided to devote my time to the craft of the Mine. Ben and I devised some malicious traps and I set up a new farm, good times.

For today’s Teavivre tea, we are looking to Fujian, for a famous Fujian Red (or black) tea. Bailin Gongfu named after the region of Fujian it is grown and the fact that it is made with great skill. These specific leaves are from Mt. Taimu, harvested April 25th, 2013. The aroma is strong, blending roasted peanuts and sweet potatoes. It is not very sweet, but it is very rich, the leaves have body and depth. Sniffing them certainly will make you pay attention!

The wet leaves smell very similar to their dry counterparts, a nice blend of roasted peanuts and sweet ’taters (I am Southern, taters is what we eat, Precious) but with a faintly sweet cocoa finish. Key word is faint, the tea still very much so is not a sweet smelling tea. The liquid, on the other hand, is very sweet, blending stewed plums and sweet potatoes with a gentle touch of cocoa. Still very rich and quite tantalizing.

Rich is certainly the catchphrase with this tea, because upon first sip I was struck with richness. It has a boldness that I usually associate with Indian teas, but with all the subtleties and sweetness you expect from a Fujian Red. The taste starts with stewed plums and sweetness then fades into roasted peanuts and cocoa. There is a delightful finish of sweet potatoes that adds to the richness.

The aroma of the second steep is no longer just stewed plums, but rich dark cherries as well as a hint of sweet potato. The taste is very sweet, a mix of fruity and sweet potato (or maybe yams, not too sure I can tell the difference) with a bold finish of cocoa and roasted nuts. I really enjoy how it starts delicate and sweet and fades to a bold presence.

The third and final steep I have notes one starts off with the same stewed plum and dark cherry aroma, but instead of sweet potato there is cocoa. Holy Batman this tea is rich, this steep really brought out this tea’s true colors. It starts malty and rich with a strong flavor of roasted peanuts. For its next trick it fades to intense sweetness, it is a fruity sweetness that blooms in your mouth, flooding it with rich cooked stone fruit. There is a surprising floral finish that was hard to pin down, it is more the idea of flowers and not really the taste. Perhaps this tea dreamed of flowers. Something odd happened, I remember drinking more of this tea but there are no notes in my notebook. I am pretty sure this tea hypnotized me and made me a bit tea drunk.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/04/teavivre-bailin-gongfu-black-tea-tea.html

So, as I mentioned before I am trying to work through all of my sample-sized teas. I’d ordered some black tea samples from Teavivre a while ago, but this is the first I’ve tried. I must admit that I was exhausted this morning, so I brewed this tea without even smelling the dry leaves first. I had some of this with hot with my breakfast (cold pizza) and some of it cold with my lunch (brown rice and tofu). This is very similar to Zhi Tea’s Gong Fu black, but I believe I would like this one much better if I had enjoyed it with a cookie or something sweet instead of having it with a savory food. This is definitely something I could see keeping in stock.

First of all, a huge thank you to Angel at Teavivre for the wonderful box of samples!! All black and pu’erh this time, I am so excited to try them all! Thanks :)

This tea was the first one I had to crack into as it’s rated so crazily high on here haha. And it sounds delicious. So yes, I steeped about half of one of my sample packs for 2 minutes with around 190 degree water. Oh, and the dry smell is malty and rich. Yum. I also made this in my giant mug so I have a lot of it to drink hehe.

The steeped smell is once again malt, honey, and sweet potato. Similar to a Yunnan black but with less sweet potato and grain and a bit more honey I think. The liquor is a dark rich color too, like decadent cake in my mug haha.

As for the flavor, wow this is rich and hearty. It’s actually rather filling it’s so thick and tasty! It’s very malty with honey notes, maybe a bit of caramel in the aftertaste but mostly malty grains with honey notes. Very satisfying, very smooth too, and super easy to drink! Definitely malty with cocoa I think, the honey notes are mild, but it is still sweet, so I’m thinking a cocoa flavor profile rather than chocolate though.

Overall, a very satisfying tea. This hits the spot perfectly for strength, mouthfeel, and flavor. I would like a tiny bit more honey maybe, but then that might mess with the other perfect parameters haha. A really good black tea, classic and just plain good. Not too sweet, not too weak, just right. I will try to pick up more flavors with further cups as well, this one I mostly just drank down and enjoyed haha, the flavors are more from memory as I’m almost at the bottom of my cup, and started it a while ago lol. Very good tea! Thank you again Angel for the chance to try some of this!