Laoshan Black

Note from drinking this in the morning:
Today I tasted things that I didn’t taste the last time I had this tea. First, I got hit with the flavor of honey. Then, the cocoa I remembered from last time. And finally, TOAST. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve been gluten free for quite awhile and I may have forgotten the taste of toast a bit, but this tasted just like really good toast. So delicious that I chugged all of it in my first class, then thought to myself, perhaps I should order some more Laoshan black…

Sipdown! I’m really sad to see this one go. It is easily my favorite plain black tea.
4sec: Very roasted, sesame smelling with a golden liquor.
4sec: Caramel, chocolate, roasted almond skin notes with a deep golden amber liquor.
6sec: Mostly caramel and almond notes this time.

Why, hello honey soaked dark chocolate brownie. The finish upon first steep is drenched in caramel and honey, like someone infused a caramilk bar in my cup; I can’t believe this isn’t flavoured. The smell of the wet leaves, in particular, is very chocolaty, and possibly leathery. I’m detecting no bitterness or astringency, just sweet, mellow goodness. This is a rich, moist cup with a cinnamon note that comes out upon later steeps. The sweetness also becomes more pronounced.

I hit around fifteen steeps in my flowering pot (still on the window shopping stage for a gaiwan)! I’ve never been full on board the black tea train but this Autumn Harvest Black Laoshan has changed that.

I sent an extremely small amount, only a cups worth, to Cavocorax. If I had tried this tea before double bagging some I might have forgone giving ANY of my tiny sample away.. Will be picking up more soon enough, no doubt!

I’m trying this again. I opened the bag and it smelled a lot better this time around than the first time. Yes, it a lot better this time around so maybe it just needed to breathe a bit :D or my senses just needed to recover (maybe they were overwhelmed) whatever the case this is quite good :D

Tea of the morning…..

My first order from Verdant! I am definitely impressed. I ordered a few ounces of this along with the new Bergamot Rose Laoshan Black. Really, it was the new Alchemy blend that put me over the edge, because this company has been on my list for a long time. I also received a sample of the Yunnan Jin Jun Mei….I was hoping my sample would be another black tea because I completely forgot to request one! I am so excited to try them all as I’m a stuck in a phase where only black teas sound good and my greens, oolongs, and a few whites are probably feeling neglected. I think in this instance, it just makes sense to go with it, rather than forcing myself to drink all of the lovely teas that are not in the category I am craving.

This is rich and wonderful. I get notes of dark chocolate, and even a bit of coffee. It is very thick on the palate for a black tea. While it does not have much in the way of smokey notes like my beloved Keemun Mao Feng, this will definitely need to be renamed my beloved Laoshan Black. It kind of reminds me of Emperor’s Red from Premium Steap and tastes like a more refined version of some of the gong fu blacks I have been drinking. I am thoroughly enjoying it, and a little sad I did not try it sooner.

Mug method with a resteep only minutes away. Just the lightest touch of sweet to bring out the dark chocolate notes, even though this is a black tea that I could drink straight.

Edit to add: Second steep was fabulous. I agree with Angrboda that it is cinnamony! I upped the rating a little. LOVE!

Drinking the last of this today – I got a half ounce in the black tea sampler – and sad to see it go. I had a bit over a teaspoon left, so I brewed it somewhere between western and gongfu styles: I put all the leaf in my tiniest post (about 3.5 oz) and let it steep just long enough to develop some good color, around 30 seconds as it turned out. Two steeps like that made a good mug-full, and I’m hoping to get at least another 2 or three steeps out of it.

The flavor is delicious as ever, creamy and chocolatey in a way that you just don’t usually see in a black tea. Yum yum yum, I probably need to buy more of this once it’s in stock again. In the meantime, I still have Laoshan Chai and Bergamot Rose Black to keep me company _

You know you haven’t drunk enough tea when you have goosebumps and it’s 72 degrees in your apartment. What’s wrong with me? Well, it’s time to make more tea! After trying the Laoshan Black Chocolate Genmaicha sample from JustJames, I wanted to compare it to plain Laoshan black. And lucky for me, JustJames provided a sample of that too!! I feel so lucky. :)

Mmmm!! I like this much better than the aforementioned blend. This is malty and grainy and delicious! It’s also a tad woodsy, which explains why I was tasting so much of that flavor in the oolong/black blend. I am thoroughly enjoying this cup (and its second infusion). Thanks JustJames!!

Comforting midday tea on a rainy and grey day…

Tea Swap with @Meeka

This particular tea caught my attention because so many people on Steepster have tried it and loved it. Over the past year I’ve tried a lot of different black teas so I couldn’t wait to get my hands onto this one. Okay and now onto the tasting notes:

Sniffing the tea liquor, I’m picking up on scents of honey, spices, raisin. It reminds me of a few other black teas I’ve tried.

The first steep tastes much like the tea liquor scents suggested, with the addition of chocolate, malt, and floral rose aroma. (Personal bias: I have a low tolerance for rose flavour)

Subsequent resteeps had the same consistent flavours. At the fourth steep I picked up on more roasted notes, but the rose aroma is really starting to rub me the wrong way.

Overall I didn’t notice too much weakening until the ninth steep, which while weak was still flavourful.

I kept resteeping, and even though most of the tea body is gone there still remains nice hints of sweet honey, raisin and cinnamon which slowly fade away as I reached the fifteenth steep.

This tea was enjoyable, but fell far below my expectations. The high scores and hype on Steepster made me believe this was going to be an amazing, mind blowing experience. But I’ve had other teas like this and I wasn’t especially crazy about them either. I do not want to sound unappreciative because this is indeed a very good tea, but it is not a personal favourite.

On the plus side, I am glad that so many people here are being exposed to such a well made black tea. It is a wonderful example of how beautiful and complex black tea can be.

100ml purion teapot, 2tsp, 15 steeps (based on Verdant Tea gongfu instructions: rinse, 3s, 3s, 3s, +3s resteeps)
I liked this resteeping method, I’ll have to try it out again on some of my other black teas.

So I bought this one (and my tea pet and a few others) a year ago. Because my stash is so ridiculous and I tend to keep my favourites eternally, I still have almost all of it left. I booked today off to indulge myself in bad wedding movies, tea and bread-making, so I enjoyed a few gong-fu infusions of this while watching Made of Honour. I’ve gotta say, I don’t know how I am going to make it 6 more months waiting for my wedding. I already live with my fiancee and we’ve been together for going on nine years but I am just so excited to have a big party with everyone we love to celebrate us. Plus, I adore my dress and just want to wear it all the time! : )

Anyway. This tea. So yummy. Despite the aging, it is lovely and rich, there is smoothness and some definite malt, but no bitterness to be found. There is a lot of cocoa and earthy tea flavour, but as I say it is just all so smooth! I’ve done three infusions so far in my gaiwan and this afternoon I will do a few more, I think. This is a sensational tea, and I have even more respect for it now than I did a year ago. Now I just need to enjoy it all before it gets too old!