Laoshan Black

1 tbsp in 12 oz

I know their brewing guidelines suggest even more leaf than this, but I think I liked this better when I brewed it with less leaf last time. This time it has more of a bite to it and more smokiness which are not quite to my taste.

I do still believe this tea is of incredible quality and has an incredibly special, unique flavor, but that flavor might not be quite my thing. I will go back to less leaf next time and hopefully enjoy it more.

I’m probably just all wishy washy about this today because I splurged and drank 16 ounces of my favorite tea yesterday (Butiki, Taiwanese Wild Mountain Black). Really nothing compares.

This is one of the most interesting black teas I’ve had. The leaves look like brambles and thorns, like something that grows in a dark scary forest! For a tea that’s not flavored, it sure tastes like it is. I totally got the brownie batter taste and smell that everyone is talking about. Not the store-bought mix, but the from-scratch kind. The flavor is extremely robust, complex, and lasts through multiple steepings. It’s very malty, and the malty-ness seems to linger at the end of the sip and gives me the urge to clear my throat. Weird. Maybe I should steep this for less time? I did western style (1 TBSP at 3 min).

I must admit, I added sugar and a splash of soy milk. I really can’t get myself to drink a black tea without those.

On the second and third steepings, I noticed a stronger honey note. I like that! I’m thinking I actually like the third steeping the best….interesting.

Even after feeling very full from this tea after 2 steepings, I decided to make scones to enjoy with the third! I feel like I cheated, because I made them from a mix, and I usually make them from scratch, but the mix was a Christmas present from my husband. He’s so sweet! The scones were a cream-type scone….maple cinnamon…and I’m used to buttermilk-based scones, but man, those cinnamon chips were delicious!

Additional notes: I thought I’d try one teaspoon of this one from teabox B in case it was different from my Laoshan sample. But this one seems to be the same as my sample… maybe a bit tangier than I remembered. I have no idea how this could be one of the best black teas — it’s enjoyable but not my favorite. Not enough dark black flavor for me! Not the chocolate, caramel decadence I’ve been hearing about. The second steep I swear only went for four minutes but the flavor was everything I didn’t like about the first steep… very tangy and oaky but not really astringent. I think the first batch is giving the second (or whatever number batch this is) a bad name!

Side note: I’m much more in love with the movie The Warriors they seem to be playing every week.. in all it’s goofy glory goodness. I hate when cable plays the same movies every week but they can play this one as much as they want!

I went for this one first after my birthday package of tea came…from my tasting note card (which was kindly provided):
Dry: subtly spicy aroma—is that cinnamon? Blankety and warm.
1st steeping: Toasty in the front of the tongue, a little bright and sweet in a blankety, caramel way (yes, blankety is totally a word) along to the back of the palate. Silky, smooth mouthfeel, with absolutely no astringency or bitterness (woohoo!).

So I’m on my fifth infusion now, which I let go for 8 minutes…this tea is magnificent. Roasty, sweet, smooth, and dusky all at the same time. The note that I was trying to name for quite some time was raisin—there is definitely a cinnamon-raisin feel to this tea, and it’s fantastic. This is probably the most unusual black tea I’ve ever tried, and come to think of it, I think it might be the first or second unflavored black tea, too. This is paradise, and I keep detecting more delightful undertones in it. Can’t wait to explore it even more. Thanks, David! Can’t wait to try all the others I got, and to order some more (maybe a pu’erh?) with my nifty coupon code!

I woke up before the sun (4:45am) this morning to look over my notes a bit more before my exam today.

This is such a great morning tea. Well, it’s great anytime, but not every tea works in the morning. The chocolate and barley is my favourite. So unique. I also decided on this one as a wee celebration because the tracking tells me my new stash of LB will be delivered today (instead of Monday), yay! I’m not completely out yet, but it’s nice that I can unpack it and place it in my cupboard before we leave.

In a few short hours, six more courses will be behind me. YES.

The Spring 2012 harvest is finally in!
It felt like a drought here at the Verdant Tea offices to go two weeks without Laoshan Black. I hadn’t wanted to say anything in fear of jinxing this tea’s arrival, but here it is. Mr. He and Weiwei both said that it was an incredible harvest, and Weiwei does not throw around positive adjectives freely.

I could feel my heart racing in anticipation as I poured the water over these leaves and the aroma began wafting up like chocolate hibiscus. The first sip confirmed everything that Weiwei had said. This tea is creamy and luscious. It “melts” on the tongue like a homemade butter caramel, and has the floral complexities of a Big Red Robe.

Later steepings saw a movement towards the signature chocolate and barley flavor that Laoshan Black has become known for, yet the particular balance of texture, aroma and taste evoked a wonderful memory for me. The delicate sweetness of the barley, with floral vanilla bouquets reminds me of spending a week in Chapi village, Tibet to conduct interviews for a book of Tibetan folklore I was translating. The family hosting me had a traditional carved wooden house, and in the courtyard, the grandma was roasting the freshly harvested barley in giant handfuls over a fir wood fire. She smiled at me and held out a handful of barley. I took it with gratitude and started to eat it fresh. The taste is one of the flavor pinnacles of my short experience on this planet, and this tea has evoked that perfect flavor of sweet barley tempered by the right amount of fire. Beautiful!

I know that the Laoshan Black has been missed, so I am excited to be adding this tasting not and letting everyone know that it is back, while our supply from the fifteen pound harvest holds out. The extra good news is that we got much better shipping rates for this harvest and were able to bring down the price substantially, putting this tea within a feasible budget for drinking every day.

New description is up on the site: http://verdanttea.com/teas/laoshan-black/

I am so pleased with Verdant Tea. Great service, selection, packaging, and free shipping to Canada, plus I received this in five business days. Packages coming from the UK can manage that but I don’t know if any from the US have even come close. They tend to be more in the three-to-four week range!

Anyway, the description for this isn’t joking when it says “perfectly smooth and honey-like”. It’s probably the smoothest black tea I’ve ever experienced, and it’s incredibly sweet with enough body that I don’t find it offputting. The dry leaf smelled toasty, sweet, and green but more in a woodsy way than grassy. The flavour keeps all these elements but is mellower than I expected and has a nice cocoa-y element. I was thinking roasted marshmallow, so it’s funny to see TeaEqualsBliss noticed the same thing. There is so much to like here. Delicious.

I wanted to get this note in before I forgot everything but I’ve only had the chance for my first infusion in a gaiwan. I’m off for some more. I’ve been surprised at how nice blacks are this way, and this one is a shining example!

This is my absolute favorite time of year, and every day when I’m plunking away at my desk I stop at some point, usually midday, to admire the color of the light that streams through the blinds. That magical hue, the same one I remember streaming in onto the carpet where I’d roll around and play as a little kid in my parents’ living room—a warm orange-tinted golden straw shade, accented by how particularly blue the sky is this season, the way it pairs so well with all the dark wood in the house (this was true back then as well). Anyway, I’m sitting here admiring it with a huge mug of Laoshan Black, listening to Low (I’m terrible about forgetting how perfect they can be at the apex of their records) and feeling very low-key and tranquil. Today’s not a bad life at all.

I thought I noticed the first time I dug into my restocked version that there was considerably less chocolate and a lot more salty potato and grain going on, but figured something was off with my tastebuds. But no. This batch is noticeably different from the sample that got me hooked. It’s not bad at all, but I did prefer the first version.

I was scared to try this for two reasons. One, I was worried I overhyped it in my head too much and would be disappointed. Secondly, yesterday was a tea DISASTER. I ruined every cup of tea I attempted to make in various ways. So I was worried that curse would follow into today.

The result of this experiment? One of the most delicious teas I’ve ever had in my whole life. I cannot believe that this isn’t flavored. It’s SO thick, and SO chocolately. I feel like I’m drinking liquefied brownie, thick texture and all. My tongue feels coated, but in that pleasing indulgent way, except this is even better since it’s with zero guilt!

Stop trying to buy a chocolate tea. Seriously. Stop. Now. Buy this. Trust me. It tastes like rich, thick, heavenly dark chocolate, and it’s not forced in any way. This is just how the tea tastes naturally on it’s own.

This will clearly last multiple steeps, and I’m looking forward to each and every one of them.

(And now to PANIC to Verdant Tea’s website and order more before it’s all gone.)

Oh my! This is perfection! Big thank you to Terri HarpLady, she spoiled me a little.
I like this one almost as much as Golden Fleece! This is creamy and sweet! I need to buy this! I might share the next steeps with my mama!