Vietnam (Ha Giang) Wild 'Dark Forest' Dark Tea

This tea reminded me of some old leather shoe left in a dry dusty basement fused with some soggy wet wood. The description states that this tea is an aquired taste and that couldn’t be further from the truth. I feel that going to the forest and scooping up a random patch of dirt will bring me similar results.

Though I’m going to persist to see if it brings any more flavours in the subsequent rounds.

It has taken me ages to get around to trying this tea. Based on some of the reviews I figured it would not be a tea I like. That would be an understatement. This tea tastes like an old wet rotting wood log. A bit mushroomy too. And yet… here I am still sipping this tea as I write this. Why haven’t I thrown it away? Hmmmm

This is the first hei cha I’ve ever tried, so I was bracing myself for a weird, weird experience. First sip, and as expected, the tea totally tastes like wood. Not like pine or anything, but more like biting into a chunk of drift wood. Little musty, and spicy—imagine someone grinding pepper onto a log and you’re pretty close. Didn’t notice much changing from strep to steep, just the same woody taste. Not bad at all, although I wouldn’t buy more.

this is definitely out of the ordinary. will review better after another few steeps. out of time but wanted to make it known that i have imbibed the dark tea!

Hmm, this one is weird. A little too intense for me perhaps. The aroma is very mushroomy or reminiscent of a rotting log. The taste is not too far off either. After a few steeps, it starts to mellow out a bit and acquire some sweetness beneath the heavy forest flavors, but for me each sip took a good bit of effort lol. Does have some nice flavors if you can get through the first few steeps, but not really worth it to me. Maybe would be good when you’re sick, as the flavor is very strong and each sip cleared my sinuses right up by its sheer strength.

First, this is not a tea for light drinker. Strong on the wood taste and earthy notes with a bit astringent finish. Depending on your tea/water ratio and brewing time, the wood notes get stronger. My first and second brew s (3.5 gr/100 ml – 2 minutes ) are quite strong and leave a pleasant smokey taste. The third brew, which is the best, is much smoother and addresses most tea drinkers. The brew time is again 2 minutes

The Hatvala information card claims it’s good with your favorite (whatever that means) whiskey. I think it could go well with a smooth malt with flower notes to balance.

This is one odd tea. The word ripe threw me off from my initial smell of the tea and look. While it may be a dark tea, I wouldn’t consider it ripe in the Yunnan ripe sense as this isn’t a dark earth taste for me. This is somewhat like wet puer that was fermented lightly and left lone for awhile.
I can’t say I will try it again because it wasn’t appealing to my taste buds. It’s god a wet woodsy taste to it with a slightly fading funk, which is to say that the later steeps are more rounded for tasting than the earlier steeps.

Thank you for this one a while ago, TheLastDodo! This one sounded a little scary, to be sure. It isn’t too bad, but not a flavor I’d seek out. This one is compared to ripe pu-erh but to me, it is much too light for that. Lighter than a typical black tea, though the leaves like your typical black tea. However, the flavor is very dusky, dusty, ashy, woody, earthy like no other tea I’ve tried before. I have no idea why it is so different. But nice to try out — must try all the teas!

Description here says smooth with a lingering wood taste. I have to say it certainly smells like wood, but it’s flavoured wood? lol it’s got a smooth flavour to it….it’s not like a really heavy puerh…but it is NOT for the faint of heart. I am a fan!

Pretty strong on the wood and earth tastes, but in a good way and not overpowering on any one thing. I usually brew my shu’s very dark, and brewing this in the same manner packs quite a punch. For most, this tea might be better suited with a lighter brew, especially for the first tasting. If you are new to shu puer or dark/fermented tea in general, you might want to try something a bit more standard like a good Menghai cake; but if you are an experienced shu drinker and want to try something similar to, yet delightfully different from the shu’s you are used to, this is an excellent choice. Personally, I enjoyed this introduction to Vietnamese dark tea look forward to seeing what else is available now that I’ve been introduced to it.