Bang Dong Hong Black Tea

I picked up 50g of this tea with my last big white2tea order. It’s a very nice hong. I find the flavor to be pretty deep, lower notes rather than high notes. Not particularly complex, but that’s not what I really look for in hongcha anyways. I get some earthiness, malt, and maybe a very bit of dark chocolate. The chocolate note, which is not always present for me, is definitely not a sweet/candy chocolate. Nice tea, easy to drink.

A shame it’s out of stock now, as adding 50-100g of this to any white2tea order would be a no-brainer at the price.

This is one of the first “Teahead” quality black teas I have ever had. My word, it is a world of difference. You see, from my Arab roots, we drink extremely strong and bitter black tea whenever we are with guests and family, and I have always wondered what it would taste like if it weren’t so bitter. So, I guess I have always had a connection with the nice tastes of black tea. Man, A good quality black tea is like bliss, this was wonderful, and I enjoyed it so much.

This tea just tastes tasty, like I am next to the fire surrounded by my family. There is a little subtle gram cracker spiciness, and those dark warming flavors that come with a black tea. There is also this extremely smooth honey sweetness that goes with it.

So far I have restricted my taste preferences only to Puer, and though I am still an extremely big fan of Puer, it is nice to step outside of the box once and a while, and explore everything that tea has to offer. Haha, this tea makes me so excited for black teas, I enjoyed this one so much!

Sweet ashy flavor
Tasting notes
Batch Year:
Eyes Dry Leaf
Score: 7 of 10
Large twisted black and golden yellow leaves.
Nose Dry Leaf
Score: 7 of 10
Woodsy with some ash
Eyes Liquor
Score: 7 of 10
Deep red/brown and very clear
Nose Wet Leaf
Score: 7 of 10
Fruit wood smoke, a little bit of pears
Mouth Texture
Score: 7 of 10
Thin and refreshing
Mouth Taste *
Score: 7 of 10
Sweet ashy flavor
Nose Empty Cup
Score: 7 of 10
faint peppermint cooling smell
Mouth Finish
Score: 8 of 10
Short lubricating sweetness that cuts to a refreshing coolness and saliva production with a subtle grip deep in the throat
Eyes Wet Leaf
Score: 7 of 10
Still quite twisted and long but a uniform dark green/brown
Body Sensation
Score: 7 of 10
Relaxing and regenerative feeling
Brewing Notes
5g:100ml. 95C. 10s+3s.
Infusion Notes
Relatively constant
Overall Impression
Quite good. Very enjoyable and easy to brew, encountered no bad flavors or bitterness.

Recently I have been drinking teas that take me a couple of sessions to fully appreciate. The first session, I’ll leave not impressed and ready to give away the whole bag. Then I give it another shot and it will reveal something to me or make me try a third time. Usually I end up seeing the merits and then I end up liking it for the most part. This is one of those teas.

Is this normal for some people? Or maybe it is just my own taste buds. Either way, this tea first revealed itself as a bit bland. Almost cardboard. But then after a few more sessions, I am more identifying it as subtle graham cracker with a low malt taste. I know I’m not the best at using descriptive words to get across the flavor profiles but that is what I come up with while drinking this. Oh, and smooth.

Overall, I think this is a good black tea for the price. Something to zone out with. And it seems all the better to me considering I had originally wanted to write it off.

For its price, this is a pretty good tea. It’s strong in maltiness with a little bit of raisiny sweetness and hints of cocoa.

Thought the tea itself isn’t astringent, there’s a dry, woody sort of flavor of this tea that reminds me of a shou.

You can’t seem to overleaf or overbrew this tea, which is interesting.

I don’t really know why, but…

This has very quickly become my go to black tea for when I want a bit of a night cap without the commitment to a full drink. So, I brew up a big ’ol Western mug of this and add whatever booze is currently tickling my fancy. Tonight, that was a splash of Raspberry Chocolate Truffle liquor, with a follow up splash of cashew milk.

It’s very rich and sweet, and the marzipan and malt notes of the tea really work with both the raspberry and chocolate. The cashew milk just ties it all together with a touch of creaminess, and a really smooth mouthfeel.

4g in 100ml guywon. Brewing this tea gongfu (5s, 10s, 10s, 30s) works surprisingly well. Like the description on the site says this tea is rich and robust. I almost can’t even smell the gaiwan too close its so intense.

A lovely tea when puer is just not an option

I’ve been drinking this at work for the last couple of days. I really like it. Nice, bold, malty, a bit chocolate, some sweetness. Pretty much just yummy

The waiting game begins!! I did it, today I ordered the Xbone and I am so full of excitement I can barely function. Really I don’t think I have been this kind of excited since I was a kid…I hearken back to Middle School where my dad pre-ordered a Playstation and I was just the hotness at school, of course I spent the entire day bouncing off the walls waiting to get home so I could play the pile of demos because I didn’t have money for the games yet. I could say I felt this kind of excitement when I got an Xbox360, but considering Ben just surprised me with it one day the excitement was a very short explosion…maybe I could compare it to being super excited about Mass Effect 3 where I went to the release party, that had a sad ending though so maybe not.

Guys, guys….guys…it is Dian Hong time!! I am addicted to Dian Hong, it is probably no secret at this point, I mean I love Hong Cha in general, but I go into full on twitchy addict mode around Dian Hong. So today why not look at White2Tea’s Bang Dong Hong Black Tea, made from big leaf Puerh varietal material but processed like a red tea, which means fun times for me! I have had other Dian Hongs that specifically are made from Puerh material and they have made me immensely happy, they have unique nuances. The aroma of the really quite enormous leaves is crisp and gently smoky, with sweet honey and cocoa undertones, a nice starchy yam note, and a slightly camphor finish. It is like sniffing a chocolate covered Sheng, and I hope everyone is as amused by that mental image as I am.

Into my red tea yixing teapot the leaves went for a water filled adventure! The aroma of the now soggy leaves is subtly sweet, with notes of malt and yams, pine resin and camphor, and a finish of honey and cocoa. It has a crispness despite the rich notes, and it is probably the camphor I have to thank for that. The liquid (or soup if you feel fancy) has a gentle and sweet aroma, blending molasses, burnt sugar, cocoa, yams, pine sap, and a tiny tiny hint of camphor at the finish. It smells more of a Dian Hong in the liquid and only has a hint of its puerh cousin.

The first steeping is smooth and sweet, starting with notes of honey and pine sap with a nice midtaste of cocoa that almost borders on chocolate, but not quite that milky sweet. Around the midtaste notes of yam and molasses appear, and the finish brings in a slightly cedar slightly camphor note. It is not cooling, more like the ghost of cedar and camphor, giving it, if anything, a bit of crispness.

Second steeping time, and the aroma is quite malty with notes of pine sap, starchy yams, and a touch of sweet cocoa. This steeping is mostly smooth, with a hint of dryness at the finish, it is not a strong unpleasant dryness, just slight. The taste is rich this steeping, strong notes of cocoa and malt mix with molasses and a slight pine wood note. It finishes with yams, honey, and molasses, the molasses taste lingers for a while after the sipping.

The aroma of the third steeping is still very malty and rich, with stronger yam notes and cocoa, the honey sweetness is not as strong, as it is more rich than sweet. Sipping the red gold (it is like gold to me!) it is all smoothness, no dryness what so ever, just smooth rich sweetness. The taste is sweet and malty, very rich with notes of yam and honey, with strong molasses and malt at the finish. I got several more steeps after this one, it is a Red Tea that keeps giving, getting sweeter after the richness,

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/12/white2tea-bang-dong-hong-black-tea-tea.html