2018 Arbor Red

I haven’t had many black teas so far, so here’s me working on that. This is an interesting black tea. The first thing that I noticed sniffing at the wet leaf was some savoury smokiness which came to me totally unexpected. It was almost barbecue-ish. That toned down quickly and by the third infusion there was still smokiness but no longer so meaty and savoury. The other dominant notes were tobacco and herbs – of the medicinal type, not those you use in the kitchen. It reminded me of those herbal medicine shops, where you can’t really pick out any one herb but it’s all mingled in a single powerful redolence. All this was backed by a thick body, slightly malty, with some underlying sweetness. In later steeps some fruitiness was present as well. The liquor was a beautiful amber color and teeming with tiny hairs when seen against the bright window. The empty cha hai had a strikingly strong sweet aroma reminiscent of herbal honey. This tea had a very gentle uplifting effect even though it was a long session.

“I’m not dead yet!” -me, not having posted on Steepster in the past three months

I find myself drinking a lot of Yunnan blacks lately, lots of pu and other things as well, but I think i’m probably drinking more black than anything else at the moment. I ordered a sample of this one from W2T, kind of secretly hoping that I wouldn’t like it too much since it’s a kind of pricey for Yunnan black. Unfortunately it’s excellent! Had to order a cake of this one as well as Censers.

It’s moderately bold and malty, has a fairly thick body, and tastes and aromas of good tobacco, dry herbs, leather, and sandalwood incense. A lot of complexity, holds up to a lot of infusions, and doesn’t get bitter easily. If I could “customize” or describe my “ideal” Yunnan black, this would pretty much be it!

My high view of this tea may in part because I’m partial to of the kind of flavor notes found in this tea, and it might not be for everyone, but I would say that it’s objectively a very high quality black. I’d strongly recommend it to those who like black teas, but also to fans of aged sheng and cigar/tobacco aficionados.

Made up as a larger Western style pot, since I missed the little bit of info in the tea’s description that recommends it Gong Fu and I usually don’t drink my W2T blacks that way so Gong Fu wasn’t my default. I do still have enough of my sample left to still drink it Gong Fu though, and also do a direct comparison between this and the white version…

I thought this was a really, really intense tasting black tea and looking at W2T’s description I think medicinal and herbaceous are really on the nose descriptors for the flavour. I’d also call it quite smokey though; in fact the smoke notes were the very first thing in the blend that popped out to me. Other than that, strong notes of oak wood and mahogany, some cumin, a tiny bit of malt and a tinier bit of molasses, and a borderline meaty/broth like element. I mean, it really is a very thick, rich/dense and more savory leaning type of profile. However, there’s a hint of sweetness in the undertones and very intriguingly that sweetness didn’t read as a note that I typically associate with sweeter black teas (honey, caramel, red fruits, jammyness, or stone fruit…) but as something more, well, tropical!? It took a while, about half the pot, to put a finger on it but I finally did after pulling out a tasting wheel to help pinpoint it. So what was I tasting in between all the savory, umami notes!?

Banana. The answer is banana.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this varietal and found it to be a great but very intense learning opportunity. I am honestly SO excited to compare it with the white version and see if I get anything even remotely similar to what I experienced with this tea.