What Black Are You Drinking

[mbanu]

Today it is a Taylors of Harrogate Earl Grey. Not bad! Based on broken Keemun, arrived in good shape, strong Bergamot but still English-style Earl Grey rather than Russian style. My first impression is that it is better than U.S. (Polish-packed) Twinings, at least to my tastes. Wish I'd saved some of the Tea & Sympathy Earl Grey for a taste-off. Apparently Prince Charles took a liking to Taylors tea back in 2004, eventually giving it a Royal Warrant -- I'll need to see if I can find some old examples of their packaging from before then, but they certainly try to make the most of it now.

More of the same -- I'm noticing the tea is a little dusty, however. Maybe it's a case where they are assuming that since it's an Earl Grey it isn't worth the cost to do extra refining on the tea? If the dust goes flat, the flavor will be covered to some degree by the bergamot. Alternately, maybe the tea itself was squashed sometime between leaving the packer and receiving an outer box? Dustier than your average broken-orthodox Assam, not as dusty as your average Fukamushi sencha.

[LeoFox]

Enjoying a nice hong after a hectic day

IMG_20220529_201639_838.jpg (204.67 KiB) Viewed 623 times

[Iizuki]

Enjoying a nice hong after a hectic day

Hah nice bubble!

[Teafortea]

Red jade nr 18 first flush from TTC. Probably my favorite for this season, I keep coming back too. My favorite part of tea drinking is observing the infused leaves

[Bok]

Unknown gifted Taiwanese Hongcha in the morning… big pot, big cups, nice!

[klepto]

its 3AM here and I am trying to unravel the mystery of @Ethan Kurland's Championship Black.
First steep with an accurate glazed teapot I got this orange candy like note that reminded me of drinking Indian teas with a perfect OB sweetness as an aftertaste.
The notes changed from steep to steep with some excellent complexity. I got chocolate notes, deep fruity flavors that danced in and out.
I noticed during the 4th steep the leaves hadn't even opened up yet for the most part. Nice indicator there. To be honest there was far too much involved for me to comprehend on my first taste. I will use less leaf next time and see how clay does with it. I find this Taiwanese gem fascinating as you get the robust flavors of a hong but the sweetness of a bug bitten oolong. Some of the fruity flavors reminded me of a hong shui oolong. More time will be required and I have plenty of it

[mbanu]

Some Yorkshire Red today. With CTC tea sometimes you are forced to follow the leader -- I don't like their internet advertising, but it's been successful enough that you aren't likely to get stuck with stale tea if you happen to buy it.

When fresh, a fine choice for whole milk and sugar. (I'd put it above Yorkshire Gold and P.G. Tips, mostly because I don't like semi-skimmed milk in my tea, which those two seem designed for, and above Typhoo due to the availability issues and the weird smell I've gotten off a few Typhoo batches.)

To avoid this becoming another example of Yorkshire internet marketing, I had some Campbell's Perfect that I remember being of the same quality, and based on fresh Tetley teabags, I suspect that a fresh Tetley loose would also do a good job here.

[debunix]

Today enjoying some Alishan Black tea from Floating Leaves Tea. It's made from Jin Xuan cultivar, and has a lot of oolong character which of course endears it to me and has made it quite the hit with my tea buddies at work. It is fruity, floral, plummy, sweet, with just a hint of spice, even now, 9 hours since I added the tea to the 2L thermos and filled it with boiling water. Fine stuff. This will be in the regular rotation from now on.

[Ethan Kurland]

.... To be honest there was far too much involved for me to comprehend on my first taste... fascinating as you get the robust flavors of a hong but the sweetness of a bug bitten oolong. Some of the fruity flavors...

Well, I think you "comprehend" this tea better than I do. Or at least write better about it. I am out of it & hope that doing w/o this for a couple of months will lead me to make a good dent in my stock of other teas I have (some of them very good but not favorites). Cheers

[klepto]

I was trying out this pre77 hongni 60ml shui ping from Chadrinkingcat drinking a Red Jade #18 Taiwanese black from Yuchi. Drinking from a 60ml teapot you can steep out the tea for a long time and not get full. This Taiwanese black didn't show how wonderful it truly was until I had steep it so long I forgot how many times it was. Initially it gives you a lovely blackberry note and some spice but later on I tasted wild cinnamon and other fruits far late in the game. Sometimes I don't take my time and let a tea show me everything it has to offer.

Drinking from this yixing teapot gave me a flashback to when I was using them for the first time and all the mess I made but I have a bit more exp now so for the tea went into the cup not on the table

[debunix]

I’ve been doing this for a good while now and I still sometimes end up with lots of tea pouring out onto my tea tray…..