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Share what black (red) tea you are drinking and feel free to illustrate your offering.

Hello, Tea World.

Sipping one of my favorite 2017 First Flush Darjeelings, Gopaldhara Wonder, invoice EX-12.

Brewed per my usual FF Darj custom, 190F for 4min, 3.3g:300mL. Roughly using this fun/helpful Cupping Nomenclature from World of Tea, I'd describe it as:

Bright, astringent.
Flavor notes - Vegetal: asparagus, grass. Marine: sea. Sweet: nectar. Fruit: pear, citrus. Floral.

Cheers!


(Click for High Res).

from Lochan Tea Ltd. via kindness of John B., Margaret's Hope FTGFOP FF 2017 Darjeeling: Dry Leaves include light & dark brown leaves as well as some bright green leaves. Prepared with spring water at 98C flavors are bold & varied & unfortunately for me, lacking smoothness & picking up some bitterness that I did not get when I prepared this tea with cooler r.o. water a week ago. At 92C still too bitter.
I was guessing water I was using in hotel was about 92 but it was probably 88C or slightly lower. When I drink some Himalayan Orange that I know quite well, I should get some understanding.
I think I only like these kind of teas when I treat them more like oolongs than blacks.

Cool to see myself mentioned here on my first visit. Those Darjeeling weren't supposed to be incredible versions, it didn't seem, just decent and type-typical. I don't remember one apart from the others but brewing around some astringency by dropping temperature definitely did come up, in general.

My new favourite black tea today: Jinggu "Assamica Big Tree" Black Tea * Spring 2017 from Yunnan sourcing.

This one has a really appealing raw cacao kind of bitterness with some malty sweetness and hints of fruit, maybe grape skin? Really reminds me of Arya Ruby second flush Darjeeling but is a little bit more robust and has that cacao element.

Traditional Halmari Gold is lately my perfect wake-up tea- I prefer it at breakfast to any other hongcha. Even their modestly-priced somewhat broken version is excellent. The estate also produces this pure-gold tips, one of just a few I've seen outside of Yunnan.

(notes- experimenting with non-downsampled inline images. Apologies in advance if this gets annoying in a maximized window on a high-DPI monitor- I'll edit these down if the consensus is that a max-width limit and/or images per post limit should be placed, to reduce scrolling).





Notes- brewed several times, both ISO style in a 125mL cupping set, and my usual Western.

Sweet: Honey, Malt. Fruit: Citrus, apricot. Animal: Leather (I get leather notes from pure-gold tips assamica).

Astringent. Robust tannins, but not harsh, for me at least.

A digression- I have come to wonder whether hereditary sensitivity to bitterness (somewhat oversimplified in the media as nontasters/tasters/supertasters) may explain some tea lovers' distaste for Assam and other Hongcha. Although, hereditary supertasters frequently do cultivate preferences for bitter flavors they are not supposed to enjoy.

I'm personally not as huge a fan of all-gold Dian Hong-ish teas as I used to be, so for me this is more a novelty than a daily drinker. It is great to see growers explore different high-end productions, though.

Cheers!

Drinking a new hongcha hybrid generously shared with me by Jason Chang of L.A. Tea Club when we met for a group tasting event in Santa Monica last week. Thick, oily, concentrated fragrance that reminds me of a cross between Taiwan Red Jade # 18 and Baihao oolong (a.k.a. Dongfang Meiren -- Oriental Beauty) for its bug bitten-like enzyme aromatics. I love it. Thank you, Jason!

phyllsheng wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 12, 2017 5:02 pm

Drinking a new hongcha hybrid generously shared with me by Jason Chang of L.A. Tea Club when we met for a group tasting event in Santa Monica last week. Thick, oily, concentrated fragrance that reminds me of a cross between Taiwan Red Jade # 18 and Baihao oolong (a.k.a. Dongfang Meiren -- Oriental Beauty) for its bug bitten-like enzyme aromatics. I love it. Thank you, Jason!

Now I'd like to try it, sounds rich. Jason, save me some!

Hong Yun No. 21 from Hau Ying Chen.

Love the activity in the hongcha section I posted this elsewhere last week, but its true home is definitely TeaForum.

Hojo's Yunnan Wild Black Tea, sku B29C on his lineup. I think but am not certain that these posts refer to this tea (it appears to be C. taliensis.):

http://hojotea.com/en/posts-143/

http://hojotea.com/en/posts-133/

A looot going on here. Bright, layered, complex. Quite fruity- I get Orange, Raspberry, Pear. Floral. Sweet- Honey, Nectar.

Very harmonious flavor profile. A unique tea.

All these amazing posts got me really wanting some honcha, so I tried a gift from ferg;
Hualian County, Mi Xiang Red Tea Hong Cha

Wow this red tea has a really rich complex flavor palate and is highly aromatic. A sweet spicy smoothness, like I’m going through a mahogany forest. Camphor, and sweet fruit stone notes. It's delicious. Wish I knew where he got it, I'd like to get some more.

It sounds great Victoria!

My most recent session with a hongcha was a Sun Moon Lake ruby 18 organic from the old Japanese tea farm.

You're killing me with your pots Steanze. Are those staples? Cool.

Looks like the Hualian County, Mi Xiang Hong Cha I am enjoying was from Origin Tea. Since Tony is no longer in the business, any recommendations on where I can get an equivalent quality?

Crimson Ceylon Organic Black Tea from Ohio Tea Company via a tea swap. It has been a while since I’ve had a Ceylon and this one was very enjoyable; aromatics and notes of orange, malt and fall leaves. Beautiful color too.