What Black Are You Drinking

[GaoShan]

Sadly sold out but 2020 Yuchi Wild Black Tea was great and tasted like rum cake and cherries to me.
I loved it, luckily I still have some left.

2020 Tanyang Gong Fu Hong Cha
It seems a bit too oxidized to me but very good. It tastes like biting into a dark chocolate bar.

Also side bar, plz try their hong shui oolong it is very good!

My 400th post.. I want to thank Bok, Octo and all the wonderful people here who threw me into the adult pool and for a while I drowned in info until eventually it all started making sense...

I'm glad that the Yuchi Assam was as good as I thought it might be. I see another order in my future once their lapsang souchong is back in stock! There's a Shan Lin Xi Gui Fei that I also want to try.

I bought one of their aged hong shui oolongs and one of their later ones, out of maybe four or five that they carry. I've yet to try them. Which one(s) did you like?

2020 “Stone Fruit” Dong Ding Hong Shui Oolong
2020 Ming Jian Organic Roasted Hong Shui

I've reviewed both of these on his site.

I didn't purchase from TheTea in 2020, so I haven't tried either of these. Even without knowing anything about it, that Stone Fruit Dong Ding Hong Shui sounds right up my alley.

[Tea Adventures]

Drinking a nice and fruity jin jin mei right now. Don’t have much experience with jin jun mei in general, but it’s enjoyable.

I got it around a month ago but it’s only the first time I’m drinking it.

[mbanu]

Some Girl Scout cookies were looking tempting, so today it is loose-leaf "Constant Comment", an American scented black tea from the tea company Bigelow. I'm glad they have kept blending the loose-leaf version all these years, even though I imagine the majority of their sales today are in teabags.

[Ethan Kurland]

scented black tea from the tea company Bigelow. I'm glad they have kept blending the loose-leaf version all these years, even though I imagine the majority of their sales today are in teabags.

Constant Comment in teabags was loved by the newly middle middle class. It helped celebrate their leaving depression-era worries such as having enough to eat. My mother, her sister, their friends etc. were on the telephone to each other when it first came out. It was offered to guests with great pride. My mother was always surprised when it was not chosen by guests & forever disappointed that no one in her own family liked it besides herself.
Although a samovar, that had been carried all the way from Russia in the early 1800s by one of my grandparents, had a prominent place in the living room, I never saw loose-leaf in the home of my parents nor in any of the homes of their relatives or friends.

[debunix]

Enjoying some Dan Cong Hong Cha, spring 2011 Wudong tea from Norbu, a long-neglected sample. It was opened, so I've had a few infusions of this one before. I must have opened it long after the tea was sold out from his site, or I'd have bought more of it. It's amazing: floral, fruity, delicate and rich scent and taste all at the same time. Wow. And the liquor gives a lovely deep red cast to this cup by Inge Nielsen.

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I think it will go for many infusions, as I like my black teas dilute anyway.

[Ackernym]

@debunix that sounds like a delicious tea, and that picture almost looks like some kind walnut ink stain crossed with an abstract work of art!

Today, I'm having some imperial mojiang golden buds from Yunnan Sourcing. I've had...difficulties getting much flavor out of this tea, although I think I've finally found the right ratio of water to leaf to time at 4g per 150ml at ~95C for 2 minutes for the first infusion. I'm finally getting those nice malty, chocolate-y flavors that I remember from my past experiences with golden buds!

[debunix]

I'm starting a second session with a tiny sample of Jiu Qu Hong Mei black tea, and I'm not sure where it came from, or how long it sat at the bottom of the tea drawer. As I open the packet, the scent of the dry leaf is overwhelmingly floral, fruity, plummy, promising deliciousness. The thin threads of twisted leaf are minute, but do appear to be individual leaves.

The liquor is golden, warm, floral and fruity, no bitterness, after a flash infusion, and another flash infusion, and a 3rd flash infusion. 4th infusion still peachy, caramel, delightful. It is losing a little so I will stop here.

Happy camper, me.

[mbanu]

I'm starting a second session with a tiny sample of Jiu Qu Hong Mei black tea, and I'm not sure where it came from, or how long it sat at the bottom of the tea drawer. As I open the packet, the scent of the dry leaf is overwhelmingly floral, fruity, plummy, promising deliciousness. The thin threads of twisted leaf are minute, but do appear to be individual leaves.

The liquor is golden, warm, floral and fruity, no bitterness, after a flash infusion, and another flash infusion, and a 3rd flash infusion. 4th infusion still peachy, caramel, delightful. It is losing a little so I will stop here.

Happy camper, me.

Hello fellow camper! I am drinking Jiuqu Hongmei as well -- I am having much less trouble with it then its cousin longjing. It seems to brew well under a variety of methods.

[TeaTotaling]

2019 Diaoqiao, Tongmuguan. Red tea x red clay

The most elegant Hong I have had. Like a decadent raspberry jam. Couldn’t resist....

[klepto]

2019 Diaoqiao, Tongmuguan. Red tea x red clay

The most elegant Hong I have had. Like a decadent raspberry jam. Couldn’t resist....

Beautiful liquor, where'd you find that hong cha?

[debunix]

Jin Jun Mei. I think this is the last tiny packet received as a gift from a visiting scholar from Shanghai. Delicate, floral, fruity, so fine. But since it is in a deep Seigan blue cup, the liquor color is not as easy to celebrate as in the lovely post above.

[debunix]

I drank an overnight infusion yesterday, and it was delightful. Just sweet/floral/fruity, not bitter. Mmmmm.

[LeoFox]

Some yunnan black brewed intuitively. The qi on these are so strong. Taste reminds me of 2nd flush darjeeling

[TeaTotaling]

2019 Diaoqiao, Tongmuguan. Red tea x red clay

The most elegant Hong I have had. Like a decadent raspberry jam. Couldn’t resist....

Beautiful liquor, where'd you find that hong cha?

A kind friend gave me a sample from his private collection.

[debunix]

Yatra Tea Company Temi Estate Second Flush May 2019 SFTGFOP1 tea, a long neglected sample. The dry leaf in the pouch is sweet and fruity but also smells a little dusty (this last probably because of the long wait before being opened).

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I started out in my usual exceedingly timid fashion for a new-to-me black tea, with a hardly-any-leaf-to-water ratio...and almost a flash infusion of water just off the boil. Some of the leaf is surprisingly GREEN.

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It was very light, a little fruity, a little sweet, nothing bitter.

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Second infusion, with water that was cooling a bit in the pot, was similar.

3rd infusion, let go longer, is a little less sweet, with more fruit to the front, and still nothing bitter. And some of the leaf is still a bit green.

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Now that I've established it doesn't bite, this scaredycat bitterphobe will take the training wheels off next time.