Dian Hong Congfu

Another sample from Cameron! This is my first Joseph Wesley tea. I enjoyed it, although it had more of a vegetal flavor than many of the Dian Hongs I have had. It definitely had a lot of character and was multi faceted.

After-workout tea! You would think I would want something light, but I guess not. :P This sample came from scribbles (she sent me basically all of the Joseph Wesley teas). The leaves of this tea are about medium in size and just slightly twisty. I would say they’re about 60% black to 40% gold. I’m not sure why I feel the need to be specific on that, but oh well. Dry scent is mild malt with nice Yunnan-y honey and stonefruit notes. I steeped a heaping teaspoon for 3 minutes at 200 degrees.

Whew, this is definitely a darker Yunnan by the smell. There’s a lot of earthiness here with some mineral and smoke qualities. Happily for me, the taste is very well-balanced. That earthy quality is here as well, but is nicely softened by a dark fruitiness and the sweetness of honey. I do get some minerality along with a slight smoke. Overall, not my favorite tea, but a good one. :)

This one definitely falls into the fruity spectrum of Yunnan’s with the brewed tea smelling of apricots along with something a little bit sharper, leather, malt honey and grain.

I steeped 1 TSP in 220ml of water three times at about 95°C.

1 min. Apricot, honey, grain, and hints of malt and leather spice. The tea is sweet, grainy and rich. As it cools, deeper malt tones become apparent and a prune note appears.

2 min. Apricot, honey, leather, cocoa and grain.

4 min. Malt, leather, grainy notes, and a bit of cream.

Nice and different from my existing Yunnans

Thanks boychik for the sample!

Giving this one a try as my afternoon study tea. I’ve been drinking a lot of tea to keep me going the past few days. I have a big exam coming up at the beginning of July and need to study like crazy. I’m not getting a whole lot from the scent of this tea, it’s a bit soft. I do detect some sweetness, but otherwise it seems to want to hide its character from me until I sip!

Sipping… interesting.. not a very strong flavor from the tea. I wasn’t expecting the tea to mirror the scent as much as it is. I’m picking up on grapes, sugar and something a little bit metallic in the finish. It’s light, but satisfying at the same time.

It’s not as gutsy as some of the other black teas out there, but this is such a nice, light tea that it is perfect for the summer or spring. You know those teas that are darker, richer and sort of weigh you down? This tea is definitely one that can be had all day, no matter the occasion. What a lovely brew for this afternoon!

the lovely boychik sent this my way and i’m ever so glad that she did. I’ve been wanting to try the Joseph teas for a while now, given the rave reviews but could hardly justify the ridiculous shipping for samples. I’d rather get a chance to try a few and then place a real order via my tea mule.

I’m also glad that i brewed this one along side that gross david’s tea since THIS is such a lovelier cup of tea. There is a hint of astringency to this one but nothing that would interfere with the pleasure of drinking this. it’s got a nice malt feel too it, though i wouldn’t call it an overly malty tea. there is some sweetness here that reminds me of peach but isn’t peach…just a really nice tea.

Queued post, written April 18th 2014

Okay, I’m going to do a quick morning post of this and after that I’m going to aim for the ABTS (Apply Bottom To Seat) approach to my Camp NaNoWriMo writing. I’ve got behind while we had Husband’s parents staying, but that’s not really the biggest problem. The real problem is that I’m in re-writing phase now and this has turned out to be an awful lot more difficult than I imagined it would be. I would murder my internet for the duration, but that’s not as easy as it sounds and involves reaching into tiny corners and places where I can’t see what I’m doing, so I’m just going to have excert will-power.

HAH! As if anybody believes that. I’m already struggling with convincing myself to NOT have cake for breakfast. I am such a grown-up.

Anyway, I gave Husband the choice of tea this morning from among my three untasted JW samples, and for the second time, very surprisingly him being Cornflakes-Man and all, did not choose the LS. He picked this one, of which we used all the leaf for a large pot. And then spilled some, but there should still be enough in the pot that we can get a decent resteep.

This has a very malty aroma and it also reminds a little of honey. I’m not getting any cocoa from it, but there is something that I can’t quite put my finger on and it’s sort of in the same family as cocoa, smell-wise. (No, it’s not chocolate) It’s quite faint though, so I’m not deeming it super-important to decipher it at this point. Underneath all this there is a lot of grain and wood, so it smells like a good strong tea here. At first glance a good choice for the first tea of the morning.

Oooh, it may not smell entirely like cocoa, but it definitely has cocoa notes in the flavour. Not a lot of it, but just at the very beginning of the very first sip, there it was. It was followed with something that struck me as ever so slightly tart, ever so slightly wine-y. Interesting! That’s not a flavour I’m used to finding in tea at all.

The more I sip, the more the wine-y note seems to stand out. It’s in the realm of a slightly spicy wine here, perhaps even a tiny little bit mulled? I’m not getting too much of the grain and wood body I noticed in the aroma, although there those were fairly strong notes. I enjoy a good deal of grain in my Chinese black, so I’m missing it a little, but not to the point where it really bothers me.

This tea is very different from the Chinese black teas I’ve usually had, even the Yunnan teas I’ve usually had. It has a really interesting flavour and it’s very much worth a visit. Had I not been under certain ordering constraints (in general, but in particular with this brand) I think I could easily drink a tin of this.

It reminds me a little of the very first time I had the fabled Tan Yang Te Ji from TeaSpring. I honestly didn’t know what to make of it. I wasn’t even certain whether or not I liked it. And then gradually I discovered that I did like it. I really did. I really really did! It has remained my favourite ever black in the world since then and although a few teas have come close, none have yet managed to push it off that pedestal. With enough exposure to it, this Dian Hong has the potential of growing on me in the same way. Perhaps not quite to the epic pinnacles of the TYTJ, but close.

It’s Day 9 of little terri’s Ultimate Sipdown Extravaganza!
I stayed up til 2am, playing harp, paying bills, setting goals, & reading Sherlock Holmes. I’m getting close to the end of the collection, & it’s been fun, but I hope to move on after this weekend.
I’m having a nice morning. I slept in until 9:30 (I love being self-employed), then I woke up with Bach’s invention #8 in my head, so I sat at the piano & played a slow rendition of it. It’s been years since I played the inventions! I grew up on the piano, but I don’t really play it much, & I need to create time for it, because I still love THAT instrument too. If only there were more hours in each day!

I’ve visited Joseph Wesley’s website a few times, but never ordered. It seemed a little high brow for me, a little too polished/designer/sterile. Plus, I’d think naming a tea company after yourself would be kind of risky, like getting your girlfriend’s name tattooed on your arm, LOL. Of course, Joe is really probably a really cool guy who just loves tea!

I’d like to thank boychik for sending me this generous sample. I divided it, placing 5 grams in my 4oz pot for a gongfu session of 15/30/45sec/1min/2min/3min, & a nice Tb in my 8oz cup for 3/5 minute steeps. I drank the gongfu brews first, & although it was nice, the flavor profile remained pretty much the same throughout. It was a lovely wheat toast, made from a darker molasses sweetened bread.
The 8oz cup X 3min was my preferred steeping, with a nice dense chewy kind of thick mouth, Boston Brown Bread with a touch of rye & dark molasses, lightly sweet & savory, & even a little tart, as if some citrus peel were added. It is also mildly astringent, & the resteep @ 5min tends towards a slightly bitter ‘hops’ quality. Not a bad tea, & a sipdown.
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Another special tea from boychik! Thank you. (:

I had this last night. boychik was super generous enough that I can try it both Western and gongfu; last night I did it Western but I’m definitely curious to see if gongfu suits it better. Western, it’s clean and smooth and malty, with that balancing act between the cleanness and a cocoa and caramel-y rich sweetness. You know, some of that caramelized sweet potato, but not as obviously so or boring as other sweet potato teas…it resteeps very well too. I get this itchy sense there’s probably a way to coax more out of it somehow if I fiddle with steeping paramaters…slightly cooler water? More or less time? Not sure. I can see why boychik wanted input from others.

I met Joseph Wesley at the recent NYC Coffee & Tea Festival. His packaging is amazing and he was great to talk to. He provided me with a sample of this tea and I brewed it for myself & my fiance while working from home today.

The tea is reminiscent of a meyer lemon tea I’ve tried from Zen Tara Tea, but it is very clean with a slight sweetness. It tastes almost similar to a dark oolong due to the astringency, but it is very balanced and refreshing. Upon smelling, I get a faint roasted, earthy smell which translated into a smooth taste. The middle of the taste is mineral and hints of roasted chocolate or caramel, with a slight end-of-a sip citrus hint.

Tea of the morning…….

I was curious about this one, even though I feel like I have all the Dian Hong I will ever need from Teavivre. I do love a good Dian Hong, though, so it was kind of a no brainer to give it a try.

Leaves are thick, twisted and have some golden tips. It is not as golden tipped as Teavivre’s golden tip dian hong, but more in line with their full leaf version. I would say it follows the profile of a good dian hong as far as taste…..malt, cocoa. Heartiness without astringency or briskness. What I do find remarkable about all the teas I have tried from Joseph Wesley is the heavy mouthfeel. They all make such a heavy brew which is very satisfying….like you are drinking something substantial. It makes me want to go back to my other dian hongs to see how they stack up.

For me, I do see this one as the one I may not need to buy soon of the 4 I was initially interested in. The outstanding winner for me is the Keemun. Then the Bai Lin. However, I can tell he really does pay attention to the quality of the teas he sells. Plus, for a black tea drinker like me, his product line is perfect. We shall see once I get my tins!

Usual mug method.