Laoshan Black

Extreme chocolate goodness, I love the cream like feel and the maltiness of it. To me an everyday AND special reward tea for me. What I like the most is that it doesn’t seem to get astringent at all.

I got the honor of tasting this storied tea from the “Considering Another Traveling Teabox” teabox. This tea has such a wonderful reputation on steepster that I made sure to give it the tea brewing considering it was due. This means 1. Proper steeping instrument (in this case a forlife large infuser and mug), 2. Using a timer and paying attention to said timer, 3. multiple infusions and 4. Making sure not to forget that I had made my cup before it got cold!

Every infusion I added 30 seconds. I started with 3 minutes for the first infusion.

First Infusion: Malt, Chocolate, Caramel. It feels a little thicker then most teas. I am also getting some creamy notes.
Second Infusion: This is very a pronounced chocolate and malt notes. It is reminiscent of a good thick malty stout beer.
Third Infusion: At this point the tea is much thinner feeling. This tea tasted like the most delicate black yunan.
Fourth Infusion: The most delicate sunny sweet honey flavor.

This tea truly does live up to expectations. There is just enough tea in the packet for another cup which I am going to leave in the box so that someone else can try this delight!

I was drinking both Yu Lu Yan Cha Black and Laoshan Black last night. I drank three steeps of each of them, trying to compare and decide which I liked better. This is more of a comparison of the two and I am going to post this note on both.
I like them both. They were similar and are both malty, dark, chocolatey, great black teas. I though Laoshan Black had bolder flavors, Yu Lu Cha was milder. Yu Lu Cha is the type of tea that I could drink all day at work, Laoshan, is more of a " I just want a cup or two" special occasion tea. Laoshan would be too much for me to drink more than a couple of cups.
I’m not sure which I like better. They are so similar and yet different. I think I need to find room in my cupboard for both of them. Would drink them under different situations.
both of these are really good teas, but not my favorite. I have one I like better.

Another BIG THANKS to Steepster Bonnie for this sample!

About the only tea that I enjoy more than black tea is flavored black tea. I love them all- fruity, sweet, nutty, chocolate, coconut, you name it! So, this was another variety that I was excited to try when it arrived in the mail.

When I opened the packet, a wonderful sweet, chocolatey, coffee-like smell emerged (I don’t like the taste of coffee but I love its aroma) from the packet. I had a feeling immediately that this was going to be good!

I followed Steepster Bonnie’s recommendation and steeped this tea for three minutes at 212 degrees. The color was a light amber. I thought that was interesting for black tea.

At first sip, my palate was instantly pummeled with a terrific sweet taste. I could also detect a slight fruity attribute. Altogether, the flavor is evenly spread with sweetness, tea, and fruit, in perfect harmony. One sensation does not overpower another and there is no bitterness. This tea is extemely pleasant and tasty.

On the packet, with the instructions, Steepster Bonnie summed up this tea in one word: “YUMMY!” I couldn’t have described it any better myself so I’ll leave it at that.

Sooooo goooooood. Chocolately and malty and mmmm. I love black tea with malty notes to it and this is perfect.

I know everyone pretty much loves this tea, but to me, it smells like a very high quality potting soil. I’m having a lot of trouble with the smell. It tastes nice enough, though more earthy than I like.

While I can appreciate that this is a unique and naturally richly flavored tea, it isn’t for me.

Oh wow. This is so good!

I finally bit the bullet and placed an order with Verdant Tea. After all the hype on Steepster about their teas, how could I not?

Well, I am not disappointed. In. The. Least.

This is a rich, chocolatey, grainy and spicy cup. I’m positively smitten.

Maybe this will be the tea to finally kick that last lingering morning cup of coffee I’ve been holding on to drinking. Because this is infinitely more interesting than that, isn’t it?

Yum.

Sipdown…I’m all out of sugar so I thought I’d use dark chocolate milk with this one, to cover all the bases. I really only detect the chocolate milk…not much tea. Oh well. It doesn’t taste bad, but I think it would have been better prepared normally.

Ugh it happened to me! Steepster just malfunctioned and I lost my entire review I spent all morning typing up for this one! What a bummer.

This morning when I woke up I decided I’d spend the day listening to music, drinking tea, doing a face masque, curling my hair, and just spending some time with myself without the TV on. The rats had big plans for the day when they woke up too – peering at me with their sparkling eyes through their cage door like “mom we want to enjoy the day with you!” So now I’ve got all four of my little monsters running around on the couch begging for sips of tea. Thank goodness for black tea!

And what an interesting way to start the day out. This tea has such rave reviews on here! I’ve still been using my gaiwan faithfully. I wonder if the magic will wear off eventually?

This tea is rich, creamy, and deliciously sweet. I can see why this is a popular tea. It reminds me a lot of honey. With each steep the liquor turns a darker gold color and the leaves are unfurling with a curly madness. I adore the way these leaves look dry and damp. This is a very pleasant way to start the day.

Oh, and in case you were wondering the rats give Laoshan Black tea two paws up!

http://flic.kr/p/dtv82z -— Fintan and Derby enjoying some tea
http://flic.kr/p/dtAEsC -— Fievel giving a lick of approval!

This review is for the Autumn Harvest

Ok, I suppose I should review this.

This was probably my first completely Steepster-driven purchase. I’ve never looked forward to trying a new tea more-gobs and gobs of 90+ reviews from independent, knowledgeable reviewers here on Steepster, coming from a small farm, a small service and quality oriented company, blacks my preference-I looked forward to loving this tea.

But I don’t.

Today is my 3rd or 4th day I have brewed this tea-hoping at some point I would become enlightened to what everyone else sees in this tea-or just get used to it. And I am kinda used to it, but although familiarity has not bred contempt, neither has it brought love.

I love that it’s experimental-tea would be boring without experimentation. This is different tea to be sure-certainly not too much like various Keemuns and Yunnans I have tasted. The dry leaves are rolled tight with some slight bends. They appear to have little aroma unless you take a big inhale, then I get slight chocolatey and floral notes. The leaves are very dark-almost jet black-I was half expecting the liquor to be as dark as black licorice.

Fortunately, liquor was just a deep coppery brown. Brewed leaf aroma is roasty with a slight resemblance to a roasted oolong, a little resemblance to keemun and not sure what else. The first steep flavor is kinda roasted with a touch of chocolate, but not much. Can’t really describe the dominant flavor. It’s different and just okay. It’s very heavy in the mouth, but relatively smooth until it starts to cool when some bitterness appears.

The 2nd steep tastes a little more chocolatey. Can you taste the tannins? Because it feels like I can really taste the tannins. Third steep-the liquor is deep amber colored. It now has a medium heavy mouthfeel. Flavor is improved a little. A touch milder, more grainy perhaps. Also tasting a bit more oolong-ey than previous steeps-especially the aftertaste. Still, nothing too exciting-don’t really like oolong anyway. I’ve done 4 steeps before, but have no notes for a 4th steep. If I have a 4th steep today, I’ll edit this note to include the information. There’s lot of tannins and caffeine in this tea, and with my reflux, I can’t afford 4 steeps of this if all I feel is “Meh, I don’t understand all the fuss.”

I am happy with my experience buying from Verdant Tea-they are personal, responsive, and committed to quality. They have several other teas that I look forward to trying. I might even try the first flush of this tea-if someone can convince me it’s significantly different. But I doubt that I would buy this Autumnal Harvest again.