Laoshan Black

Wow perfection! This is the good stuff mixed in with Chocolate Chamomile Curiosity Brew! Just last night I was wishing I had some of this black tea without all the extras for morning and lo and behold David was two steps ahead of me having snuck a nice sample of this in with my order!
Yup THIS is the tea I want in the morning. THIS is the tea I want to mix strawberries in! This is bliss!
Flavors: Malty, Sweet, Chocolate, Leather, Spice – cinnamon and black pepper.
Mouthfeel is heavy and thick, creamy, and full.
Not drying on throat, no astringency, no bitterness.

I was super excited to try this tea due to the high ratings it has among my fellow Steepsterites. Sad story though. I had just made some noodles and doused it with hot sauce (I’m visiting China this summer, so I’m trying to get used to eating hot food with chopsticks) and couldn’t taste the tea too well. I’m real excited to steep it later though.

From what I could tell, it was smooth and had a hint of chocolate. I’ll update the rating as soon as I try it again.

Thank you to Sil for sending me this sample.

I drank this while preparing the menu for Easter this year. It’s my turn to bake and I am planning on baking my sanity away this week with the Easter pies, the Creme Brulee and the cupcakes. It calmed me and kept me from having a good bit of panic. Laoshan Black may just be a miracle drug for me.

1st Steep-1 minute
Holy Laoshan Black. Normally I’m one of those people who think I’ll hate what everyone else loves. Usually it’s true but with Laoshan Black, I couldn’t be wronger. Is wronger even a word? It’s beautiful. That’s all. It tastes like chocolate and cinnamon. There’s also a nice creamy note. I let my mother who hates tea sip this and she loved it. That is a special tea.

2nd Steep-2 minutes
The chocolate is even more intense with a nutty note. This tastes like Nutella. I hate Nutella for the simple reason that they try to pretend there is no chocolate in there—clearly a lie— but this tastes like it. And it is so so good.

3rd Steep-3 minutes
Still very chocolaty but it has transformed into a milk chocolate whereas the other steeps were a heavier dark chocolate. There is also a bread note which is bringing back the whole Nutella feel. Nutella on toast is my childhood in a box.

4th Steep-4 minutes
The cinnamon came out of nowhere and took over. It tasted like I had steeped a cinnamon stick. Not spicy but sweet and flavorful. The chocolate was still there but it was firmly in the background.

5th Steep-5 minutes
Caramel and cream. A bit of cinnamon. It’s not losing much of its flavor at all.

6th Steep-15 minutes
This is my extremely long, ill-advised final steep. It tasted kind of like graham crackers and marshmallow. Does that sound insane? And after steeping for 15 minutes, there was no astringency at all.

Laoshan Black is an experience. I was all prepared to be the odd duck in the room who didn’t like it but I loved it. I am tempted to hoard 4oz or so but I already hoard way too many teas and it’s starting to become a concern. Either way, this tea is a staple.

Such an interesting tea… silky smooth, beautiful color, and an aroma that is complex and like no other black tea I have ever tried. The unique flavor definitely takes you on a trip with notes of chocolate, caramel and honey. A warm fuzzy feeling that leaves you wanting another cup. Good thing it holds up to multiple steeps…

There is something of the Wonder (with a capital W) that I had when first watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a youngster. I can hear Gene Wilder and those darn lyrics:

Come with me
And you’ll be
In a world of
Pure imagination
Take a look
And you’ll see
Into your imagination…

Sorry about my sappy review, but this tea brings out some long forgotten child-like joy!

It always makes me nervous when I first try one of the Steepster legends. This one has reached near mythic proportions. What if I hate it? What if the hoopla is all hype and marching bands?… But what if its not?

Verdant mentions baked brownies. Yeah, that is what the aroma is like. The taste is chocolate and roasted caramel drizzled in honey. The aftertaste is wonderfully malty. Seriously good.

Maybe memory fails me and this is nothing like Bailin Gongfu but it is just like it in that it is a game changer if your experience with black tea has been limited to Assam and Ceylon type black teas. Not harsh at all. Just smooth and delicious.

Thank you Terri for sharing!

1.5 tsp for 300mL water @100C, steeped 4 minutes 30 seconds Western style, drunk bare.

1st infusion

Well, now.

I’ve been afraid to try this tea, given all the hype. When I made my Verdant order, Verdant was actually sold out of Laoshan Black, but they did have some little sample packs left, so I got a little pack as part of the five teas for five dollars promotion.

This is beautiful.

To my tasting, it’s the perfect China black: deep and rich, with cocoa, honey, and spice notes (cinnamon, pepper), but no bitterness and no astringency. Some leathery notes in the aroma, as well as cocoa and something roast and sweet, and a thick and warm aftertaste that coats the long. Maybe something slightly soy-beany, too? Is this the tea crop that’s grown with soybeans in the same plots? The liquor looks a bit downy, too; I expect the down adds to the thick mouthfeel.

Delicious. I’m in some sort of tea ecstasy here.

I have waited a really long time to try this tea.
A Big Thank You to SIL for giving me a sample so I can finally try this much loved (at least by Steepster folks) tea.
And I thought this would be a good tea to re-introduce myself back into the tea tasting world.
Yes, I do think I finally beat this horrid upper respiratory flu thing that had me down for nearly 3 weeks now.
I still get horrible coughing attacks that last about 10 minutes, but I believe my full taste and smell has returned.
I could not keep my nose out of the brew basket when I was making this tea.
It smelled SO good brewing!
I smelt chocolate and avocados, some earthiness and something sweet.
Wow! If this tea tastes half as good as it smells, I am really in for a treat.
Then the dreaded wait time till it cools enough that I can sip.
The color is stunning, such a rosy gold, it so lovely to look at sitting in my bodum cup.
Taste is more delicate than I thought it might be, however that does not mean it lacks flavor.
Chocolate and honey.
Avocado and wood.
Floral and creamy.
Baked goods and earth.
This tea has it all, gently unfolding in taste, like a journey where you are not sure what is around the corner.
This tea is a real treat and is well deserved of its Steepster love.
Thank you so much Sil, for giving me the chance to try such a delightful brew.

Look, I have nice logical tasting notes written out for this tea (another delightful share from Angrboda) but there are lots of good tasting notes here talking about the chocolate and cinnamon notes, the delightful sweetness coupled with the light rye-ish grain taste. I mean, it’s delicious, that’s pretty obvious. (And how awesome is it to find natural cinnamon in a tea?!?)

But let me tell you exactly how delicious this tea is. This tea is so good that I had my first cup on Tuesday and by Tuesday afternoon, I ordered 4oz of it. (It should arrive today!) And now I’m having my second cup and I want to go order more because no way will 4oz be enough of this tea. The only tea I’ve done that with before is CTG’s Keemun which remains my favorite tea of all time. (I bought 200g when CTG closed, even though I still had 100g in my pantry. And I wish I had bought more.)

This kind of makes me want to flail around like Kermit the Frog it’s so good. (There actually was a little flailing and some cheering when I saw that tracking had my package out for delivery.) And today it’s giving me hot cocoa – like creamy mouthfeel and everything – which makes me want to flail even more. I love this tea. It’s fantastic. Two cups (plus resteeps) and it has earned a place on my Desert Island Tea List.

I ♥ this tea.

(ETA: The second steep today is cinnamon-y with the endnote of rich dark chocolate. The husband is outside mowing in almost 80° weather but I’m having to restrain myself from going outside to make him try this. I’m sure the last thing he wants right now is hot tea, even if it tastes like a decadent Mexican hot chocolate.)

Of the teas I received in Verdant’s $5 for 5 introduction promotion, this was the one I was most hesitant about. I like my blacks blended, but the urgings of several Steepsterites (you know who you are!) I decided to give it a go before I sent out the rest to its new home.

I put a pinch or two in my gaiwan, boiled the kettle, and let it sit for a couple minutes to cool off a little. I did forget to set the steep timer, so I think it ended up at three minutes instead of the shorter steep I was aiming for. With the first sip, I do admit I was impressed. It was much, much more enjoyable than I anticipated.

It was very toasty, slightly nutty, and it reminded me of sesame seeds. There was some sweetness, and a very silky smooth sensation up until it started to cool, when it became lightly astringent. I guess I was expecting something closer to a Lapsang Souchang or a Pu’erh, but this managed to become a fishless “just the good stuff” version of my husband’s favorite Pu’erh.

It’s still not something I’m going to gravitate towards, but I am glad I let myself get talked into trying it.

Delicious. Everything I love in a black tea. Tangy, roasty, chocolatey. Am I tasting cinnamony too? While it tastes kind of similar to the Fujian blacks I adore, and kinda similar to The Simple Leaf’s Dawn (!) it definitely also has it’s own thing going on. I keep on tasting a variety of nuances each time I sip. Buttery? Fruity? Bready? This is one that you don’t want to rush through, and one that will reveal different facets of itself each time you drink it.

Also – the Verdant $5 try me pack? Talk about an offer you can’t refuse! I was so pleased with both the amount and variety they sent. So excited to try the others.