Laoshan Black

I brewed the last of my supply of this one today. I am trying to finish off smaller quantities of tea that I have left over. They tend to be the one’s that I am not in love with, but don’t dislike enough to swap away. These sort of teas tend to linger and take up space till I am finally encouraged to drink some of them again.

Sometime after my last note for this tea, I brewed a pot at my parents house. It was quickly named “cowboy” tea with varying degrees of like from the family. My brother said it was like drinking a cowboy boot (he thought it had a leathery taste about it), but he didn’t say this as if it was necessarily a bad thing. Both of my parents said that they liked it and my mother commented on the chocolate notes.

I myself just can’t get into this tea. I liked it less each time I drank it (all of 3 or 4 times, not all logged). It has a unique chocolate-ness about it, but definitely not in a girly ‘flowers and chocolate’ kind of way. More like manly-cowboy-bold-and-leathery chocolate. Once I give any tea the “manly” designation, it generally turns out not to be my cuppa.

Not sure what I can say about this tea that hasn’t been said. As of this tasting note, there are 130 other tasting notes on this tea! Very impressive!
I think I prefer dark chocolate in tea form than actual chocolate. When it comes to chocolate I’m a milk chocolate person, but the dark chocolate taste in this tea is pretty wonderful. No wonder this tea is used as a base in Verdants alchemy blends.
The chocolate combines with a sweet potato-ish and bready aftertaste to make an exceptional tea. This is only the first steep and I’m sure I’m going to want (need?) more of this tea once my sample is gone!
Note: this is the summer 2012 harvest.

I really, really love this tea. I don’t know how I could have nearly missed all of these wonderful flavors before. The dry leaf smells of deep, dark chocolate. I also detect bits of warm bread. YUM.

This tea is an absolute necessity in my cupboard. I ordered some of this tea perhaps no longer than a week ago.. and I am already running low! I could drink this tea all day long and very few teas have the ability to inspire such a craving. Laoshan black is rich and deeply satisfying. Delightful!

Wow, this is such a unique tea, like no other black I’ve had before.
The dry leaf smells heavily of chocolate and raisins; so delightful that it took me many minutes to get my nose out of the pouch and proceed with the brewing. The brewed tea has an aroma that I can’t put a name on, but if I close my eyes, I see corn fields and sun. It is very calming.
The flavor is malty, getting sweeter with each subsequent infusion – I’m on my 6th now, and it is still amazing.

I must say that there is a complexity in this tea that has effected me in a way that few teas have done. It’s not a simple tea and one that I feel deserves, even requires, a more in-depth observation. I usually don’t drink the same tea each day, however I have been drinking this one for three days now, and no end yet planned. I am greatly enjoying my sessions with this tea.

I have also noticed that most people have done very long infusions (a few minutes), whereas I have been having this gongfu in my pretty little gaiwan, lots of leaf and very short infusions. I’m wondering if I’m missing out on something by not doing a very long infusion, however I am so enjoying this tea my way that I don’t wish to waste the little leaf I have.

Well done Laoshan ! (and Verdant Teas too, for bringing us this tea).

It has been a while since I’ve had time to sit and enjoy a cup of tea. Thank goodness for a busy Saturday agenda. We’re participating in a charity walk for juvenile diabetes today. I decided enough was enough and I put an end to my tea hiatus.

Thankfully.

This tea is such a lovely reminder of how much I need it. The tea in the package smells fresh and almost grasslike, which surprised me for a black. I decided to go with a lower temperature for steeping and treated it more like an oolong. The result is a delicious cup of tea. The black is malty, most certainly, and almost tastes of roasted pumpkin seeds. It’s slightly vegetal, but surprisingly full of flavor. The tea is smooth, without any astringency or bitterness. This is the perfect cup of tea for those who dislike the bite that many black teas bring with them. I daresay that this will find a way into my permanent stash.

A HUGE thank you to Dexter3657 for very generously sending some of this along to me in a swap.

As soon as I opened the bag, I knew I was a goner. It smells like dark, expensive chocolate, the kind that’s pure cocoa. Oh. My. Goodness. Steeped, it filled my kitchen full of the same smell, and when my teenage daughter came home, she asked what I was baking. (Tea, I must add, was a disappointing answer to her).

It tastes dark, strong and bitter – but not in an astringent kind of way. Bitter as in cacao bitter, like the nibs. I want to share this with all of my tea-loving friends, and then I think.. no, I want to hoard this. Which is funny since I’m far from a hoarder, and yet this tea makes me want to keep it all to myself to enjoy. Forever. Always.

Top five teas of all time. Definitely. A great way to start murder mystery day!

You know I am not an expert in drinking straight teas but I think I’m good enough to recognize a great tea and this one is a wonderful tea.

I should thank and even warmly thank TheTeaFairy for sharing this tea with me.

I don’t find it so strong neither so malty as described in a lot of reviews and I don’t even find it so chocolaty – What I get much with my poor tastebuds is the a warm bread taste and an honey hint.
It’s so smooth and mellow it’s just incredible.

I really enjoy it and it surely goes in the shopping list.
I think Sil had sent me a sample as well of this one…I’m looking forward to have it for a second cup this week.

Well, I wish I liked this as much as most folks seem to but unfortunately…Thank you to Darby for sharing this with me before I placed an order and ended up with a lot of this. :)

I will say this: it is exactly as chocolate as the description implies. Like drinking the aroma of chocolate, if that makes any sense. Notes of burned caramel in the background. And later steepings did indeed have more of a raw cacao flavor with more spices – what ones I’m not sure but they seemed odd to me.

This is just not going to be my thing. I am not a big chocolate tea person at all and this is completely a chocolate tea. Not sweetened but not bitter – just chocolate tea with an earthiness to it. I can see where the devotion to this tea comes from. If this kind of taste were to your liking, it’d be all that and a bag of chips. If you are looking for a tea that truly does taste like chocolate – this is it.

I passed this on to a Tea Club member with no review other than to say that it wasn’t my thing and I’m anxious to see what he thinks of it.

I hesitate to rate this since it is indeed what Verdant describes it as – it just isn’t for me.

This tea is like a favorite sweater, or a particularly comfortable blanket, or snuggling down into your bed after a long day. It just breathes comfort and goodness.

It’s been my go-to during tough times. It makes me smile, which puts me back into an upbeat and cheerful place. Can a tea be magic? If so, this one is.

My only complaints are that I burn through it so quickly and how the taste changes on resteeping. The first cup is heaven, then it develops a coffee-like flavor. If you are trying to make the switch from coffee to tea, then perhaps add this one to your shopping list.

So originally I got this from the 5 for $5 sampler that Verdant did, uhhh, last year? XD; And when I first got it I was super excited because all the reviews are pretty stellar. But when I actually brewed it, I thought it was just a so-so sort of tea. That might be why I never wrote a tasting note for it? I’m not sure.
But I decided to make it again because why not? Lol. It’s just been sitting (in a sealed jar because the original package wasn’t resealable) with all my other Verdant samples. Samples that I’ve been too paranoid to drink because I’m worried that my palate is just too crappy to detect all those little nuances that everyone points out. I really need to get over that because the samples certainly aren’t doing me any sort of benefit sitting there.

Anyway, unfortunately I still say that I do not understand all the hype and excitement about this tea. It still just tastes so-so to me. And not a so-so sort of taste I like.
The brew smells kinda like burnt coffee. Thankfully it doesn’t taste heavily like that, though I do get a strong roasted sort of taste. I’m pretty sure that I didn’t burn the leaves since I used what Verdant recommends for a western brew. I can honestly say that I had forgotten that they said one tablespoon per cup and only used a tsp for mine. But it didn’t taste watery/weak and I can’t imagine that using more tea would make it taste any less burnt-ish? Who knows. I’m not sure I even want to try to resteep it because of what the first brew came out to be. But then again, I don’t have anything to lose except another cup of water. Lol.

I still have enough for one more serving with Verdant’s parameters, so I’l give it one more shot. Or maybe I’ll try some gongfu style brewing for the last bit. It certainly can’t hurt. Lol.
I’ll put a rating for it after I finish it off, just to give it one more shot.