1040 Tasting Notes
This is the 3rd black pearl style tea I’ve tried. This is my favorite. I used 7 pearls in 16oz of just under boiling water.
First steep about 2.5 minutes – Nice dark rich, a little malty, just a hint of chocolate. I especially like how it feels on the tongue. It’s nice and thick, it feels substantial. I actually liked this steep more as it cooled, more of the richness kept coming out the cooler it got.
Second steep about 3.5 min – Not quite as dark, barely any chocolate, more of a sweetness to it. As this steep cooled, I was getting some fruitiness. Am I crazy, it’s possible, but that’s what I thought. Still really nice mouth feel.
Third steep about 5 minutes – A little astringency – not much just a hint. Still totally drinkable but not as complex as the first two steeps.
I think I liked the second steep the best. Some other tasting notes mentioned pepper or spice – I didn’t get any of that. Love how the pearls just unfurl, so beautiful to watch. Next time I’m going to add one more pearl and a little shorter steep time on the first infusion.
I was drinking another black pearl last night and really enjoyed it. I like this one better.
Thanks Mandala for another awesome tea experience.
Continuing my black tea a day experiment. This was the tea I took to work today.
This is more my style. This isn’t perfect, I’ve had better black teas than this, but it is more in the style I like. It’s bolder, deeper, maltier, than the darjeeling that I had yesterday, I didn’t really get any of the astringency – maybe just a hint but that could be bad steeping (I was at work). I still feel let down by this tea, it just doesn’t got far enough. I would say it’s about half way between the darjeeling I had yesterday and something like Laoshan Black. It’s just not dark enough, I was looking for the hints of cocoa and just couldn’t quite find them (not sure if they were really there or if it was wishful thinking). This did resteep pretty well. I got a solid 3 western style steeps, added a bit more leaf and got two more. That’s pretty good in my world. All in all this is ok, I will drink it, but the search continues…..
Hi Bonnie, that’s not good news. Here I thought I was being smarty trying to learn about the different types of blacks and you think this isn’t a “classic” nepal black. LOL how am I suppose to narrow my search……..
What are you looking for? There’s usually one or two people at least who know a lot about certain tea’s. (I’m not very knowledgeable for instance about Japanese Green Tea or Korean TEA or Darjeeling extensively).
My ‘thing’ has narrowed to Chinese black teas, puerh included… some Nepalese and a growing interest in a few African black tea’s. I do like a few Darjeeling and white tea’s and some green tea’s. I have a variety of Oolongs.
There is a long story about Nepalese tea because only recently have we been able to buy it. Wars prevented tea from being sold outside Nepal. However, tea was easily moved across the border, sold cheaply and mixed with darjeeling and sold at higher prices as Darjeeling tea. I know some people who are helping tea farmers sell their tea and it’s a labor of love. You can get a selection of samples from the tea company I mentioned. They are a non-profit so I don’t mind plugging them at all!
Thanks Bonnie. I jumped right into the deep end of black teas without learning how to swim first. I don’t know anything. I have and have tried several “popular” black teas, but I don’t know anything about them. I decided to take a step back and learn some basics (or so I thought). I bought an Assam, a darjeeling, a Yunnan, a Kenyan, and this Nepal from Davids to try and learn what the specific teas taste like. I had commented that this wasn’t like darjeeling, and you said Nepal teas are usually like them. Now I’m rethinking my plan. If this isn’t a typical Nepal, how do I know if the others are “typical” of their types.
I love this site and lots of people are helpful. Ifjuly has been giving me some advice on my note about Second Flush Darjeeling from Davids – the tasting note before this one on my log. I was just trying to narrow “what I liked” before I went out and bought a 100 black teas at random.
Good idea. I began reading top black tea reviews almost two years ago and started there, then tried samples from verdant, butiki, teavirve and so on. Takes time. Swapping is helpful too.
That’s what I have been doing also (reading the top reviews) and then deciding what I may like to try.
When I had this tea yesterday, I only re-steeped once – I’ll have to try more next time. I do have a cup in the fridge to drink cold later though.
One of the things I love about tea is the uniqueness of every cup. I can say I love Assams for example, but it’s such a generalized statement because they don’t all taste the same, whether it’s because of the soil they were grown in, the weather that year, the slight difference in processing techniques, or whatever. Just like snowflakes or fingerprints. That’s why I’m on a lifelong quest to sample ALL of the TEAS!!! Especially all the black ones!
I went on an oolong binge a couple of months ago, I pretty much bought anything that was called an oolong. It is very obvious to me now that I should have done a little research first, tried a few, looked for others with similar characteristics etc. Now that I’ve moved on to blacks, I don’t want to make that mistake again.
I’ve tried a few blacks but don’t really know if I like certain ones because they are high end or if I like that style of black tea. So, I went to Davids (it’s relatively inexpensive and I have one really close to me) and bought 5 straight black teas. I thought they should all be of similar quality and I could get a feel for which style of black I like better. I’ve decided to take one black tea a day to work and see what I think of them. This is yesterday’s tea.
I’ve never had anything called darjeeling before. I found it to be light and somewhat astringent. This was what I thought black tea was like before I really got into tea. This is why I’ve been avoiding blacks until now. I don’t like this. I like big, bold, dark, malty black tea. This isn’t it. I didn’t mind the first steep, was ok,but it was all downhill from there. I couldn’t drink the third steep at all. Way too astringent for my tastes.
From what I’ve been reading (I know scary – me doing research) this is probably a classic example of a darjeeling, and if that’s true – I’ve learned that darjeeling isn’t the black for me. This one is getting moved to the “for iced tea” pile.
This is really helpful – what a great experiment! Big, bold, dark and malty is exactly what I want as well and I think assam gives me the most in that department, as a general rule.
That’s good to hear, I have an assam to try as part of this. May save it for Friday if should be more my style.
I wish you’d just try all of them right now, I’m completely nerding out over this.
I was drinking Teavivre Dragon Pearls last night – that’s not part of the experiment I KNOW I like Dragon Pearls – I’m going to drink Mandala’s version tonight to compare. LOL I know too many comparisons going on, but I’m really surprised at how much I like black tea.
i’m looking forward to seeing the different types of straight blacks you try in your survey; i love stuff like this. if you decide for some reason you want other sources to do this sort of fairly uniform type thing with besides david’s, upton is really good for this kind of basic level testing of general tea types thing.
(though i will say, man steepster as a rule just hates darjeeling! i love it, so i always feel a little like a misfit, ha. i can definitely see how someone really into malty, bold, smooth black tea would hate darjeeling’s sandalwood-y, astringent qualities though, for sure. i also think it’s awesome cold steeped, in case you need a reason to use up what’s left and hate it so much the idea of another hot cup gets to you.)
I’ve looked at Upton. Way too many choices for my poor uneducated brain to handle. Thanks for the suggestion, I will take another look once I’ve learned some more and can make a more educated decision. (Their shipping is also pretty pricey to Canada – will need to order quite a bit to make it worth while).
I don’t mean to be a darjeeling hater :(( this one just didn’t suit my tastes. I will use the rest of it for cold steeping, you can cold steep almost anything…..
Nah, it’s cool, i was just joshin’ ya and musing a bit. (: Bonnie’s right re: Nepali teas by the way (I don’t mean to sound like I know a lot either, which I just realized I might come off as trying to do…I’m as new as you!), at least in my experience (because I love darjeeling a lot but yeah it’s pricey as hell I discovered Nepali teas pretty quickly as they’re sort of marketed as the cheap but up-and-coming little sister to darjeelings, an assessment I happily agree with). But on the other hand, sometimes you find the exception tea, of a type you normally dislike but for whatever reason just really works for you (for me it’s Golden Moon’s Sinharaja; I’m really not a fan of Ceylons generally but it’s so gooood). Then you just horde it like mad and hope it never goes out of stock, ha.
Anyway, best of luck in your exploration and thanks for posting about it!
And yeah I can def. understand that about Upton being too overwhelming. I keep forgetting so many Steepsters are in Canada too, whoops my bad.
It’s all good. I’ll take all the advice I can get. I thought I would buy one example of each, try them, see what I like, narrow the search. But if the Nepal tea I have isn’t a “typical” example of a Nepal tea, then I haven’t really learned anything.
Thanks for the advice. The search continues……
only just saw now that you grabbed some teavivre like, this week. based on what you’ve said about the kind of flavors you want in a black tea i would highly recommend if you haven’t yet, trying those—the bailin gongfu, dian hong, golden monkey, and tan yang. assam has those malty qualities, as already mentioned too…i think most of the most active steepsters who like black tea share your tastes and love those famous types of chinese teas, and good chinese tea in general. all of them are sweeter, smoother, and richer than what i’m used to (until steepster i was mainly an indian tea person), with lots of bakery and caramel-y sweet potato things going on. and if you’re worried it’s “just” the company’s quality you’re responding to, you’ll be able to find out easily enough with those because they’re basic types of chinese tea that are available elsewhere (dian hongs and golden monkey in particular i see, sometimes with different names granted, lots of places).
and i know this is really off topic because you’re trying to find specific plain black teas you like as a general rule, but there are certain blends that sound like this (malty, robust, not astringent) to me too. just about all of andrews and dunham’s blends are like this (double knit blend’s my fave—just pure black tea flavor, strong, satisfying, bold but smooth).
i think the more tea i drink and like to varying degrees, the more i pay attention to what the leaves look like, where they come from, and how they’re processed (i didn’t like greens until i realized i like them bilochun-style, rolled/twisted a certain way, and that i prefer pan fried greens to steamed ones because they’re less bitter and more roasty, so now i know) to help me get a better understanding of what to look for in the future, even when source isn’t as black and white specified you can get a sense of what the teas you like tend to look like dry and most shops now show pics of that.
if you ever want a basic survey of some of the major types of teas around the world, how each is grown and processed and how that affects its flavor, i recommend the harney and sons guide to tea (it’s available on kindle too). it’s not 100% comprehensive (i haven’t found a guide that is yet), but i found it very helpful when i felt like i didn’t even know where or how to start because you don’t know enough to even know what to look for.
i ramble too much, sorry. i really hope you find what you’re looking for!
I didn’t mean to imply that I don’t have other black tea choices. I did just get an order from Teavivre, but to be honest, I’m still really confused with the language. I know these are Chinese blacks, but it’s like what you said about seeing dian hongs and golden monkey under different names. I haven’t learned to put those names together. My Davids tea excursion was looking for common name types. Assam, Yunnan, Darjeeling – those are names I see all the time. I’m just really confused and trying to learn. I thought picking up some standard, mid grade, common name teas was taking a deep breath and starting from the beginning.
I did also get a guide/handbook in the mail yesterday. Hoping to sort some of this out. I agree that the one I have isn’t totally comprehensive, and am open to looking for more/others to compliment this one. Will take a look for the Harney and Son’s one.
Yes, I understand that there are blends out there – lol probably hundreds of blend, but I thought I needed to know what assam, cylon, darjeeling taste like to be able to look at a blend and decide if it is something that I would like. Hense, the deep breath go back to the beginning thought.
I know from my oolong experiences that the shape of leaf is a clue to what the tea is like – I have learned something. So far with blacks I like longer twisted leaves (they almost look like oolong) better than the chopped up bits and pieces look. If that makes any sense. But then I’m drinking dragon pearls right now, so I guess you can’t always judge….
I appreciate your time, I am trying to wrap my head around what you are saying, and get the gist of most of it. I still think I need to try more teas, I was just hoping to eliminate some of the obvious ones before I ended up ordering 100 black teas trying to find a few similar to the one I’m really wanting. (I probably didn’t mention this – this all started because a wonderful generous steepsterite send me a sample of something called Jin Ping Gong Fu from Tao Tea Leaf. That’s all I know about it. I’ve drank her sample, ordered more from the company. LOVE it – can’t afford it to be my go to black tea. I’m looking for more like it. I thought gong fu was a brewing style, until I found more called gong fu at Teavivre, ordered some of those, and in the mean times started trying to learn more about black tea – the more I looked into it the more confused I got). And that leads up back to where I am today. Thanks again for the advice. I will keep posting notes as I go through my list. Kenya is on tap for tomorrow….will see how that goes.
ah, it’s late but thanks for the thoughtful reply. i’ll try to come back to this later. for now though, given what you’ve said—and believe me, i so hear you about the wall you hit when it comes to marketed tea names vis a vis chinese translation, ee!—i thought maybe this might be useful a bit. the rest of the site has some info that’s a little controversial/not proven to actually be accurate re: caffeine if i recall, which can then throw doubt towards everything, but it was one starting point for me along with a couple tea books, steepster discussions and logs from people who seem to know a lot about tea (so glad the search function for the board works!), wiki, and some of the info guides at places like teavivre and verdant.
This is such a great post! Thank-you for reviewing these Dexter3657!! And so many interesting and helpful comments – I am really going to learn a lot!
Dexter, I am totally loving your posts right now, just thought you’d like to know! Through my ‘tea research’, I’ve discovered that most of the time I’m not a big fan of darjeelings, & even less of a fan of ceylon teas, but as I sample them anyway, I find that some are more enjoyable than others. I actually keep notes that I can refer back to to see if I’ve drank this tea or that, & would I like to drink it again, etc.
I have to second pretty much everything ifjuly said too!
Just remember, this is for fun & pleasure, & although reading about teas tells us so much, the most important part is your enjoyment! That applies to everything: Tea, Food, Music, Bubble Baths, etc. Anyway, if there’s ever anything you want to sample that I’ve got, just send me a list.
Thanks Terri. I’m not good at expressing tastes in teas. I’m not experienced enough. Lots of my posts are more about how a tea makes me feel rather than what it tastes like. I am trying to clarify WHY a tea makes me feel that way. Thanks for the support.
LOL I would love to crawl into your tea cupboard, and take a cup out into your garden, and maybe swipe a jar or two out of your pantry. At least in my mind (and based on some of the things you’ve posted here), I think you live in a quaint little character house, surrounded by flower and veggie garden. I miss my garden. Sorry that was off topic. I just like how your seem to enjoy your outdoor space. Thanks for the offer of tea, I may take you up on that one day. :)) Right now I need to learn, and try more of the ones I already have, then branch out from there. You’ve got a nice stash…
I received my first Teavivre order today. I usually have strict rules about drinking open teas first. Not today. I opened this one right away. I have so been looking forward to this, and it was so worth the wait.
This is a great tea. This is what I think black tea should be. It’s rich and chocolaty, not astringent at all. Just soothing goodness in a cup. This is going right back on the shopping list to pick up more.
I’M GETTING THIS ONE SOON!!!!! dexter… why is it that whenever i’m waiting for a tea it gets to you first?
;-P
Ummmmm, great minds think a like? We have similar tastes?
I have some of this on the way!
I try to have strict rules, but little terri never follows them.
i can’t wait for this one, and dexter your review just made it worse, lol.
You guys need to split orders or something. :P
i’m willing! lol.
Terri – when I get home ill spend the first weekend I’m
Back getting tea organized and out to you.
No rush, I want you well rested & healthy! :)
Although I am working on your box as we speak!
Justjames – I’m willing to share/split/swap teas, but I’m not sure I’m allowed to buy anymore until I wrap my head around these black teas – please see tasting note and comments after this one in my log – second flush darjeeling from Davids
It’s amazing tasty will always leave us craving for more! Thanks for the review!
dexter, i have a first flush darjeeling from jagasilk (local to the island) which i’m willing to send you if you’re interested…
There should be a discussion board to help you out called ‘What are your top 3 Black Tea’s!’ Now that would narrow the field.
I received this as a sample with my last Mandala order. Thank you Garrett for including it for me.
I drank a couple of steep of it last night and thought it was a bit mild for my tastes. It was a nice Pu’er, but didn’t have enough flavor. The flavor that was there was nice and smooth, no rough edges, I just wish there was more of it. This is just a little too gentle for my tastes. Sooooo I took the leaves I was using and dumped the rest of the sample in with them added cold water and put it in the fridge to cold steep.
This is my first experience with cold steeped pu’er. OMG WOW!!! Why have I not been doing this sooner. This is AMAZING. I love it. You just get a touch of the classic pu’er flavor, but it’s refreshing and oh so good. I don’t think I would want to cold steep a big bold pu’er, but this was PERFECT. I may have to order some just to have it to cold steep.
I really need to try that soon!
this just sounds so awesome…
I was hesitant to try this, couldn’t imagine, but now I’m a believer. Cold steeping pu’erh is fantastic.
I think I’ll take the leaves from the Puer I was drinking earlier & steep them over night in the fridge. I know they still have plenty of oomph left in them. :)
Hey, gang! Garret here, live from Riviera Maya in Mexico. Last-minute decision to get out of dodge before the tea buying season really starts and get some r and r… So thankful that I bought loads of tea to drink on this trip for there is nothing here save for the obligatory tea bags. The locals are fascinated by the tea thermos and a gringo who knows more about tequila than them :) New tea connections here in Mexico! It is so funny that you reviewed this tea for it is one that is here in Mexico with me, along with much Noble Mark (loose-leaf version) and some new greens. I’m sure customs saw my bag go through the x-ray and did a double take – tea gear and lots of tea taking up half my bag!
thank you for writing this review and the info on the cold brew for our friends here – good stuff… This YOD ripe is still quite young and over the next little while, we are going to see much change in this cake. Sadly, I bought all of the material that was available from that producer (I’m a stickler for spring-picked, wild-arbor teas) and was only able to press 120 of these cakes. Of course, I’m saving at least one tong (7 cakes) for myself :) Joy to all!
I’m not sure if this is the best pumpkin tea I’ve had, but it’s right up there. I really like how well the pumpkin and spices work with the mate base. The spices are present without being overwhelming, you can taste pumpkin (I might like a little more). The ingredient list says that there is rooibos and honeybush in here, I’m not really tasting them (I think that’s a good thing).
All in all this is making me happy tonight, and that’s really what the whole tea experience is about.
Just when I thought I was getting a handle on oolongs. With Charcoal Fire Roasted in the name, I was quite confident that this would be a highly oxidized dark oolong. Don’t get me wrong it is dark ish, but it’s more of a medium oxidized tea. I was just surprised at how green it was, and how large the leaves unfurled to.
This is a really nice oolong. There isn’t a lot of metallic taste, just woody, lightly smoked oolong. The second steep had some hints of floral coming through, you could taste some of the “green” ness that was still present. All in all I quite liked it and would order it again.
I’m a huge fan of Tao Tea Leaf teas!!! I was really looking forward to this chai. I’ve been searching for a new favorite since my old favorite was discontinue.
Sorry Tao, this isn’t it. This spice blend isn’t my favorite. This is really clove heavy for me. The clove pretty much obscures the rest of the flavors. I’m not getting any cardamom at all, and really just a hind of cinnamon.
The search for the perfect chai continues.
With all the talk of autumn in the forum, I went deep into my stash and came up with this one.
Dry leaf smells like pumpkin pie – I was really excited. Not sure what steeping paramters I should be using – I think I’ve heard that 52teas black blends do better at a lower temp – so I did just over tsp/8oz 95C for 3ish minutes. This is not pumpkin pie. This is chai made with pumpkin pie spice. All I get are the spices and while I kind of like how it goes together it doesn’t really live up to the name. I did splash a little milk in hoping to get some of the creaminess of pie. All in all this did not live up to expectations.
Does anyone have steep parameter recommendations for this? I really want to like this and it does have potential……
aw! happy for you… bummed for me. lol.
okay, you know what? i’m just going to rifle through your cupboard and add the whole thing (that doesn’t have rooiboos) and add it all to my shopping list!!!
LOL why is everyone so anti rooibos? Rifle away…. Anything Mandala would be way up on my list of recommendations. If you see anything you just HAVE to have, I’m sure we could work something out.
I’m so glad you followed me! (and that I’m following you). I think we have similar tastes in tea: strong, thick, rich black teas, and not a fan of teas that taste weak or too subtle. I think I’ll rifle through your cupboard to add things to my list as well! (I’m fairly new to the world of loose-leaf, myself)
I’ve been trying to add to your discussion under Darjeeling but for some reason it isn’t letting me so I’ll try here. As you enjoy the Jin Ping Gong Fu you might want to investigate some more of the unsmoked Wuyi Blacks. Unsmoked Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong is a Wuyi Bohea tea that is sometimes classified as an unsmoked Lapsang Souchong. I found an interesting discussion here
http://blog.yayateahouse.co.nz/2013/04/09/wuyi-black-teas-lapsang-souchong-zheng-shan-xiao-zhong-cha-jin-jun-mei-anyone-confused/
I recently sampled a really nice unsmoked Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong from an aliexpress dealer it was buttery like an oolong and tasted of caramel and cocoa.
I think it was this one
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Gift-new-arrival-Lapsang-Souchong-Super-Wuyi-Black-Tea-100g-free-shipping-Hand-made-weight-loss/1001877203.html
The sample wasn’t well marked but he is sending me this one and samples of the others. I’ll let you know. He often has really great sales ( I got it for 50% off) and I’ve liked all the blacks I’ve tried from his so far.
Another option may be this tea from Camelia Sinensis
http://camellia-sinensis.com/en/tea/black/xiao-zhong
Keychange – Welcome to the wonderful world of tea. My cupboard is pretty eclectic. My tastes have changed rapidly since I’ve discovered Steepster and found that there is more to tea than Davids or Teavana. I’ve gone through the “I need to try everything” phase, and have discovered my love of pu’erh, dark oolongs, and am now getting into blacks. Not everything in my cupboard fits perfectly to my tastes, I’ve bought some not for me teas. There are a lot of awesome people here. You’ve jumped right in, if you continue to do that, I’m sure you will find lots of people with similar tastes who will help nudge you in different directions. Exploring the world of tea is a fun journey, enjoy yours. I’m still pretty new too, but if you have questions, I’ll try and help any way that I can.
If you can recall the difference, what did you like better about this black pearl tea than the one previous? Or is it just overall and not specific?
Thank you! I’ve actually started my journey through david’s/teavana (actually that’s a lie—I haven’t made it to teavana yet), although I’ve already placed a butiki order, and have a few teas I’ve yet to sample from art of tea. I, too, would like to eventually generate a “can’t live without” collection, and although the journey will be fun, I suspect it’ll also be expensive!
Caile The other Teavivre version of this is a really nice tea. I don’t want to say anything negative about it. I just found the Mandala version was MORE. It was very similar in flavors, but I thought this had more flavor, it was a bit darker, a bit more complex, a bit more changes between steeps. Both are really good teas but I like this one better.
yyz Thanks for the input. I am really open to getting all the help I can. I actually have some Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong that was described as a “new” lapsang souchong – I haven’t tried it yet but was expecting it to be smokey. As I stated in the comments on the other note, I’m having difficulties learning the language. I find it really confusing. Need to learn more. I still have so many of MY teas to try. I will look at the sites you’ve suggested tonight (I’m at work right now). Thanks so much for your input. :))
keychange Yes to the expensive. Watch for the sales, most of the big vendors post in the forum when they are having sales, sign up for newsletters (unless that will just make you binge buy with every sale you see). Swapping is also great, lets you move on something you might not care for and get to try something else for the cost of postage. Unless you KNOW you like a tea, buy small amounts. That’s really all the advice I have. I’m a binge buyer, I go on spells where I place 4 orders in a week, then am good for a bit – repeat.
The only imput I’m gonna add is, “Yum Yum!”
I love this one too. :D
yyz, I was having problems posting comments too and for me anyway it seems like you can only post when the log is on your dashboard feed and the comment box is already up, if that makes any sense. Kinda strange.
yyz re this article.
http://blog.yayateahouse.co.nz/2013/04/09/wuyi-black-teas-lapsang-souchong-zheng-shan-xiao-zhong-cha-jin-jun-mei-anyone-confused/
This actually makes me feel a lot better. If the experts can’t agree on how to label/name/type teas how is someone just getting started suppose to understand this. Thank you for pointing it out to me. I also took a look at their web site (and the other two you mentioned) so many interesting teas out there. This is why I need to learn more to cull the list of possibilities. Can’t be buying every interesting sounding tea out there. Need to narrow the search. LOL
So true… I’m glad you found the article interesting.
I’ve found these sites helpful when trying to find our about new Chinese teas and their flavour profiles as well.
http://www.viconyteas.com/directory/index.html
http://www.viconyteas.com/speciality-tea.html
http://www.jiangtea.com/