Joseph Wesley Black Tea

I’m sad my review for this has disappeared.
My palate lately seems to have died and a lot of teas have been tasting the same.
But here is my take on it anyhow. This is a really fruity tea. It reminds me of fruitcake in that dried fruit soaked in alcohol way. Quite wine-ey. There is some mild astringency, just enough to be pleasant. Overall, a very good Darjeeling. It sets the bar high!
Too bad I only have a bit left. Would be willing to send it to anyone wanting a taste

This was the tea I was most excited to try because the notes about caramel sounded so good. Unfortunately, all I got was malt. Not bad, but not great. I really like Classic Chinese and the Lapsang, and even the Dian Congfu better.

This was a tasty keemun. It had some smoke, some fruit, and some caramel. Pretty good. The smoke lasted throughout several infusions. I probably would have preferred it to change a bit more, but overall, it was good.

So, I totally didn’t realize this was a non-smoked lapsang until I brewed it up. That’s okay though…you know why? Because it tastes amazing! It has a subtle hint of smoke, more like a keemun than a smoked lapsang, but there were notes of malt, cocoa, caramel, fruit. Mmmm! Later infusions brought out the caramel even more. Absolutely delicious, and probably ranks up there with the Classic Chinese black tea. :)

Delicious!

Grabbed it with a bunch of my other blacks and put it near my bedside table near my tea/hot water maker as part of moving all meds and comfort items nearby because I am fighting a cold that could win at any moment… And last night was feeling like it may have. Happily this morning I’m back to fight-off symptom levels.

Grabbed this one to make out of just random, really… Looking over the packages gauging when I’d had this or that last, that sort of thing, and decided to go with this.

I’ve twice now at the Coffee & Tea NYC festival bought things from them and enjoyed, grabbed this with 2 last-year ones I liked.

So, on waking this morning I prepped and turned on my Breville with it and am having it.

First mouthful was an actual “yum!” thought in my head, the word. I’ll not go into all the colors and details this review as I know I’ll have it again and can then add more, but right now: molasses, orange color in back of tongue but not throat area, moderate brown richness on mid-tongue, and lots of little finer notes that will add. It’s a medium strength black.

Absolutely a buy again.

2.25g/6oz

Again, gorgeous leaves. A mix of dark and light brown, medium length, and twisted. I gong fu-brewed this, starting with about a 45-second infusion. The liquor is a gorgeous dark amber. The taste is complex, with notes of malt, potato, caramel. It has a silky texture, and there is also a hint of cinnamon or nutmeg. In the third infusion, some fruity notes made an appearance. This is good stuff!

Milk chocolate goodness! So glad this is officially in my cupboard now!

My first JW tea! I ordered a black and white chawan (which I love!) and since I’ve heard such good things about the tea, I also picked up a few samples! The leaf of this tea is beautiful…medium length, twisty, black. I could tell it was really good quality. I brewed this gong fu-style and drank it out of my new chawan. I let the first infusion go for about one minute. The liquor was such a pretty red! It tasted like chocolate mousse with a touch of cherry, and it was silky smooth. Absolutely delectable! Mmmm!!! I’m really impressed. If this is “classic,” what else is in store for me? ;)

This is such a delightful tea. It opens with notes of smooth, silky cream, caramel, honey and baked bread. There are whispers of cocoa along with an almond nuttiness that makes me think of marzipan. There’s a hint of dried apricot. It’s decadent and sweet like cake batter; it’s thick and full, like pudding. I wouldn’t call it a “heavy” tea. Body falls somewhere between medium and full. Gosh, it’s so creamy! I don’t think I’ve ever had a Bai Lin that was so creamy.

I prepare a second steep. As the timer is about to ring, I lean over my cup to smell it…I sigh, and let out an audible “oh my god”. It smells like lightly toasted cinnamon bread, with buttercream frosting, and honey. It smells like French toast without syrup. It smells like a whole slew of delicious, mouth-watering pastries. The taste? It’s like apricot jam on buttered toast with a light dusting of cinnamon, paired with a tall glass of milk. It’s good. I’m still catching notes of honey, cream, and a tiny bit of malt. It’s soft, gentle, and buttery but it has so much flavor. I’m in awe. There are some brighter tones in this steep that are like white raisins or citrus, but they’re not intense enough for me to pin down. The citrusy notes are again in the third steep, along with honey and milk foam. Overall the last steep is much lighter than the first two. The leaves are nearly spent.

This was only a small sample in my last order, but it definitely goes on my reorder list. I’ll miss this too much when it’s gone.

Method:
2tsp/10oz
Preboiling
First steep: 1min 30sec
Second steep: 2min
Third steep: 3min

SOOO GOOD if you love creamy black teas! This black is super smooth with lots of creamy, raisin, chocolate, malt, caramel and toast. It’s like liquid bread pudding!

This tea does a great second infusion and can take long infusions for travel mugs or forgetful steepers.

Full review on Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/06-bai-lin-congfu-black-from-joseph-wesley-black-tea-tea-review/ (and cheese stealing owl)

Sweet baby Jesus…this might be the best Da Hong Pao I have ever had.

This lovely tea came as a gift from the wonderful boychik.

Looking at the beautifully crafted leaves, I had a feeling I was in for a treat.

Very short steeps are required for rock oolong, a few seconds is sufficient.

My first steep was whoa!! A burst a flavor!!

In a nutshell: juicy, toasty, nutty, sharp, mineral, sweet, with big notes of stone fruits and cocoa…yes, this tea has it all!!

It’s complex, it keeps changing, adding different layers and subtleties to each steep.

It’s simply stunning, in every possible ways.

It was such a privilege to get the chance to try it, and thanks to boychik’s generosity, I have plenty left for a few more sessions. Thank you :-)

On a side note, I want to mention that after sampling a few of their teas, I was impressed enough to place my first order with Joseph Wesley. Well I was even more impressed with the service that I received! I want to thank you Joseph for your impeccable customer service, you made all the difference… I already know I will be a returning customer.

Pics:

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Sorry, my brain is pretty much dead today. It’s been a long week. Now I have a sinus headache. I would like a nap, and instead I’m stuck at work.

But this tea is nice. Really nice.

I haven’t been drinking my white teas much lately. I don’t know why. This is a really great tea, so I’m glad I grabbed it this morning and brought it with me to work. I got this a little while back and just finally opened it. (It is still available on the website, so I recommend you get some.)

My little notes I jotted down:

fuzzies!
sweet
kinda hay
the bit of aroma I’m getting is beautiful (I’m got a bit of a stuffy nose to go with sinus headache)
love the color of the leaves while steeping

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Mineral, sweet, deep, dark. Yum.

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And continuing on with my sample sip downs at work today, this was the one I was drinking later in the afternoon and was by far the best of the bunch.

The dry leaves in this are just beautiful, all nice golden and fuzzy. As for the taste all I have to say is WOW sweet potato!!!! Oooozes sweet potato. I’m getting some chocolate, cocoa in the aroma, but I can’t really actually taste them. I’m sure if I’d been at home I could have coaxed the chocolate notes out, but don’t really have that luxury at work. There is no doubt that this is a quality tea.
Thank you scribbles for sharing this wonderful tea. :))

I’ve tried many different Wuyi oolongs, Da Hong Pao for the most part, but never had Qi Lan.

Thanks to my generous friend boychik, I got to experience it for the first time today.

I was expecting a very similar taste profile…and yes thats what I got to some degree.

Nice mineral mouthfeel, roasty and nutty…I’m a fan!

But…the big difference lies in the extreme sweetness I get from this tea, feels like a sweet nectar!!

A lot sweeter than any rock oolong I have ever had.

People…it’s yummy.

But this type of tea must be prepared gongfu in order to fully appreciate all its characteristics and nuances. (Only in my humble opinion of course)
It’s easier to control this way…rock oolongs tend to turn bitter very easily. But when done properly, they are amazing and so rewarding!

This tea is nothing short of greatness.

I am impressed so far by Joseph Wesley…Integrity always wins at getting my business ;-)

Thank you boychik for introducing me to them, I see an order in my near future!

As usual, pics of the session:

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SOOO GOOOOD! Black tea lovers of Steepster, you gotta check this tea seller out!

This Lapsang isn’t over the top smokey, in fact it is just a background of burnt caramel. The flavor is malty, rich, heavy, plum, raisin, barley, caramel, bread, tart and lightly dry. This tea also goes insanely well with a white cheese, omg! This LS is super friendly yet complex for a seasoned tea drinker. Love it!

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/lapsang-souchong-joseph-wesley-black-tea-tea-review/

Admittedly, I was supposed to blog about the tea pet as the tea was a bonus. The tea was so good, I ended up writing about that. Now I’m trying to restrain myself from blowing $50 at Joseph Wesley.

This one is again, from Scribbles!

This will be just a quick note. I either did not steep this one long enough or use enough leaf.

The overall taste is good. Malty. Earthy but not is a dirt way, if that makes sense. There is a very nice natural sweetness to the tea. I get hints of roasted potatoes or something like that.

It is just too thin and weak. I will have to adjust and report back.

Edit:
I made another cup with about 2 tsp. This tea is pretty “airy” so I thought I should use a bit more. The flavours stayed the same but it was much more thicker liquor. Even though the mouthfeel was thicker it still tasted a bit thin/weak. Overall still a good tea. Not the best Dian Hong I have had though.

I went down the the HLDYMRKT in Hamtramck today with the express purpose of meeting Joe. He and I talked for quite a while. I was quite taken by his teas, and purchased this one without hesitation.

It’s really nice. Smooth, malty. I don’t get that undercurrent of smoke, but then my palate isn’t as developed as many others here. Almost sweet, but not like sweet potato or anything. It’s just nice.

The color is beautiful. The tea is aromatic. I’m really glad I decided to get this one.

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I received this one free from Joseph Wesley. Thank you so much Joe!!! It is greatly appreciated.

For the most part I don’t usually like Darjeeling. It seems to always taste like ash or dirt or a mixture of both to me. It doesn’t matter whether it is high or low quality tea. I haven’t been able to figure out why most Darjeelings taste bad to me but every once in a while there is one that I don’t mind. There are a few blends of Darjeeling I do quite like, Red Tailed Hawk from A&D is one of them.

First off, I love Joseph Wesley’s packaging. It came in a cardboard tin, the tea was in a sealed package inside the tin with an additional card with brewing instructions.

The dry leaves are small, dark and uniform in shape and colour. This tea is pretty. The smell of the dry tea is quite sweet. Maybe a sweet floral type scent, floral more like honeysuckle vs rose.

The tea brews up a reddish brown colour. The scent is still the sweet floral. There is also that slight scent of ash that I often get from darjeelings. This tea tastes quite good. It is definitely on the small list of darjeelings I like. The tea is crisp and clean. There is a strong sweetness, and a light honeysuckle type floral flavour.

While the tea is hot, I quite enjoyed it. There was a very slight but pleasant drying on the back of my palate after each sip. I found after it significantly cooled, the pleasant dryness turned into an astringency that I didn’t like. The ash flavour also became more dominate in the cooled tea with a long lingering aftertaste.

I definitely like this tea while it is hot. I am sure I will be able to manage drinking it that way :)

Another sample from the amazingly awesome Scribbles!

On first smell of the dry tea, I get strong vanilla and cake/pastry notes. Which I found odd for a keemun but I am keen to continue.

When the hot water first hit the tea, the smokiness of the keemun wafted up. It was sweet, slightly smokey.

In order, the first flavour notes I got from this tea were: malt, smoke, tobacco. Delicious. There are definitely light undertones of vanilla cake. The smokey flavour was quite light. There was a very natural sweetness to this tea, that complemented the smoke flavour. The tea liquor was thick, it was moderately bold, there was no astringency which was quite nice (and also a surprise).

My all time favourite teas are Assams, but keemuns do come in a close second.

Tonight’s tea adventure come courtesy of scribbles – wonderful, caring, generous, amazing tea friend. She sent me a message awhile ago saying something like – “I was browsing through your cupboard and noticed a gaping hole, so I’m sending you some samples that I think you should try.” At the time I had about 300 teas in my cupboard and couldn’t really believe that I had any holes – but as always scibbles was correct…..

This tea, what can I say about this tea. This is everything I love about Yunnan black tea. This is exactly what it should be. It’s sweet – honey, it’s a little malty, it’s a little sweet potato, thre is just a touch of stone fruit hanging around in the back. It’s awesome. I’m not getting the smoke that others have mentioned. The leaves are beautiful – not really tippy, more of a combination of black and gold leaves. I love golden teas, but the black balances this nicely – makes it more tealike. Yep even in my exploded cupboard, there is room for this one.
Thank you scribbles for introducing me to yet another amazing tea.
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I got a small sample of this tea from the vendor when I purchased some other tea at the Philadelphia Coffee & Tea Festival. This tea is divine. I don’t get much subtlety in flavor but it’s soothing and perfect for a cold November day when it’s snowing outside. Savory, smooth. Lovely.

It resteeps amazingly well.

Think this is also my last sample from QueenOfTarts! Took me a while to get to this one since I wasn’t really sure about Keemum, but figured today seemed like a good day to try it finally.
I had a feeling it was gonna be really earthy, and I was right! XD
It’s super earthy…with slight, ever so slight hints of malt.
But that’s really all I’m getting :/ So not really disappointed since I didn’t have really high hopes for this one anyway, but didn’t really surprise me or anything.
Not for me!