I feel like this is a milestone in my tea-drinking career! This tea is so hyped around here; I’m very excited to try it but I’m also wondering whether it can possibly live up to the rave reviews. It sounds out-of-this-world amazing, but then I do have to keep in mind that I often have quite different preferences from what seems to be the majority of people on Steepster. This’ll also be my first tea from Verdant – I’d been wanting to try them for a while, and a few weeks back I caved and ordered the 5 for 5 pack. Of those, this is the first sample I’m trying (yes, I am slow).
I’ll preface this by saying I’m brewing this western style – while I find it interesting to read about gongfu brewing, I know all of the precise measuring and timing would stress me out, and one of the reasons I enjoy drinking tea is for relaxation. Anyway, the dry leaf smells super chocolatey – this is very encouraging! Specifically, it smells like cocoa powder. I think of myself as not a very sensitive taster, and I was worried I might miss the chocolate notes everyone raves about with this tea. But nope, they’re here! The strong cocoa smell continues while the tea steeps, and cocoa’s also very present in the flavor profile. This tea also tastes very, very roasty – almost burnt, even. I’m generally a fan of roasty teas, but this is a bit much. There’s also a slight leathery note, and some sweetness. There’s not much in the way of bitterness or astringency. The second steep is similar to the first, just weaker.
So, this tea… aside from the burnt taste, which is a slight detraction, it’s a very solid, very pleasant back. I’m finding myself a bit disappointed, though – after all the buildup, I was expecting something more. I’m not sure what, and I’m not even sure I’ve ever had a black tea that rose to the level of epic awesomeness I’d hoped to find in Laoshan Black. I always think of myself as a black tea fan, and while I certainly enjoy drinking blacks, I’m realizing that most – maybe even all – of the teas I’ve really loved have been greens or oolongs. My platonic ideal of a black tea may not in fact exist – I think when I see mention of bread or grain or toast notes, I expect them to come through in a somewhat more literal fashion than is realistic. Maybe.
I’d still be interested in trying the spring harvest – I’m pretty sure, though not 100%, that this is autumn, and I see a lot of people have found the autumn harvest too roasty and generally disappointing.
