Honey Black Tea

When my SO comes in to work we sit down to tea together, and this was her request for today. The dry leaves have a very faint chocolate smell and the wet leaves smell just as one would expect a black tea to. The liquor comes out a nice, medium dark reddish color.

There is a hint of honey flavor in the first steep, followed up with a sweetness, but not a honey sweetness. She describes it as having the bitterness of gallberry honey, which I’ve never had. It does produce a drying in the mouth with a bit of bitterness left in the throat.

The flavor is stronger in the second steep, naturally, and I feel like it brings both more depth and less bitterness. She says she can see herself drinking this as a breakfast tea with southern biscuits. She’s the black tea drinker, so this is more up her alley than mine, but I’d say it’s a good tea.

We enjoy a couple more steeps that remain consistent in taste. We only had 5 grams of this, so we won’t get to try it again, but it was a good primer for trying a honey black before we open the bigger bag we have from another vendor. All in all, it was a good experience!

I’ve had a really long day, and I just got home. I pulled this one out completely at random. I didn’t have enough for a large session, so I busted out my small celedon gaiwan. I warmed up the lil guy and dumped the long black leaves inside. I let them sit as I sat down and unwound. I lifted the lid and took in a very unique aroma. The scent was sweet with some heavy grass tones, alike green bean and hardy vegetables. The winter honey lingered in the background but the heavy dull vegetable tone dominated the brew. I washed the leaves once and prepared for brewing. The flavor was light. This is a good tasting brew, but there isn’t anything amazing about it. The flavor begins with some heavy wood tones along with a slight honey taste. The brew was not overly complex, and it didn’t last too long. It was okay for a late night drink, but it didn’t quite hit the spot.

Working from home today and trying to make a dent in my sample pile before more new tea arrives next week! I believe this one was from Flyawaybirdie’s Christmas card. The leaves are long, dark, and wiry with a light honey aroma. But steeped, this tea has an unexpected scent of green beans! The flavor is also a bit vegetal, reminding me more of a green tea than a black tea (although the color is a deep mahogany brown). The honey flavor comes through mainly in the aftertaste. The tea is super smooth with not even a hint of bitterness or astringency…the silkiness is similar to an oolong. Not really something I’d purchase, but I’m so glad I had the chance to try it and experience a completely black tea from anything else I’ve ever tried!

This tea is unusual in a good way. It has a distinctive sweet flavor that reminds me of good rum without the alcohol, if you can imagine that. Very round and both soft and bright at the same time. Fragrance of sweet potato and also green beans. The flavor tastes closer to lychee fruit than honey to me, love that. Slight maltiness. No astringency. Good for multiple resteeps.

Thanks to Tea Sipper for the extra sample – good call!

SSTTB Take 2!

I set a few samples aside before passing the box on to the next person, and this is one that I was really looking forward to trying as soon as I got over my cold. Now that I can smell and taste properly, I’m sitting down to try it. First western style, and maybe gongfu later. (If not tonight then I have enough to play later).

I was surprised by how long the leaves are. Very long and wispy, it reminds me a bit of a toasted oolong I have, moreso than a black.

There is definitely a honey note! Not overpowering like adding honey to tea can be, but it’s definitely honey-y! This is what I like. I don’t like adding honey to tea because a little goes too far, but this is the perfect balance of malty black tea and rich honey, without being like sipping honey water!

I can see myself getting more of this for sure. It would likely be a go-to straight black if I had it in my cupboard regularly!

Marzipan was generous enough to send me a sample of this one. I’ve been dying to try it since I keep reading all these tasting notes raving about it!
I chose all oolongs for my free samples, and didn’t even really think of choosing black teas. Which was clearly a mistake since everyone seemed to love their black teas. So I’m super happy someone was willing to send me a sample!
The name definitely doesn’t lie!
The only other flavor I taste in this tea other than honey is a little bit of raisin, which is kinda odd. xD But it’s a pretty tasty tea! :D I can understand the hype finally.
Thanks for the sample again, Marzipan! :D

I’m not a hundred percent sure what I did to this tea to make it hate my tastebuds. I resteeped and tried it on a different day to see if maybe I was at fault, with much the same result. There’s definitely chocolate notes, and the dry leaf smell isn’t super fragrant, but it is lovely with sweet undertones. However, upon brewing this up and taking a sip, honey was not the first thing that I detected. Instead there was a strange, almost pickled flavor to it that was, frankly, not at all appetizing. I don’t know if this is some twisted play on the sweet potato notes that other people have mentioned, or if I completely missed the steeping parameters when I made it. Whatever the case, it was a far cry from my previous experience with Green Terrace Tea’s extraordinary Shan Lin Xi Oolong.

I ordered a sample a while back at the 50% off sale, and I’m just getting around to trying it.

This tea is quite nice. Just the right amount of malty. It does taste like honey. Yum.

This is a pretty mild tea for a black tea. I thought I would like it more based on all the favorable reviews, but it didn’t make a strong impression on me. Not sure I am crazy about tea that tastes of sweet potato.

I was going to wait a while to dig into my Green Terrace teas, as the sample sizes don’t come in resealable packaging, and I’m still waiting on my resealable bags. But I was feeling in need of a new black tea and this one looked very tempting.

The dry leaf smells amazing. It’s very fruity, with notes of plum and raisin and other dried fruits. The leaf is long, dark and twisted.

Steeped, the leaves are whole and almost two inches long, with a few twigs. It smells very fruit, in that rich, dried autumn fruit way.

It’s quite pleasantly sweet. There are notes of raisins, plum, honey and baked bread. The finish is nice and malty. Body is middle of the road – not thin but not too thick, a bit creamy and no astringency.

This isn’t a remarkable tea but it is very nice and quite tasty.