Anji Black

Second tea of the morning….

I splurged! I have had my eye on some of the more premium China black teas at Harney & Sons. The most recent offer of $5 off a $50 order put me over the edge. I purchased the last tin of this on site at the time, and a 2 oz. tin of Keemun Treasure. I do think it is the most expensive tea I have purchased to date. My first pot of tea for the day was their Citrus Blend which I will review at a different time, but I love that one, too.

This is….remarkable. Notes of chocolate and honey. The leaves look exactly as they do in the photo….a mass of tight, narrow, dark curls. Mouthfeel is heavy and rich. It is Keemun Mao Feng’s super sweet, unsmokey little sister. Yum. How I wish there was more available. (I just looked….they have some!)

Usual mug method. I am going to shoot for a resteep.

I haven’t given up on trying more expensive tea’s…. Although I think I should. I just dont seem to have much luck with them. It has an unpleasant taste to me, not sure why! Cant really explain what I found so unenjoyable. Don’t oversteep, it goes really bitter!

I picked up a tin of this tea with my most recent Harney order. Very enjoyable and very interesting!

The tea steeps a medium brown. The scent and the flavor are hard to characterize, and very different from a typical black tea. I think the closest comparison is Teavana’s Golden Dragon yellow tea. A nice, full mouthfeel. “Buttery” is the best way I can describe it. Very smooth. A great tea for sipping and savoring.

The Harney & Sons site says it has a “predominant” honey aroma and “honey flavors”, but I disagree. Not very sweet, but I suppose you could argue that there is a floral note in there. Definitely more buttery. (Ironically, their description of Top Chingwo Congou is “buttery”, while I thought it was chock full of honey flavor. Go figure.)

A great tea for a cool fall afternoon. I don’t recommend it as a breakfast tea; it’s not strong enough, in my opinion. (Plus, I like to start my day with some sweetness!) If it’s on sale again, I would buy it again.

Ooo… this is bizarre. I had this at work today with filtered water, Western style. Having at home tonight, gong fu style, bottled water.

Here are my notes from work: Oh, hello, honey & bread! Moderate body but big flavor. So close to Taiwanese Wild Mountain black but from China. Dry leaves have a yeasty, fermented fruit and wine-y single origin chocolate type of scent. Steeped liquor is mainly a bready scent. Flavors of honey, yeast and fruit. There must be more of this obtained before they are out again. Western, 4 minutes, 205F, 2 tsp/10 oz.

And tonight at home: Similar scents, but sweeter. The liquor actually has a sweet aftertaste that is making me think of what licorice root does to my tastebuds. It creates a weird sweetness that lingers on my lips and in my mouth. It’s nothing I enjoy. I actually rinsed out my mouth three times to make sure I didn’t have anything sweet lingering from food earlier. I’m only going to get through 10/30/45 seconds. I’m giving up and not wasting the rest. I’ll steep again Western style and see if it is my water or the steeping method. If it’s like this Western style at home, then I don’t need more of it which is both disappointing and a relief. I won’t spend that much on work tea. I don’t drink cheap tea at work but nothing this expensive either.

Bizarre.

Oh my. Liquified sweet potato. Two steeps, light in color, thin body but not thin flavor. If there were such a thing as sweet potato essential oil, this is what it would smell like. Sooo good.