Panyang Congou

Tea for the morning here. I read over some of the previous tasting notes and a few people seemed to think this tea was really boring but I like mine. It’s good when you’re in the mood for something gentle and sweet, I like the cocoa flavors and the non-astringent quality of this. This is a really nice everyday tea for me personally…. see previous notes

I was going to drink a sipdown list tea for brekkie today, but couldn’t get into any of the ones I have left. I decided to revisit this tea because it really SHOULD have tasted better than it did last time I had it.

I thought that perhaps since the leaves are so light, thin, and wiry, I had inadvertently underleafed, so I put an extra pinch in the pot.

This was a definite improvement. The tea now had more roasty toasty taste and perhaps even a little hint of smoke, but that may have just been the roast. I must remember to err on the side of overleafed in the future.

This is a good black tea and I believe it is good quality. I think I just usually prefer Keemun when I want strong tea and Queen Catherine when I want more layers of flavor.

My morning tea. Good stuff. Brewed in my jumbo mug, but next time a small teapot.

I finally decided it was time for a smaller teapot. My current one is 45 oz, which is perfect for tea for many, or traditional brewing of tea for iced (it is about the same volume as my favorite glass pitcher). Next week, my lime For Life 24 oz pot should be here. I went with the For life rather than the Chatsford because the infuser is all stainless, and parts of the infuser on the Chatsford are plastic. Can’t wait!

Oooh, this is good. Really, really good. It smells and tastes just like my beloved Emperor’s Red (which I couldn’t find online anymore) and this is a much better price. It is slightly smoked, unsweet cocoa with a hint of fruitiness. So good I am lost for words.

Holy smokes, Batman!

I got a sample of this to share with a co-worker who also likes the Golden Monkey/Yunnan types of teas. Made up a pot this afternoon and at first sniff I wondered if they’d put Lapsang in the bag by mistake. I just can’t do Lapsangs. That smell of charcoal and smoke – nothing my brain thinks I need to be drinking. I made myself take a sip and good grief – there’s a whopping ton of smoke in here!

There may have been other notes to get but I couldn’t get past the heavy, ashy smoke. Co-worker also thought it was smoke heavy but he didn’t find it quite as unpleasant as I did. I would not call this a medium body nor is there anything subtle about it. As it cooled off I could get a bit of sweetness but it was a deeply smoky sweetness. From the descriptions and reviews here and on the Harney site, I was pretty disappointed in this one. I’m glad I only got a sample and I’m glad we used it all making a large pot of it. I hate to throw tea away.

Rating is low not because I didn’t like it personally, but because I don’t feel that it measured up to the description.

I’m getting tons of honey flavors. It has a great body to it, but it’s not like an Assam – it’s not blustery, it’s more of a refined taste. I sipped it plain, but am enjoying it with a little half and half and organic sugar. My husband said “I think this is my favorite unflavored black we’ve had!” I thought I was an Assam person, but perhaps I need to explore more fine Chinese black teas!!

Okay, so I failed Sample Week on the very last day, but only because the sample I had done turned out to be one I had tried before, and I never got around to doing another one. But if it hadn’t been one I’d tried before, I would have made it, so I still say I almost succeeded.

Anyway, Sample Week over, I can now get back to some of my other larger samples, such as the ones I received recently from the lovely QuiltGuppy. Including OH JOY a Panyang. Or Tanyang. Or Tan Yang. Or Pan Yang. Or whatever you prefer. Same difference.

I’ve been out of my favourite Tan Yang Te Ji (♥) for a while now, so this sample was a really well treasured one. Unfortunately, though, I will have to say that the TeaSpring one is still my absolute favourite.

This one seems slightly thinner, slightly less powerful than the Te Ji of TeaSpring. It’s almost but not quite the same. And what I’m really looking for in a Tan Yang is pretty much the exact flavour profile of the Te Ji.

That said, it is still an awesome tea. By default, really. All Tan Yangs are awesome, and all Fujian blacks are wonderful. It’s amazingly sweet naturally, a mildly fruity sort of sweetness rather than the more grainy sweetness that we see in for example Keemuns. I’m not getting the hint of pseudo-smoke out of this one, unfortunately. That’s also part of what makes the aforementioned Te Ji so perfect for me. Instead there is something quite floral about it, which I believe is very close to the same thing.

“Wait a minute, how can pseudo-smoke notes and floral notes be the same?” I hear you ask.

“Opposite sides of the same coin,” says I. I believe it’s the same ‘bit’ of the flavour profile that creates that pseudo-smoky or floral note in the flavour. If it’s vague and delicate it comes across as floral, but if it is allowed to develop more and grow stronger, it turns into something more prickly and aggressive. Like the smoke note. Most often, though, we end up somewhere in between where some people will find it floral, some will find it lightly smoky and some will be unable to decide what they think it’s most like. This characteristic, I think, is more common in black teas than most people realise.

So yeah, this is leaning more towards the floral end of the spectrum whereas I tend to prefer the other end.

It’s a good tea. Sweet, floral, medium strength. Worth oodles of points in my book, but not as good as the Tan Yang Te Ji.

Not at first impression anyway. (And to be honest, one brewing isn’t really representative basis for comparison. I retain the right to change my mind, fat lot of good it will do me as this one isn’t available to me without using kindly Steepsterites as middle-men anyway)

Another delicious black tea from the Northern Fujian Province. The dry leaf has dark colored leaves with some golden tips and a nice aroma a bit like raisins. The drink is a little honeyed, a little fruity, and smooth, with medium body. It is easy going with zero bitterness and low astringency. 2 1/2 grams was perfect for an 8 oz cup. I would order this again-it is something I could drink every day, and I suspect it would be great cold as well.

This tea is from the TTB. I am not totally certain it is Harney & Sons. The tea came in a small attractive black tin with a picture and an elegant description: “A simple Chinese black tea that has been made over 200 years. The brew is a nice easy-going tea that is round in the mouth. It is a favorite at our Tasting Room where its simple charms are appreciated.” These words do not come up via a Google search, although the first two sentence do come up as a description of tea sold at the Cincinnatian Hotel for afternoon tea.

This small black tin resembles a miniature Harney & Sons tin and has the same type of black tape so I’m going to assume that it is likely to be a Harney & Sons tea with different and creative packaging.
I took it from the TTB because there was so little. It was a very skimpy teaspoon.
With tea, I am like Julia Child with cooking wines and liquers. I tend to add more than the “recipe” calls for. I taste the dry leaf; I fool around a lot. The dry leaves here were about 3/4 of what I would use for one serving. Keeping that in mind, I used less water and did not make a full cup.

The results are pretty decent. It seems to be a very smooth, medium-bodied “basic black” with a pleasant aroma. Perhaps its biggest virtue is that it is not offensive in any way, but it also lacks some of those distinctive properties that make me fall in love with certain blends. I wish I had some more of this to muse upon.

A sample of this came to me via the ever lovely Quilt Guppy. H&S says this is tea with heft.
That is exactly my take on it. I found it rich, full, and somewhat nutty. There was also a hint of dried hay. I normally would not find hay appetizing, but in this case, contemplating as I always end up with a cup of black tea, my mind yields to relaxing thoughts of the country, hay meadows on a late summers day. Thanks QG, you always make it interesting.