Assam "Black Beauty" #8

Hands down my favourite black tea, my go to each morning.

I’ve taken a break from this tea, which I previously adored, and it’s set there for a few years in its mylar bag in my tea cabinet. Tealyra does not track lot numbers or production dates for this tea (or most others), but it does bear a “best by” date of June 2022. So it’s safe to say I’ve had it for 3-4 years.

And I STILL adore this tea! It is the standard-bearer of the “assamica flavor and aroma”, despite being grown in Taiwan [It’s actually a bit unclear whether it is the hybrid TTES #18 as suggested by the Tealyra description, or the assamic varietal from Jaipur, TTES #8 as implied by its name. For details on these designations, see https://teapedia.org/en/Cultivar#Taiwan ] Note that Tealyra also sells a “Brandy Oolong Ruby 18” which is equally delicious and almost indistinguishable from Black Beauty, depending upon the lot number.

I steeped 3-4 g in 8oz boiling alpine spring water for 4 min. but the deep rich brown color had fully developed in 2 min. and the huge leaves had fully relaxed. The aroma brings a smile to my face, a unique combination of brown sugar, malt and raisin. The flavor was devoid of astringency even when oversteeped, very smooth, sweet, and initially with a minty cooling sensation despite being piping hot. There is a hint of honey, too. As I sipped along on it, the minty quality dissipated, but the other elements remained and I noted and enjoyed the extended finish (aftertaste) as I wrote these notes. By the time it had cooled down to tepidness, the aroma and finish dominated, suggesting that it might be splendid as an iced beverage. Note that I never add milk to tea, though others seem to think assams benefit from it. I could see it would be nice if sweetened, but didn’t feel the need to do so. I still rate it as a perfect 100.

I was excited to try this tea, partly due to the description (it sounds exactly the kind of tea that I like), and partly due to the fact that I had great success with Tealyra’s Brandy Oolong, which is currently my favourite tea. In fact I had ran out of Brandy Oolong and placed another order especially to get some more, and I added this tea to the order as well. It wasn’t long before it arrived that I was brewing it.

Appearance-wise it looks fantastic, brewing up a wonderful rich amber colour. The smell is slightly sweet and very inviting.

As for the taste… just wow. It delivers as per the description. It shares a creamy, caramelly smoothness with the Brandy Oolong that I love so much. This is like no Assam that I have tried before; if anything I would say that it is closer in taste to Golden Monkey, which I love.

I find that it holds up to multiple steeps relatively well. I went for 2 minutes, then 3m 45, then 8m (basically as long as you want, you’re just extracting any remaining flavour here). Even at the last steep it wasn’t bitter.

A little expensive perhaps, but I imagine that I’ll be treating myself to some more of this before long.