Bailin Gongfu Black Tea

Starting the day off right! Thanks to Courtney for sending me some of this tea to try out! We had such lovely weather this weekend. The sun was shining and for a brief moment I thought that spring was coming. I woke up this morning to snow falling outside my window. Don’t get me wrong, it’s beautiful and wonderful to watch, but I’m tired of being cold!

Anyway, on to the tea. The tea had a nice, malty black tea taste that I’ve come to love and expect in my morning teas. What I wasn’t expecting was the smooth, honey flavor that came along with it. As it cooled, I think I also tasted something like bread. What a wonderfully complex, but robust black tea to help wake me up! I will say that the tea became a bit bitter as it cooled down and had a note of astringency, but nothing I couldn’t handle.

I tried to go with a shorter steep time as boychik recommended but I kind of lost track… I was at work at the time and got distracted. Oops. This was pretty bold as a result, but not bitter. There was a tiny bit of sharpness at the end but that’s it. It smells great. I’ll have to try it again and vary some steeping parameters. At this point, I prefer Shang’s Bai Lin Kung Fu but I would not hesitate to toss this in my cart with my next Teavivre order.

2nd Teavivre sample treat of the day! Thanks Teavivre!

This is a very rich, satisfying black. Very honey sweet and malty with faint floral and cocoa notes. This is the kind of tea I could definitely develop a craving for in the future! Absolutely no bitterness or astringency. Top notch stuff!

2021 sipdown no. 2

I have more of this en route (it’s now in Canada and should be delivered this week), but this was my final cup of what I had in my cupboard. This is such a perfect every day tea.

I recently went off to college for my freshman year, and I could only take one of my yixing pots and its associated tea. Naturally, I went with this divine black tea! It’s taste is so unique and its flavor fits with every mood (I put in a ginger sugar with it if I’m feeling for something sweet).

I’ve come a long way from my novice tea days: I started out at Teavana (their actual tea POTS are awesome and beautiful, they should just stay away from selling tea LEAVES), then I ended up at adagio (to which I was informed is also a low quality tea store), then I ended up where I am at the wonderful world of Teavivre. Every tea I’ve gotten from them (their Iron Goddess, White Peony, Tian Mu Mao Feng) is just 100% quality. They even give you all of the certificates to prove that they are all organic and not from factory farms.

This tea is amazing, and Teavivre is my number one place to go when it comes to buying tea :)

Almost forgot my preparation method haha:

First steep I give it 1.5 minutes
Second steep I give it 2 minutes
Third steep I give it between 2.5 and 3 minutes
I haven’t tried squeezing out a fourth steep, but I feel like it could definitely give one more.

Buy this tea if you want a quality black tea!

Amber in color with a malty aroma. Rich flavor of malted chocolate with a slight sweet earthy taste. It has a nice smooth finish.

I received this as a requested sample from Teavivre and I’m glad I did.Very dark green nearly black & gold, small dry leaf in the bag, smelling wonderfully of chocolate. Steeping to a cocoa/ malt flavored brew with a thick mouth feel. Very smooth without bitterness. Great value for the price!

Absolutely phenomenal. I brewed it at 185°, per the instructions, and this is easily the best tea I’ve ever had. Grainy, chocolate goodness. I must order more of this very soon.

Nice tea here -

More samples from TeaVivre! Once I hammer out some space in the tea cupboard, I’ll DEFINITELY be ordering more tea from this company. I love the freshness of all samples provided thus far.

The man and I tried this tea last night after a shrimp curry dinner (nom). He added milk and sweetener to his, and I drank mine straight (both brewed Western, approx 2 tsp per cup). My non-sweetened tea tasted lightly of smokey malty chocolatey goodness. I really enjoyed how smooth this tasted, and really appealed to me since I am still not quite used to heavy, bold, in-your-face black teas. This was on the sweet side, and I like it that way!