Yun Nan Dian Hong Black Tea

I’m at work, gulping down a glassful of this tea.

Pleasant. Malty. Slight fruitiness present, could be more. Thinnish.
This works fairly well brewn in a glass grandpa style.
Colour is beautiful golden brown, as it should be. Leaves are shorter than I would have expected from Dian Hong-

This isn’t very interesting. Not particularly intense, not complex, no notable qi, npt strikingly harmonious.
This is a good, pleasant, casual Dian Hong.

decided to place an order with teavivre a few weeks ago. mainly wanted to try out their bailin gongfu and figured i would pick up samples of other black teas while i was at it, i ended up buying this tea in a larger quantity because the value seemed very good and it was well reviewed here at steepster.

few notes on the teavivre packaging, everything came in bags(generic like most companys) but teavivre only puts 3.5oz into each bag and has the teas inside the zip bag in another bag, superior packaging imo.

the tea itself when you open the bag it smells sweet even spicy; a really pleasant aroma. taste wise it reminds me a lot of an earl gray at first…. just a really subtleness of the same flavor. the sweetness/mild spicyness comes through pretty well to the taste, also has a nice heavy mouthfeel

at first i wasnt sure if i was going to like it, was interesting but reminded me of earl gray too much(wasnt fond of); after a week-two of drinking ive taken a liking to it(complex teas take a while for me to get acclimated to.. had this experience with a fujian in the past)

overall so far this outshines the bailin gonfu for me, really glad i picked up more than a sample size of this…. great value tea, good tasting especially to those of you who prefer sweeter teas(blacks)

This is a great all around Yunnan tea when it comes to taste, smell, and price. Has the notes on taste that remind me of fig cookies. Nice, smooth, and medium bodied… not too light; not overly strong either. It doesn’t need sugar but I like to add some anyways, which tends to bring out flavors that make me think of mild molasses.
Iced it tastes a little bit like a Keemun tea. Very good hot or cold.

It looks like this tea needs a sip down and I am just a few cups from finishing it off so now is a good time for a note. I’d call this a daily drinker, easy to brew, and quite adequate tasting. It has malty chocolate notes with a nice full Yunnan mouthfeel. I did have a cup of San Fran herb Yunnan this morning as it’s my go to daily cup, and I’d be hard pressed to find a difference between the two. I’ll enjoy sipping this down but it’s not something I’ll go out of my way to purchase again.

There is a lovely sweetness and a very light maltiness, and the second steep has held up quite well, but I’m not sure if there’s anything special here. Ultimately I love the sweetness, but prefer a heavier handed maltiness.

1st steep 2.5 minutes
2nd steep 4 minutes

Additional notes: This one is lovely. Not sure if it’s because I’m overleafing yet Teavivre never gets too astringent, or what is happening. But my default with Teavivre black teas is usually two teaspoons for a mug.
My idea until the chlorine situation is handled, was to get a gallon of filtered water at the store at least for my really good teas or teas I have to review. Then I can just keep boiling tap water on the stove for twenty minutes. However, at the store, I forgot to grab the gallon of filtered water. sigh.

Does anyone have a Lucky Draw giftcard they aren’t going to use (over $3 anyway? I have $3 but fishing for higher…) I think you can copy and paste the giftcard code numbers from other winners? Oh wait… but I’m sure you have to buy $60 or something to use the $6 Lucky Draw? I just wanted to buy a couple things. Hmm

And now “western” style. It tends toward maltiness, as I expected, plus the sweet potato and cocoa notes. There’s a bit of citrus as well. I didn’t notice that when I brewed it in my gaiwan. This apparently isn’t a very peppery Dianhong: just like when brewed gongfu, the spiciness is hardly there. There’s enough that I like about this tea that I don’t mind that, though.

I wanted something fairly straightforward this morning, and this fit the bill perfectly. It’s still one of my favourite plain black teas – deliciously malty, with strong chocolate and cocoa notes. It’s very easy to drink, very smooth, and works well both with and without milk. I have a feeling this – or one of Teavivre’s Dian Hongs — will be a permanent fixture in my cupboard. They’re just too good to do without.

My last order from Teavivre was mostly black tea. This one is a really nice one for the price.
I was getting coffee, wood and maybe mushroom notes for the first 2 infusions. Later infusions revealed more citrus and cocoa flavors.

This is a good tea for casual drinking. I’m mostly brewing it with my tea tumbler for those long working hours. For gaiwan style brewing I’d recommend the Yun Nan Dian Hong Full-leaf.

Tea Tumbler 250 ml, 6g for 5/10/15/20… sec @ 90°C

Gaiwan 100 ml, 3,33g for 5/10/15/20… sec @ 90°C

Part 1 of 4 in my Teavivre Dian Hong series.

Gongfu session with a ceramic gaiwan. Went by Teavivre’s steeping times. 3 second rinse. 10 seconds, 10, 10, 10, 15, 15, 24, 45, 60, 75, 90; 2 minutes, 4, 8.

Evolving aroma. The dry leaf smells malty and chocolately. After letting it rest in the heated gaiwan bowl, I get more chocolate and a slightly plant-like note, too. Rinse and following, the wet leaf aroma progresses from malt to earth to chocolate. (Moreover, it might be my slightly stuffed nose (I really tried un-stuffing it), I smell a hint of Windex underneath everything. This also might have to do with packaging (I bought this sample in November 2015 and it’s now March 2015, nearly a year later after this tea was processed). Not deterring, but puzzling. It disappeared in the middle of the session.)

Beautiful deep golden liquor. Clear and clean. Brisk in taste and even the lingering aftertaste. Full-bodied. A bitter malt dominates the first couple infusions and disappears after the third infusion. The profile is now much sweeter. I taste – in order of strength – orange zest, freshly cut wood, and plums and dates. Not much to say texture. The third infusion is creamy, but it simply feels clear most of the time.

This a lower grade Dian Hong. The leaves are mostly broken; the few whole leaves are short. Not exciting, but the quality is good.

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