Rose Dian Hong Black Tea

The rose taste is present but not strong nor does it taste like you are drinking a bottle of perfume. The tea is not bad, just not for me. I have determined I just don’t like the flower taste in a black tea.

Trying this side-by-side with Teavivre’s Yunnan Rose Dragon Ball Black Tea. This blend of black tea and roses is light in flavor, both the tea and the rose. I wish it were a bit bolder with more rose flavor/aroma. It could be though that the rose teas I’m used to drinking have flavoring added, while this one is only using rose petals.

The aroma of this tea knocked me right over: I was a little afraid when I ordered it that the rose would be an artificial flavor or perfume and was pleasantly surprised to see rosebuds in the loose leaf. That said, the scent of roses was so strong I was still slightly afraid for the flavor.

However, the tea brews up beautifully with a sweet, mild, smooth liquor and just the aroma of roses. The rose scent fades as you re-brew (very significantly), but the flavor of the Dian Hong is pleasant enough that I didn’t mind.

On the first brew, you get a very pleasant after-aroma of roses that lingers somewhere between the back of your mouth and nose. Later brews are mild and leave no astringent bite.

Good strong rose note. Black tea flavour in background is a bit muddled but follows the rose flavour nicely at the end of the sip.

okay, so, here’s the thing. I’m partial to roses, not simply bc my surname is quite rosey, or because my grandma had a million rose bushes that I constantly would run into and therefore, as a child, was constantly cut up. but also the SMELL of roses, I find to be comforting, and make me think of my grandma (we were partial to yellow roses).

HOWEVER, rose flavoured things are scary because sometimes they just straight up taste like perfume or weird floral soap and that’s not something that I’m into. Steven Smith Teamaker has an EXCELLENT rose genmaicha (Rose City Genmaicha, pls go and try it, it is one of the best non-52 teas flavoured genmaichas I’ve ever had), and because that exists, I try to trust rose flavoured or scented teas. I was worried when I smelled this because….it is VERY rose-y, and I worried about drinking perfume, but it’s not perfume-y at all. the only downside is that the rose really overpowers the dianhong, which is a pity. I can kinda taste that dianhong-y sweetness, but then it’s mostly the rose.

I am sitting at work and drink this tea from a big teapot and I like it a lot. It smells like heaven and has a beguiling taste. Thats it, if you like roses. Luckily I do. The base is of a good quality, the taste is not awfully complex but present and STRONG. As a bonus, it resteeps well.

Looks like an ideal tea mindlessly sipping while typing something. there is no need to concentrate on the multiple elusive notes of fragrance and taste, instead it THERE – loud and clear. Oh, and it is quite forgiving with the temperature and steeping time.

I will certainly add it in my rotation.

Update: 100 grams later and I still like it but cooled off a bit: the taste is a bit one-dimensional and one needs to be very precise about the steeping time to hit the sweet spot to balance rose and tea flavors otherwise roses tend to overpower everything.

This is a tea I have been meaning to review for some time. I actually started a review months before my Steepster hiatus, right around the time it was becoming increasingly difficult for me to conceal the fact that I was seriously ill, but I did not complete it. At the time, I felt that if I were to focus on reviewing something that excited me, I would be able to rediscover some of my passion for writing, get back on track with my tea reviews, and then maybe start to put myself back together so that I would be more functional, but that did not happen. Instead, I stared at a blank screen for around an hour, got angry, threw my notebook across the room, and stomped away to sulk. I guess I’m done sulking now. This was a great tea. I wish I had reviewed it when I first intended to because not only was it very good to drink, it made me happy at a time when nothing made me happy and nothing felt good.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After rinsing, I steeped 7 grams of the tea leaf and rose petal blend in 5 ounces of 194 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 17 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, and 10 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the blend of dry tea leaves and rose petals emitted an overpowering rose aroma that was underscored by subtle scents of malt, cinnamon, and cedar. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of chocolate, cream, smoke, and orange zest. The first infusion introduced a subtle baked bread scent. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered up notes of rose, cream, and malt that were chased by hints of chocolate, orange zest, and cedar. The subsequent infusions introduced a subtle roasted almond scent. Notes of baked bread came out in the mouth alongside hints of smoke and cinnamon. Impressions of minerals, earth, cooked green beans, roasted almond could also be detected. I even noticed some hints of roasted peanut, honey, sweet potato, and brown sugar. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized mineral, cream, rose, and orange zest notes that were balanced by hints of baked bread, roasted almond, and malt.

This was not a complex or deep blend in any way, but I do not think it was ever intended to be. It was all about delivering rose petal aromas and flavors springing from a typical Dian Hong base, and it did just that. The tea was just present enough to provide some balance, but it largely stayed in the background to let the huge rose presence have its time in the spotlight. People who are not huge on floral blends, and particularly people who do not enjoy rose with their tea, would likely not be into this offering at all. People like me, however, who love rose and black tea blends would almost certainly be into it. Definitely check this out if you like floral blends that are very heavy on the floral component.

I found this nice surprise while digging through my sample tin this morning. I always look forward to trying new teas and Teavivre teas never seem to disappoint me.

When I opened the signature Teavivre silver sample package and drove my schnoz inside, I was met with the aroma of a fine bourbon instead of the expected rose. The leaves were fairly long and black, brown, and golden.

I steeped the leaves at 195 degrees (as close as my tea maker can get to the recommended 194 degrees) for five minutes. The final color was a dark amber and the brewed aroma was very much like a rose as I again expected.

I am not a big fan of flowery or fruity teas. I especially tilt toward being a purist when it comes to black teas. However, there have been several fruity/flowery teas that I have tried and liked. I am happy to say that this is one of them.

My first sip had a strong rose taste with a mild black tea flavor riding shotgun. There also seemed to be a slight bite of astringency in the first sip. This very quickly settled down and, by my third sip, my taste buds were treated to a smooth, amicable, and full-bodied black tea flavor with excellently intermingled rosy characteristics, going forward. The aftertaste was graceful and brief.

This is another good flowery tea from Teavivre that I actually enjoyed drinking. Even though the rose flavor is quite recognizable, it tastes natural and is not overwhelming or perfumed.

Brewed 3.5g in a 60ml gaiwan. I followed Teavivre’s steeping instructions. Flash rinse. Steeping times: 10 seconds, 15, 25, 35, 45, 60, 90, 120, 300.

I purchased a sample because of the positive feedback. If it weren’t for that and the fact that it’s a Dian Hong, I wouldn’t be here, but curiosity got the best of me.

I recently learned that certain teas need to air after spending a lot of time in a vacuum-sealed packet, so that I let the dry leaf rest for a few minutes. This year’s batch might be a lot more fragrant than the previous years’ – the rose is quite heavy, even borderline powerful since I could only get a bit of a honey-like aroma from the dry leaf. That changes after I let the leaf sit in the pre-heated gaiwan: the rose is now in the background, with notes of cocoa and gingersnap cookies in the fore. This was especially nice to get a whiff of! After I wash the leaf, the rose and the classic Dian Hong aroma are balanced.

The liquor is bright orange, clear, full-bodied, and rounded. The texture is smooth and a little thick. The first cup tastes lightly of rose, and the Dian Hong begins to show itself in the second cup, in which I taste a variety of classic flavors (order is strongest to weakest): sweet potato, nutmeg, clove, and malt. Balances well with the rose. In the third cup, though, the rose is slightly stronger than the Dian Hong. Chocolate begins to appear in the fourth, and the aftertaste is also now more chocolatey than rose-like. Fifth cup to the end, the rose fades more and more, leaving the sweet potato and chocolate notes from the Dian Hong to become stronger. Now there is more of a balance.

In the end, this isn’t for me. I like flower teas, including rose, but I think if the Dian Hong weren’t fragranced so much, I might take more to this. I may like the rose being present to accompany the Dian Hong more, though it could be that the Dian Hong is fragranced so that the rose would last a lot longer. I enjoyed the last couple steepings since there was more a balance. The rose was too powerful most of the time.

Overall, so-so. But I think it’s worth trying. Shoot for it!

I usually find floral teas appealing, but considering this was my first rose tea to be had, I couldn’t drink all of it—too many rose notes for me, I suppose. However, my wife couldn’t help but linger nearby as I gave this tea a go. In fact, she wanted to try it—and try she had—which to my surprise, she loved it. So…here’s her note on it….

“A tea that reminds me of my grandmother, for roses were her favorite flower, from which she was named after. When I drink a cup of this tea, I am reminded of the gift of knowing my grandmother as I grew up distant from most of my outside family; however, grandma had reminded me of the simple joys in life—”Wake up and smell the roses," She’d say. So, as I drink this tea, I am reminded of my grandmother Rose, who always seemed to smile at the gift of another day." -The Missus

[Note: Rating by the wife]