Laoshan Black Chocolate Genmaicha

verdant teas, i am concluding, is quite the most staggering company. so much so that i have joined their tea of the month club…

i had a terrible day today. i’ve been in a cast with nerve damage in my right hand for 6 weeks. i don’t do boredom well. a plumbing problem popped up with our bathtub faucet and, after having read the instructions (or destructions as it were) i felt i could adequately play the part of one armed plumber. this was not the case. after a watery version of a fireworks display erupted in our bathroom and i looked like a drowned punk rat (i have a red and black faux hawk) the household water had to be shut off (not great because we have tenants). the problem was eventually resolved, but i still wasn’t happy. i have had this tea on my shopping list for some time and my first order arrived this monday past. i decided to save it for a day just like today. it was a great decision on my part!

this tea has two layers: the palate and the olfactory. both quite separate and at the same time complimentary.

this is the smoothest black tea i have ever had.

the chocolate element is a dark chocolate as opposed to a sickly sweet milk chocolate, the carob blends seamlessly with the cacao. it imbues a warm welcoming feeling to smell it….

now, tasting it is an entirely separate and unexpected experience. while i was smelling chocolate and wildcrafted black tea, i was tasting a very light floral honey flavour. brilliant.

i felt the pick up of caffeine, but i did not feel it the way i usually do…as a stickiness on the tongue. this tea is smooth, aromatic and light but can also be referred to as robust. this tea rounded off my terrible day very nicely!

thank you verdant teas, you have earned both my money and my devotion.

Omnomnom. This is a lovely tea… BUT, if I could make it perfect, I would remove the oolong and just use Laoshan Black as the base. It is chocolatey, malty, baked-bready, and toasty, but I think it lacks some of the depth of the dark chocolate/cocoa because of the oolong blended into it. It also seems to add a little bit of earthy/savory piece at the end of each sip that I honestly could probably be happier without. Sadly, I am not much of an oolong girl- or maybe I haven’t tried the right one? Anyway, this is tasty and comforting on a cold and dreary morning.. definitely my favorite genmaicha!

1.1 tablespoons for 375 ml

I think that this tea must have lost some flavour in transit.

Thanks Sil for sharing this with me!

This isn’t a tea I would have normally picked up for myself, but I’m glad JustJames sent it to me in our swap. I’ve never had Genmaicha before so it was interesting to try this blend using Laoshan Black.

The first sip of this gave me a heavy malt flavor and the cocoa nibs add to the dark chocolate taste that I always associate with Laoshan Black. For some reason this doesn’t seem to have as strong of a chocolate flavor as straight up Laoshan Black, it might be the oolong that is toning it down a little, or perhaps the toasted rice. I’m getting a really roasted, nutty flavor as the tea starts to cool. This is a really interesting blend, although it won’t become a staple for me.

Kindly sent to me, along with many other goodies, by Dexter3657!

This is one amazing tea. Really extraordinary. Everything I didn’t much like (to my embarrassment) about the Laoshan Black was mellowed and smoothed by the toasted rice and became absolutely wonderful. I’m discovering that I’m even weirder about teas than I’d realised, and one of my weirdnesses is apparently having ‘issues’ about roasty tastes, including dark chocolate ones. I can’t eat dark chocolate any more because of migraines, but I used to love it as much as anyone – er, anyone who loves dark chocolate. But in the Laoshan Black, the malty chocolate just tasted slightly burnt to me, and the bitterness wasn’t the awesome bitterness of proper dark chocolate. But I love toasted rice in tea, and here it was as nice as ever, and it was fascinating how a ‘peasant tea’ became so elegant. I so much appreciate the sample – and such a generous sample! Cara and I had a bunch of cups out of that first batch, and there’s still more to enjoy another day.

Ooooh, I am super excited for this one! Big thanks to JustJames for sending me a sample!

The dry leaf aroma sure smells chocolaty, mmm! The brewed tea aroma is salty and toasty and completely different. I can really smell the Wuyi oolong in this. The first thing to hit my palate is a salty nuttiness from the oolong. Yet as I swallow, there’s a lovely honey sweetness that appears. That’s a surprise!

This is a yummy cup of tea! But I’m a bit confused with its name as I’m not getting much in the way of chocolate or genmaicha. I also think the oolong is a LOT stronger in this than the Laoshan black. I am getting something toasty, but it’s not the popped rice flavor I’m accustomed to in genmaicha. And when it comes to chocolate, I want IN YOUR FACE chocolate. This is like a quiet whisper of wind through the branches of a cacao tree.

As it cooled, all I could taste was the Wuyi oolong and I found it fairly bitter. Yuck. I didn’t want to give up on this tea just yet though, so I tried a second steep for 4 minutes. The resultant brew was much toastier but also less robust and rich. I think I actually prefer this second infusion. There’s still a nice, natural sweetness and it’s appearing more at the front end of the sip now. But what really makes this second cup a winner is that there’s definitely no bitterness!

I’m surprised that Verdant felt compelled to add oolong to this. I think it would have been just fine as an all Laoshan black base. I’ve never been much of a fan of these dark, rock oolongs. So although I enjoyed the sample, I don’t think I’ll stock this tea myself. I guess I’ll be the only one on here to not rave about this blend! Oh well. You never know till you try! Thanks again to JustJames for making this tasting experience possible.

This is my one tea I hope to have on me if I ever find myself up stranded on a desert island. It’s almost all I have to write about it. I much prefer this to a green Genmaicha, verdant or otherwise, but maybe that’s because I dig black teas more than greens.

The chocolatey rice is out of this world and oh my god, what’s the biggest quantity I can buy because I’m already looking in my 3-oz tin and thinking that I have to hang on to it but I can’t because all I want to drink is this.

And no, I don’t have to add anything else to this note because there’s a lot of them out there, with stories and everything, which most certainly makes this one dull anyway. So there :) Drink this and stop talking. It’s smooth, it’s rice, it’s chocolate and you too will want to take it on a desert island.

I suspect there may be something wrong with my tastebud? I had such high hopes for this, especially after reading the description on the website and the reviews here. Chocolatey, a bit of roastiness, caramel, sweet malty black tea goodness. It sounded so good I almost bought the 1oz bag straight off. But I settled on just the sample because I’ve bought an amount of a tea thinking I’d like it and then not caring much for it.
So I’ve been saving this tea for a time when I can enjoy it/treat myself. And a crappy day at work counts in my book (of which I had a really crappy day today and I expect to have another one tomorrow, so more special occasion tea for me). Opening the sample package, I got a whiff of the rice, but also the cocoa nibs with that bittersweet chocolate smell that practically makes my mouth water. I adore bittersweet chocolate, especially in cookies….Mmmmm, cookies……/clears throat/ Anyway, I poured the package out so that I could get as even a measurement as I could since I didn’t want to scoop out all the tea and have no rice.

Into my ingenutea, boiling water, 3 min and I could hardly wait. The brew smells chocolatey, but with that rice/grainy smell from the, well, rice. Not offputting at all like I would expect since, come on, it’s rice in tea. It was nice and comforting, if that makes any sense.
Taking a sip, I expected malty cocoa rice sweetness or something to that effect, but all I got was a kind of strong burn-y roastyness. I took another sip, rolled it around and got the same thing. I went through half the cup trying to find tastes other than that one, kinda got maybe a cocoa taste now and then, before I tried a bit of sugar in it just because. Now it had a sweetened roasty, burn-y taste to it.

Alright, maybe a second steep will bring out a different flavor. Steeped same temp water for 4:30 this time. The burn-y roasty taste had toned down, but I still couldn’t find much of any other flavor.
Not to mention I got a headache about halfway through the second steeping/almost at the end. Which I wonder if it was caused by the tea or something else? I’ve only had one other tea induced/related headache (Butiki’s Hattilli Golden Lion Assam and I’m not really convinced the tea was the cause really), but this headache wan’t like that one, it was kind’ve more of a broader ache this time which has since gone mostly away with a glass of water and my medicine. But has anyone else ever gotten a headache after drinking this tea? I just wonder if it’s maybe something in this specific tea or something completely different. But I’m off on a tangent now. Sorry.

So now I wonder are my tastebuds broken? Am I doomed to forever be shunned from the wonders of the unflavored black/oolong majesty. I had this same sort of ‘Meh’ reaction from the straight Laoshan Black (and actually quite a few other unflavored Verdant/Other company teas). /hangs head/ It’s almost vaguely depressing to me actually. Lol.

I have enough for one more cup, so maybe I’ll try a lower temp. I’m hoping that the burn-y, strong roasty flavor is because I burnt the leaves or something. Though it’s a black tea. I didn’t think you could really do that? Or should I try a gaiwan? I’m open to any and all suggestions/comments about this.

Because I’m not entirely sure this wasn’t operator error, I’ve refrained from putting a rating for now. I’ll edit with a rating after my next brew.

EDIT: Holy cow. I didn’t realize this was so long and I apologize. Lol

Toasty, roasty, chocolaty goodness all rolled into one cup. Delicious!! What else can I say? A new favorite that never fails to satisfy!

Just yesterday I fell in love with Laoshan Black. And now this? This is like Laoshan Black amplified. Everything is just a little clearer, tuned up, louder. In my opinion, even more wonderful. The rock concert version. This is definitely the new poster on my wall. (Can we get tea posters? Maybe a fan mag?)