Spring Laoshan Black

Woah, this one surprised me. I’ve been getting a bit weary of black tea lately since I’ve ended up with a surprising number of different kinds in samples, but my water was already boiling when it came time to pick out a tea and I’ve been wanting to work on crackling my new ruyao ware, so black tea it was. 3-5 grams to a 100 ml gaiwan, preheated, boiling water, 25 seconds to start.

It’s as if this tea heard my misgivings and gently placated my concerns this grey morning by delivering a much more subdued, but still intensely rich and comforting chocolate flavor with only tones of the black tea maltiness I was starting to grow a bit bored of. Surprisingly sweet for any tea I’ve had, it has a honey sweetness to it that I find hard to believe is a natural byproduct of just tea leaves. This sweet lingers strongly in the back of your throat after each sip, it is definitely the sweetest tea I’ve had to date. The lighter orange amber color seems to reflect the tea’s lighter flavor as well, although the first steep or two does have a predominately intense chocolate flavor I also enjoyed. Overall, I would place this as a much lighter but no less comforting alternative to hot chocolate anytime, I may have to stock up on this tea.

My absolute favorite tea. You can brew it for 20 seconds or five minutes, and it yields different and interesting flavors and qualities. It’s good sweetened and with milk, or without either. Very Chocolaty, and very Malty, very addictive. It can be mellow and refreshing, or rich and creamy like hot chocolate. Definitely try this.

work has exploded this week…i swear it was less busy before the wedding! So i’m trying to do my damndest to make sure i bring tea in to work every day so that at least there’s that. Still working through this most recent harvest of this and while it’s not the same tea…i still like it more than last year.

1.5 tsp for 300mL water @95C, Western style, steeped four minutes, drunk bare.

Happy sigh.

Dry leaves are tiny, curled, and very smooth, alms silly, to the touch. I know about the smoothness because I had way too much on my spoon and pinched some tea back into the bag.

Dry leaves give a strong cocoa scent, with some sweet malt.

Wet leaves are long, and some are still twisted, mostly brown with some dark green. Wet leaves smell of cocoa, malt, and, i the distance, vanilla. (This is not, of course, a flavoured dessert tea.)

Liquor is dark copper. Liquor smells of — you guessed it — cocoa and malt, also soybeans and deciduous trees.

Taste: cocoa and malt, of course, and a bit of soybean, with sweetness and some vanilla notes in the finish. I haven’t tried this year’s batch labelled just ‘Laoshan Black,’ so I can’t comment on any differences between that and this, the Spring Harvest Laoshan Black. I can say this tea gives everything I remember falling for in Laoshan Black.

The finish is very soft.

I forgot how wonderful Verdant Teas could be. I haven’t been able to afford them for awhile, and this sample came with a recent Steepster select shipment, so I brewed up and re-steeped several times to make the very best of the leaves.

Nice clean taste with excellent tones of Cacao, honey and dried fruit. Golden brew with a heavenly aroma and flavor. Three steeps, and more joy in one cup that you really have to savor slowly. So very, very good. :)