Taiwan Yu Chi 'Assam' Black Tea

Harvest: Spring, May 2020

I tried my best to scoop this with my teaspoon, but the leaves are long and gangly so I’m not entirely sure everything made it into the cup. There wasn’t a weight recommendation on the package or I would have measured, so I just went with it. The dry leaf smells to me like raisins, which I don’t like to eat but do love the flavor in tea. I taste sweet potato in the finished cup and, surprisingly, peach. I’m not sure I’ve ever tasted peach in a tea that’s not actually flavored with peach, so this was a nice surprise. I love stone fruits and black tea together. I will say that it’s lighter than I would like, not sure if that’s because I didn’t get enough on my teaspoon or if I need to increase the steep time. Compared to the Tiger Assam I had a couple of days ago, this isn’t as dark and luscious as I would have liked. Still enjoying it though, especially with that peach note.

Seeing the praise, I made sure to add this tea in one of my recent What-Cha orders. I had no doubt it would be a winner, as What-Cha’s black teas most often are. One of the nice things about this one is that it is bold and complex at the same time. Overall, I seem to get a more woody rather than fruity flavour, as well as more bitter and astringent profile then some of the other reviews would indicate. It could be because it is one year old now, but I doubt it.

The tea has complex aromatics too, including blackberry, menthol, malt, and honey notes emerging from dry leaves; while the wet leaves have a sweet smell reminiscent of roasted pumpkin, unsmoked bacon, and brown sugar.

Taste is dominated by a woody bitterness and cocoa beans flavour. Other notes include those of cumin, eucalyptus, black cherry, and later also plum and cloves in the aftertaste, which has a very good balance of sweet, floral, spicy, and fruity flavours.

The most interesting aspect of the mouthfeel is the combination of brisk astringency Assam varietals are known for with a soft and thick liquor texture.

Life in general has been beating the crap out of me so I decided that today is a rat lunch day! It made me smile to think of KS and our rat lunch reviews and I needed a smile and a good memory.

For those who don’t know, rat lunch is toasted cheese and tea – good, solid, black tea specifically. We got it from the children’s book “I Was A Rat” that JacquelineM introduced me to. And I really wanted to try this gift from derk and this is the perfect time since I am alone today for lunch and don’t have to pick a tea that everyone else likes.

May I say….it could not have been more perfect. It has everything one loves about Assam but not the thing that keeps me away from Assam so often – boiling heartburn. As soon as I smelled it, I knew. I fell hard for this guy and he is probably going to make me break my “no ordering” ban. (Ha, like I really observe that anyway!)

Malty, bready, rich, thick, full body, dark, just the right amount of tingle. It is the perfect tea for today. It resteeps well. Rat lunch has done me a lot of good.

Thank you, derk!

March 2019 harvest.

The best morning/afternoon Assam I’ve ever had. Very complex and layered taste and mouthfeel yet approachable due to a distinct lack of bitterness, very light astringency and an inviting aroma. Savory and mineral backbone with plenty of berry tones and a lemony taste that zings. Emergent menthol. The leaves are alive and have plenty to give.

I would serve this to anybody entering my home.

Not for small pocketbooks but well worth a try! It’s very forgiving :)

After reading the rave reviews of this tea, I picked up 25 grams of it this summer. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 7, 9, 12, 16, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma of these huge, curly leaves is of blackberries, grapes, honey, and malt. The first steep is amazingly complex, with notes of grapes, plums, blackberries, strawberries, malt, honey, fruit leather, and baked bread. The second steep adds notes of cherry, brown sugar, and raisins. There’s no astringency and wow, this tea is good. The fruit explosion continues through the next few steeps, with lots of plum, cherry, grape, and blackberry flavours. By steep six, sweet potato, orange, baked bread, brown sugar, malt, and honey take over, with the fruit in the background. The final steeps have flavours of peanuts, sweet potatoes, malt, wood, and minerals.

Like everyone else who has reviewed this tea, I was incredibly impressed. It’s simultaneously mind-bogglingly complex and very accessible. There’s no astringency and the fruity flavours jump out at you. (Unlike Eastkyteaguy, I didn’t get any menthol.) This is definitely a special occasion tea that repays careful attention. What-Cha really knocked it out of the park with this one.

Insanely rich, brisk, smooth, balanced, and decadent. This tea would serve as a great breakfast tea to get you up in the morning or even a late lunch for a second waking, but I’m using it as a dessert one for now. It pairs well with handpicked blackberries. There’s something about its leather character that kind of reminds me of Ancient Spirit. Maybe it’s the marshmellow note. Oh well, this remains as one superior Assam. I might rate it higher in the future, but 95 is my minimum so far. I can’t see myself drinking this one often because it is so powerful, and complex enough that it needs to be savored. If you love tea and good Assams, this is an excellent match.

Hi, everybody! It’s been a rather long time, hasn’t it? I’ll go ahead and admit that life has taken precedence over reviewing for the last couple of weeks. Work has been a killer for me, and I have had lots of personal stuff to deal with too. Even when I have had free time, I have not been able to force myself to post here. For whatever reason, I have just not been able to focus on writing. I’m still drinking tea like crazy, though, and I have been steadily building up quite a backlog in the space of the past month. This was one of my sipdowns from the first half of last month, and quite frankly, it is still a tea I think about often. I wish I had purchased more of it when I had the opportunity because this was a fantastic black tea.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was chased 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 dry tea leaves emitted aromas of malt, honey, baked bread, strawberry, blackberry, and red grape. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of sweet potato, roasted peanut, brown sugar, cocoa, plum, and menthol. The first infusion introduced aromas of candied orange, eucalyptus, and black cherry. The menthol scent also grew somewhat stronger. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of sweet potato, malt, baked bread, cocoa, red grape, candied orange, plum, strawberry, brown sugar, and menthol that were backed by hints of black cherry, blackberry, cream, eucalyptus, and vanilla. The subsequent infusions brought out aromas of black currant, blueberry, cream, date, orange zest, vanilla, melon, wood, and marshmallow. Stronger and more immediate cream, black cherry, menthol, and vanilla notes appeared in the mouth along with impressions of honey and roasted peanut. I also noted impressions of minerals, blueberry, marshmallow, wood, black currant, red pear, date, red apple, and orange zest as well as some subtle hints of watermelon. As the tea settled and faded, I was left with impressions of minerals, malt, baked bread, wood, sweet potato, menthol, plum, cream, and orange zest that were underscored by subtle hints of black cherry, blackberry, blueberry, eucalyptus, brown sugar, honey, cocoa, and roasted peanut.

It is very rarely that a Taiwanese black tea disappoints me, but it is also a rare occurrence when one impresses me as much as this tea did. For a tea displaying such incredible depth and complexity, it was neither poorly balanced nor overwhelming. It was also incredibly lacking in astringency, rendering a smooth, silky liquor that was never lacking in approachability. Overall, this was a fantastic Taiwanese black tea. It even reminded me a bit of some of the more consistently hyped Taiwanese black teas to have gained a following on Steepster and elsewhere (Taiwanese Wild Mountain Black and Premium Taiwanese Assam, anyone?) but with one important difference: this tea may have been slightly better than most of them.

What-Cha, ya’ll are on POINT with selecting your Assams. This beaut is just perfection to start the day. Strong, brisk, rich, and not a bit of astringency. Wonderful big leaves, which I think really improves an Assam. Can’t believe I just have a small portion. When I buy again, this will be be on list. I prefer this one hot, but I think it would be proper iced.