Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong of Wu Yi Fujian Black tea * Spring 2014

This smells sooooo good while it’s steeping! Malt, honey and cocoa mmmm. I might have to tweak my parameters next time I drink this, though, because mostly what I get in the sip is rye bread or sourdough, with a hint of cocoa which is dark and powdery, almost savoury. It’s nice, but I want it to taste how it smells! Experimentation to come, I think. Thank you Sil for sending this my way!

So delicious. Happy national coffee day or whatever. #teamtea

mmmmmmm…soooo goood….
dark chocolate….nomnomnom….
I love this tea. I think I now love it more than I love LB, because it has all the rich chocately, toasty bread and deep dark tea flavor, minus the bean taste.
Now I have work to do… I love being self-employed…
“I love to work at nothin all day…”

mmmmm, Yeah :)

ZSXZ is one of my favorite styles of black teas, and this is a really nice version of it. I drank the last of what I have at work today. It is just so good, so chocolaty, no rich, everything I like in a Fujian black tea.
Am I a little sad to see this one go – not really – I’m hoarding quite a bit of 2013 which, IMHO, was even better than 2014. I’m quite sure there will always be a version of this in my cupboard – here’s hoping for 2015.

this is an awesome tea!

when i smell the leaves dry, they smell toasty and like onions

when i smell the leaves wet, they smell toasty, like onions and like dill pickles.

when i smell the brewed tea, it smells like the wet leaves

when i taste the brewed tea, it tastes toasty and like onions! MMMMM

thankyou scott wilson and yunnan sourcing for selling me this yummy tea

Bought this yesterday at Puerh Brooklyn. He buys nearly all of his teas from Yunnan Sourcing. I can expect he has the 2014 version as his store is brand new. This tea is excellent. Brewed this one gongfu style in a large 220ml gaiwan and gave it four steeps. There is a noticeable note of malt and another of astringency. I also seem to detect a little smoke in there and some chocolate notes, but on the back burner.

I brewed this four times in a 220ml gaiwan with 8.1g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 10 sec, and 15 sec.

I’m only on my second infusion of this…but it’s SO delicious already.
Hints of cocoa, nuts, dark chocolate, wheat, baked bread…. So very good.
Dexter sent this my way, and I am most definitely adding this to the ‘yes…you love this tea’ list. Thanks, Dexter!
I’m plum tuckered out this morning, after having a late night shoveling workout… chipping away at the driveway that my car keeps getting stuck in… There are layers and layers of snow that just don’t want to come up.. But, they must, I say!
I know I should go out and work on it some more…but I’d rather just sit inside and drink this tea. :D

Happy Saturday, Steepster! I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend so far. This sample came from Ubacat, my Canadian tea friend with amazing postal powers! Seriously though, her package got here in four days. I believe I’ve had this tea before, but it’s been so long that I feel the need to try it again! The leaves are small and thin, and extremely dark in color. Dry scent has lovely cocoa notes along with hay or raw grains.

Mm, the steeped cup smells chocolaty and delicious! Yums. This is a lovely rich and flavorful tea! Strong notes of roasted grain and chocolate (somewhere between milk and dark). There’s also a savory rye bread flavor as well as some creamy nuttiness. I think next time I’ll try a 4 minute steep, I think this one can handle it. Yummy tasty roasty and chocolaty tea! :)

Thanks yyz for the hint to brew this slightly cooler than I would usually for a black tea to really bring out those delicious cocoa notes.. At 100C all I got was sweet potato and bread, but at 85-90C the aroma and taste of this tea changed to this amazingly malty, chocolatey goodness, seriously the aroma was so fantastic I wanted to fill my bathtub up with this tea and just soak in it!! Unfortunately it was a sip down which means another yunnan sourcing order is in my very near future… just as soon as the imposed budget will allow!