Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Black Teas’

One of the things I’ve been noticing over the years, as I’ve ordered tea from various merchants, is that common parameters aren’t always common.

Almost every tea will have directions on the back of the packet, telling you how to brew a cup of tea. Too bad they can’t agree on the definition of the word ‘cup’. A standard English definition of the word cup could lead you to believe that it would be a measurement somewhere around 8 oz. But apparently this doesn’t count in the tea world. The general rule of thumb is 2-3 grams of tea per cup. But if you don’t have the same definition of cup, that could result in some very strange brewing parameters.

Lupicia has one of the smallest definitions of a cup I’ve ever seen. They define a cup as 5 oz., and still call for 3 grams of tea per these 5 oz. I’d be afraid of oversteeping with something like this but this cup? This was an amazing cup of tea.

The product description says “Sweet nostalgic aroma of caramel and almonds. Delicious straight or with milk.” This tea leaf smells sweet. And brewed up, it’s a beautiful medium brown and smells lovely, although much less sweet. Drinking the tea straight up, it has hints of caramel and almond flavors; a nice light cup. However, I like to add splenda or honey to my black teas. And if you sweeten this? Wow, it’s amazing. Mellow, smooth caramel flavors. Rich, creamy, and sweet with an almond finish. I also tried this tea with milk, and while nice, I didn’t find that it added as much as the sweetener did.

I strongly recommend that those who like a little sweetness with their tea give this a try. It’s a lovely yummy cup of goodness.

You can purchase the Caramele directly from the Lupicia Tea website.

The initial scent I get from this tea reminds me of a darjeeling…light and a bit spicy. In fact, this almost seems light enough to be a bit reminiscent of some green teas that I have had. Steeping it for three minutes with just-boiled water, I’m greeted with creamy aromas from the golden-brown liquor. Despite being a little too eager to try it, and burning my lip on the first sip, once I wait and get in a (safe) first sip, I am delighted by the result. This tea is indeed creamy, just as the Canton Tea Co website describes. I am not so sure about the caramel notes, but I suppose I could see where one might pick up hints of those. To me, this tea has just the slightest bit of a malty aftertaste, creating an impeccable flavour.

A resteep of this tea brings about a much-subdued, yet still flavourful, brew. This is most definitely one of the best black teas I have ever tasted. On my personal enjoyment scale, I would give it 90/100. On top of that, I would definitely recommend this as one of the must-try teas for lovers of black teas.

You can purchase the Bai Lin Gong Fu directly from the Canton Tea Co. website. Save 15% right now when you use the code LEAF at checkout! Save 15% right now when you use the code LEAF at checkout!

East India Tea Company’s Director’s Blend came in a very attractive lavender tea tin with the picture of East India House on the front. The East India Tea Company held auctions in London, a grand tradition that lasted 300 years and controlled the monopoly for the import of tea and other goods from the Indies. The auctions were held at East India House and tea was sold “by the candle” – wherein a candle was lit at the beginning of the sale of each lot, and when an inch of the candle had burnt away, the hammer fell and the sale was ended rather than allowing the bidding to go on for an unlimited length of time.

I was excited to taste this tea as a “director’s blend” usually means higher quality tea. Director’s blends are the tea held back by the tea company for in-house use, saved for the directors and shareholders. This is why they are the best teas to drink.

As this is a director’s blend I wanted to get a true, thorough analysis of it. I originally was just going to review it as a tea drinker, therefore using steep time, temperature, and tea amounts as a tea drinker would. However I did not think this “tea drinker” review did it justice so I also reviewed the tea as a professional tea taster would. A professional tea tasting prepares a typically more concentrated tea, the flaws and qualities of the teas come to the forefront a lot easier and we can get a truer picture of the qualities and characteristics of the tea. This is also the case when milk is added for colour analysis.

Dried leaf of this blend shows orthodox, mixed with very little CTC, good roll and tippiness. The smell of the dried leaf is of malt, and this malty aroma becomes more intense once the leaves are steeped. Where I work, we would make blends for our own consumption using the same components as this director’s blend – Sri Lankan tea for its fragrant taste and aroma, Assam tea for the maltiness and body, and Kenyan tea for the strength. This is the traditional way of making black tea.

Review using a “tea drinker’s” steeping methodology, time and amounts:

This steeps to a very bright, beautiful dark orange to amber clear infusion. Interestingly enough the colour doesn’t carry through with milk added. The milk solution was a light brown, whitish, no reddish colour.

It is not very heavy or full in the mouth, rather it is a little light, could use a little more body. If this was an Assam CTC blend it would have more body rather than an Assam Orthodox. But then again you would not see CTC mixed with Orthodox on the market; it is just that this is a director’s blend so they can put in whatever they want, especially since this is a loose tea. There is some Kenyan CTC in it. At work we also drink our black tea loose mixing Assam Orthodox with Ceylon CTC and Kenyan CTC.

The “tea drinker’s” director’s blend is not very strong after a 3 minute infusion using 13 grams of teas and 1.7L of water. But it is very flavourful. I suspect there is a first flush assam in it on account of the peppery-ness, a high-grown Ceylon which gives it its flavourfulness, and if it weren’t for the description of the blend on the back I would not have guessed that there were Kenyan teas in it just by tasting it.

As it was not very strong, I let the tea steep an extra 2 minutes and now the tea is a bright amber colour and has a golden rim around the teas which was not present before.

Taste is stronger as would be expected but was not bitter even with more extended steeping. I think a four minute total steep would be ideal. I like to steep my black tea longer (maybe even 8 minutes) but I don’t drink it black. I just like the strength to go with the milk I add as it gives a little oomph to this light bodied tea. After I added milk to the 8 minute steep, it tasted interestingly like Hong Kong style milk tea (also known as pantyhose tea “si mut nai cha). Hong Kong style milk tea is usually Ceylon black blend with condensed milk.

Review using a professional tea tasting methodology, time, and amounts

For the professional tea tasting, using a scale I measured out 2.1 grams of tea and steeped it with 150ml of boiling water for 5 minutes. It is malty. From the cupping I found that the tea was a lot stronger, brisk and bold, and had more fullness than in the previous tasting. This tells me that the tea is actually a second flush, not a first flush Assam. Second flush Assam is the best Assam. There should also be high grown Ceylon in it because it is very flavourful and once again I would not have guessed that there was any Kenyan tea so the amount they used was probably not substantial. Steeped infusion is a lot redder than in the previous tasting. With milk added the reddish colour once again becomes more apparent in this tasting than the previous.

Overall as the true qualities of this tea show up in the professional tasting, I think this tea is excellent and of high quality. It is like an English Breakfast but really can be taken anytime of the day. It is fitting that this tea is a director’s blend.

You can purchase the Directors Blend directly from the The East India Company website.

Lapsang Souchong is also known as Wuyi Yunwu. The name Lapsang Souchong came from Tibet which once lay on the route of tea trade to Europe. In Tibetan language, Lapsang Souchong means “perfectly made by hands.” The Fukienese word “Souchong” literally means little variety or subvariety (of other black teas from Wuyi mountains of Fujian). Lapsang Souchong is famous for its smoky flavour. Legend claims that the smoking process was discovered by accident. During the Qing dynasty an army unit passing through Xingca (Star Village) camped in a tea factory filled with fresh leaves awaiting processing. When the soldiers left, the workers could finally get back to work, but they realized that it was too late to dry the leaves the usual way and make it to the market in time. So they lit open fires of pine wood to speed up the drying process. Not only did the tea reach the market in time, but the smoked pine flavour became a bigger hit than the slower dried Lapsang. A new product was born.

I was excited to taste Canton Tea’s Lapsang Souchong as I have enjoyed Canton teas in the past. I steeped 5 grams in 600ml of water for 2 minutes. The leaves are a twisted coppery brown colour. Now I have had bad luck with Lapsangs before, many tasting too smoky, and the last one tasting very medicinal like tiger balm to be exact. But Canton Tea’s Lapsang Souchong is nothing like that. The website describes it as like a campfire and that’s exactly how it tasted to me. Not too smoky, a natural soft smokiness, and hints of fruit. A quality Lapsang. I was beginning to think I wouldn’t be able to find one.

You can purchase the Original Lapsang Souchong Black Tea | Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong directly from the Canton Tea Co. website.

In 1875, a failed civil servant traveled from his home in Anhui Province, China to Fujian Province. The goal was to learn the secrets to black tea production. While Fujian was mainly known for its white teas and oolongs, the region also had Golden Monkey to brag about. He returned and set to work on a type of his own. The results were a hearty and sweet “red tea” that exceeded his wildest dreams. The new beverage took the name of the county where it was created – Qimen. Or as we “Anglish” know it, Keemun.

The tea also gained popularity as an export, becoming the principle ingredient for the titular English Breakfast blend. There are five true Keemun varieties in existence and one “faux” Keemun produced in a province west of Anhui. I had no idea that a Keemun variant was produced in Taiwan, but leave it to Mark T. Wendell Company to surprise me. Their site mentioned that this silver-leafed tea was one of their founder’s favorites, referring to it as the “Burgundy of tea”.

Rarely has Mark T. Wendell let me down in their selection of Formosa (or Taiwanese) teas. The first of theirs I ever sampled was the much-lauded Hu-Kwa – a Lapsang Souchong-inspired smoke tea. The notes were subtler than its campfire kin and also possessed a strange floral presence. From then on, I knew Taiwan could make a black tea. Their Formosa Keemun also promised something unusual. At first sight, the leaves were indeed as silvery as the site description proclaimed; they were also longer and twistier than their Chinese inspiration. The aroma was an odd mixture of dust, earth, nuts, rice and spice – like I was smelling a pu-erh blended with flowers and herbs.

Black tea brewing instructions on the MTW site called for a four-to-five-minute steep in 190F-200F (88C-93C) water. That was much stronger than I took my black teas. I had to give in to my palate preference on this one. I raised the water temp to 205F, used 1 heaping teaspoon of leaves in 8oz, and steeped for three minutes.

The results were a far lighter-looking beverage than I anticipated. The liquor ended up a dark gold color with a middling smoky/nutty nose to it. The lightness was probably due to my steep preference, but most Keemuns I had sipped fared well at three minutes. The flavor – as is often the case – was where this showed promise. Keemun proper usually possessed a bitter foretaste then settled into its sweeter notes. This, on the other hand, went straight for an earthy (almost leathery) prologue and settled into a textured pinecone-like middle. The aftertaste was understated but not unwelcome.

I can’t say this lives up to some of the best Keemuns I’ve tried. Keemun Gongfu does figure-eights around this variant on nuance alone. That said, the earthy characteristics give it a body and taste similar to another Formosa offering – Ruby Black. And from my sipping perspective, that isn’t bad company to keep. It’s still quite an acceptable alternative.

You can purchase the Formosa Keemun directly from the Mark T. Wendall Tea Company website.