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This is a pretty nice tea. It is quite smoky, but I think a medium smoke as Lapsang Souchong goes. This is not a tea I drink straight. I added sugar and just a splash of creamer. It is the only tea I take with any sort of creamer. I believe it is still the only black tea from Simpson and Vail from Taiwan.

I brewed this in a 36oz Cobalt Betty teapot with 6 tsp leaf and boiling water for 3 minutes.

Took a big risk on this tea as I was buying a large quantity without tasting it. I bought 2 5kg bings of this, one for myself, one for my EBay store. It wasn’t a complete risk because I have had a variety of teas from Dr Puer Tea and they have all been good. This one turned out to be just a little short of spectacular. There was a bittersweet note in the start and a fair amount of fermentation flavor to it but no off flavors from the fermentation. There was perhaps just the barest hint of spice. After only a few steeps the bitter note was gone and a sweet note remained that was delightful. It felt like I added sugar to it it was so sweet. The really surprising thing about this tea was the qi. It was incredibly strong through perhaps six or seven steeps. This tea was well worth the risk and hopefully someone else will find that out too by buying the one I have for sale at Ebay. This tea did not come cheap but when you think of it in grams per dollar it is not expensive. You just don’t get a 5kg bing of tea for under $50.

I will not give this tea a numerical score because I am selling it on EBay. I took a chance on this tea. I could have been terrible. Luckily could have did not translate into was terrible. It started off with three distinct notes, fermentation taste, a dark bittersweet taste, not sure if I would go as far as to say bittersweet chocolate however, and a spicy or camphor note. This tea was fairly well compressed and took two steeps to open up. For the first five or six steeps the bittersweet note and the earthy note was strong. It is worth noting that I didn’t taste any fishy taste or off taste in the fermentation taste. Somewhere around the eighth steep it turned into a pure sweet tea but the camphor or spicy note continued. By the tenth steep the spicy note was gone and all that was left was a sweet note. I would say a note of dried fruit, the kind without any sugar and a variety of fruit that only has a mild sweetness not a strong sweet note that a pineapple would give. But a sweet note it was in the finish.

I steeped this tea thirteen times in a 120ml gaiwan with 8.8g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, 2 min, and 2.5 minutes.

Bought this to see if it was as good as the Teavana Mango Black tea. The best I can say is it is different. The Teavana tea was a lighter colored brew with more mango flavor to it. This has a stronger black tea element and a nice mango taste. I think it will be good iced too. I was curious to see if Starbucks would be selling anything from the now defunct Teavana as they still own the rights. Currently they are only selling prepared tea under the Teavana name, a few pre bottled as iced teas and a few hot that I think they make from a tea bag. I don’t think Starbucks being a coffee company ever understood tea and the tea markets around this country and abroad. I had hoped they might carry the rock sugar but so far no dice.

This is overall a fairly nice tea, but the flavors are a little weak, both the cream flavor and the nut flavor.

While this is a fairly nice tea, neither the strawberry flavor or the cream flavor is very strong. Will try it as a cold brewed iced tea and see what I get.

This is a fairly nice tea with a bittersweet start. There were some notes of mushroom and woodsy notes in the first few steeps. This slowly turned sweeter, with a bit of a fruity tang by the eighth steep. Not bad at all when you consider the price, $28 for three 250g mushroom tuos. I did not notice too much in the way of fermentation flavor to this one although that is not to say it has cleared.

I brewed this eight times in a 160ml Jian Shui teapot with 13g leaf. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, and 20 sec.

This is excellent tea considering the price of $12. It had little bitterness even in the first steep with a sort of muted sweetness, just a very light sweet note without a bitter background note. There was some fermentation taste but I didn’t notice it all that much. A few steeps in a note that I would describe as dry grapes emerged that only lasted about two or three steeps. Then it was back to a muted sweetness. This tea was quite the find for the price. While certainly not as good as a $100 shou brick from someone like Hai Lang Hao it was incredible considering the price. This is one I would definitely buy again if I run out of it.

I steeped this tea eight times in a 207ml Taiwan Clay Teapot with 17.5g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, and 20 seconds. Going to go back and steep it a few more times for some photos.

Drinking this tea for a second time. It is still quite good. This time I didn’t get any bitter notes but sweet notes from the first steep. I felt some cha qi from the tea but not as much as last time. Thhs was a fairly complex tea with different notes emerging as I resteeped it. I still give this tea high marks. It was not quite as lasting as the LBZ ripe. This one was a blend of Xin Ban Zhang and nearby towns leaf.

I steeped this tea 24 times in a 50ml porcelain teapot with 5.4g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 7 sec, 7 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 10 sec, 10 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 15 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 20 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 25 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 30 sec, and 30 sec. There is no doubt that I could get another four or five steepings out of this with longer times.

Drinking one today that Moylor sent as a free gift. I didn’t realize just how inexpensive the brick was on there site, less than $3. Fot that price I would normally expect an absolutely terrible tea but this one was fairly good overall. It had a strong fermentation taste that lasted through at least five steeps. It also had a case of disappearing mold. One photo of the tea it appeared moldy to the camera. But a took another photo in better light and there was no mold. I only steeped this six times but will steep it again for some pictures of my teaware.

I steeped this six times in a 180ml Yixing Teapot with 12g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, and 20 sec.