Joseph Wesley Black Tea

This black is worth playing with steeping methods – gongfu and western give you different results, but both very complex.

Gongfu (boil, 1g 15ml), I got a savory tea of chocolate mole, char, bittersweet, molasses. Later steepings got brown sugar and malt sweet. It was never dry.

Western (190F 4g 10oz), the keemun was a meld of savory, fruity and sweet with a dry finish that wasn’t present in the gongfu steeping.

Full review on Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/05-keemun-congfu-joseph-wesley-black-tea-tea-review/

This tea is good, quite good. It is slightly malty. It has chocolate notes. It can be described as creamy. It is one of the best black teas I have tried.

I brewed this once in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 185 degree water for 2 min.

I had this earlier today and found it to be a tasty, but fairly unremarkable Assam. Smooth, malty, pretty much what I expect from a good assam. Reading other people’s reviews makes me think I should go back and pay a bit more attention. :)

This tea is quite good. It’s not a smoky lapsang. There are some notes of malt in there. There are some notes of chocolate in there. Very tasty.

I brewed this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Graqvity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 200 degree water for 3 min.

Bought this at the tea festival in NYC the other day. It is quite good. It’s not malty. It’s not too astringent. Has a bit of a fruity note but not a strong one. It’s a fairly mild tasting black tea in truth. I don’t know if this is a first or second flush Darjeeling. The website says it was picked before the monsoon. They also mention a spicy note and thinking about it now it is in fact there, but mild.

I brewed this once in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 185 degree water for 3 min.

I am brewing this gongfu style. The leaves in a warm gaiwan smell chocolatey and buttery. It has kind of graham cracker crust or toffee scent as well. The wet leaves smell perfumed and floral with fig notes.

The flavor of the first infusion is really pleasant. It’s a good mix of dark fruit flavor like plum or fig, with buttery and floral notes. There really isn’t much bitterness to be found here and the feel of the tea is really smooth.

The second infusion is tasting more floral and plum like, really buttery and mouth-filling, juicy. There are notes of chocolate in the aroma of the liquor. The finish of the flavor is like malt and dark chocolate.

By the third infusion the flavor is darker and more sweet. Notes of chocolate come through more strongly. The flavor is rich and more fruity than floral. There are lingering notes of cinnamon.

The fourth infusion is also deep and rich. More of the same flavors as the third, but not quite as sweet.

I was overall impresed by this tea. I have never had tea from Joseph Wesley before, much less even heard of this company before I got this sample, so I’m glad I was pleasantly surprised. I’ve only had maybe three Bailin Gongfu teas before but this was easily my favorite one. Might have to put this on my wishlist! Thanks mtchyg for the sample!

I’m not quite sure what to say about this one. I am always happy to try tea that my friends generously send me, but in general I don’t really like Indian black teas.

This is light with some high notes. It’s not as acidic/astringent as I normally find Assam teas. The fact that I’ve drank three cups of it tonight must mean that it’s not that far out of my comfort zone. I guess that also means that this is not a typical Assam. I’m sure this is a quality tea – JW has great teas, but it’s just not to my tastes/preferences.

Thanks Sil for the opportunity to try it. :))

It’s not too often that I get teadrunk off of an oolong, but 47 Instagram photos later, here I am. The first time I had this tea, I used 4g in a 100ml gaiwan (actually, the 100ml gaiwan that Joseph Wesley so generously gave away, which was to me :-) and it was just ok. Both Cwyn and Boychik have both recommended not to skimp on the leaf, and they were right. So this time I crammed about 7g into my tiny little 100ml yancha pot, which was as much as it would hold, and used boiling water and short steeps. The result is a tea that is nothing short of fantastic. Sweet, roasty, nutty goodness, with a lovely mineral aftertaste and lingering mouthfeel. My only regret is that I bought only 25g.

Very good.
Really enjoying this! There is a certain profile of oolong that really gets me, and yes, this is IT. Roasty. A bit fruity. Peach maybe? Highly oxidized. Mineral notes. Honey.
I can’t wait to try this in a gaiwan. and now I’m sad there’s only 25g. Le sighs.

This company has recently sparked my interest, for I had never noticed them until just recently. I enjoy their product appearance, and I knew I had to give them a go. I acquired some of this tea, so I decided to brew it up. The leaf consists of small delicate ebony curls that give off a sweet musky cherry scent. I was also picking up some dark chocolate tones. I placed them inside the warmed teapot and gave them a shake. The scent became a sweet butter or molasses scent. I was still picking up the chocolate tone, only it became much more smooth. I washed the leaves once and prepared for brewing. The steeped leaves transform towards more sharper tones of malt, dark wood, and burnt sugar. The flavor began as pure buttery molasses. The taste was sweet, smooth, and lasting. The second steep brought more maltier and wood flavors. The next steeping session slowly pushed the tea into a rough and robust direction. I really enjoyed this tea, but I believe it should be brewed western instead of gongfu. I know that I should explore more from this company, and I am happy to have tried this.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BAGFeNqTGZQ/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

My Joseph Wesley teas are fading fast now. The flavor just isn’t there anymore.

I really should have used two teaspoons for this instead of just one. :(

I’ve only been drinking green teas the last few days so it’s really exciting to bring out the black teas today. Starting with this one, which I haven’t had in a bit. The smell is chocolate, the leaves are beautifully twisted. I accidentally oversteeped (got distracted at work), but even so this has such a lovely flavor. No bitterness as I was expecting. I’m tasting chocolate and, surprisingly, marshmallow! I’m having this with some homemade almond milk that my brother made and it’s really nice.

Uhhhhm ok so this tea? so good. So so so freakin good!
The first steep was wonderful. Even after it had cooled a bit, I found the flavour to have an essence of warmness about it. Like sitting by a fire, but not too close.
Something creamy in there as well. I found that there were fleeting hints of cocoa as well, but never for long enough for me to grasp it.
The second steep was good too, more like the traditional high quality keemums I first fell in love with and then couldn’t find again, years ago. Not quite as warming or dark, with definite emerging cocoa notes this time, and an edge of creaminess. Finally, I noticed a lingering honey like sweetness in the aftertaste.
It’s been a long time since I was excited about a third steep, so fingers crossed it delivers!

This tea is fantastic. i love heavy roasted Yancha. the roast is skillfully done so it has no ashtray taste. i tried it twice and placed an order last night for another 75g. since its Limited edition tea. last year Da Hong Pao and Qi Lan were sold out pretty quickly

The brew is deep red color. its mix of fruity floral and some roasted nuts in the background. this kind of tea i always brew with boil water and short steeps. it gives me nice long lasting sweetness.

Btw Joseph Wesley tea is having giveaway of their brand new gaiwan on instagram. He asked me to help him with it. its gorgeous and very functional. thick, flared so you dont burn fingers and coated with pretty porcelain glaze. the giveaway is till December 21. international too. go try your luck!

https://instagram.com/p/_UqdruBwn1/

Thank you to the Steepster friend who gifted me this tea. This is one tasty tea. There was virtually no bitterness and little astringency. I detected no malt in this. The Steepster description of chocolate and raisins is fairly close to accurate. There were a variety of sweet notes to this tea. This is my first taste of Joseph Wesley teas and I like it. I will have to add their name to my list of companies to order from. This is I have to say one of the smoothest black teas I have had. No unpleasant notes to it. It was clearly processed right.

I steeped this ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 7g leaf and 200 degree water. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min. This tea was not done at ten steeps but I am at my caffeine limit for the day. This tea keeps going more like a puerh than a black tea. Quite nice.