Fujian Baroque

Amazing what a decent night’s sleep will do to your taste buds.

I can actually TASTE. Interesting to read previous notes on this one; all are a little different. First thing that comes to my mind is “malty darjeeling.” Really good malty. Thinking this will be tasty iced a little later today.

The other tea that my brother got me for my birfday.

I noticed the comparisons to Golden Monkey in other notes, so that is pretty much what I was expecting. The leaves are not particularly similar. Darker and not as crazy curly. Like Golden Monkey, it brews up pretty light, and it certainly does have something of the sweet, malty taste that characterizes GM, but it is still, very much it’s own tea. It has a very interesting spicy note to it, cinnamony perhaps? It’s neat because although overall it is a lighter tea than the Yunnan Noir, it is more complicated. The yunnan was quite uniform throughout, whereas this one has layers of taste and not even a hint of astringency – so big props for that.

A very nice afternoon tea, I’d say. Not enough kick in the morning for me, though.

Normally I don’t drink Chinese blacks with milk apart from the occaisional keemun. Yunnans, which this tea resembles a bit, in particular don’t work well with additives I’ve found. None the less I decided to experiment this morning and added a splash of skim milk, which to my surprised worked out quite well. It really brought out those faint cocoa notes and gave the whole thing a nice, smooth finish.

OMG I just noticed this morning that Ricky’s no-icon-uploaded-icon isn’t actually, because it’s mirrored! Never realised that before.

I’m feeling a little more human today, so I’ve made a pot of one of the remaining Bethany-teas.

I’ve tried sniffing the leaves, but they didn’t really seem to have much in the way of a smell. Pouring a few out in my hand, all I could really smell was my skin. I’m fairly certain the leaves aren’t actually supposed to smell like me, so I’m assuming it’s actually me smelling like me.

My expectations based on other people’s posts about this are dangerously high, so I’m a little worried about that. It’s always better when it’s the other way around. Low expectations → pleasant surprise. I’m also dangerously impatient and tempted the start before it’s really done steeping, even though I know that this rarely gives a good result.

Right, it’s ready now. Cocoa notes, check! And I’ve only poured the first cup. Fruity notes, check! They’re loud too. It smells a bit like when I was little and my mother made homemade jam from the blackcurrant bush we had in the garden.

What a surprising flavour! It’s very fruity in flavour. I’m surprised that this is supposed to be a plain tea. It definitely tastes like there’s been some sort of addition to it. I’ve checked the other teas that Bethany sent me, and I don’t think it sounds like any of those have rubbed off.

First there’s a little bit of a peppery sort of note, just a hint, and then there’s the tart fruity flavour. I can’t pick up the cocoa in the flavour, only in the aroma. Or maybe there is a small hint of it on the finish, but I’m not finding that on every sip, so I’m a little in doubt as to whether or not it’s something that I’m convincing myself that I can find because I really want to find it.

It’s good, but my enormously high expectations haven’t really been fulfilled. I could have lived with the fruit note not being quite this strong.

(Are we sure there isn’t any flavouring in this?)

ETA: I’ve pushed the rating down again as I’ve been drinking. This fruityness is getting a bit… much.

Almost to the end of this, although I think I may have another bag of it in my giant box of unopened teas. I’ve been eating too many sweetened things so this has been tasting almost dull but it’s okay. Too much going on to enjoy it completely.

I have a little of this one left. 12 yo DS wanted iced tea today, and he requested it be black tea and plain (none of that fruity frou frou). It is so cute because he is always wanting to taste my tea anymore. He does prefer iced tea, though. It won’t be long until I can win him over to the dark side. He likes coffee, too.

This one is really good iced!

Fiestaware Disc pitcher (about 50 oz), 9 actual tsp tea, freshly boiled water, 4 minutes. Allowed to cool to room temp and then slightly sweetened and poured over ice.

thanks starfevre for sending some of this in our trade! The only other Fujian tea I’ve had that I remember is an oolong that I really didn’t like because it was so charcoaly. It was too much for me! Luckily, this one is much better. The dry leaves are mixed — some are longer, twisty and black while some are yellow. The flavor is a lighter black. It does have a bit of a charcoal flavor, but just a hint, and also something like tobacco. This one is very good for a light black tea (and much better than the Adagio Irish Breakfast that I tried recently), but I like my black teas super dark and strong! It’s almost like I’m either craving a strong black tea or something like an oolong, but I’m sure sometimes I will want a lighter black tea and I will have this one! It’s kind of simple while also unique. If that makes sense.

Tea of the morning here, a sample I got from Adagio. The reviews here seem to run quite a range between very positive and very negative!

So sipping this plain I am getting a lot of cocoa notes at first, followed by something in the finish that reminds me of a keemun, I think it’s a slight tobacco taste. In the middle I am getting some of the fruity notes other people have mentioned. Adagio recommends steeping this for 3-5 minutes so I did mine for 4 minutes which I think is way too long for this tea. I have a suspicion it might be much better at the two minute mark. I think I will avoid rating this for now.

Ok, well, I didn’t want to sit too long on the less-than-glowing review of this tea from a few days ago before trying it again. This time I used 7g to match the treatment I gave Teavivre’s Bailin Gongfu and also the same 1, 2 and 3 minute steeps.

1st steep: It’s definitely stronger this time than it was with either the 3 or 5 minute steeps with 2.6g I used last time. It much darker in the cup, feels a little thicker (though not much), and the flavors are richer with freshly baked bread, cocoa and some peach. But it’s also got a stronger bitterness, with some sweetness developing after a while. But at least that means the flavors stick around longer too. This is no where near as deliriously good as the Bailin Gongfu: I don’t get the same flooding tide of inspiration with this tea. Right now I’d just consider this a good, sturdy cup of tea.
2nd steep: Astringency and bitterness seem to dominate this cup, but it’s still drinkable with some sweetness in the middle of the sip. There are flavors of bread with some cocoa.
3rd steep: I added a little honey this time. The dark color of the first two steeps is still there, but not much else. It feels thin. The honey is masking most of the bitterness even though I hardly put enough in to taste it. That’s really all I’m getting here. Just a rather tasteless cup of tea with an intermittent flavor of honey. Oh well.

Dry Smell: Like 86% dark chocolate from Ghirardelli.

Steeped: I don’t really have anything to say, which is a little odd. There really doesn’t seem to be anything that discernible about this tea from any other black tea I have had in the past. It’s not bad, just very run of the mill.