Red Biluo Single Bud

Haha. Whoops.

I tried 1 tsp of leaf in 12 oz water, steeped 6 minutes. This one… well, it smells delicious this way but it’s kinda weak. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m not feeling well and my taste buds are off, or if it’s because I shouldn’t have steeped this tea this way.

It smells rich and carby and a little spicy.

It tastes.. like thick, slightly sweet, hot water.

I’ll have to try this one again. Thanks so much for the sample, Dex! The leaves on this one are ultra cute. :)

This is a really lovely tea… I’ve steeped it 7 times already in my gaiwan, and it just keeps giving me fabulous liquor.
Roasted carrots, buttered parsnips, and winter squash….savory, but with this really refreshing crispness as the final note. Not bitter or astringent, just crisp and refreshing.
The leaf is gorgeous, starting out curled and tight, unfurling more and more with each steep… the liquor colour is really beautiful, too.
Thank you so much, Dexter for sending me this to try! I really love it! :)))

nom! Cameron B. sent this one my way and this afternoon i had this for a couple steeps. I’m not the worlds most huge fan of snaily tea but i DO rather like this one. it’s sweet and malty and downright delicious! I picked up on honey notes and some cocoa. I think i’d like to pick up more of this in future…if i can handle aliexpress lol

I received a sample of this from yyz. Thank you so much.
This is awesome. Fantastic snail type black tea. Sweet, malty, hint of chocolate, smooth, just plain YUMMY!

Sipdown!

The first time I tried this I was a little distracted and noticed only the predominant sweet potato and dark sweetness.

This morning’s cup really hit the spot. I’m still getting the sweet potato and molasses, but I’m also noticing some spiciness. The mouthfeel is lovely – has some heft/thickness to it.

This is ridiculously good! Thank you so much for sharing Cameron B! Need MORE of this!!

Trying another tea from Han Xiang Ecological Tea via AliExpress this morning! I’m very happy to have new and exciting Yunnan teas in the house! Some of these may end up going in the cupboard, but I have to try them all first to determine whether or not they’re keepers. I must say, these are very generous samples for only two bucks, especially since I got three baggies of some of them when I was only supposed to get two! Plus free samples! Anyway, this tea. It looks similar to the other biluochun black tea I’ve had (the Whispering Pines version). The little curls are almost all golden, with some little black stripes mixed in. Dry scent is mild and honey-sweet with stonefruit notes.

Brewed, this tea smells strongly of sweet potatoes. Yum! There are also bread and nice sweet honey scents. This tea is lovely and malty with a rich sweet potatoey taste that fills the mouth. Underneath the sweet potato is a nice bready quality that reminds me of light, crisp, crusty toast with honey spread over the top. Near the end of the sip and in the aftertaste, I taste faint stonefruit notes and something that seems a bit floral. Overall, very tasty!

I need to do a 3-way tasteoff between this tea and the Whispering Pines and Yunnan Sourcing versions (as soon as I order the YS one, teehee).

Opening up the bag, i was greeted by the rich scent of cocoa and molasses, which eminated from the pile of golden, downy, corkscrews of the biluochun black tea contained within.

They looked like this: http://instagram.com/p/pCIOe-mKxW/

or for better pictures go to the product description:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/2012-yunnan-dian-hong-tea-gold-screw-black-tea-125-70-pehcans/868995273.html

I used 1 TSP of leaf/170ml Taiwan/@ 92*C and brewed it 8 times (60,45,45,60,90,120s, 180s, 5 min)

After an initial steep of 1 minute I had a just deeper than sepia brown broth with a gold a greenish brown ring at edges of the cup, with some bubbles on top while brewing. Future steeps had a warmer honey brown coloured brew with the surrounding ring.

This tea had a scent of cocoa, molasses/ dark honey tone, sweet potato, light spice cinnamon touched with nutmeg, a hint of citrus, a hint of clover.

This tea consistently maintained cocoa, dark honey, and malt tones. It also had roasted sweet potato, clover flowers, cream, citrus, plum, amber and spice notes. Generally the cocoa, honey, malt and sweet potato notes generally competed for dominance. The first steep tasted very much like scalded milk hot chocolate and was very creamy. Overall I am very happy with this tea!

1 min. Cocoa, floral clover note, dark honey, hint of spice from a smoke/ roasted note, almost an amber tone, which as it cools develops into a tone that when mixed with cocoa reminds me of hot chocolate made with scalded milk. hint of citrus and the brighter tones of malt, slight hint of cooked plum it feels creamy on the tongue.

45s Roasted sweet potato, cocoa, honey, citrus tones of malt, plum, cinnamon, cream. There are stronger chocolate and malt notes, with hints of clover and dark honey/molasses. It feels tingling from spice tones in the front of the mouth. Sweet potato note mixed with cocoa, citrus and plum tones and opens up to a cream tone that blends with the other flavours. this steep is much more tannic than the first one.

45s. Cocoa, roasted sweet potato, honey, citrus floral note, spice, and plum, before opening up to the deeper tones of malt.

60s. Roasted sweet potato, honey, malt and citrus tones, cocoa and spice.

90s. Malt, cocoa and honey, sweet potato, citrus tones, less spice.

120s, honey, sweet potato,slight floral , malt, very faint touch of cocoa.

180s. And 5 min. Malt, honey, cocoa.