Vietnamese Black OP

sample. i was curious how Vietnamese tea taste like. this one is nice mellow sweet and a little malty. if it would be blind testing i would say its blend of Assam and Dargeeling, but very muted. maybe if i let it steep longer it would be more flavorful but i didnt want to face bitter notes. i added condensed milk to the second cup and it was lovely dessert.

Surprisingly tasty! This is a rich and, yes, malty tea. I like it.

This would probably be DELICIOUS with sweetened condensed milk, but I don’t have any left.

Woohoo, first sipdown in a long time! (244/405, but let’s not focus on how many more I have to go)

I did a double take while this was steeping, because I sniffed the wet leaf and it smelled exactly like Marmite on toast. Wild. The liquor itself isn’t quite as spot-on, but it is very malty, bready and yeasty (?), which is probably where the comparison came from. As much as I am a self-professed Marmite lover, I can’t stand Bovril, and I didn’t fancy drinking Marmite either. Luckily, it’s in scent only. The tea itself is malty, with a light astringency (I was still able to drink it black so not too astringent) and definite raisin notes. I rather enjoyed it! Sadly, I tried to resteep my leaf and got a cup of deceivingly-dark hot water. Never mind.

Thanks to MissB for sending this my way, I never would have tried it otherwise!

So this one is woody, with a hint of bread to it. Might be really woody because I over-steeped it a bit, but It wasn’t a long over-steep so I think that that note kinda already existed there. :/
So yeah, not really a fan. Think I’ll just list this one as a freebie on my sale list. xD It’s not that it’s a bad tea, I guess I’m just not in the mood to play around with it tons to make sure that it can’t be a really good tea that I fall in love with. :S

This is fine, but it’s definitely not the best OP I’ve tried — not even the best one from H&S. The flavor just seems kind of muted. As others have noted, there is something a bit Assam about it. In fact, it tastes a lot more like an Assam than an OP.

Really missing those Tealet OPs right about now.

Good morning Steepster! I ordered some black tea samples from Harney & Sons a week or so ago when they were having free shipping. I love it when I can get away with some samples for just a few bucks and not have to pay for shipping! Anyway, one to the tea! I picked up a few lower-priced straight blacks that sounded interesting, this being one of them. I’m not too familiar with Vietnamese teas, but the leaf looks similar to an Assam to me. Dry scent is a combination of malt, hay, and dried fruits.

This does remind me of Assam. It’s a somewhat generic malty tea with some earthy tones as well. However, there’s no astringency, which is a nice change of pace. I can taste very light bread and raisin notes. Sort of like an Assam with a touch of Keemun? Not bad!

Thanks so much for this one DigniTea! I expect Harney’s teas to usually be very astringent for some reason (maybe I was oversteeping them). But this tea is anything but astringent! I’m actually surprised at how sweet it is, even as it cools. I could swear I added sugar… maybe the caramel tea next to it was so strong that it affected it? I love the maltiness of this one. Always love my malty teas. It also has a dried grassy taste as it cools. The second steep was also very nice…almost an identical flavor. This will be a sipdown next time but I’m adding this to my shopping list so I can remember how much I love it.
Steep #1 // 4 min after boiling // 3 min
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 min

This tea has a pleasant malty aroma. It has a malty taste that is rich and sweet. I was really liking this tea, but it lost me with the aftertaste. Kind of like a movie with a great beginning and a bad ending (similar to any M. Night Shyamalan movie made after “The Sixth Sense”).