Hao Ya 'B'

This brew has a very smokey aroma and a nice, dark color. The flavor is bold and earthy, only slightly bitter, with a crisp, dry finish. I can see this tea being an excellent substitute for black coffee. The flavor is strong enough to be enjoyed without cream or sugar, but they do add a new dimension to the flavor. This Keemun seems to me, at least, to have a rounder, more mouth-filling taste than English Breakfast while still having that dark, slightly smokey Keemun quality you don’t find in an Assam, for example. In general I prefer Indian black teas, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I like Hao Ya ‘B’. It is a very satisfying cup of tea.

Besides celebrating Independence Day this week, I am also celebrating the receipt of a tea that I’ve been wanting to try for a long time. My Harney & Sons points accumulated from previous purchases made it possible for me to reel this one in within my budget. I’m excited to give this tea a whirl. So, without further adieu, away we go….

When I opened the black Harney & Sons bag, a sweet and malty aroma greeted me. The dark brown leaves were medium length.

I steeped the leaves for five minutes at 212 degrees. The color of the brewed liquor was dark amber. The aroma was surprisingly weaker than in its unsteeped state but there was still a detectable sweet potato odor that was not unpleasant.

The flavor was mild. I again recognized sweet potato that was now accompanied by malty attributes. The taste had a slight twinge of astringency with the initial few sips but this characteristic quickly disappeared. The trademark keemun smoothness was very much in the moment. The aftertaste was light and gentle.

Although this isn’t the most flavor-fortified tea I’ve experienced, it is still a smooth and solid keemun with all the flavor notes that I expected. Another “thumbs up” for Harney & Sons.

This is really delicious. The dry leaves smell earthy and bready, but the aroma opens up into so many layers in the steeped tea. The bread is still there, but there’s also a toasty sweetness that is sometimes caramel and sometimes brown sugar, and there are notes of chocolate and molasses as well. It’s a pretty, clear, cherrywood red color.

I would call both the aroma and taste more toasty than smoky. I’ve been drinking a fair amount of lapsang lately, so I have a high threshold for smoky — this doesn’t give off enough smoke for me to notice it. But toasty, definitely yes.

Someone else referred to this as stout. I don’t get that from it. It’s hearty, yes, but stout to me means thickly bready like stout beer. I’d say hearty but more medium bodied than full.

It’s not head-blastingly strong, but it’s flavorful and a nice wake up tea.

It’s been a while since I have reviewed a Keemun of any sort, so I figured I may as well go ahead and post this review while I was still at my computer. This was the first of the rediscovered 2017 Harney & Sons black tea samples I finished earlier in the week. I found it to be a very nice Hao Ya B.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a very quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose leaf material in 4 ounces of 212 F water for 3 seconds. This infusion was chased by 16 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 5 seconds, 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, I detected aromas of chocolate, honey, and baked bread coming from the dry leaf material. After the rinse, I noted an emerging roasted nut scent. The first proper infusion then brought out some hints of brown sugar and leather on the nose. Oddly, I found that the mouth did not closely follow the nose for me. I found notes of smoke, malt, cream, and roasted walnut on the entry. These notes were then chased by impressions of baked bread, chocolate, and honey. Subsequent infusions saw impressions of cedar, pine, smoke, and malt come out on the nose. The cedar and pine also started to come out in the mouth alongside new notes of butter, roasted chestnut, cinnamon, nutmeg, minerals, and plum. Previously absent notes of brown sugar came out in the mouth, though they gradually transitioned to more of a caramel presence. I also began to get notes of leather in the mouth and some stronger impressions of baked bread, honey, and chocolate. The later infusions were mostly dominated by notes of minerals, leather, roasted walnut, and smoke, though I could still pick out some vague, lingering notes of malt, honey, caramel, and cinnamon in the background.

A very nice, very respectable Keemun Hao Ya B, this was a satisfying black tea. Despite its admirable complexity, it didn’t quite blow me away. Truthfully, I tend to prefer Hao Ya A and Keemun Mao Feng over Hao Ya B, but I would have no issue recommending this tea to those who are looking for a good Keemun. Harney & Sons always seem to do an admirable job sourcing teas of this type. I don’t think that one can go wrong with their offerings.

I got this tea as a gift from Kaliska back in the summer and I’ve been holding on to it. I tried it iced and found that it’s not a very good black tea for that, so I saved it for winter when I’d want it hot.

First of all, this is the first tea I’ve gotten from Harney & Sons that came in both a tin and a foil pouch. Neat! Inside the pouch, the leaves are dark and tiny. Very narrow and fine, but not broken up. They’re so fine that when I scoop them with a teaspoon, I get a very dense amount. That comes into play later.

The resulting tea is hearty and rich, perfect for the first cup of the day. I certainly felt motivated by it! Since you get so much tea leaf per scoop, it’s easy to make it come out strong whether you meant to or not. There’s a hint of bitterness from this preparation, but in a good way. It’s tasty in the way that fancy dark chocolate is tasty. (To be clear, this isn’t a chocolatey tea, I’m just comparing the pleasant bitterness factors.)

I taste notes of honey, malt, wheat, and grains. It’s very satisfying. There’s a fair amount of astringency, but that’s common in keemuns and was expected. Others here on Steepster have called this tea smoky, but I’m not tasting it. Huh. I look forward to going through this tea throughout the winter.

I’m new to tea and got this as a sample. It tasted like regular Lipton tea I had growing up.

Not sure I’d drink it again.

The best keemun!

I am really undecided about this tea, I disliked it brewed for 5 min and at 3 I wasn’t sure. Will have to have some more. Loved the smell