Pine Needle

065/365

This tea came to me from Liquid Proust’s Dark Matter group buy, all the way back in 2016. That’s how very behind I am with tea things in general. I decided to try this one first as I recently tried the Teavivre version, and I really want something to compare it to. Judging from the notes, this one’s going to be a very different experience!

I brewed this one western style, for around 3 minutes. I can’t say I was paying that much attention if I’m absolutely honest (work…), but it wasn’t longer than that. It’s a beautiful golden brown in colour, and smells rather deliciously of chocolate and malt.

The first thing I noticed was how smooth it is. I’ve said that about teas before, but this one brings new meaning – it goes down like silk. In flavour terms, it’s absolutely delicious – dark chocolate, with a touch of blackcurrant, and a slight underlying earthiness. A far cry from last weekend’s “sweet water” experience. It’s malty, too, but not at the expense of the other flavours, and less prominently than I expected.

This is a tea that shines. I could drink it all day, and I just might do that!

A tea I haven’t gotten to from Dark Matter 2016 yet. This tea wasn’t what I expected at all. The dry leaf was greenish, so I was kind of expecting something in the vein of a sheng puerh, which made me curious as to how it got into the Dark Matter group buy. To my surprise, this turned out to pretty much be a black tea.

The leaf smelled like a fruity black tea – I got notes of dates, fruit jam, blackberries and malt. The flavor of the first steep exhibited very similar notes to the aroma – malty with some dates or blackberry finish. The fruity flavors only lasted around one steep. After that, the tea got nice and malty with a bittersweet chocolate finish and sticky mouthfeel. Around the fifth steep, the texture started to thin down a bit and the chocolate notes mostly dropped off. After that, I just got another four or so malty and sweet steeps.

So I’m not really sure what this tea is, but the aroma, taste, and appearance of the wet leaves were all that of a hong. The dry leaf looked green (much like pine needles) but I guess that was just an odd anomaly. Certainly an interesting find in Dark Matter :)

I had to add some sweetener, possibly because I may have underleafed this. It started off tasting watered down until the addition of the sweetener. Overall incredibly tasty. Made in my gravity steeper.

From Dark Matter 2016

1st steep: Very rich chocolaty notes, with a hint of floral undertones. The mouthfeel is slightly drying. These flavors linger on the tongue whilst brewing a second cup.

2nd steep: There seems to be a honey note to the second infusion. A little bit of malt and hay as well. Still sweet, though.

3rd, 4th, and 5th steep: On the go…I’ll add a comment later…..

Note: My mother’s cousin passed away this week (Thursday). I didn’t know him that well, but my mother is taking it kind of hard, since they were close and he was the same age as my dad. The tea is mostly for the drive there…Anyway, sad day.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFZAZrqg-82/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFY_zr1g-7L/

From Dark Matter 2016:
Brewed this western style, boiling water, 3 min in a ceramic mug. First off this tea smelled Chocolatey amazing. In the past I tried finding ways to make rich dark hot chocolate by melting dark chocolate squares into hot water. This was how this tasted without the greasy mouthfeel, unmelted clumps, or watery flavor. It had a bit of malty sweetness and lingering full mouth flavor. I steeped again for 4 minutes and it was now brighter with a bit if astringency more like “regular” black tea. A third infusion was similar but lighter.

I wished there was more staying power to this tea, but I enjoyed this so much I looked on Life in teacup to see how much it would set me back, but I didn’t see it listed. Anyone know if it will be available?

I was surprised that this tea needed to be brewed Western style. I also need to try it again to really pay attention. I can say a few things, however. Malt predominated the cup, but a smooth caramelized malt with hints of a few other notes. It was fairly usual for a Yunnan Black, but the caffeine effect or really the qi was not. I’ve never been more alert from a black tea before. No jitters were felt. No head pressure endured.

I will write more about this tea, but for now, I’ll say thank you again to Whiteantlers. Now I need to divy up my tea and distribute it.

Oh Shit! This is Really damn good!
Malty,chocolatey with notes of dried fruit and hay, maybe even some honey notes in there and a slight caramel note comes through after a few steeps. Very smooth and kinda velvety, very delicious, No astringency or bitter at all. Severals very bold strong steeps, it just didn’t seem to want to play out, lost count of how many steeps because I was watching daredevil on Netflix.
A wonderful tea, Perfect for the Dark Matter.
I’m really enjoying this one, Thank You.

My 3rd tea from 2016 Dark Matter. After seeing no real reviews except for LP’s raving, I decided to give this one a go as it had caught my eye from the moment I first saw “Pine Needle”. Forgive my still-developing pallet if I can’t do it justice with my description:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEMtbonj_SD/?taken-by=pyramid_king_brandon

Dark Matter 2016, taste test

I bought over $40 of samples from Life in Teacup and they were nice enough to just take my money and pick out what they thought would be best :)

I was constantly reminded of the ‘Pine Needle’ tea from Yunnan because it highly suggested from them. Currently it is not being sold online so I feel a little special to try it. At first I drank it at work on break and played with the leaf: https://www.instagram.com/p/BBqREXaRYOj/

I’m now drinking it at home and decided that there is no way I could leave this out of the 2nd group buy I have going on this year: Dark Matter. This tea absolutely wonderful. It’s not often you’ll hear me say such a thing about a Yunnan black tea because they are all malty and lovely. What sets this apart? The mouth feel lingers for over 30 seconds and the taste just hits your brain like ‘woah’. No complains from me. No doubt in my mind that this is going to cause people to go over to Life in Teacup after trying this when they get it :)