Downy Tips Black Tea

So things are finally starting to settle down after the move… Almost all of the boxes have been unpacked and pretty much everything has been put away, even if most of it is just a temporary home until I can find more permanent spaces… that’s always what I dislike most about moving, finding the right spot for everything in the new place…. But, as a benefit, I’ve discovered a lot of hoarded tea during this move squirrelled away in spaces that I had forgotten I had… This is a sample I picked up from someone during a swap when I was a little more active on this site than I’ve been recently… It’s also a sip down which makes me super happy because I’m pretty sure at this point I have over 500 different teas in various quantities laying around my house… I’ve had to hide tea all over the house in various cupboards so my husband doesn’t realize just HOW much tea I really do have… I would never hear the end of it!!! So, I’m working towards at least trying to finish off all my sample sized tea in the next couple of weeks… wish me luck… its a daunting prospect!!! Anyways, enough rambling… onto the tea review… This is a beautiful morning pick me up. It’s malty, earthy with a baked bread scent and taste. If I wasn’t on a mission to reduce my cupboard I would definitely buy some of this. This is the kind of tea that makes me happy to be sitting at my desk at work before everyone else gets in just enjoying the peace and quiet!

Thanks to Nicole for the sample! I put the whole 4.5g sample in my 100ml gaiwan. Water mostly in the 90-95deg range. Steeps starting at 10sec, adding a few each time, then some longer steeps (using the “ignore it for a while, and then go ‘oh yeah, tea!’ method”).

The dry leaves are gorgeous, black with lots of gold. The wet leaves have a really rich, earthy and spicy smell. The liquor is a bit less sweet than I was expecting, malty and earth/woody and a little bit fruity. Quite a few steeps in, I’m starting to get a bit of a drying sensation in the back of my throat, but otherwise it’s fairly smooth. It’s good but not something I feel the need to buy more of. :)

an ok tea

when I smell the leaves dry, I smell pepper and spices.

when I smell the leaves wet, the smell is intensified.

when I smell the brewed tea, I smell pepper and spices.

when I taste the brewed tea, I taste pepper and spices.

i rate this a 75 because I am not really into black teas.

many thanks to Scribbles for this ok tea sample :)

GCTTB

These look so nice. Long spindles of leaf, mostly a nice golden yellow, and dwindling to black. The brewed scent is all smooth chocolate with fruit and a bit of a malty edge. Taste wise, the malt is actually strongest for me. That strong chocolate scent doesn’t quite follow through in the flavour. It’s definitely there, just not as much as that great smell would have you believe. Quality, enjoyable, but didn’t stand out to me.

Another simultaneous triple taste test from the GCTTB4!

This tea reminds me quite a bit of WP’s Golden Orchid – there’s definitely that sweet fudgy note, like dark chocolate. No vanilla, though, but I did like the dark smokiness of it – I get what others are saying here about leather (which I tend to like!). The flavour was a bit thin, but I think that might have underleafed it – the leaves are so thick and fluffy.

The good folks at Mandala were kind enough to put together a black tea sampler in lieu of their “tea party in a box.” This one is very strong, and I may have over-leafed a bit. I brewed it in my gaiwan since the big leaves make it easy to do that. The box arrived yesterday, and this is the first I’ve tried. It’s good, but I’m not a fan of the wood and leather notes that others mentioned. The taste of wood reminds me a little of the way oak tastes in wine, and I don’t like it. Pronounced leather is not spectacularly appealing to me either.

It’s not bad, but I probably wouldn’t order a larger package of it either. I would only recommend it to people who know for a fact that they like leather and oak in their tea. For me, both notes add a bit of bitterness that I find unpleasant. I didn’t find this one smooth as others did.

A strong taste lingers as well — a little like yeasty baked bread or toast mixed with the taste of wood.

It does resteep unusually well for black tea, though. And I can tell it’s high quality tea; it’s just a flavor profile I don’t love. I think the flavor rounds out a bit in later steeps — the second and third were much better than the first for me. And the tea is a very appealing bright red color.

I had a bit more of this tea left than I used last time, but not enough for two cups, so in it went. Mostly because the tea is so fluffy and spindly that teaspoons aren’t really a great measure of the leaf amount anyway, so I knew splitting it would be a mistake.

This is really quite tasty. I looked back at the notes for this one and I have to say I don’t get any wood or leather in this at all. It is just nice sweet grains and molasses. Yum. Maybe because I am treating it with a lighter hand? I often find these fine Chinese black teas need to be brewed more like oolongs than people are used to brewing black teas.

I’ve had this before but don’t see my review. I opted for a long western brew of this today as i want to save my gonfu patience for later today with some puerhs since those are my closest sipdowns and i have a number of new puerhs to try as well as share with friends.

This is not my favourite from mandala but it’s a delicious one.Smooth, sweet, caramel and molasses. Not too heavy but not a light tea either. Great for a work from home tea day!

Tried this one earlier this morning. Wasn’t totally expecting to like it since the majority of flavors it lists on here don’t appeal to me all that much for the most part. So I wasn’t overly disappointed by not liking it.
The taste reminded me mainly of wood and an almost leathery taste. It was so so strong. I wasn’t expecting it to be that strong. I know I didn’t over-steep it, so no idea what on earth went wrong. Or if that’s just how it is.
But definitely not my cuppa. Anyway, thank you so much for the sample, Nicole!

Another sample from miss anonymous! I was happy to see this one, as I’ve tried a couple of Mandala’s black teas before and found them yummy. This one looks like a lovely fluffy pure bud Yunnan. The buds are floofy and fuzzy and about half golden, half grey. I can’t comment on the scent because everything from this package seems to smell vaguely of cinnamon, teehee.

Steeped, it smells amazingly milk chocolaty with some stonefruit (oooooh chocolate-covered dried apricots?!). Taste-wise, it’s very light. I can definitely taste that creamy milk chocolate flavor, but there’s also a light savory taste that I generally find in Yunnan teas. It’s an interesting combination! The stonefruit, specifically apricot, is also quite present, especially near the end of the sip. Yummy!