Baguashan Mi Xian Black, lot 228

I’m back, I’ve missed you dear Steepster friends this week :-)

I’d like to thank Sil for incuding such a good one for me…This is right up my alley, beloved Taiwanese blacks!

I did many infusions this morning, using the new glass yixing pot I got on boxing day for peanuts…

The tea is gorgeous, it rendered a relatively light colour compared to other taiwanese black. It feels round in the mouth, like most teas with hints of honey do.

It has a very distinct smell and taste, if I can pin point properly that very faint sourness I get, I’d compare it to rye bread to give you an idea, that’s very pronounced when you smell the wet leaf and easier to identify. That’s what I do when I’m trying to get notes in the tea, smelling the wet leaf gives me a much better idea and helps me define the taste. But it is so relative and personal, what feels like rye bread to me, might feel like almond to someone else. That’s why I find reading about tea somewhat poetic…

All in all, this tea is superb and gave me great joy this morning,

Thank you so much Sil for knowing I would aporeciate this!

Taiwanese tea I got from Sil, thank you Sil.
It has the classic notes : honey, fruit. The body is really light even very light. Not my favourite Taiwanese tea but a pleasant cup.

Another BBBB tea, this one from Sil.
It’s funny, I’m just not into taiwanese teas as much as I was. I know I’ve said it before, there is this one taste, that I can’t quite place. It reminds me of coriander a little, & a little sour….I dunno. Anyway, it is, of course, in this tea as well, & although it’s not bad, it’s also not really all that appealing to me.

I’m off to run errands with mom, & BTW, today is my Mom & Dad’s 62nd wedding Anniversary!

..weird. I know i’ve had this before but i can’t seem to find a tasting note for it. Oh well..this was another tea from this morning since i need to stay moving on to some of my other teas. this is similar to other TTC taiwanese blacks but different in that it’s less juicy and honey sweet and closer to being malty, without actually being malty. if that makes sense. either way, a good cup for today!

This tea is a little different than some of the Taiwanese blacks I’ve had before as it is neither dominated by fruit, or the mint spicy tones you often find. Instead it actually does reference oatmeal, not in the aged tea/ exhausted steeping type of oatmeal flavour you get but actual oatmeal with grain, malt and a little hint of nut in it, contributing to a savoury comforting, rich flavour. As secondary notes it has fairly strong malt tones, sharp fruit ranging from long an to red currant, and honey tinged cocoa.

I brewed it 5 times (20, 30,55,120, &240s). It seemed to have a nice bit of resiliency, with malt retaining prominent notes and the cocoa honey note increasing in the first few steepings and the fruit changing from longan to a currant note in later steeps.

Maybe not my favourite Assam but still a warm, comforting and pleasant cup. Thanks to TastyBrew for allowing me the opportunity to try another of TTC’s black teas!