Assam "Black Beauty" #8

Hands down my favourite black tea, my go to each morning.

This tea was a revelation. Yes, grown in Taiwan, but the finest, cleanest, most enjoyable Assamica I’ve found, other than Tealyra’s Brandy Oolong 18. Both come from the Sun Moon Lake region of Taiwan. I buy this one by the half pound and enjoy every cup. The intensity varies from year to year, but it has always been great. More of a raisin-caramel-malt and honey flavor that I find to be the essence of Assamic. It’ a flavor of its own. Second steep is more subdued and woodier, but still good. Stop there. You’ll find huge, intact leaves over 2” long. Black Beauty #8 and Brandy Oolong #18 are my #1 favorites, hands down.

I was excited to try this tea, partly due to the description (it sounds exactly the kind of tea that I like), and partly due to the fact that I had great success with Tealyra’s Brandy Oolong, which is currently my favourite tea. In fact I had ran out of Brandy Oolong and placed another order especially to get some more, and I added this tea to the order as well. It wasn’t long before it arrived that I was brewing it.

Appearance-wise it looks fantastic, brewing up a wonderful rich amber colour. The smell is slightly sweet and very inviting.

As for the taste… just wow. It delivers as per the description. It shares a creamy, caramelly smoothness with the Brandy Oolong that I love so much. This is like no Assam that I have tried before; if anything I would say that it is closer in taste to Golden Monkey, which I love.

I find that it holds up to multiple steeps relatively well. I went for 2 minutes, then 3m 45, then 8m (basically as long as you want, you’re just extracting any remaining flavour here). Even at the last steep it wasn’t bitter.

A little expensive perhaps, but I imagine that I’ll be treating myself to some more of this before long.