Bailin Gongfu Black Tea

Thank you ME for buying this tea!

I broke down and paid for Teavivre tea! Hee Hee!
So I have to thank myself for doing the right thing and buying one of my top 5 Black tea’s of all time (Truely this and Verdant’s Laoshan Black are #1 and #2 but I’m not telling in which order)!

My tea cupboard is awesome! Filled with bins of tea from the great to the wanna be great’s. I’ve become emotionally attached to some tea (hate to say this, but I’m a tea hoarder when it comes to some tea..you’d better not touch some of them…I’ll jump all over your…)
to the point that letting them go is almost out of the question. Sinful!

Writing reviews about some of the lesser quality tea’s can get to drag me down. UH! Burn out!

After awhile…I run..to my jewels, those beautiful special tea’s I can always count on for relief. Oh yes! Great tasting tea again! My precious! (I couldn’t resist!)
I am saved!

Today, I needed saving from the bad tea blues. My Bailin Gongfu Black could save anyone from the blues. It’s the best of Black Malty, Cocoa, Rich and Smooth, Bready, Golden Goodness!!!!!

Slurp, Gulp, Sweet or with Cream! Exceptional!

I Love, Love, LOVE THIS TEA

Despite having stayed up much too late last night and moving more slowly than I’d like today, I am feeling significantly better than I was the other night! I mean, I still have to go to work today, but I have tomorrow off and I don’t feel mopey and stressed like I have been.

Mmmmm. Earthy smoky goodness. Just what I was looking for. The more I try them, the more I start to like earthy flavors. Perhaps this will become a staple after all…

Thank you so much Teavivre! My order and contest winnings have arrived. I was very excited to win a pu-erh cake from that awesome contest, and I figured I might as well order with all my reward points I’ve accumulated so that the pu-erh cake didn’t have to travel through the mail so lonely. haha. (I ordered this one, the Keemun #1 which won in my taste test of all four keemuns and the review that won Teavvire’s contest and a bunch of samples, mostly oolong!)

I wanted to try this one right away. My previous sample of this one was almost two years old, so the harvest was bound to be different. It is. I tried to steep using similar parameters. It still has the distinctly bailin gongfu flavor, but it’s lighter than it once was. The flavor before was deep dark chocolate. This is still chocolate, but not dark chocolate! Still no astringency. I will probably find I love it more every time I steep this one, just like the previous harvest. I think this is the tea I’ve written the most tasting notes for.
Steep #1 // 2 tsps // 20 min after boiling // 2 min steep
Steep #2 // 10 min after boiling // 3 min steep

THIS IS A MONUMENTAL POST! DO YOU HEAR ME?! MONUMENTAL!!!!

This is a landmark for many reasons:
1.) THIS IS MY 100th tasting note! I can’t believe I’ve made so many!
2.) I have exactly 70 followers now! Thank you to everyone that puts up with my incoherent ramblin’s!
3.) This is my first 100 on a tea! Ironically on my 100th tasting note! Whuddathunkit?

So, thank you to everyone that’s stuck with me this whole time, I’ve already grown exponentially in my tea experience and I look forward to growing even more! Sorry that I haven’t been on for a few days, I’ve had a lot to do this week AND I wanted to make this note special because, it is afterall a landmark post. Also, I am sad to say that I most likely won’t be on for the rest of the week/weekend because I have the Vermont AllState Music Festival tomorrow through Saturday and then we are having a family dinner for Mother’s Day because my family from out of town are here visiting! Super exciting! You best believe that I will be drinking tea though!

So, onto this tea! Thank you very kindly to Angel and the rest of the Teavivre team, this tea is without a doubt one of the best blacks I’ve ever tried. I know that this will be a repeat of what I have said in the past and what other’s have said, but I love it so much. Last time I reviewed this I was going through a “moody I’m questioning what I like and how I like it” phase, but now I’m back and I can say fully that I love this one to death.

It has all the perfect characteristics that a Fujian should-it’s got a very nice, fresh baked bread taste (rye perhaps?). Alongside that is an extremely dark dark chocolate note that adds…… Not necessarily sweetness but rather a nice accent to the bread. Like a Pain au Chocolat, but a little bit of a grainier bread and a really dark chocolate.

In the second steep (unfortunately all I got to with this session today, although I know for a fact that it could have been steeped AT LEAST one or two more times) a realllllly yummy caramel taste came out. The grain started to back off a little in this one, though it was still definitely there. There was absolutely no astringency in either of these steeps!

This one is definitely going on the repurchase list! Thanks again to Angel and Teavivire for this sample as well as to all of my lovely followers for supporting me and reading my rambli-I mean reviews! Happy Drinking!

HOO YEAH! This sample sent me to to Tea Heaven! Best Teavivre tea I received by far! The darkest of black teas- Its roasty, almost ashy foretaste feels like silk in the mouth. It then overwhelmed me with roasted green beans (yes, I’ve been obsessed with beans lately) and was tantalizingly tangy in the aftertaste. That last bit made the impression on me of apple cider vinegar on a green bean salad.

1 rounded tsp for 8 oz

Really liking this today. 3 minutes better than 2. It is smooth and rich. I wouldn’t say it is a complex flavor… kind of “generic” black tea, but the smoothness is what makes it special. Good stuff.

Thanks to Angel & Teavivre for my wonderful second batch of samples, which generously included this one which I requested specifically since everyone here has been raving about it!

Like the Fengqing Black Dragon Pearls, this tea smelled quite deliciously chocolatey when I opened up the package. It may have leaned a touch moreso towards malty/yeasty, but there was definitely chocolate there. I probably used about 2 tsp for 8 or 10 oz. water.

The result is pretty tasty, very little astringency, a rich, malty, hay-y flavour with chocolatey flavours emerging more slowly. I stupidly finished the other cup of tea before even trying this one (clearly not in the right state of mind for tasting tea right now. Not at all.) but I think I preferred the pearls :)

ETA: Very interesting second infusion, especially after just drinking that of the Fengqing Dragon Pearls! I can’t really taste much of anything chocolatey, but there’s a surprising sweetness! No astringency even though I think it was steeped a good deal longer than the pearls. I think this is a black tea I could actually drink regularly with no additions (along with the pearls, the Laoshan Black…. I see a trend here!)

I wanted to steep this tea with my gongfu pot to see if I could bring out a little more of the chocolate notes and less of the grainy feeling to the tea.

Using my little gongfu pot. One note here: the leaves don’t get very large so make sure you use a straining device or else there will be leaves in your cup.

Quick rinse

I did four steepings at 30seconds, 40seconds, 60seconds, and 75seconds

I found with the gongfu steeping, there was a milder grainy aspect, which I enjoyed. It still wasn’t as sweet as I was hoping it would be. However, the chocolate did seem to come out a little more. I am pleased with this method and will continue to steep using this method with this tea.

Or if I continue to western brew this tea, I will take the first steeping as a rinse because I enjoyed the second and third steepings much more.

This is a sample from Azzrian, Thanks! Brewed this up as the first cup of the day. Not a bad cup of tea, but not my favorite either.

It’s a very grainy, malty tea. It really reminds me of the smell a friend’s house had while he was making beer. The end of the sip is sweet, reminding me of honey. Very thick mouth feel to it. It isn’t bitter or astringent at all, good marks for that.

I am ashamed to admit that I still have samples untasted that Teavivre sent to me. Tonight, after a productive work day, I decided that it should also be a productive tea day. So, on to tasty Teavivre samples! This particular one was one of the ones I was most excited to try.

The smell of the dry leaves is a mix of malt and hay. I get a hint of chocolate, but mostly I get malty notes and even a bit of molasses. The leaves are a beautiful mix of black, brown and golden.

The brew is a dark burgundy brown. It smells thick and inviting. I can see how it reminds some people of chocolate. I get sweet molasses notes and a hint of creaminess. The flavor is malty and still holds hints of hay. There is a strange sour flavor that lingers at the end of each sip. I added a little rock sugar and it helped smooth it out a little. It did taste quite a bit like malted chocolate balls! (or Milo which is malted chocolate milk that they have here in Ecuador!)

Sadly it, isn’t quite what I wanted but I recognize that it is very very good. I can see how it could be some people’s favorite. :)