Bailin Gongfu Black Tea

I brewed 8 oz. of Bailin Gongfu Black Tea western style with 2 tsp. exactly as recommended: 3 steeps: rise, 1m, 2m, 3m at 185*F. While I enjoyed the rich light chocolate / cocoa flavor, this tea was light-bodied. All three infusions were enjoyable and very consistent in body. I also tried a 2m first-infusion and it too was light-bodied. There was no hint of bitterness or astringency.

The following day, I received our new digital scale. I then brewed some Bailin Gongfu Black Tea using a full 8 grams of tea. Out of curiosity, I then measured the 8 grams with a teaspoon and found that it equaled 3 teaspoons. Even with this much tea leaf, I still found this black tea to be light-bodied.

Impression: A high-quality rich silky smooth black tea with a light chocolaty flavor and a caramel-like sweetness for those who enjoy lighter-bodied black teas.

Thank you to Angel Chen and TeaVivre for their gracious free sample of this high-quality tea.

Correction due to new scale: What I thought was 8.0 grams was actually 80 grains. I was in the incorrect weight mode due to the very small font used for the grain abbreviation (gn). Using a Grains-to-Grams conversion, the actual weight was 5.2 grams.

hmmm… I don’t think I like this one… it does leave a nice feeling in the mouth afterwards though. Oh well I have many more teas to try :D

Yep, no disagreement with all the glowing reviews of this tea! What a great Fujian. I find this type so calming for a black tea.

I needed to quickly snatch up a tea on my way to work to brew in the bottom of my infuser glass. Black is never really an option for that, but I had a susupicion that this one would hold up well. Indeed it does. It’s been hanging out at the bottom of my glass for two infusions over 45 minutes, and it has been consistently honey-sweet and delicious. No bitterness! just a nice, slightly roasty depth. I find it quite cocoa-y, which is really complementing the coconut flour brownies I made last night. Delicious! The lovely little packets are also perfect for work-brewing, but I’m hoping to try this one in my gaiwan soon. Thanks again to Teavivre for the samples.

This tea was amazing! Right after my first sip, my brain said, “This is some good black tea”. The first thing that occurred to me were some citrus notes – perhaps like a sweet lemon or tangerine. As I sipped on, I detected a sort of muscatel flavor that you would expect from a good Darjeeling. Finally, after several cups, the incredible smoothness of this tea is what really won me over. It has a little bit of that muscatel flavor without being abrasive.

This is another excellent tea from Tea Vivre. They’re batting 1000 with me right now, so I’d say any tea in their store is probably a safe bet. Their packaging is great too! I don’t know about their larger quantites, but the little samples they sent me could not have been done better! Four little pre-measured paper sacks with Chinese on them sealed inside of a larger ziplock bag with steeping instructions and info about the tea printed on it! Each paper sack contained about 4.5 grams, so two sacks were just enough to fill my Chatsford 4-cup! All bags are clearly labeled and completely opaque to guard from sunlight. Nice work!

I put off trying this one because I tend to think that I don’t like black teas. I try to avoid the caffeine, and I tend to be put off by their astringency. But I made this one today out of guilt at having avoided it, and am really surprised.

I like this a lot. Really, a lot. It’s delicious. I added a little bit of soymilk to it, and the richness of the tea still comes through. It’s bold, almost like a good oolong, with no astringency whatsoever. It’s kind of smokey and creamy and smooooth at the same time. I am realizing in trying this that I haven’t had a good black tea in forever. When I drink good tea, as opposed to most of the flavory-gimmicky stuff I enjoy, it’s usually green or oolong.

What a surprise! Try this if you don’t think you like black tea.

I bought a packet of this just before Christmas, and sadly I have just had the last steep from that packet. I get about three (four if I really push it) steeps per pot. This is another really nice tea from Teavivre. I feel like a bit of a fraud because I don’t think I have ever said anything bad about any of their teas. I realise that this is partly because of the self-selecting nature of my sample; I only order teas that I think I shall like, and I am now fairly experienced at that. However, I think it is also a testament to the quality of tea that Teavivre sells.

This tea is largely malt and cocoa to me with slightly sweet notes on the side. It reminds me of Assam tea and would certainly make a good replacement for your English Breakfast tea. Its only failing, and that is not the tea’s fault, is that I do not find it as good as the Golden Monkey that I got in the same order. This is a good tea, but I do prefer Golden Monkey.

Picked this one to try today. It’s nice but not my favorite black tea. The aroma kind of reminds me of hazelnut. But it’s super light. The flavor has a nice nuttiness to it and hints of caramel and cocoa. It’s delicious but it still doesn’t beat the one and only dragon pearls :]

Another one I received from Angel at Teavivre for the free tasting activity!

This is a great black tea. It is complex, dark, roasty. I always seem to get a different taste every time I try it. It is re-steepable. I brewed this one up my usual western style. I actually used the whole sample to make a pot of tea. Which is unusal for me as I usually go cup by cup because I always want to try something else. But I knew I would enjoy drinking this one today.

The dry tea is small leaves, uniform, quite airy. It smells of roasted potatoes. The brewed tea is dark in colour, reminding me of black coffee.

Today I am getting roasted nuts, potatoe-french fry-carb notes in the brewed tea. There is a slight, natural sweetness to the tea. I feel like there is some dark plum or black current notes hiding in the tea somewhere. I know a lot of people get chocolate or cocoa out of this tea, but I don’t. There may be some slight dark cocoa notes in the aftertaste but I think I am just looking really hard for it. Its still good either way. It is thick and bold with no astringency.

I had very high expectations for this tea based on the reviews and so I was mildly disappointed when it did not live up to them. Perhaps my own anticipation and expectation of flavor got in the way. As the tea cooled somewhat, the somewhat malty and very dark chocolate flavors came out, reminding me somewhat of the Numi chocolate puerh I had this morning. But the deep chocolate flavor in this tea did not taste like something added to the tea. I like the tea, but do not love it. I think it would be interesting base for adding other flavors (fans of this tea might think I am crazy).

Ashmanra got a sample from Teavivre today and shared a pot with me. Yay! I didn’t see the dry leaves but the wet leaves are good size and smell a bit sweet & kind of like molasses. It brews a medium brown. It tastes toasty, vegetal and has a lingering sweet afternote. It is similar to Teavanna’s Golden Monkey and Southern Season’s Zhen Quo Super China Black.