Superfine Tan Yang Gong Fu Black Tea

The dashboard is down and I can’t read any new reviews :( So I will write my own. This tea has its work cut out for it. While brewing it I fixed a ham and turkey sandwich with farmers market spinach, leaf lettuce from our garden, muenster cheese (should have used smoked gouda). I also poured on my new favorite – great value chipotle ranch dressing. It is not overly spicy. Just the right mix of spicy and creamy, but it is more potent than some teas could handle. The tan yang smells so good in the cup. Best of all the sweet potato and honey cut right through the sandwich when sipping. What a tremendous tea. Nudging the rating.

I’m enjoying a cup of this one, delicious, light & sweet. It really is tasty with an interesting earthiness & yeastiness to it, like sweet potatoes sprinkled with malt powder, or something like that. The main thing to remember with this tea is to keep the temperature on the lower side, it doesn’t like boiling water as much.

Drinking a small pot of this today. Smooth, mellow with earthy sweet potatoes and a bit of caramel.
The last time I drank this I got some citrus notes which I don’t get now; this is more lightly earthy… still really good and easy to drink, and I like it.

Steeped at 190F for 2 1/2 minutes.

I feel so lucky that Angel at Teavivre still thinks of me for sending out samples. I’ve benefitted greatly from their free samples, and am happy to review their teas. This time the sample offering was of their new spring harvest green teas, but she also asked if there were any other teas I’d like to try. I have been wanting to try this one since they released it, so of course I asked for it! Thanks so much for sending it along Angel!

The dry leaf is gorgeous, all curly with lots of golden tips. I am actually now on my second cup of this tea. The first time I used half of one of my little sample pouches for my 12oz mug and brewed it at the steeping parameters I’ve used for similar Fujian blacks (and what they recommend for this tea), namely 185°F for 2 minutes. The resulting cup smelled and tasted nice but was also pretty weak. I was craving more so I used the second half of the pouch to steep it at 195°F for 3 minutes.

This smells lovely, like molasses and grains, which is what I look for in a tan yang. The sweet, caramelly, malty, grainy flavors are all there, but still not quite right in the second cup. The second cup is more robust but the flavors are still somehow muted. I think I need to use more leaf… good thing Angel was generous enough to send two more sample pouches of this tea. Also I now have a full pouch’s worth of once-steeped leaves to resteep and play around with. I won’t rate this one until I’ve played around with it more, but even as it is now it would be in the 80s (which remember on my new rating system is very good). I just have a feeling from what I’m getting now that this is actually spectacular, it’s just my brewing of it that is off.

I’ve had 3 cups of this today and am loving it! I’m going to have it again tomorrow in the morning and do a lengthier review.

Oh dear, I can feel that this is going to be a really long post. I’ll let you all know when I’m going to actually start writing about the tea, so you can skip ahead if you like.

My Teavivre order arrived! I wasn’t even expecting it yet. I’ve ordered stuff from China before, obviously, and I know it usually takes a couple of weeks to get here, but I don’t know why I hadn’t realised that it had actually been that long since I ordered.

Oh well, I’m certainly not complaining! :D I have unpacked my tea and the cats have given the box and the wrappings a very thorough sniffing. I don’t know what they kept the wrapping supplies next to in China, but whatever it is, it’s very interesting to cats.

While the wrapping was undergoing such a detailed inspection, I tried to decide which one to try first. And then I smacked my forehead because DUH! Self, don’t be an eedjit. You obviously start with the Tan Yang.

If you are wondering what’s so obvious about that, you have not been following me for long enough. Fujian produces the majority of all my very favourite black teas, and my most beloved type of all is Tan Yang. This is the type where I have been known to draw little hearts on the label. So yeah. Obvious. :)

The first time I ordered from Teavivre, I believe the company was still very young, but they had marched right into the hearts of many Steepsterites with their high quality and their sample program. For me, it was the Bailin gong fu that finally drew me in and made me place that first order. There was a contact form on the site that you could fill out if you had questions or suggestions, so I asked if they were planning on stocking a Tan Yang in the future. I can’t remember what exactly the reply was, but I think I was told that they would look into it.

Some time passed and eventually Teavivre did indeed offer a Tan Yang. Oh, how I coveted it! But unfortunately circumstances conspired against me and I didn’t feel like the time was right to buy it. We’ve been frugal, you know, what with having our wedding and then a bit later Husband having a stint with unemployedness, and now we want to start saving up so we can eventually buy a house. It’ll probably be at least a year before we’ll even consider talking to the bank, but we still have to start now.

So I sat here and watched other people drink this highly coveted tea, and then I COULD NOT TAKE IT ANY LONGER, flails AAAAAAAAARGH!!!! pant pant

I cracked and ordered. As long as I control myself I can totally save up and buy interesting tea now and then at the same time. Besides, I was getting to that point where every time I saw someone write about it, I felt a little guilty that I hadn’t bought any myself yet. You know, having suggested that they get some in their shop…

Okay, the actual drinking of the tea starts here!

The aroma is quite mild, and it’s has a bit of a honeyed caramel-ish note to it. There’s a little bit of grain underneath too. I suspect this is a more well behaved version than the (Most Highly Beloved of All) Te Ji I get from TeaSpring. But then again, that one is pretty unruly at times, so it wouldn’t be difficult to be better behaved.

Oh, so sweet! So caramel-y! There’s a bit of malt and cocoa as well, but I think it tastes mostly like sugar and caramel. I mentioned yesterday that I don’t like sugar in tea, but what I meant was that I don’t like sugar added to tea. When it is naturally occurring like this, I like it just fine. It has to do with the way added sugar changes the mouthfeel for me. Anyway, first sip gives my sugar-y caramel-y flavouring, and a summerly note of… sip sip grass?

GRASS??? o.O Well, that’s new. It’s not in overwhelming amounts, though, (like what happens with most Darjeelings for me) so it doesn’t become unpleasant.

Underneath that, and especially at the moment just before I swallow is the very important grain-y note. An awesome Fujian would only be half as awesome without that note. There is only one type of tea in which a good strong note of grain is more important, and that’s in Keemuns.

Still, like with all the notes in here, it’s fairly calm and civilized and to my surprise I find I quite enjoy that. I mean, I love that the Te Ji tastes so riotously wild sometimes, but I’m getting older and slower, and sometimes it’s better with a tea that matches.

My cup appears to have become empty… I don’t usually finish drinking before I’m finished writing. I must have needed it.

That’s it. If anybody needs me further today, I’ll be in the kitchen drawing little hearts on this label.

Life has been going on overdrive lately. When was the last time I posted anything here? Oh my.

Let me do a quick recap: (in case anyone is wondering. :))
-Week long trip to Yosemite/California vineyards turned into nursing husband back to health. It was still fun and his doctor says he’s fine now.
-Husband’s friends from Germany came to visit for about 2 weeks straight after we returned home. Entertaining guests is very time consuming! But they were great and I’m glad they came.
-Lost our dog, Mr. Snuggles. It was 24 hours of frantic searching, calling, flyer printing/posting, etc. Finally someone called to say she had our pup. (flyers worked!) Right after we came home with Snugs, I became violently ill. Vomiting, light headed, pounding headache. I had literally worried myself sick. But I’m ecstatic and relieved that he’s home.
-New project at work is escalating. I was informed it would entail 15 – 25% of my work time. More like 60-70%. I can’t believe I volunteered for this.
-My MIL’s 10 peach trees are exploding with fruit. It’s been non-stop canning over here. Help!

Thank goodness for Labor Day! And now, I’m having a cup of tea before starting a batch of peach jam. Sigh, first world problems. This tea is as delicious as I remember. The quality especially shows now that I’ve overbrewed it and it still tastes fantastic. Smooth, hint of milk chocolate, delicious toasted grain. Mmmm… Just the boost I need for peach overload.

I agree with some other reviewers, that this is very delicate and light considering its a black tea. I would say its more subtle, and not at all aggressive-a relaxing tea that would be nice in the afternoon. I was pretty generous with the leaf, using 3.5 gms/8 oz water, brewing for 2 minutes, with a 2nd steep for 3 minutes. I have others that I prefer from Teavivre, such as Yun Nan Dian Hong Gold Tip or Bailin Gongfu, I think because I prefer something a little stronger, but this is still very nice, especially for those who prefer a milder tea.

Tea of the morning…..

I know most are reviewing a free sample of this one, but since this one does not fall into the samples offered with a purchase from TeVivre (yet?) I purchased my sample. I received two 7 gram pouches for $4. I personally feel that I give a more unbiased review if I either purchase my samples, or get them with a purchase. It is just one of my quirks at this stage. As a result, I drink the tea more when I am excited about it, rather than feeling like I have to get through them. (Don’t get me wrong, though! The free samplings I received from this company in the past were integral to furthering my tea journey and I am grateful for the opportunity!)

Wow. This is really good. I am on the resteep pot and it is perfect. The leaves are very golden, curly, and a bit fuzzy. By look it falls more in line with the Tan Yang Dinosara brought back from her visit to the tea district in China than other versions of this tea I have tried in the past. I was so lucky that she shared some with me. I will do a little more comparing later because I have not had that one for a while. In comparison to my other favorite Tan Yang (Tan Yang Te Ji from TeaSpring) TeaVivre’s is much more golden tipped and curlier. The leaves are also longer than the one from TeaSpring. I am pretty sure the two are of differing grades just by look with the one from TeaVivre being higher, but they are similar in price.

Smooth, slight malt, super sweet (in fact, I think I need to try this one with out my usual sweetener). There is the perfect touch of earthiness wrapped in the flavor of carmelized sweet potatoes. Yes, caramel…. The TeaSpring Tan Yang is a little heavier on the malt and earthiness. I will do a ‘reminder’ cup of that also, just to be sure.

So far, I am certain I will be purchasing this at some point. I wish my stash was not so overwhelming or I would buy some today. There is just such a warm sweetness with this one. Definitely sweeter than the Golden Monkey, but who should have to pick one over the other? Get them both! A China black tea lovers dream paring….the Golden Monkey for everyday, and the Tan Yang for special days.

Usual teapot method (OMG this was wonderful!….Did I say that all ready?) with my equally as wonderful resteep at 5 minutes.

this is not a sipdown. and thank goodness because i had it today….the fact that the other half is on my table is proof. but all i remember is being happy to have tea. and drinking it. and then it being gone. so better notes to come i promise…though at this rate, that may not happen until 2014.