Superfine Tan Yang Gong Fu Black Tea

This is another lovely sample from caile – thanks!

Yet another great black tea. This one doesn’t have that natural sweetness, but it’s still quite tasty. I decided on this for my morning cup this morning and it did not disappoint. It comes off as fresh and clean tasting.

I would say I prefer the Bailin, because I really enjoy the honey-like sweetness, but I certainly wouldn’t say no to this being in my cupboard from time to time.

So after reading the review KS just did I had to go look to see if I had a sample of this from my last order with Teavivre and lo and behold I DID! Yay!
Full review on http://sororiteasisters.com/ on Feb 9th but here are my snippits:

Superfine Tan Yang Gong Fu Black Tea from Teavivre offers quite a different experience. It has a lot of the same flavor notes that one gets from a Fujian black tea such as sweet potato, malt, and cocoa but Superfine Tan Gong Fu is much lighter both in flavor and mouthfeel.

As I sipped on this tea I found myself so relaxed, and spaced out that I checked my blood sugar (I’m type 1 diabetic) just to be sure I was not running too high. High blood sugars often mimic a spaced out state of dizziness and being sleepy. My blood sugar was perfectly fine. Outside of aliens having zapped my brain I am pretty sure it was the tea. I have had tea highs before, generally with pu’erh but now and then I get it in other leaf types. This is one of those times.

Thank you Angel and Teavivre for this lovely tea sample!

I appreciate Teavivre’s generous samples! Don’t know what got into me the last few days, but I’ve been screwing up pots of tea and over-brewing the past few days.

You think I’d know better after all the tea I’ve had but Nooooo, even an experienced tea drinker can get arrogant!

Too much water to tea leaf ratio or an overdone steeping causes astringent tea that makes a person retch!
I owe those who harvest and process this tea an apology because I should have followed directions and remembered to take care.

So, I began again…humbled by my own tea rudeness, with 16 oz fresh filtered water boiled at 185 degrees…and steeped the leaves for 2 minutes. For the packet of tea provided, this was perfect.

The liquor was dark golden brown with the scent of brown sugar and clover honey.

My first sip was not too sweet and tasted like whole grain wheat bread warm from the oven.
I added cream (not milk) and the rich breadiness became croissant pastry. Flaky, sweet, buttery layers and a light honied aftertaste.

Having enough tea to brew again was important in my discovery of what this tea had to offer since I blew it with my earlier lack of effort and care. I’m so glad that I had a second chance at redemption!

The moral of the story for me is to pay attention and not take for granted what I think I know about tea. Never get lazy about brewing tea either, because I’ll be sorry if I do!

This is a tea worth tasting!

I had been wanting to request more samples from Teavivre but I kind of felt guilty about it and I thought I’d drink up some of my other teas first anyway. BUT Angel from Teavivre sent me a message on Steepster saying she was sending me some samples anyway! Well, if they are offering, I will certainly not say no! So THANK YOU for the amazing generous sample package! I always love Teavivre’s teas, so this will be fantastic. Tan Yang’s are the next tea I HAD to try, thanks to the reviews I’ve seen here on Steepster. The descriptions of Tan Yangs sounded like they’d be my new favorite.

I wanted to follow Teavivre’s steep instructions: This means 185 degrees with FOUR teaspoons of tea for 8 ounces with 1-3 minute steeping times. So I used three teaspoons of these lovely mostly golden yellow wirey leaves (which is probably the most leaves I’ve ever used for any tea).

First steep // A minute thirty seconds. I let the water cool a while after boiling. Sadly, I have no way to tell what temp my water is. The flavor is divine, but it seems like the water was cooled too long for a black tea. But I will certainly follow Teavivre’s instructions at least for the first batch of leaves since they kindly sent me the samples. This is so good, but I wish I knew why this was called a Tan Yang. I’m going to take a guess that it’s because this tea is from Tanyang Village? It seems like a lighter Yunnan tea. I know Yunnans come from Yunnan. But this is a Fujian tea (and from the few teas I’ve had that I’ve known are from there, they seem like they have charcoal accents.) Anyway, the flavors here: a bit of smoke somehow (is that the Fujian?), sweet potato, honey, molasses… but on a lighter scale, probably because the steep temp is so low.

Second steep // Hotter & two minutes. This one had a deeper flavor, but still very similar to the first cup. I must have steeped it just the right way with the increase in time & temp to get it that way. I definitely suggest using three teaspoons for this one since I can see how it would be way too light tasting with only one teaspoon. Very good!

Third steep // Just boiled for 4 minutes. Cup number three had a slight flavor that reminded me of what I would call the Fujian flavor: something like charcoal. But it is just enough to be intriguing… not overpowering. The cup color is now a deep red rather than orange. More malty goodness!

I always thought that the few Fujian teas I’ve tried were so charcoal-like that they were my least favorites. But I’ve learned that not all Fujian teas are the same. I guess every tea IS my cup of tea! Oh no!

Two mugs of this today. Two words…happy mouth! I can’t say if I like this better or the same as the Golden Monkey, but both are similar, only this one is lighter somehow. This is the type of black tea I find most comforting, straight. It is just warming and it wraps it’s golden leafy arms around you and says it is alright. Partially drunk straight, but I caved and added milk and sugar to the second half of the first cup and second cup.

Many thanks to Angel at Teavivre for the generous sample.

Backlog:

Awesome! Rich, delicious, smooth, chocolate-y, caramel-y … just pure, black tea goodness!

For me, this tea falls somewhere between a rich, malty Assam and a smooth, even-tempered Ceylon, with notes that are familiar to a top-notch Fujian Black tea.

Love this! Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/03/31/superfine-tan-yang-gong-fu-black-tea-from-teavivre-2/

Mmm, I tend to favor more subtle black teas, and this one fits the bill nicely.

Dry leaves: The leaves are small, black, and wirey with lots of gold/orange fur. They have a sweet citrus and sweet potato aroma.

Brewing: This tea definitely brews best (IMO) at a lower temperature than most blacks. The wet leaves have a rich aroma of chocolate and fall leaves. In early infusions lots of golden hairs piled up on my filter, almost clogging it.

Tasting: The flavor of the tea has a nice balance of sweet and salty characteristics. The early infusions are mild but brisk with notes of chocolate, sweet potato, peach, and charcoal. Surprisingly cool feeling for a black tea. Later infusions mellow out with fresh flavors of lemon juice, edame, clover leaf, and jaggery. The taste is sweet and slightly nutty throughout.

Thanks Teavivre for a great sample!

I used 2tsp for this session.
Sweet potatoe notes are the most prominent in this cup with slight caramel notes and a sneaky bit of citrus somewhere in the background. I am not sure if anyone else is getting citrus notes (I didn’t read the other notes first this time), or if it is just crazy me.

Resteep at 2minutes was a little less grainy, which was also delicious.

Backlog from yesterday.

Lately I’ve noticed that if a tea is described as having sweet potato notes, it is likely that I’m not going to love it. This tea is so highly reviewed I was hoping it would be the exception to the rule. Unfortunately, it’s not. I wouldn’t turn down a cup of this, but I also won’t be placing an order for it.

So far from my huge bag of samples from Teavivre, the Golden Monkey is the clear favorite.

This is so phenomenal. Stunningly smooth, rich, thick, yeasty… I get the feel of having cream in my tea without actually putting cream in my tea. Which is good, since I’ve been dabbling a little too much cream in my tea of late. :) After ifjuly mentioned it on my last review it makes sense that I love this so much – if tan yang and pan yang are really the same things, because I lust for Harney’s Panyang Golden Tips but can’t justify the price.