Superfine Tan Yang Gong Fu Black Tea

The first tea to start my day. It is a beautiful tea, very fine leaves, beautiful golden color. Brewed gong fu style in a porcelain gaiwan. 1 rinse, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, etc at 180-190 degrees F. The wet leaves are fragrant with a sweet potato scent and chocolate malt. The wet leaves are copper colored and the liquor takes on this bright copper color. This tea has a long lingering aftertaste of chocolate. There is just barely a hint of bitterness. It’s very mild. There is a bit of chocolate covered raisins in the aftertaste, and something nutty or perhaps pastry-like. This tea pairs perfectly with a bite of Nature Valley Sweet and Salty Almond nut bar. It is so good together.

This is a delicious tea. I get notes of caramel, cocoa, bread, and yams.

This is the 2016 spring version. I really appreciate that Teavivre does samples.

Another of my older Teavivre samples. I’m not sure why it’s sat neglected for so long, because all of Teavivre’s black teas are absolutely amazing, and this one’s no exception. I gave 1 tsp of leaf (very long and fine, with beautiful golden tips) 4 minutes in boiling water, and added a splash of milk.

To taste, it’s pretty much everything I’d want in a black tea. There’s a strong chocolate note up front, very reminiscent of dark chocolate (rich, strong) but not in a drying, cocoa kind of way. The mid-sip has a more yam-like flavour, along with baked bread towards the tail end. It’s very smooth and creamy, very easy to drink.

I’m enjoying this one. It’s one of the sweeter black teas I’ve tried from Teavivre, but wonderful just the same. I’ll be repurchasing this one in a hurry!

Prepared 3.7g in a ceramic gaiwan. I gave the leaf a flash rinse to get it going. Steeping times: 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 30, 45; 2 minutes, 4, 9, 20.

A hongcha with great aromas? Check! When I smell the leaf in the packet – wow! – was it super chocolate-like. Letting the leaf sit in the pre-heated gaiwan brought out gingerbread and tomato sauce notes as well as chocolate. The wet leaf smells of cinnamon, nutmeg, and a little bit of fudge.

The liquor is orange-colored, clear, clean-tasting, and medium-bodied. The first cup is light with malt with some sweet potato. From the second cup and onward (till the last), the malt has disappeared, and the sweet potato note is stronger. I also taste cinnamon and chocolate. They don’t pop out as much, but they are present. There is a consistent caramel aftertaste. The texture is smooth. As the description on the website says, this hongcha tastes – and feels, I’d say – “sweet and mellow.”

I especially this recommend this to hongcha lovers. Get a look at that leaf!

So.. I’ve been away from steepster for a while. It feels like my life has been twirling around with much change, grief, hope, anticipation and uncertainty so it’s nice to have landmarks to pause and take a breath.
I purchased 100g of this tea and it’s really quite good and versatile. I keep coming back to it because whether it’s steeped western or gongfu it’s very satisfying with the nice bittersweet edge of the gongfu brews or the more rounded malt of the western steeps. Not much more I can say other than I’ve really been enjoying this tea and if you can get it during a promotion it’s definitely worth a try. Teavivre has some pretty amazing deals every once in a while so keep an eye out.

Western style – 2 tsp – 350ml – 90C – 2mins

Dry leaf – I smell salted caramel, baked bread and stonefruit. Pretty standard for a good quality black BUT also a kind of a boozy aroma which makes this one stand out to me in particular.

Infused – I taste all of the things I smell but a little less of the caramel. Texture has a pleasant thickness to it. Very smooth.

Teavivre is so consistent with their quality!! Happy customer

Sipdown no. 16 of 2016 (no. 227 total).

So this not so happy thing happened.

I was looking forward to trying this sample, which I got when I got my yixing, for days. I even remembered that I’d had peppermint in the Breville last night and did an extra long rinse to get rid of the peppermint aroma so as to be sure it wouldn’t affect the flavor of this sample.

Alas, despite my efforts, I taste peppermint in this. Ugh.

The leaves were so pretty, dark and golden, “superfine” in texture (they weren’t kidding), and smelled so sweet. But I taste peppermint.

I can sort of make out a sweet honey note and a bready note, but mostly I taste peppermint.

And I didn’t win the powerball. Dammit. When I bought my ticket, I asked the woman to sell me the winning ticket, but she didn’t. Fraud!

And then there is the double whammy of David Bowie and Alan Rickman.

Not rating this, because peppermint.

I think I may go back to bed now.

Oh my this is good. I am home so I am making this gong fu style. It is so sweet and it has the deeper coaco notes that I also really like. I bought only a sample of this. I wanted to do some comparing of the different teavire black teas. I want to drink this beside balin gong fu to see what the differences are. I havne’t had balin in so long I couldn’t tell you what I think they are. I will prepare a cup of each of them western style tomorrow to see which one is my favorite. So far this is a really good cup that I will get to enjoy for today.

Going through the last of my Teavivre samples in anticipation of sales next week. Maybe it’s the high rating or loving everything from Teavivre so far, but my expectations were pretty high on this one. Kiiinda disappointed. It looks and smells a lot like Golden Monkey, but tastes so mild and just… I don’t know. Mellow? It is a nice flavour, not particularly sweet, maybe a bit hay-ey/earthy. I just don’t like it nearly as much as Golden Monkey which has a smokiness to it that I dig.

I think I lean towards teas that bludgeon me over the head, whereas this is more like a gentle caress.

again, I can’t help but fish out a similar black from my cupboard to taste beside this sample! so out came my Pure Gold black tea.

disclaimer: I do not usually steep gongfu but that should change soon.

they both looked the same, more or less, with this Superfine looking just a bit more golden. they both smelled nice too! (sigh)

first steep: Pure Gold tasted sweet (have to admit that to my simple tastebuds that is almost always the first flavor that i notice, lol) and Superfine, it was also good..

after a couple more steepings, I can say that this has stronger cocoa notes and yes this is a stronger tea than the other but it is just right. It is my first Tan Yang and so I probably shouldn’t compare it with a Yunnan? anyways, I gotta lot more learning to do on Chinese blacks XD