Dian Hong Golden Snail Black Tea

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – September 2023 Tea #6- A tea with natural cocoa notes

I wanted to try these, as they remind me a little of one of my favorite teas – Phoenix Pearls!  Looking at these though, these are almost grayish in color, covered in tiny trichomes, while the Phoenix Pearls I know are very shiny and have no trichomes at all.  Really, all they have in common is being rolled black tea. The scent of the dry leaf is  exactly like toasted rice or or genmaicha or buckwheat or oats - all of these scent notes very unlike most black tea, so very intriguing!  A five gram sample has a little over a teaspoon and a half, so I went with a full sample pouch for a mug.   The brew does not get dark like I suspect… it’s very light.  The flavor is mostly like a cup of unsweetened cocoa with a hint of smoke.   The second steep is much the same and especially when cold, the mug is full cocoa.  I can’t help but love Phoenix Pearls more, but this seems to have a slightly different flavor profile than Teavivre’s other Dian Hongs.  Though I wish some of the scents from the dry leaf resulted in the flavor… I think I used the proper amount of leaf for a mug.  I wouldn’t use less but I wouldn’t be opposed to trying at least two teaspoons.  This tea is weighty though! I think I love it best as the leftover tea, cold the next day. I love that Cameron B notices french fries here (-my dinner last night. haha) I didn’t expect this tea to fit a prompt when I steeped it up, but since this cup is full cocoa, it can and it shall. :D
Steep #1 // 1 3/4 teaspoons for a full mug // 24 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep
Harvest: 2023

slightly malty but a little drying. Decent enough tea for me to be happy with the purchase but not sure yet whether i’ll re-order.

This note may be skewed. I have a canker sore on the tip of my tongue. I made myself sit down because I was really craving a cuppa. This is the one that jumped into my hand. This is a very earthy tea. Though it says five minutes I’m finding I actually prefer it less. The honey notes and the wet twiggy notes come out more with less infusion time. While the later infusions are charcoal-filled. With compost, wet woods. First infusion was better than the second. While this isn’t a tea I would seek out to buy it has done its job.

This was okay. I went through the entire bag I purchased, but I wouldn’t buy this again. The depth of flavor that I wanted wasn’t there. It was malty. Not a whole lot else. I wanted a lot more than it had to give me.

Sipdown! (7 | 284)

This was one of a few Teavivre black tea samples that I picked up just because I’d never tried them before. Not sure if they’re more recent additions to the lineup or if I just missed them on past orders.

I wasn’t expecting a lot from this, as a lot of the ratings are quite mediocre, but I really like it. It’s very thick and malty with a nice chew to it, like a thick slice of soft wheat bread. Maybe the bread has a sprinkling of oats on top of the loaf as well. There’s a slight savory potato-esque flavor as well. And for sweetness, dark caramelized brown sugar and bittersweet cocoa notes along with some slightly tart dried fruit – prune maybe. It’s supremely smooth, without much earthiness to speak of, which I find a bit unusual for a non-golden Yunnan tea.

Anyway, yummy and satisfying! A bit golden monkey-esque perhaps? And it’s reminding me of French fries on some sips, which I’m not complaining about…

I’ve been gravitating towards straight black teas almost exclusively for the last couple months, so I’m going through my Teavivre sample stash fairly quickly. This happens to be one of my least favorite that I’ve tried. It’s not a bad tea by any means, it just pales in comparison to some of the others.
There’s a bit of malt and dark chocolate. But, the flavor dissipates from my mouth rather quickly, and lacks any complexity.

Samurai TTB #57

Michelle kindly included a sample of this one in the TTB for me. I’ve loved most of the golden snail-style black teas I’ve tried in the past, so I was eager to give this one a try! The aroma was very rich with notes of cocoa and honey. The tea brewed up a rich reddish brown with intense chocolatey flavor and a dense, almost chewy mouthfeel. I loved the first steep, but was disappointed by the second, as the flavor became quite thin and the aftertaste was pretty astringent. This is a great one-time steep but I wish I could get more out of it!

The first steep of this tea is quite yummy, malty cocoa goodness in a cup. The dry leaf looks a bit like chocolate gunpowder tea, the wet leaf smells like hay and cocoa. The problem I have with this tea is the amount of leaf I have to use to get that yummy taste and that the second steep is so watered down it’s like a different cup. I guess I expect this quality of tea to steep at least twice. When I have a light fluffy Oolong, green, or black tea, I don’t mind adding an extra scoop if it will give me a stronger brew. But when I have a dense tea like this, I guess I expect it to unfurl into lots of flavor, and I was just disappointed in this one.

This tea has a subtle woody aroma. The taste is sweet and muted with flavors of honey and something else I can’t put my finger on. I am going to let it cool down some to see if it becomes discernible. There we go, it was chocolate powder drink. As it cools, the honey taste fades and it is replaced by chocolate. It is very Nesquikian in its flavor profile at the cooler temp. I liked it and I am glad I tried it, but it is not something that will make it into my rotation.

Because of my restricted tea budget these days, I’m always on the prowl for sales. This month (August 2019) happens to be Teavivre’s 8th anniversary. Coincidentally, it is also my 8th anniversary for entering the scrumptious universe of loose leaf tea. When I saw ads for Teavivre’s anniversary sale, I considered it my destiny to make a purchase at this time.

I had never tried Golden Snail tea before. When I opened up the silver package, the leaves were dark brown and firmly curled with a multitude of golden points. The aroma was moderately rich and earthy.

I steeped the leaves according to Teavivre’s recommendations, eight minutes at 195 degrees. Actually, Teavivre recommends 194 degrees, but who’s counting? The brewed liquor had a deep amber color. The aroma had characteristics of a honey-like sweetness.

The taste of this tea was silky smooth with absolute zero astringency. It was full-flavored, yet mellow. An underlying sweet honey attribute was easily recognized but not disagreeable in any way. There also was an identifiable and quite pleasant Yunnan taste, which is one of my personal favorite tea flavors. The aftertaste was delicate and affable. It sweetly and quickly rolled off my palate.

This is a delicous and sweetly mild Yunnan black tea that I enjoyed at breakfast but could also be well-placed at brunch, lunch, and early supper. I would love to experience it with several Scottish tea biscuits (that I’m not supposed to have).