Fujian Black Tea

Thank you Brenden for the surprise in my mailbox of this sample tea!

The last time I had some tea from Whispering Pines was…well…in the beginning of the company during the short phase where most of the tea’s (if not all) were smoky. There was a lot of feedback from Steepster folks that Brenden listened to (this is what makes a great tea vendor by the way) and now there is a wide variety of tea’s to choose from on his Whispering Pines Website.

I’ll have to admit though, that I hadn’t looked at the website for a long, long time (over a year).

Brenden noticed my lack of attention to his company (he being a regular Steepster hawk), and sent me a couple of tea samples (smart man).

Kudo’s that this Fujian isn’t smoky! It arrived not contaminated with smoke from the other tea’s that Whispering Pines is known for…the outdoorsy tea’s!

I’m not going to play games with a long review. I’ll get right to the point and then explain.

If you love tea’s like chocolaty Laoshan Black or Fujian Black Pearls this is the tea for you!

Brenden doesn’t lie when he discribes his tea as chocolate. It doesn’t taste like barley or bread, just chocolate tea with a hint of malt. Medium thickness, rich and smooth with a gentle fading of the flavor lingering softly in the mouth.

Delicious dessert tea!

This is the only truly chocolaty black tea that I’ve tasted other than Verdant’s and companies that carry Fujian Black Pearls (which are maltier).

If this was a stock, I’d buy it! Winner!

Hope you don’t mind but I’m attaching another little musical piece by my granddaughter with my photo’s. http://youtu.be/bOKtmS5L9BQ
We’re collaborators.

Added note Oct. 4th I just discovered a talent that Brenden from Whispering Pines has… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUYSjbD0kW4&feature=share&list=UUIhSZ7loxDZ7166OavqfrhA

COOL

Another tea from my Whispering Pines order. I took this one to work today, and was drinking it for most of the morning.
In all fairness this is a pretty decent dark, chocolaty, malty black tea. (There are more chocolate notes in this one than the oolong I just wrote about). What I didn’t like about this was that it didn’t resteep very well. I normally can get three decent steeps from a straight black. The first steep was great, and then it was all downhill from there. The second steep seemed to have lost all that deep dark goodness, and you were just left with generic black tea. This is quite a bit cheaper than most of my favorite blacks, but if you don’t get the resteep is it really better value?
All in all, this is pretty good.

to me this is similar to Gong Fu from Zhi Tea…durability seems similar as well,which isn’t so great…pretty tasty though…

Sipdown! I’ve been drinking this fairly regularly for the last week or so, and I could have sworn I’d written a note on it, but I guess not… This is an unusual one because, at least to me, it’s very chocolatey but low in malt. The chocolate predominates, and there’s some sourness alongside woody notes of pine, cedar and a hint of smoke backing it up. The sip ends on a whisper of nuttiness, maybe even coconuttiness, which lends a little sweetness to what is primarily a fairly savoury tea, even with the chocolate notes. Is it weird for me to say that this reminds me of a sexy men’s cologne? There are certain colognes which smell delicious, and this tea tastes like those smell even though it doesn’t actually smell like cologne (and tastes way better than they would!) I don’t know, it’s just a feel I get from this tea. Sexy man smell. Lol. Anyway, thanks Sil for sending me a very generous sample of this tea! It’s helped me to pinpoint that some things I like in a single origin black, and some teas I might pick up again in the future.

204/399

So it turns out not a single individual in my immediate family cares for these fine chocolatey Chinese black teas. This became more and more apparent as the years went by and all the cupboard’s teas came and went, except for this and Verdant’s Laoshan Black (also, the rooibos). My mother went so far as to call them undrinkable. I’ve merely become indifferent.

Oh, well. Moving on. I guess there’s more for everyone else!

Either the leaves were sitting in my cupboard too long or I oversteeped/overleafed this one. Turned a bit bitter :(

In my other experiences with this tea, it was a solid chocolatey-note black tea. However, I much prefer (and miss) North Winds for the added complexity of a blend, or Golden Snail for the gardenia note.

This is a good tea though, and a good representation of Fujian style black.

Chocolatey malty smoothness in a cup. I am only on my first steeping and I am very impressed by this tea. Thanks Beelicious for this in my Secret Pumpkin box!
The second and third steeps are good too, just a bit less intense, still smooth and malty.

Apparently I’m on a roll, finally trying all these Whispering Pines black teas (purchased during the “pure teas” sale). Same as before – 4g in 4oz gaiwan, 95-100 deg water, hmm what did I do… 30, 45, 60, 90, 120 sec. Now that I’m looking at Brendan’s brewing instructions, he suggests 1.5g per oz, so I guess I underleafed it.

These tea leaves are neat – long, skinny, and dark. The dry leaves smell malty and bready, and the scent just intensifies in the wet leaves. Surprisingly to me, he first steeping in particular was quite light, creamy, and sweet – like vanilla or caramel flavoured whipped cream. With subsequent steepings the malt and bread notes came out, but there remained a lovely sweetness, like toasted multigrain bread with honey. Then some fruity, citrusy notes came in so it was like the topping on the toast switched to marmalade. A few steepings in, I went to read what other people had to say about this, and maybe my tastebuds are just broken, because I seem to have lost the ability to appreciate chocolate flavours in tea! When I concentrated, I could appreciate a raw cacao or cocoa powder kind of thing, but it certainly wasn’t what I would consider the dominant flavour. So weird. :)

Anyway, this is a yummy tea, I was thinking “nom nom nom” while drinking it. :) I’ll definitely try more leaf next time to see if I can get a richer flavour.

I guess I haven’t reviewed this one yet! I’ve gongfu brewed it a couple of times, and this one seems to like it if you go heavy and long with it, meaning more leaf, longer brew times. I overdid my third infusion by at least a minute and it came out delicious! Chocolate and stone fruit delicious! Yum! Definitely a good way to start the weekend!

A smooth and flavorful black tea that needs no additives. Somewhat weaker than my normal morning cup, but rich and delicious.