Ailaoshan Black Tea

Sipdown 58 – 2024

This was smokier than I would’ve thought, up until the last cup which was extremely chocolatey. Overall a fine tea, but I don’t think I need to repurchase.

Another dark chocolatey tea today.

Tea Advent Calendar – Day 25

This advent calendar swap with Shae was one of the highlights of my Christmas season! Such fun to try a new tea every day leading up to Christmas…especially since I ended up liking the vast majority of the ones she sent. :) And of all the yummy teas I got to try, this was one of my very favorites. In all the festivities on Christmas morning, I forgot about it and let it steep for far too long…probably 15 or 20 minutes. Many black teas would have been completely undrinkable at that point, but this one was still smooth and lovely without a hint of bitterness or astringency! It’s an exceptionally smooth, sweet and fruity black tea that obviously isn’t too picky and holds up to multiple resteepings. Wouldn’t mind having this one in my cupboard long-term!

An unusual tea. This is a Yunnan Red that is fruity and sweet as an oolong. A lot of apple skin and baked apples in it, plus some caramel and berries. If you steep it longer it gains some malty backbone but never gets bitter. It’s very smooth. and flavors are well-defined.

It’s quit a unique tea if not super complex.

SAMPLE SIPDOWN!

Hey Guys! I recently did a review on the wonderful Whispering Pines “Cocoa Amore”. Well when I bought that, they sent me a sample of this! It was only enough for two sessions, but I figured I’d review it while I had a bit left.

Ok, I brewed this a bit stronger than it said to. I used a full teaspoon and a half maybe for 16oz of water. Also, the cuppa I’ve got right now I lost track of and brewed a bit over the 5 minute recommended mark. But all that behind us, let’s get onto the tea.

Taste is… very robust, if that is the word I’m looking for. It’s very rich, with a strong black tea flavor, along with (let me try and suss this out here…) I think I’m getting a bit of Malt, Raisin and some Leather too. My palate is not nearly refined enough to pick out all the flavors, but there are a ton of different notes here. Ever so slight cacao flavor, but nowhere near like my Yunnan Golds have. It’s a very warm and inviting flavor, and I think this would be a good starter tea for people wanting to get into loose leaf. Even overbrewed like I made this cup it is still very lovely. This is my first cup of Aliaoshan that I recall actually having, so I think I will have to experiment more in this field. This was wonderful. Highly recommend.

Sipdown! Working my way through some plain black teas that probably would not appreciate being iced.

I didn’t have quite enough of this for my tumbler, so it’s got a scoop of Golden Orchid mixed in. You can’t really tell, though.

Sipdowns in 2019: 21

I received this free sample. It came in a pouch, with good labeling and a 7.5 g serving. Lots of reviews, but looks like I’m somewhat of an outlier.^^

The dry leaves had a great aroma of molasses, cocoa, spices, malt, nuts. After the rinse, the lid smelled even better, along the same lines but with the addition of fried plantains and sweet potatoes. It remained flavorful to the end with constant changes throughout all the infusions. It was complex and I was glad I did shorter infusions in the beginning. Sweet potatoes were the main constant from beginning to end. Notes of roasted nuts, molasses, dark chocolate, bittersweet and sweet chocolate, malt, toast, a little citrus here and there, plums, caramel, spices too. It was a smooth and creamy mouthfeel in the beginning and then that changed too. Their site says it gives a “glassy” mouthfeel. It never got bitter nor astringent.

110ml porcelain gaiwan, put the entire 7.5g in it., 205°F, rinse, 11 steeps: 5s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 35s, 45s, 55s, 65s, 75s, 120s.

I feel like I say this all the time: “Finally getting around to trying (insert name of tea here)” but here we are.

This brews up quite light in color and flavor, as I find many of Whispering Pines teas do. Not a complaint at all, just an observation. I am not getting much in the way of malty, cocoa richness. There is a pleasant citrusy note that I find refreshing. Also a bit of earthiness. A very nice tea, but Golden Orchid remains my favorite. I do not recommend having this with milk, as it’s a bit too delicate for it and the flavors get lost. Going to try the spent leaves as a cold brew next, so we’ll see how that goes.

Very light but still a little smoky. When I added a splash of milk it nearly overpowered it. Good but not usually what I go for.

Haven’t been posting much lately. All of the down time Steepster has been having has made me a bit paranoid that all of my data will one day go poof. So I made my own system and I’m cross posting to Steepster.

Since my new system is using a 10pt rating system, I’m adjusting this rating to match the new definitions.

Got a sample of this in a recent order and gave it a try yesterday.

This time I did not taste any anise, but it really was a nothing special black tea without anything of note. Adjusting rating for the new system.