Ailaoshan Black Tea

Some of these well-loved teas get the most imaginative flavor descriptions in tasting notes. People taste orange, plum, blackberries – never just fruit. They taste particular loafs of bread and specific vintages of honey. I just love reading through them. My palate is not so finely tuned.
What I’m noticing most here is that this is a very “breathy” tea. After I take a sip, I can sit, breathing in and out for a few minutes, and I re-taste the tea on every breath out. The breathing is almost more pleasant than the actual drinking of the tea. Overall, the tea affects every portion of my mouth. Whether while drinking, or on the breath out, the flavor hits everything – my gums, all of my tongue, the roof of my mouth. My teeth? That is perhaps stretching the point… but my teeth do taste rather like this tea as I tongue them.

Today I have the pleasure of trying this tea, which I’ve been curious about for quite a while. Even though I have tried blends that contain Ailaoshan Black, this is the first time I’m tasting it on its own.

The dry leaf has a warm cocoa aroma. Upon brewing, there’s more of a baked-good sweetness, maybe a touch of caramel. The tea is sublimely smooth, and the taste leans more toward malt and bread than cocoa. There’s a complicated little hint of something like dark berries in the background. As it cools, it has more of a petrichor quality for me, or as others have described, something like wet leaves. While there’s a lot going on here, this is also a comforting tea that can be easily enjoyed without thinking much about it. Thank you beelicious for the sample!

Another sipdown!

TerriHarpLady’s really given me the urge to clear out my cupboard!

This was a swap sent to me by Ost around my birthday, and there was just enough in the baggie for a pot of tea. I’m on my second steep. I agree with the notes on the WP website about this – the tea smelled a lot like fruit after the initial steep was done. I think the smell I got the most of was plum.

However, the taste was a bit more muted and cocoa-like. Glad I got to try some of this, but I don’t know if this would be a restock for me (especially considering how the CDN dollar has turned the exchange rate into murder.)

I had this one for breakfast! I was dead tired when I got up, and decided on a plain black tea to get me going. I had a some of my sample of this left so decided to finish it off. Very nice. Smooth, a bit malty, and delicious.

Mmm tasty. Very chocolately and fruity, with a bit of a red wine intensity. Sweet and smooth. A bit of baked bread on the nose.

I was worried I under leafed this initially, but an extra 30 seconds of steeping was all it needed.

Drinking this around room temp, since I got distracted by phone calls just as I finished steeping this.

It’s been a long time since I last drank this one, but it came to work with me this morning in my Timolino since I’m hosting an event away from the office until lunch time. As ever with these things, it didn’t go to plan. Tea is obviously a requirement in these situations!I added a splash of milk to my cup this morning, but it would be equally palatable without.

Initially, this comes across as quite a chocolatey tea; dark, almost bittersweet, cocoa-like chocolate. There are also some fairly prominent baked bread notes which remind me a lot of Second Breakfast – there’s an underlying saltiness that I also picked up in that one. The mid-sip is mostly malt, sweet and thick tasting, and it works perfectly with the chocolate notes. So far, so comforting. The end of the sip reveals a light fruitiness, which lingers into the aftertaste. It reminds me most of plum – juicy, a little sharp, a little tart. It’s a flavour combination that almost shouldn’t work, but somehow it does! You have to try it to see. Upon reacquaintance, this is still one of my favourite black teas. I’ve left my rating unchanged accordingly.

1.5 tsp, 3.5 mins, boiling water (212), splash of milk.

Very interesting. I can honestly say that I have never tasted a tea anything like this one. Very unique character. I just didn’t get very much in the way of chocolate notes. It’s there, but very subtle. What surprised me most were the floral, almost rose notes – Almost Darjeeling-like, but not a trace of astringency. The anise/ licorice notes surprised me too. Adding to the eclectic mix were pronounced notes of wood, plum, and an orange cream flavor.
Although this tea is absolutely nothing like I had anticipated (The chocolate notes being ever so subtle) I thoroughly enjoyed every sip. The pleasantly complex uniqueness of the flavor should definitely be experienced. Very nice indeed.

This is a very lovely fragrant tea.

It reminds me of the Taiwanese teas I have had, with the interesting fruity and unusual spice notes that I can never describe. This one tastes more toasty though and is lighter in the fruitiness – quite delicious.

Sometimes I wonder if I could really notice all the individual notes unless I had read about them before tasting the tea itself.
Can’t say I could for this one, but it was still enjoyable.
I’m a fan of heavier teas and this one was light and smooth but you can definitely taste the quality and care placed into the production of this tea.
To me, it tastes somewhat similar to Teavivre’s Yun Nan Dian Hong Golden Tips and I have to say I enjoyed that one better but will happily finish off my packet of this.

Let me start out by saying that I have been a fan of Verdant’s black tea’s for a long time, and of course my favorite from the teas they offered was the Laoshan Black, but the Laoshan always lacked a certain something to it that I found in this tea! This tea is maltier, more chocolatey, and all around a more flavorful, full bodied tea. The smell of it when you first pour water on it smells delicious and makes my mouth water! I have been enjoying Whispering Pines tea for a couple of weeks now and both of the teas I ordered(Golden Orchid and Ailaoshan Black) are amazing and are very very flavorful.