Wildcrafted Dian Hong

“Tonight’s energy brought to you by…”

I needed a cup of coffee tonight, but didn’t want to grab any while working, so I grabbed my Kamjove and brewed this instead. It was very nice to have tea for once at work. I rarely have the time do make tea or even move from my desk. They take the whole, “Look busy” thing seriously. However, I figured to heck with it, I need tea; otherwise, you’ll have an angry worker who was already anxious for the day to end.

Notes; Chocolate, nutty, and oranges(?). Drank this for nearly two hours. Better than coffee.

I got a sample of this, along with other Whispering Pines Teas, as a gift. Unfortunately, I didn’t review it when I drank it, but I remember loving every sip. IIRC, it was smooth and full-bodied, with hints of sweetness.

Reviewing it here to remind myself to buy it again.

Prepared in a gongfu session with a porcelain gaiwan. Steeping times: 10 seconds, 12, 10, 12,15, 25, 35, 45; 1 minute, 2, 5.

I grabbed ounce with my last order. Just opened the packet! I’m met with a number scents when I test the leaf’s aromas. The dry leaf is pleasingly sweet, smelling of rich cocoa, mashed sweet potatoes, and a little bit of malt. The pre-heated leaf smells more strongly of cocoa and malt, and there is an addition of cinnamon. The wet leaf aroma is simply tannic.

The liquor is light orange, full-bodied, clear, and fragrant with notes of sweet potatoes and honey. For the first few cups, I mostly taste sweet potato and a bit of malt, with honey lurking in the background. At the fourth cup, there is still sweet potato, but when I let the liquor sit in my mouth for a bit, I begin to taste cocoa nibs. Following the fifth cup to the end, the sweet potato and malty notes have totally gone, letting cocoa nibs and cocoa shells take over. Someone else on Steepster commented it tastes like Laoshan Black Chocolate Genchmaicha, and I concur. Very chocolate-like, but without additional ingredients. Additionally, the texture is thick and smooth.

I expected to taste sweet potato for the entire session, but was surprised when cocoa completely took over in the middle. What a switch! In my experience (still very much exploring), it’s either this or that for Dian Hong. I thoroughly enjoyed every cup, from start to finish. Delicious and complex.

I got this tea as a sample along with some ripe puerh that I ordered from Whispering Pines.

Upon opening the bag, the smell of cocoa was so prevalent that I actually had to check to make sure it wasn’t a blended tea (even though I expect it in a Dian Hong). Brewed up, the cocoa was there in the background but along with a strong maltiness, with strong sweet potato and subtle spices. A very enticing cup of tea. I was impressed – very much in the classic Dian Hong range of flavors, but a very good example of the style.

I’m falling behind on reviews again. I finished the last of this tea a couple days ago, compiled my notes, and then just left them sitting. I’m starting to get really bad about that. Anyway, I found this tea to be a rock solid Dian Hong.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 200 F water for 5 seconds. I followed this infusion up with 11 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted mild aromas of wood, leather, and chocolate. After the rinse, I noted that the chocolate aroma intensified and was joined by a subtle scent of caramel. The first infusion produced a similar, though slightly more integrated aroma. In the mouth, I picked up on mild notes of leather, wood, caramel, and chocolate. Subsequent infusions were more robust and complex. I noted an increased woodiness, as well as the emergence of brown sugar, sweet potato, malt, orange blossom honey, and black pepper aromas and flavors. Later infusions were smooth and mild. Malt and minerals provided the dominant aromas and flavors, though lingering impressions of honey, brown sugar, wood, and sweet potato were just barely detectable on the finish.

This was a nice Dian Hong. This being a wildcrafted tea, I was expecting it to be earthier and rougher around the edges, but all in all, this was good. I would have liked to see more spice character and a little more robust flavor overall, but this was still a very respectable tea. I wouldn’t mind purchasing this one again at some point in the future.

I am not fond of this one. I can’t identify the flavor aspect I don’t like (missing vocabulary again I suspect) but I’m not found of it.

Its not bitter, doesn’t appear to be heavy on tanins, just not my cup of tea. I’ll finish the order, but won’t buy this one again.

I like this one. My favorite note in tea is chocolate, and that’s what I keep a lookout for. To my enjoyment, this has a nice dark chocolate taste.

Anyone know of any other good chocolatey black teas?

I just ordered some more Laoshan Chocolate Genmaicha from LP, which I’m super excited for. I think I’ll also order some more of YS’s Classic Laoshan tea and also see how it compares with the Imperial.

This one came out a bit more tannic than the Imperial Buds but was not astringent. I still feel like I have a lot of room to improve my brewing of black teas to avoid the need for sweetener. This one required a bit of sugar to be able to enjoy it but was quite nice with sugar.

I get mainly orange blossom honey from this tea. Not too much in the way of sweet potato, malt, chocolate or spice.

Verryy citrusy actually! Almost as if it were blended with an essential oil, even though it’s really just pure tea. I can see why it is the base for their Wild Grey blend, where bergamot oil is actually combined with the Dian Hong.

It’s not my favourite but if you love a citrus note without actual added citrus, you’ll love this tea.

Sipdown. Westren brewed this today. 3 steeps 3, 5, and 8 min. Overall notes of sweet potato and malt. Very consistent tea. 82