Black Lily

Haha, tried this tea today as well as Leafhopper. What a coincidence.

Brewed western, all 4 grams I had available in 300 ml. Steeped for 3 minutes. Thank you White Antlers and derk

The aroma is fruity, berries, little bit floral and woody.
Taste is incredlibly smooth, bit tangy as blacks should be, thick. Flavours are hard to say, it is tannic, but very enjoyable, honeyish. Bit creamy maybe as well. Some raisins.

Really nice tea. I will make the second brew later today to try it again. Because it’s so tasty and it would be a waste of leaves if I throw them away after 3 minutes steep. I believe it will work in another steeps as well. Haven’t noticed apple notes though.

This is my first black Jin Xuan tea from Taiwan, although I had a pearl version from Thailand a while ago that I enjoyed. Thanks, Derk and White Antlers, for the generous sample from a company I’ve been eager to try. I couldn’t find any steeping instructions, so I brewed 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml porcelain pot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of raisins, berries, oats, cream, wood, and flowers. The first steep has notes of apple, orchid, oats, honey, blackberries and other berries, cream, and raisins, and has a sweet, lingering aftertaste. It reminds me a bit of the Golden Dragon Black Pearl Oolong from Taiwan Tea Crafts, though it’s a lot fruitier. The honey and florals become more prominent in the second steep, with the fruit revealing itself after the first few seconds of the sip. I get some not unpleasant tannins and hints of cinnamon.

The third steep is similar, though the raisins seem more prominent and I get a hint of sour plum. The honey aftertaste is quite strong in this steep. The stonefruit shifts to apricots in the next couple steeps, and I get minerals and wood in steep six. The session ends with raisins, tannins, honey, minerals, and wood.

As Derk mentioned, this is a perfect tea for fall. Its honey and fruit flavours remind me of many other Taiwanese black teas, including Mi Xiang and TTC’s Golden Dragon, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’ll enjoy using the small amount I have left for Western steeping.

A White Antlers tea, many thanks!

I wanted to pass this one around so I kept enough for only two western sessions. My experience, albeit limited, says Black Lily begs to be leafed heavy. The long and wiry dry leaf doesn’t exactly conform to spoon measurement.

My best cup of the two was 1g:75mL western. Aroma like raspberries and other berries, orchid, apricot, orange. Smooth and tangy, mineral and very clean, elusively creamy and thick. The flavors were difficult to pin but the main notes I picked up were apple, delicate honey, soft sweet cinnamon maybe allspice?, oats, berries, raisins, wood and orchid, apricot-orange tone, and a brown sugar returning sweetness. Finished bright and clean.

A fantastic profile for autumn that I think would appeal to all seasons of sippers looking for such.

Thanks to Kawaii433 for this! Very glad I got to try this one. I’m primarily getting deep prune and raisin notes. There’s a bit of spice that balances the dried fruit flavor out very nicely. I enjoyed this one, but I’m finding I like more chocolate/malt leaning black teas.

Got another sampler of this in my last order. Since my previous note said it might be better iced than hot, I used the entire pack to make a pitcher of cold brew.

Verdict, there’s an odd flavor profile here. Its difficult to describe, but it almost reminds me of soap maybe? or at least something similar.

Not my thing. I’ll try to finish the pitcher, but overall I’m not impressed with this one.

First impressions from the first cup. I usually always do gong-fu but my schedule has drastically changed since having my nephew around. :) I prepared it with 1 heaping tablespoon, 212F, 3 min steep in 16 ozs water. The second cup for 5 min. infusion.

Soft, silky mouthfeel. A very warm, comforting spice that I can not name, not quite cinnamon but cinnamony-like. Oats, apple, berries, spices… It reminded me kind of a cinnamon-oatmeal-apple pie but in liquid form. Cream notes, barley notes, naturally but delicately honey-raisin sweet. Unique and wonderful flavors throughout the two infusions. The second infusion not as delicious as the first as it seemed that the oats/barley notes were more subdued. Am looking forward to a gongfu session with this to see where all these splendid notes come in and come out.

Highly recommended.