Mi Lan Xiang Black Tea

This is a 2020 harvest and another tea from Leafhopper, thank you again! Also today 2 teas are finished, though I don’t count those as a sipdowns as both had only one session. But it still counts in total quantity of tea. And in my stock system, the quantity is zero too.

Anyway, I preheated the gaiwan, filled the thermos, added the leaves to the preheated gaiwan and I got somehow nice, tobacco aroma.

Gongfu / 5 grams / 125 ml / 90°C
First steep, 10 seconds
The wet leaves aroma changed towards sweet notes, maybe yams or other sweet potatoes, liquid is sweet, but without much to write about. Was it too short?

Second steep, 15 seconds
Definitely sweeter, but I have been expecting more complexity. There are hints of stonefruits with powder sugar aftertaste. Wet leaves lean towards floral, orchid notes.

Third steep, 20 seconds
Definitely I got the florals more than fruits, very much orchids in aroma and flavor, slighlty woody, sweet and stonefruits in taste.

4th steep, 30 seconds
This one brought into the starlight the fruity notes, stonefruits to be more exact, definitely cherries and plums in flavours, along with honey and slight woody note. Definitely most flavourful and most interesting steep so far. Nice mouthfeel here as well.

5th steep, 40 seconds
Wet leaves smell like crate of fruits, you know, that fruity sweet whiff, with woody notes. The brew stays sweet and stonefruity, smooth and mouthfeel is still nice.

6th steep, 50 seconds (or so) got little distracted
Fruity notes are weaker, woody notes started to be stronger. One… two steeps remaining for this tea. But nevertheless, it’s still okay.

7th steep, 60 seconds
Well, that’s all from this tea apparently.

There was weak start, great body and flavours in the middle steeps, but also fades quite quickly. The flavour profile is interesting, very fruity in the end, but on the other hand I think that longevity of this tea could be better. But honestly, I don’t think this is my favorite flavour profile, I think I prefer a bit other black teas, for instance Indian/Nepalese and definitely Georgian teas are my all time favourites. But you have to try teas which you aren’t that familiar with to broaden your horizons.

Whenever a vendor offers a black Dancong, it ends up in my cart. This one is from spring 2019. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of honey, malt, hay, orchids, apricot, plum, and other flowers. Togo noticed olives, which I can also detect now. The leaves were so long and spindly that I had trouble getting some of them into the pot. The first steep is very soft, with milder than expected notes of honey, malt, cereal, orchid, apricot, hay, sugarcane, wood, and zucchini. Raisins, plums, and cherries make an appearance in steep two, and the tea is a little more floral, though still very vegetal and woody for a black Dancong. The florality increases in the next couple steeps, though the tea is still more sweet and vegetal than fruity, with a drying sensation in the mouth and an aftertaste similar to sugarcane. There are hints of apricot and caramel in steeps four to six, along with lots of honey and tannins. Letting the tea cool, as I did accidentally on the sixth steep, brings out the apricot more strongly. Apricot, cream, honey, and malt are even more present in the next couple long steeps. The session ends with honey, malt, tannins, wood, and lingering stonefruit sweetness.

Unlike most teas, which flatten out after the first few steeps, this one became more fruity and pleasant as the session progressed. It is unassuming for a black Dancong and it was hard to pin down some of the flavours, probably due to it being stored for so long in my tea museum. In the three sessions I’ve had with this tea, using more leaf brought out the fruity notes, while using less leaf highlighted the florals. I tend to prefer more fruit-forward black Dancongs, but I’ll have no trouble finishing this tea.

This tea is like a good MLX with heightened woody notes. It has a very perfumy aroma with hints of apricot pits and olives before the rinse. Afterwards, I get a sweet, woody and floral aroma, reminiscent of apricot jam, muscat grape and rhododendrons.

The taste is again of similar character, followed by a mildly sour and fairly drying and cooling aftertaste. There is a unique mint flower fragrance and after a while, a fruity sweetness emerges too. If pushed, the bitterness that we know from a classic MLX also appears, but otherwise it’s fairly muted.

Liquor has a full body with a soft and a little powdery mouthfeel. The body effects mostly show up as an intense chest warming sensation as well as a very mild and pleasant high. It’s more of an attention-channeling rather than focus-dissolving tea.

Why take a good Dan Cong and make it into a black tea? Because you can and someone will drink it I guess are the main reasons. I personally have no bias as long as the price is not too steep. Brewed this western and gongfu, short steeps, long steeps , over steeped to get an idea on the depth. The longer processing of this into a black tea adds the requisite maltiness we all love but dampens and mutes the floral notes. The underlying sweetness is still present early but dissipates quickly. It has very good structure in dry form and on the tongue, all in all I would drink this as an every day tea.

Leaves are on the small-medium side. Jet black, with a slightly metallic sheen. Steamed aroma is a deep, fragrant orchid. Brewed aroma is sweeter, with more honey notes. Tea liquor is dark, muddy black-red. Not very clear, but not impenetrable. First taste is bitter, that rapidly evolves into a thick, honey sweetness. On the finish, a slightly bitter orchid is mixed up with the sweetness. It is so incredibly sweet. Like I was sucking on a crystallized piece of honey. Finish is long lasting. Throat feeling is negligible. No noticeable cha qi.

This tea isn’t super complex. What it is, is tasty, and a pleasure to drink.