Yunnan Dian Hong Ancient Tree Black Tea

I’ve been craving some straight black teas and have pretty much “wiped out” that selection from my cupboard, but I did still have some sampler packets stashed away. Decided to brew this one, heathen-style (western) this morning, as I just CBA to pull out all the gong fu stuff. Using this for “a raisin-y tea” from the prompt list.

It has a lovely brewed aroma. Smells like oranges, spice, graham biscuits and a subtle floral rose. The flavor is malty with a bit of that “sweet ’n sour orange sauce BBQ” flavor I often taste in Chinese black tea. If I let it settle across my tongue and focus past the umami and citrus, I get some baked bread and golden raisin notes. There is a faint whisper of rose near the end of the sip. The sip also has a lovely mellow smokiness to it. The tea is thick and coating, with a very slight astrigency toward the end of the sip and aftertaste.

It’s a lovely cup. It’s been a while since I enjoyed a Chinese black.

Sipdown! (18 | 148)

Another pair of Teavivre sample packs down!

This is a tasty tea. It’s fairly earthy, but there are some nice, deep caramelized sugar and molasses notes with bit of raisin for good measure. It almost reminds me of an Assam in a way, as the combination of malt and raisin tends to take me there. But of course, this doesn’t have the bite of an Assam, it’s perfectly smooth without a hint of astringency. And there’s a light sweet potato-y, bready flavor that’s characteristic of Yunnan.

It is a bit stronger on the earthy and mineral notes than I would prefer, but still a very enjoyable and rich Dian Hong.

2021 sipdown no. 51

I had two cups of this and the first cup had a lovely sweetness to it, while the second edged on smokiness. Happy to have tried, but I don’t need this one for my cupboard.

Well I drank this yesterday, but I’ll try to remember and post today.
Ancient Tree seems like it should have a more complex taste structure, but I’m not sure I prefer this to the Premium Golden Monkey or the regular Dian Hong Yunnan. It was quite smooth, with dark chocolate and malty notes that one would expect, but I only got a sample of this and I don’t think I’d be tempted to get a whole bag. I did get two good western style steeps out of the 10g sample, but the third was rather weak.

Sipdown and I really liked this. :)

Malty, smooth, mellow, fruity, lightly sweet of a mixture of honey, molasses and brown sugar notes. Lots of berry fruity goodness along with sweet potatoes. I got some slightly good bitter dark cocoa notes which really played well with the fruitiness. I liked that it was a stronger flavor, full-bodied. I think I would really enjoy this with a teaspoon of milk in the mornings because of the stronger flavor/notes. It’s a drag that I have to have a little milk in my tea in the mornings now but I still can enjoy nekked tea :P in the evenings since it’s not on an empty stomach.

Prepared it gongfu 5g, 6 steeps: quick rinse, 5s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 50s at 185℉.

Mood: A little somber, thinking of the El Paso shooting. Thinking of them and their families. I was just at a busy shopping center the other day…

Attention!
Attention!
We have Gong Fu. I repeat, we have Gong Fu!

Yes, you read that right. I’m trying it again. I came into acquisition of some small cups designed, not necessarily for Gong Fu, but for a more relaxed and gentle tea session. They are I’d say about 4-6 oz cups, and now that I have them (well, one) I am trying Gong Fu again.

I’m not exactly being scientific about this, just sort of mimicking what I see on all those youtube videos.

Anyway, after a quick rinse, I steeped for about 5 seconds. BTW: The leaves in the gaiwan smell like sweet potatoes and hay. I don’t like sweet potatoes. We’ll see how this goes.

It was very strong at first. A bit too robust for me. I tasted malt and leather, but a good deal of harsh tannin as well. As the session progressed, the tea mellowed out, turning smooth with cocoa and yes, sweet potato notes. However, I didn’t hate it. Those sweet potato tones shifted to apricot on the final two steeps, leaving a lingering sweetness in my mouth once the session was over. Overall, once the tea softened a bit, I found myself enjoying it! It’s not bad fixed this way. In fact, it’s pretty darn good! According to steepster, my original rating was 82, but I somewhat remember not liking this tea, so that 82 might have been before I stopped rating everything high, regardless of if I liked it or not. There’s no tasting note that I can find, so I have no idea.

As for the experience, I was almost sad when the session was concluded. I got a good seven or eight steeps from this ranging from the initial 5 seconds to about 2 minutes. I will say that one problem with gong-fu for me is that my Breville doesn’t possess a keep warm feature, so I can’t keep the temperature consistent, and I certainly don’t want to re-heat the water. Once I get that new kettle (hopefully next month) and I redo my kitchen, I may invest in a proper full gong-fu tea set. Nothing fancy, just something a bit more extensive than a single gaiwan and a teacup. I do think I would like a small teapot at least to go with it, and actual gong-fu cups. The small teacup, while nice, was still way too big for what I was putting in it!

So, my final thoughts. Well, guess what. I think I’m going to break my habit. I now see that gong-fu can greatly improve the texture/flavor of good quality tea. So hopefully, in the near future, I can try this again. Maybe I can acquire a nice Wuyi to try it with.

Showtune of the Moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n7X-st2QPc

One of the relatively new offerings by Teavivre and as such has not been yet reviewed to death. Dianhongs are often so different with some that I positively love and some that I quite intensely dislike because their flavors cover such a huge terrain.

This one looked good as a dry leaf with nice twisted leafs and quite a few golden tips. The smell was sweet, berry-like and boozy, as if these overripe berries had been left outside in the summer heat and started fermenting.

Both the gong fu and Western style produce very similar results with one of the more common Yunnan tea profiles: some berry and honeyed sweetness which quickly transforms into a bitterness. What makes it special is a pronounced tanginess, very much like grapefruit. This grapefruit flavor has a strong staying power and lingers for a while as an aftertaste. All of the flavors are very clear and well-defined.

If you are a fan of citrus and grapefruit in particular this is the tea for you. Not sure if I personally like it – I just had a sample and it takes me longer to develop my personal preferences – but it is a quality dianhong with a defined personality.

I get a malty aroma from this tea. It has a mild sweetness with flavors of wheat and brown sugar. It is a good cup of tea, but not one that will make it into my regular rotation.

Oh happy day, my Teavivre order came in! This was one of the samples. I think I might be getting a bag next time. It’s really good, but how to describe? I’ve gotten some really unusual tasting teas from Teavivre, but this is not one of them. This has got a really classic profile. Rich, smooth, dark. I wouldn’t have thought ‘sweet potato’ on my own, but when I read it in some of the other notes, I could kind of see how that fits. No astringency at all, which is nice. I want to say this reminds me slightly of Golden Fleece, but I drank that so long ago I’m not sure that’s an accurate memory.

While purchasing a pound of Teavivre Golden Monkey tea (which I consider to be the BEST Golden Monkey of all that I’ve run across) online, I chose this Yunnan Dian Hong Ancient Tree Black Tea as one of the three free samples included with my purchase. I am always excited when there is a new black tea to try!

I opened up the sample package and I was immediately struck by the rich leathery smell and the long dark fresh-looking leaves. I steeped the tea for eight minutes (the maximum recommended time) at 185 degrees.

The brewed liquor smelled rich and leathery. The color was a bright orange-gold.

The taste was extremely full and smooth, with finely blended accents of sweet potato, malt, and earth. Astringency was not in its vocabulary. The aftertaste was gentle and brief.

This is another one of those teas that goes down so smoothly I am tempted to chug the entire cup. However, I’m sure I enjoyed it even more by savoring each sip.

This is an excellent black tea. It is worthy of a prominent position on my highly recommended list.