Oct 28th, '14, 11:43
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Re: Official what Black (Red) Tea Are You Drinking Right Now?

by ethan » Oct 28th, '14, 11:43

Teadoff, I see you are drinking black tea late at night. I guess you do not worry about caffeine keeping you awake.
Today, I awoke at 5 a.m. & went into my normal routine feeling fine, but the missing 1 1/2 hours of sleep just hit me; so, I am having a second round of black tea. Not as complex as the early morning HOR but quite good: from YS, Imperial Mojiang Golden Bud from autumn 2013. At a friend's, I had some Golden Monkey from Adagio that was similar but more complex. Seems like gold tea from Yunnan is reliable for sweetness & quality.

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Oct 28th, '14, 23:49
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Re: Official what Black (Red) Tea Are You Drinking Right Now?

by Tead Off » Oct 28th, '14, 23:49

The teas don't seem to bother me at night. I can drink them and still sleep soundly. but not if I drink round after round after round. I couldn't do that with coffee.

Oct 29th, '14, 07:11
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Re: Official what Black (Red) Tea Are You Drinking Right Now?

by thirst » Oct 29th, '14, 07:11

Tried out two black tea samples from Taiwan Tea Crafts today: Sun Moon Lake Assam Black Tea Lot 267 and Yuchi Hong Yun Black Tea Lot 138. Never had black teas from Taiwan. They were very different from what I expected. For starters, both of these look like heavily oxidized strip-style oolongs. (It’s been a while so I forgot what they looked like on the store page.) Large leafs, and their smell is also not what I would have expected from a black tea.

The SML basically tastes like a fruitified Assam. As in differently fruity from the Assams I’ve had before and with little or no bitterness and astringency, but with some Assam flavors shining through. Some high notes.

The Yuchi basically tastes like it smells: gummy candy. Intense. No bitterness or astringency. I wouldn’t have guessed that this was a black tea if nobody had told me. The only other tea that I had that smelled this intense was a Dancong. Disclaimer: should try more and better teas.

Since the Yuchi store page mentions that it’s a hybrid, I now wonder what good Qimen tastes like (only had cheap versions).

Oct 29th, '14, 09:54
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Re: Official what Black (Red) Tea Are You Drinking Right Now?

by ethan » Oct 29th, '14, 09:54

thirst, Thanks for your post. You ask a good ?, are there big differences in in each type of black tea? It is easy to assume that some types of tea don't vary much from the cheapest to the most expensive or from the worst to the best. E.g., I concluded that all Assams are quite similar. I have not tasted an Assam that was terrible nor one that was wonderful. Now I read that you tasted one that was "fruitified". Good to know that if I live an extremely long life in which I have time to venture into even more types of tea, I can find more character & quality than I had imagined was there.

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Oct 29th, '14, 10:20
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Re: Official what Black (Red) Tea Are You Drinking Right Now?

by debunix » Oct 29th, '14, 10:20

I enjoyed some Yunnan Gold yesterday (Rishi's version), delicate and tasty as usual, so nice I always wonder why I don't drink it more often....

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Oct 30th, '14, 19:42
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Re: Official what Black (Red) Tea Are You Drinking Right Now?

by bambooforest » Oct 30th, '14, 19:42

Singbulli first flush from Upton, harvested in 2012. Also, this mylar zip bag has been unsealed since then, and yet the tea is a fruit explosion. Truly excellent, and even better than a 2014 Singbulli I had.

I now feel that a Darjeeling first flush can last 2 years. At least this one certainly has proven so.

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Nov 7th, '14, 22:23
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Re: Official what Black (Red) Tea Are You Drinking Right Now?

by Muadeeb » Nov 7th, '14, 22:23

Finishing off a bag of TTC's Sun Moon Lake Assam, such a fruity and flavorful tea. I put the last 3g of the bag in my 150ml yixing, and even though it's light, it's still full-bodied. I find this to be so sweet it almost seems sweetened.

Nov 8th, '14, 02:27
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Re: Official what Black (Red) Tea Are You Drinking Right Now?

by bonescwa » Nov 8th, '14, 02:27

bambooforest wrote:Singbulli first flush from Upton, harvested in 2012. Also, this mylar zip bag has been unsealed since then, and yet the tea is a fruit explosion. Truly excellent, and even better than a 2014 Singbulli I had.

I now feel that a Darjeeling first flush can last 2 years. At least this one certainly has proven so.
I remember that tea. The Darjeeling at Upton is a great deal in general.

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Nov 9th, '14, 11:22
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by joelbct » Nov 9th, '14, 11:22

Yunnan Sourcing US' Imperial Golden Needle Spring 2014. It's great but I even prefer the Imperial Mojiang Golden Bud Spring 2014.

I am in Oregon now, so their shipping from Portland gets here in one day too, pretty sweet.

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Nov 9th, '14, 11:53
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by joelbct » Nov 9th, '14, 11:53

ethan wrote:thirst, Thanks for your post. You ask a good ?, are there big differences in in each type of black tea? It is easy to assume that some types of tea don't vary much from the cheapest to the most expensive or from the worst to the best. E.g., I concluded that all Assams are quite similar. I have not tasted an Assam that was terrible nor one that was wonderful. Now I read that you tasted one that was "fruitified". Good to know that if I live an extremely long life in which I have time to venture into even more types of tea, I can find more character & quality than I had imagined was there.
Not tasted an Assam that was wonderful!

2 estates Meleng and Mangalam have produced SFTGFOP highly tippy offerings that were among my favorite Black tea's I have ever, ever tasted. This was 2006 thru 2010. Like a balanced symphony of winey malty nuanced tannins. They were my daily black tea of choice.

Unfortunately the two reliable importers of top grade Meleng and Mangalam that I used were specialteas.com, which went under during the recession and was absorbed by that mediocre tea chain at malls, Teavana, and the other was theteastop.com who also is not in business even though their site is up. Ito En used to get quality tippy Mangalams sometimes. I tried every one of Upton's Meleng and Mangalams and all were let downs.

If anyone knows any good sources of top notch Meleng or Mangalams do let me know!

Nov 11th, '14, 10:01
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Re: Official what Black (Red) Tea Are You Drinking Right Now?

by ethan » Nov 11th, '14, 10:01

First tea of the day: 2014 FF Kuwapani. Gives the same wonderful aroma & flavors as the Jun Chiyabari Himalayan Orange (HOR) but adds some bitter aftertaste that lingers a long time which my favorite black, the HOR, does not do. I find my memory was wrong. I have been thinking that it was fairly astringent (though < most darjeeling): Wrong. Astringency is not an issue w/ this Kuwapani, another black tea from Nepal which seems very good to me.

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Nov 11th, '14, 12:11
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Re:

by sherubtse » Nov 11th, '14, 12:11

joelbct wrote:2 estates Meleng and Mangalam have produced SFTGFOP highly tippy offerings that were among my favorite Black tea's I have ever, ever tasted. This was 2006 thru 2010. Like a balanced symphony of winey malty nuanced tannins. They were my daily black tea of choice.

Unfortunately the two reliable importers of top grade Meleng and Mangalam that I used were specialteas.com, which went under during the recession and was absorbed by that mediocre tea chain at malls, Teavana, and the other was theteastop.com who also is not in business even though their site is up. Ito En used to get quality tippy Mangalams sometimes. I tried every one of Upton's Meleng and Mangalams and all were let downs.

If anyone knows any good sources of top notch Meleng or Mangalams do let me know!
I think that Capital Tea has some great Assams, including a 2014 Meleng. Perhaps you could them a try:

http://www.capitaltea.com/shop/home.php ... irection=0

Best wishes,
sherubtse

Nov 11th, '14, 12:21
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Re: Official what Black (Red) Tea Are You Drinking Right Now?

by ethan » Nov 11th, '14, 12:21

Teabox is offering a pack of Assam samples (10 grams ea.) for cost of shipping ($5) You might try that. Has anyone bought from them?

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Nov 11th, '14, 19:30
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Re: Official what Black (Red) Tea Are You Drinking Right Now?

by sherubtse » Nov 11th, '14, 19:30

ethan wrote:Teabox is offering a pack of Assam samples (10 grams ea.) for cost of shipping ($5) You might try that. Has anyone bought from them?
I ordered their Darj sampler a few weeks ago. Nice teas - I only paid for shipping, which was more than $5 though. (They ship via FedEX, which meant I had the teas in 5 days.)

They have a very nice selection of Darjeelings, but some are too expensive. Their Assams are probably a better deal.

Best wishes,
sherubtse

Nov 13th, '14, 16:39
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Re: Official what Black (Red) Tea Are You Drinking Right Now?

by drinking_teas » Nov 13th, '14, 16:39

ruby red from Wistaria Tea House - easily the best example of this tea I have ever had. I was only given a small sample of it - maybe 20g, but every session has been fantastic. Hopefully I can get more soon.

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