Black tea
All posts in the Black tea categoryChina Lapsang Souchong from Mark T. Wendell Tea Company
With its campy quality, lapsang souchong is the perfect tea for a grey winter day. And Mark T. Wendell Tea Company’s China lapsang souchong is a particularly smoky version of the classic Chinese tea. It has a strong, meaty flavour and somewhere in there, piercing the tea’s most obvious aroma – smoke -, is a sharper note that reminds me tea tree oil.
Golden Bi Luo from Chicago Tea Garden
My fellow tea blogger, Tony Gebely of World of Tea is starting Chicago Tea Garden, an online tea store that’s just days away from launching. He sent me samples of two of his teas a few weeks ago, one of which is this Golden Bi Luo, a rare black tea from Yunnan Province, China.
Golden Bi Luo is made in the style of Bi Luo Chun, a green tea that is the specialty of tea makers in Jiangsu Province. Like Bi Luo Chun, Golden Bi Luo is rolled into little balls, but it has a lovely golden tint. This tea scores very highly on the attractiveness scale. It’s beautiful to behold.
Keemun Panda #1 from Orange Tea Co.
Do you like my mug? It was a Father’s Day present — my first ever — from Benedict.
Of course, Father’s Day was way back in September, so why the recursion into the past? Truth be told, my camera has a flat battery, so I don’t have any photos of today’s tea. Instead, you’ll have to make do with some choice pictures of the almighty mug I drank it from.
Ceylon OP1 from Teas Etc
What does it take to be a championship-winning tea?
That was the main question I had in mind this morning as I enjoyed Teas Etc’s Ceylon OP1, which took first prize in the Ceylon category in last year’s World Tea Expo. It was one of three Teas Etc teas to win a prize (you can get all three together in a special Championship pack).
Sungma Clonal Wonders 2009, 2nd Flush Black Tea from Darjeeling
Chocolate.
That was the first thing that came to mind when I opened this packet of Sungma Clonal Wonders ’09, a 2nd flush Darjeeling tea sent to my by Benoy of Thunderbolt Tea. I was amazed at how clear and distinct the aroma was.
That was a few weeks ago. Since then, I have been drinking this black tea on a regular basis. To me, it seems like a middle-of-the-road sort of Darjeeling tea — it exhibits some characteristic Darjeeling traits, with a few noteworthy aspects, but in some ways I come away feeling a little disappointed that it doesn’t live up to the promise offered by its aroma.
Bai Lin Gong Fu from Tea Trekker
When I was a kid I dreamed of becoming a writer when I was older. Over the years that dream has faded, but I still enjoy putting pen to paper. This morning, as I drank Tea Trekker’s Bai Lin Gong Fu with the intention of reviewing it, it suddenly struck me how writing a tea review is great practice for a writer, because it forces you to be deliberate and thoughtful about the words you use.
When I write a review, I usually base it around two or three words or phrases, which I think accurately depict something about the tea — either its appearance, flavour, aroma or character. You could condense any of my reviews down into two or three words or phrases, and you would have roughly the same thing, minus all the contextualizing with which I pad the reviews.
Keemun, not Keemum
So it’s keemun tea, not keemum tea.
Thank you to Dan for pointing this out to me. After Dan’s comment, I checked a couple of my books about tea and discovered that yes, I was completely wrong. And I felt a bit silly, until I ran a Google search for keemum tea and found 411,000 results — a figure that outnumbers the 378,000 currently being returned for keemun tea.
Seems I’m not the only one who’s a little confused.
So to all you who have stumbled across this on a quest to rectify your ignorance, I assure you: It’s keemun, not keemum.
Keemun Double-Header: Keemun by Narien Teas and Teas Etc
Long-time readers of this blog will be well aware of my fondness for black teas. While I concede that black tea doesn’t — for the most part — have the depth or range you can find in other types of tea, I remain an avowed fan of our fully oxidized friend. This morning, with heavy eyes from too little sleep, I decided to turn my attention to one of the most well-regarded of all black teas: keemun.
Giddapahar Musk: 2009 2nd Flush Black Tea from Darjeeling
Those of you who have been following this blog for some time will know that I have a soft spot for teas from Darjeeling. A while ago, I received a wonderful bundle of teas from Benoy, the benevolent man behind Thunderbolt Tea, a Darjeeling-based tea vendor. I’ve been following Benoy on Twitter, and one thing that is very clear to me is how much work goes into picking the best teas each season.