Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: White Two Tea
Tea Description:
The Barb’s breakfast black is an homage to my mother, who despite years of being baited with high-end Puer teas, still prefers to start her day with a heavily brewed pot of black tea in the morning. This Yunnan black tea blend is built to survive British style steeping as well as gongfu style brewing techniques. Well balanced daily drinking black tea with a classic style, versatile enough to enjoy with breakfast on the go or in a slow and quiet tea session.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about White Two Tea’s Tea Club Subscription here.
Taster’s Review:
A really lovely Yunnan!
This isn’t as robust as I expected it to be. Usually, I’m expecting a real wallop of flavor from a Yunnan tea, but this is more subdued. It’s like a mellow version of Yunnan – smooth, rich, flavorful, but without the gusto that I was expecting.
That’s not to say that this isn’t a really good tea – it is!
It’s just that with a Breakfast Blend moniker, I expected it to have the kind of kick that breakfast blends usually deliver. This is smoother and mellower, more like a gentle nudge awake rather than a swift kick in the pants.
I really love the smooth flavor of this. It’s nicely round. It has light notes of spice, like white pepper and hints of cinnamon. And I find that these gentle spice notes becoming more lovely with each sip. Not more intense, really, but more clearly defined.
I think that I’d be more likely to reach for this tea as a late morning tea or perhaps an early afternoon tea rather than my breakfast blend. For a breakfast blend, I prefer really strong teas with some edge, and this doesn’t have that kind of edgy flavor to it. This is more refined, like something you’d want after you’re already awake and alert, and now you want something to please the taste buds, because this tea certainly does that!
Rather than brewing this gongfu style as suggested in the above description, I brewed it in my Breville One-Touch. (I don’t like to brew black teas gongfu style, mostly because I don’t like to scorch the fingertips with the hot gaiwan.) I found it next to impossible to measure out a bamboo scoop of this tea because of the curly leaves, so instead, I poured the leaves into my hand and eyeballed a bamboo scoop measurement. I eyeballed two such measurements and put them both into the basket of the Breville, and then poured 500ml of water into the jug. The thermometer was set for 212°F and the timer for 2 1/2 minutes.
The result is a cup of perfection! Smooth with very little astringency. Flavorful with notes of earth, spice and leather. Hints of fruit in the background that continue to develop as I sip, and now that I’m more than halfway through my mug of tea, I taste a distinct plum-like note that is quite nice. I also taste distant notes of flower.
A really nice, complex cup of Yunnan!
Rougui Oolong Tea from White Two Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: White Two Tea
Tea Description:
Rougui [cinnamon] yancha [rock tea] is an oolong tea from the Fujian province of China.
Our Rougui is fragrant and smoky with a mineral finish. It is considered a medium roast.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about White Two Tea’s Tea Club Subscription here.
Taster’s Review:
I’ll admit that I have less experience with Rougui Oolong teas than I do with other Oolongs like TieGuanYin and AliShan. But I still enjoy them!
And this Rougui Oolong from White Two Tea is lovely!
I brewed it the same way I brew other Oolongs – in my gaiwan! I measured a bamboo scoop of leaf into the bowl of the gaiwan, and then I poured in water heated to 180°F. I did a 15 second rinse, and then infused the leaves for 45 seconds. With each subsequent infusion, I added 15 seconds. My first cup is the combination of the first two infusions.
And the first cup is delightfully fragrant. It’s pleasantly sweet with notes of fruit and flower. It’s very flavorful. Usually, the first cup tends to be the lightest flavored cup that I enjoy of an Oolong experience, and that may be true of this tea as well, but I like that there’s still plenty of flavor to be experienced!
Sweet! Hints of smoke in the distance. The wording of the description lead me to believe that this would be smokier than it is – but the smoke notes are faint – I like that! Woodsy tones marry with notes of stone fruit. I taste sweet notes of peach and plum with hints of sour at mid-sip. I also taste hints of mineral and light spice notes in the background. It’s a wonderfully complex cuppa!
And that was just the first cup! The second cup is even more delightful! The flavors have become smoother now. The sip is smooth from start to finish with a mild astringency at the tail – a slightly dry note. I also pick up on a slight citrus-y note toward the finish.
While I experienced a slight ‘sour’ note from the fruit tones in that first cup, I find that those notes seem to be tapering. The fruit is still an abundant taste, but this cup focuses on the sweetness of the fruit and there is very little noticeable sour note.
This tea just seems to get lovelier and lovelier the more you infuse it!
The third cup was sweeter and smoother than the first two. I can really taste peach notes now. I am still tasting hints (wisps!) of smoke. The spice notes seem to stand out for me in this cup, so it’s like I’m tasting peach and spice. Nice!
A really lovely Oolong! This is the first Oolong that I’ve tried from White Two Tea, and it’s been a wonderful experience!