Leaf Type: Black
Produced By Yuan Shiang
For More Information, visit the Tea Farms webpage
About ITFA Global Tea Taster’s Club:
By subscribing to the Global Tea Tasters Club, you will receive tea from ITFA tea farms 6 times per year. Each time, we will select a different region to feature and as we grow in tea farm members, so will your tea experience.
Your tea will also be accompanied by info about the tea and the tea farms themselves.
To know where your tea is coming from, who has grown and produced it, to taste the difference in teas from around the world…what could be better?
Taster’s Review:
This is an incredible black tea, unlike others I’ve tasted. And that is something that I am enjoying so much about the Global Tea Taster’s Club: it offers the amazing opportunity to try teas that I probably would not have otherwise tasted, and these teas never fail to impress!
And this Ruby Black Tea is certainly impressive. It brews up incredibly dark, and the aroma of the brewed liquor is fascinating. It has a spiced tone to it that intrigues me, beckoning me to take a sip.
The tea is strong and intensely flavored. In one sip, I taste notes of earth, fruit, malt, spice and even the slightest hints of smoke. Each of these flavors meld together so well. There is a pleasing sweetness to the cup too, somewhat caramel-y as it melds with the malty tones, but I wouldn’t really characterize it as a caramel undertone in comparison to other black teas that I’ve tasted. That is to say, it’s not like a buttery caramel flavor, it is more like burnt sugar, sweet but with a hint of bitterness to it as well. There is a fair amount of astringency to the cup – not too much, but it is certainly noticeable.
This tea offers two very splendid infusions (perhaps more!), the first tasting bold and hearty, while the second is a bit smoother with more malty notes. This is a very pleasant black tea, and one that I’m very honored to have tried and to be able to recommend to others.
I absolutely loved it. It arrived at the exact moment it was needed (read the story here on teatrade at http://thedevotea.teatra.de/2011/11/19/backwards/)
What is clear is that everyone believes it to have a strong spicy undertone, but all three reviews I’ve read offer different spices as the bench mark.
It is a great tea, though, and one I will buy more of when I can.
This is a tea on my “want” list. Have you tried it with a splash of milk? Since it’s strong and intense. Or is it far too good for that?
I didn’t try it with milk but to be honest, even though it is a strong, intense flavor it doesn’t really need milk to soften it. I don’t think the milk would hurt anything, but, I really loved it straight.