Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Verdant Tea
Tea Description:
In 2012, we were pleased to offer the very first experimental harvest of this incredible, innovative tea from Wang Yanxin. Her first experiment yielded a completely new kind of black tea that combined the best chocolatey notes of Laoshan Black with the crisp texture and honey aftertaste of Jin Jun Mei. Last Spring, Wang Yanxin and her friends in Xinyang and Laoshan outdid themselves with the newest harvest, and we’re honored and privileged to bring in Yu Lu Yan Cha for the 2014 Autumn Season.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Oh. My. Goodness. The aroma of this Yu Lu Yan Cha Black Tea from Verdant Tea is ahh-mazing! The scent wafting out of my teacup in front of me smells sweet and chocolaty. Like dark chocolate – rich and decadent. My mouth is watering as I’m waiting for the tea to cool so I can start drinking!
To brew this tea, I used my Kati Tumbler, measuring 1 bamboo scoop into the basket and pouring 12 ounces of boiling water into the tumbler. I let the tea steep for 3 minutes.
Oh, chocolate-y bliss! This is such a delightful tea. The chocolate melds with notes of malt, and the malty notes add just a hint of caramel-y sweetness to the chocolate. So indulgent!
Beneath the top notes of chocolate, I taste notes of sweet potato and cream! It makes me think of mashed sweet potatoes that have been whipped with butter. A hint of vanilla in the distance.
As the tea cools a little more, I am picking up on notes of orange toward the tail. It’s a little brightness and a hint of sweet tangy flavor that is quite welcome after the rich flavors of chocolate, malt, sweet potato and vanilla.
The description from Verdant Tea suggests some Darjeeling-esque vegetal tones but I didn’t really pick up on those. Perhaps I was too enamored with the chocolate notes to notice. There was also a suggestion of honey in the flavor and I guess I do pick up on that, but it’s layered with the chocolate and becomes almost seamless with that flavor that it’s difficult to pick out on it’s own.
This is a spectacular tea – if you’re a lover of rich, chocolaty black teas, this is one you should add to your collection!
