Tea Type:
Black Tea
Where To Buy:
Shan Valley
Product Description:
This is a first flush black tea, and is processed as is local tradition in Myanmar, the tea leaves are a little more uneven and have a balanced flavor. This tea is similar to the Kyaukme Black Tea. We get our green tea directly from local tea growers in Myanmar (Burma), which include family and farmers, we do not import anything from other companies!
Tasters Review:
Shan Black Tea from Shan Valley quickly became one of those go-to teas to kick start my mornings! After my initial first taste it was easy for me to do follow-up cups without having to put too much thought into it. Therefore, I think it was a good ole stand-by. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying this to ‘cheapen’ this tea. It’s a very good solid black tea. It’s straight-forward and transparent in a sense that it has nothing to hide. I like that.
To try and give you a ‘visual’ of my experience…after steeping or infusing the tea for about 3 minutes the post-infusion color in the cup was a VERY dark brown nearing black. The aroma was a medium- strength black tea with no flavorings or hints at other natural scents. It wasn’t flowery, it wasn’t really malty per say, and it wasn’t what I consider cakey or bready. All I DO know is that I really enjoyed the cuppa. If anything it was more woodsy, I suppose. But not overly-so. It was pretty smooth. And it was even thirst-quenching for a bold black tea base…yet another thing I appreciated about this tea. Give it a try!
Shan Black Tea (2014) from Shan Valley
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Shan Valley
Tea Description:
This is a first flush black tea, and is processed as is local tradition in Myanmar, the tea leaves are a little more uneven and have a balanced flavor. This tea is similar to the Kyaukme Black Tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Similar to the Kyaukme Black Tea from Shan Valley that I reviewed previously (as well as their 2013 Shan Black Tea), this black tea leaf has a very fine grind to the leaf that resembles a finely ground coffee bean. But as I said with the Kyaukme Black Tea, I will say with this tea, don’ t let the fine chop on these leaves dissuade you from trying it. It really is a splendid tea!
I recall the Kyaukme Black tea having an aroma to the dry leaf that reminded me very much of coffee. I don’t experience that scent with this tea. This smells a little more earthy. There are notes of leather and fruit and even the slightest floral note to this. This smells much more like black tea than coffee.
To brew this CTC tea, I used my Breville One Touch and measured 1 1/2 bamboo scoops into the basket of the tea maker. Then I poured 500ml of freshly filtered water into the kettle and set the timer for 2 1/2 minutes and the temperature for 212°F and let the tea maker get to work!
I would recommend that you experiment with this tea (or any other tea that has a fine CTC cut to it) to find what time works best for your palate. 2 1/2 minutes is cutting it pretty close for me, but I really wanted some edge to the cup when I brewed this tea. I am addicted to caffeine, you see, and I was experiencing a withdrawal headache.
Anyway, if you find that a CTC tea is too bitter for your liking when you’ve brewed it, try reducing the brew time by 30 seconds or 1 minute. You may find that you love that CTC! Sure, whole leaf is awesome … but just because the chop is fine on a tea doesn’t mean that it’s anything like that horrible dust and fannings that you’ll find in those tea bags from the grocery store.
The tea brews to a dark brown, almost black color. It brews so dark that it almost looks like a cup of black coffee. The aroma is rich and sweet with notes of molasses and hints of earth and leather. The fragrance here is much softer than that of the dry leaf, and I’m experiencing none of the aforementioned fruit or floral notes in the aroma.
But that’s OK because really, when it comes right down to it, it’s the flavor that counts and the flavor here is so rewarding. It’s a rich, robust cup of tea that has the vigor to get you going. This would make a really good breakfast tea and would take the additions of milk and honey quite well if you like to add those to your breakfast cuppa.
This is a very flavorful cup. It isn’t bitter but I suspect that if I had brewed it for another 30 seconds it would be. It’s right at that edge that I was looking for to deliver me a cup full of gusto but not so much that I can’t enjoy it. I AM enjoying this! Immensely!
It has a deep flavor to it. As I mentioned before, the aroma of the dry leaf is earthy with notes of leather and I do taste subtle notes of both earth and leather here, but they are much more subtle than the aroma suggests. Malt! A malty note that would rival your favorite Assam! I taste a deep molasses-y sort of flavor, like caramel that has been made from molasses (if there is such a thing.) I can taste a “burnt sugar” sort of flavor.
Last year’s Black Tea from Shan Valley had a very prominent cacao sort of flavor and I’m not experiencing that quite as much with this tea. I’m also experiencing less of a roasted sort of flavor. I still taste these notes, but they are less obvious to me than the malt and burnt-sugar/molasses notes that I mentioned before. There is a fair amount of astringency, I would classify it as medium astringency. As I continue to sip, I start to notice a sort of bake-y type of flavor that is reminiscent of freshly baked bread and I’m picking up on notes that are somewhat fruit like, hinting at notes of black currant, grapes, and plums.
I find that this flush is a little bit different from last year’s tea, and that’s why you want to try each flush, to experience all the flavors that each flush offers! This one is much more rugged than last year’s Shan Black, but both are really wonderful teas and well worth experiencing!
Kokang Green Tea from Shan Valley
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Shan Valley
Tea Description:
This first flush green tea is from the Kokang region of Myanmar, close to the Yunan region in china. This is considered the highest quality tea that is available to the public in Myanmar.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This tea is interesting because it really seems like two different teas: when it is served hot, I get a different set of flavors than as it cools. Both are really delicious, though!
When served hot, I get a fresh and exhilarating flavor that is rich and brothy without tasting overly vegetal. In fact, there are very little distinct vegetative flavor to this green tea and I found that quite surprising.
There is a lovely buttery note to this – not so much a creamy, sweet butter flavor but more like a browned butter. I’m picking up on a slightly smoky note to this as well as distant notes of flower and a nice fruit note that is like a hybrid fruit of melon, sweet green grapes and a hint of citrus that is particularly noticeable toward the finish.
The hot cup is a beautifully sweet tasting tea with notes of savory and smoke. As the cup cools, I notice the flavors changing a bit. I still get a pleasantly sweet cuppa, but, the aforementioned buttery note becomes more creamy now and less like a brown butter.
This is sweet and creamy! Mmm! I still taste those notes of fruit and flower, and I’m not tasting quite as much of a smoky element as I noticed with the hot tea. It’s still very subtly there in the distance. The fruit notes seem more pronounced now, and I’m tasting primarily fruit and cream with the cooled tea.
A really WONDERFUL tea – I’ve been so impressed with the 2014 teas from Shan Valley!
Pyin Green Tea (2014) from Shan Valley
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Shan Valley
Tea Description:
This tea hails from Pyin Long within Northern Shan, Myanmar. This is also a first flush tea and is an everyday drinking tea. This tea is a reddish color.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
How lovely!
I was a little surprised when I first opened the pouch of tea and took a good look at the tea inside. It looks like a black tea … or at the very least a well-oxidized Oolong, but the label said that it was a green tea.
And even though it looked like a black tea, the dry leaf possesses the aroma of a green tea! A very strong vegetal scent, much like the smell that fills the kitchen when I’m steaming green veggies. The leaves produce a fairly dark liquid (darker than what I usually see with a green tea) with a vegetative scent.
The flavor is not quite as vegetal as I would have expected, given all the veggie smells I was picking up in both the dry leaf and the brewed tea. Yes, I do taste a grassy/vegetative flavor, but that’s not all I taste, nor is it the strongest flavor that I taste.
I taste notes of flower and fruit (somewhere between apple and melon), and a lovely buttery overtone. The vegetal notes taste very fresh and invigorating – it’s a very refreshing and satisfying beverage. It has a well-rounded flavor and while it is a thick, broth-like tea (in both taste and texture) and the buttery notes are strong, it doesn’t feel heavy as I sip it, nor does it leave the palate feeling coated with that buttery sensation. It is very easy to drink, with a pleasant flavor that is sweet – but not too sweet – and savory.
Another GREAT tea from Shan Valley!
Black Tea from Shan Valley
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Shan Valley
Tea Description:
Our tea is has satisfying roasted flavor blend and strong taste. This tea is naturally processed from our green tea to further enhance flavor.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This Black Tea from Shan Valley has a nice, roasted taste to it that reminds me a bit like coffee! A bit of an unexpected flavor, but, it’s tasty.
The dry leaf is a small CTC cut, which immediately communicates to me that it should be brewed at a slightly lower temperature (205°F instead of 212°F) and steeped for slightly less time (2 minutes instead of 2 1/2 or 3 minutes). This produced a tea that was strong but not bitter … although I do notice some hints at bitterness here. I think that even just a couple more moments steeping would have resulted in a bitter brew.
But this is nice. I can’t recall tasting a pure black tea quite like this one before. It is rich and malty, reminding me a little bit of an Assam. It has a sweet, almost cocoa-ish background that reminds me of a Fujian black. It is pleasantly full-bodied, with notes that hint at caramel, smoke, toasty nut flavors, and an earthy quality. And then there is the coffee-ish overtone that is quite compelling. This tastes a bit like maybe someone poured a half coffee-half Assam tea concoction for me but without the bitterness of coffee.
I like this one a lot. It is an excellent choice for that first cup of the day, because it’s got some gusto to it!