Mark T. Wendell
Popular Teas from Mark T. Wendell
See All 90 TeasRecent Tasting Notes
Ok, I think I’ve figured this one out. You have to use a bit extra dry tea to develop body with this tea. 1 1/2 heaping teaspoons (again, the silverware, not the measuring spoon) at a minimum for a 12oz cup of tea. I’m using drinkably Hot water and a full 4 minutes of steeping. The resulting tea is very mild and not astringent at all. A very tame cup of tea.
got some of this from a friend. Steeped 5 minutes to get some color…Very light, not astringent, mild mild mild, even after 5 minutes of steeping. Knowing that tea IS flavored water, this is just flavored water….
I’ll try this one again in the future just to make sure it wasn’t a bad day.
Fresh batch 1/27/11. So nice to have this back on the shelf. After a year of trying other teas, I’m back to where I started. I read the other reviews that have accumlated and I can agree with all of them. To me, this tea is a middle of the road, average everything fine tea. “But it has nothing special”, you say. “Right!”, I say. Its not a light tea, its not a heavy tea, its not smokey, its not floral, its not earthy, malty, musty, grassy, sweet, or sour. It can be weak or strong depending on how you brew it…but in the end, its just a really good, plain black tea.
Preparation
This is my daily cup of morning tea. This is not Lipton’s (for the Americans)…this is something in a class all its own. Brewed lightly, it is a peaceful, sipping tea. It has the character to be brewed dark and makes a wonderful iced tea. It is possible to over brew this tea, in which case you will get an astringent, biting flavor that is not too pleasant…but takes to watering down (as in iced tea) to save it.
This tea is has very strong, smokey flavors. I found the smokiness to be overpowering and I did not care for it. Victorian Afternoon, by Mark T. Wendell is similar, but not overpowered with smoke.
In deference to those who love this sort of tea, I have removed my low rating.
Respectfully, I disagree. I found Hu Kwa to have no other quality worth commenting on other than the heavy smoke. On the other hand, MTW’s Victorian Afternoon, which is smokey, has, in my opinion, a more balanced approach. In the latter case, I believe the smoke complements an otherwise fine, high grade tea. In Hu Kwa’s case, I couldn’t get anything from it other than smoke. I should add that my opinion is not based on a single tasting, but rather several tasting from at least three different batches, spread out over a decade. My rating is just that…my opinion of where the tea ranks, relative to the other teas I have tasted. I understand your point, but if I ranked only teas I liked, it wouldn’t give a balanced view of what I do and do not like.
I’m inclined to agree with Ed Fladung. E.g., I don’t like coffee; therefore, I should stay away from coffee forums, instead of frequenting them and rating everything as 26 for “very strong coffee flavours”. Lapsang Suchong has a strong smoky flavour, and the point of the rating system is for people who enjoy Lapsang Suchong to give relevant advice to other drinkers.
