2016 Bulang Black Tea Cake

Gongfu Sipdown (1458)!

Thank you Togo for sharing this sample! I haven’t tried a lot of teas from Bana Tea Company, so I appreciate getting to expand my familiarity with their offerings.

As I just mentioned in another tasting note, I was on my friend TheOolongDrunk’s IG Live show this past Saturday. On this week’s show, he did a segment where he read out suggestive tasting notes from bloggers while in his bathtub – and he definitely included one of mine in the round up. I don’t normally seek to write my tasting notes in a “sexy” way but I will fully own up to usually very ethereal language quite often and having a penchant for leaning hard into poetic language. In part, I think that’s because I often picture colour or even music when tasting tea…

I was just finishing this session when the live show began, so in honor of this week’s “sexy tea time” segment, I will do my best to write these tasting notes in as sensuous a way as possible though – just for Cody!

With a hauntingly dark and inviting aroma of black cherries and leather, this was a captivating tea session. The liquor steeps out syrupy and coating from the first steep, and over the course of several steeps those initially enchanting notes from the aroma are joined by the tastes of brandied red berries, bourbon, mahogany and sandalwood, and charred hazelnuts. Such a deep and deliciously indulgent sipdown!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CTaIoaArAlK/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zArM5phicRY&ab_channel=TorMiller-Topic

This tea seems to be hitting its full potential now. It is far from my favourite, but works well for a fuss-free leather-like black tea.

It has a sweet, leathery scent with fleeting floral, butter, nutty and earthy aromas. Taste is also mostly sweet and leathery. The charcoal bitterness is quite nice, but otherwise there is not much more to it beyond some woody notes.