Ruby Red

This Sun Moon Lake black tea is very smooth, no astringency and a good amount maltiness. It has a faint sugar cane sweetness, with a milder boldness for an assam. There are initially some greener, more cucumber vegetal notes, along with a mild bell pepper undertone (this last very brief and transitions to the maltier, sweeter flavor).

The quality is certainly there, as you can see the wholeness of the long, hand rolled leaves. They unfurl nicely and hold their flavor for 6+ steepings (gongfu – shorter in gaiwan).

A very nice, calm tea that is even enjoyable for a later night.

The name of this tea reminds me of the book by Kerstin Gier (translated by Anthea Bell), which I re-read last month. It’s a kind of corny time traveling adventure (and seriously, the poetry did NOT translate well from the German) but it made my re-read list so there must be something about it. (On Goodreads last year I completed a 365-book reading challenge, although I did cheat a little at the end by reading some short novellas because I got a bit behind. Anyway, of those 365 books only about a dozen books/series made my re-read list, not counting the ones that were already re-reads, of course).

Anyways. I tried a tea from Taiwan yesterday and liked it, so I thought maybe trying another today would be fun, although I notice they have very different flavors listed. And unfortunately this one was about gone; there was only half a serving left. Oh well. I used about half as much water as usual to make up for that.

It brews up a lovely reddish-goldish-brown color and has a very bold flavor with almost a bite to it. It’s mostly smooth with a little astringency and a little bitterness (at least on the first steep). And it has a jumble of other interesting flavors too that are hard to sort out. The strangest one that I detected had almost a menthol feeling to it, which is new. I also think I can taste a little of the sweet potato flavor that I found in yesterday’s Taiwan tea, but maybe I’m just imagining that. It’s okay (though admittedly a bit strange) with milk and sugar too, and holds up to at least two steeps. I’m not really liking the menthol flavor so much though. I don’t think I’ll put this on my re-read list.

Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox – Round #5 – Tea #26
Very happy there were some of the Taiwan #18s in the teabox to try! Unfortunately, this one doesn’t have enough of the lovely ‘roman nougat’ flavor that I love from these types of teas (cherry, nuts). The light brew has a little bit of that though. Otherwise a little caramel and a little squashy. The second steep had more depth. I love that this type of tea has the most intimidating leaves but the lightest and sweetest of flavors. :D
Steep #1 // 10 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 2 min steep

Sample from Nichole.

This is really tasty! It’s smooth and light, and faintly sweet. It tastes a bit like the smell of a field of ripe wheat or a tree in autumn.

Call it Red Jade, or Ruby Red, this Taiwanese black tea is heaven to my five senses. The long twisted red-black leaves are delicate and produce a blood orange-colored liquor. It smells and tastes slightly malty for not being an Assam. Grown just above Sun Moon Lake In Taiwan, which happens to be the largest lake in Taiwan. I did not detect any astringency at all during all of my steepings. I got a scent of wet wicker, and dry autumn leaves. It was slightly sweet with notes of stone fruits like apricot and plum. This tea glided down my throat like dark caramel soft candy. Smelling the wet leaves was like smelling hot, wet, tart raisins. This tea imparted peacefulness in me and filled the air with the comforting smell of excellent red tea. Another one of my new staple black teas.

I was in the mood for a Taiwanese black tea this morning, and this was the first one I saw, so here we are! This sample is from Blodeuyn. The leaves are beautiful and have that gnarled, twisty Taiwanese Assam style. They’re very dark in color, almost black. Dry, they smell surprisingly strongly of molasses, and there’s also some sweetness and malt. I used a teaspoon (roughly, these teas are difficult to measure!) of leaf and let it steep for 3 minutes at 200 degrees.

Once brewed, the tea’s aroma is grainy sourdough bread with lots of dried fruit and some caramelized sugar/molasses tones. The taste is very similar. There’s a combination of tangy sourdough and soft homemade wheat breads, along with a fair amount of malt. The molasses seems to have lightened itself into honey, but definitely a stronger raw honey. I must confess, it took me far too long to identify the dried fruit that I was tasting, and then I felt like a complete dope for not thinking of it sooner… It’s definitely dried apricots, and I can say maybe there’s a hint of a second fruit – a mild and sweet one like golden raisin or fig. Overall, a very delicious tea for the morning!