Eco-Cha Tea Club Batch 5: ShanLinXi Black Tea

Leafhopper sent me this tea, so thanks!
Apparently, it’s quite old tea, but two of those three notes are “quite new”. And I almost never toss tea out, and never without trying it first.

I had almost 5 grams (4.75 gr to be exact); used all leaf for single gongfu session. Steeped as Daylon did, that’s: 25, 35, 25, 45, 50, 70, 90 (seconds), 3 min.

I read also his note as well Leafhopper’s, and I agree with both of them. But one more year in this tea and flavours were a bit more faded I think, or my leaf/water ratio was different, as I was steeping that 5 grams in 125 ml gaiwan.

First notes were indeed fruity, not sure if I point out papaya, but tropic fruits were there for sure. Second steep made those notes even stronger, third was weaker again and in fourth it was gone completely.

Instead those fruits a chocolate notes apperead. However again, they were quite flat, and while longer steeps produced more darker chocolate, some steeps were like a milk chocolate and as well a little waxy chocolate for me, which is something I really don’t like. Maltiness in those later steeps were stronger and stronger and in the last steep it was just malt and nothing else.

Sadly, I don’t noticed any pastry notes which I was looking forward to.

I can imagine it was awesome tea, but sadly it seems it has suffered by age a lot and as well as my not so perfect storage did not helped either. I have checked a few shops which carry it out here — two of them not showing harvest year (which seems to be crucial), two of them are having prices out of my range.

I sent this tea to Daylon a while ago and thought I’d made a note about it, but I guess not. This is a summer 2015 harvest that has been languishing in my tea museum for seven years, so most of the tropical fruit notes mentioned in earlier reviews have dissipated before I could enjoy them. Why pay for aged tea when you can age it yourself, right? :P I’m following Daylon’s gongfu parameters to see if I can get more out of this tea, steeping 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml porcelain pot at 195F for 25, 35, 25, 45, 50, 70, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of dark chocolate, cherry, pastry, wood, and malt. The first steep has notes of cherry, raisin, dried fruit, cocoa, pastry, honey, wood, and malt, with hints of maple syrup and some bitterness. I get whisps of papaya in the second steep, plus cherry, darker chocolate, wood, and pleasant sourness. The fruit is less noticeable in the next couple steeps, with honey, pastries, wood, malt, brown sugar, and tannins becoming more prominent. The tea is also quite drying. The next couple steeps retain their cocoa, honey, and pastry notes, but veer more toward wood, malt, earth, and minerals. The session ends with notes of honey, hay, malt, earth, and minerals.

This is an enjoyable tea, though I think I would have found more of the flavours I gravitate toward if I hadn’t waited so long to drink it. It fades rather early and can get a little drying in later steeps.

Leafhopper, this one is making me drool. Most of the Shanlinxi blacks I’ve had lean more towards papaya, and while this certainly has it, the tea gong fu or western is extremely thick and sweet. Western so far consisted of 3 min that became 4 min, 3 minutes again, and 4-5 min again. Gong fu was 25, 35, 25, 45, 50, 70, 90, 3 min.

Either way, it reminds me of Cocoa Amore in some ways in a more pure form. This is easily the kind of tea I could live with, and which is actually harder to find online for an affordable price. My only complaint is that it’s not long lasting. I’ve not been able to get it more than 6 steeps gong fu as it lost strength after steep 5, and it begins to really lose lustre after steep 3 western. I’d easily rate this 96, but the fading quality puts it at a 90 for me. Definitely my favorite black of the collection I got so far.

It is a beautiful day! Perfect weather, intermittent cloud cover with a pleasant breeze, 75 degrees (the perfect temperature for me) and the hint of possible storms in the future. Of course I am spending the day watching Fighting Games on the West Coast Warzone Stream and have been doing that since yesterday. I am using a break in stream (by break I mean it is a game I don’t care about, sorry Guilty Gear) to blog about some yummy tea.

Today I am looking at one of the teas from Eco-Cha’s most awesome club which I am a member of, I joined at the beginning and paid for the whole year because I know Eco-Cha has good tea, so far I have been very pleased. I plan on writing about all of the teas I have gotten at some point, but this one needed blogging about now because Taiwanese Black Teas are a thing of epic beauty. ShanLinXi Black Tea (the link takes you to their blog post, very informative) comes from, you guessed it, Shan Lin Xi Mountain, one of my favorite mountains in Taiwan to procure tea from. The aroma of these curly leaves knocked me out of my chair from first sniff, seriously, I am so easily floored by red teas, it is a bit embarrassing. There are notes of lychee, mango, papaya, cocoa, cream, and nutty almost coconut water undertones, this tea smells tropical and immensely sweet and rich.

Into my beloved ruyao gaiwan the leaves go, the aroma keeps up the tropical fruit notes with papaya, longan, lychee, mango, and a touch of cherries. There is also an undertone of chocolate and cream, it is so sweet, it is almost cloying but manages to sneak right under the cloying radar and fall happily into richness. Wow, somehow the liquid manages to smell even sweeter, but still manages to not be cloying, probably because it smells like fruit juice rather than candy, with notes of papaya, cherry, and lychees, with a woody and cocoa undertone and a delicate hint of cream.

Wow, just wow, this tea is sooo sweet! It is a bit mind boggling! It is very smooth in the mouth with a tiny bit of bright crispness at the finish that let’s you know there might be some tannins somewhere in this tea, but only a hint. It starts with papaya and lychee, then moves on to woody and creamy with cocoa undertones. The finish is a bit of autumn leaves and mineral. Then the real fun, the aftertaste on this tea goes on forever, super sweet tropical fruit creamy goodness that just does not quit.

Second steep, the aroma keeps up the intense sweetness, but it also has a distant floral note that took me forever to pin down, at first I thought maybe the spring flowers outside my window were playing with my sense of smell so I took the tea elsewhere to sniff where I was able to determine it has a subtle peony and plumeria notes. The taste also has a hint of that floral quality, it is almost ghostly dancing in and out of taste. The fruity and creamy cocoa notes stay strong, and woody notes become a little more pronounced, along with a mineral quality to the finish. The aftertaste is not quite as long lasting as the first steep, but it was still long lasting.

The third steep’s aroma has a stronger floral note, definitely picking up on that peony and plumeria, though it is woodier this steep, the cocoa notes are also more prominent. Wow, the mouthfeel on this steep is super smooth, which goes well with its nectar like sweetness. The tropical fruit notes are not as strong this steep, mostly the lychee note sticks around, it is joined by strong creamy cocoa and coconut water and a woody finish. The aftertaste is still strong but not as strong as previous steeps. And perfect timing, as I wrap this post up Mortal Kombat Top 8 is starting, so I shall take my tea and stare at the stream happily. Happy weekend everyone!

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/04/eco-cha-tea-club-batch-5-shanlinxi.html