Hongyu Hongcha Nantou Ruby #18 SUN MOON LAKE BLACK TEA

I brewed this western style and easily got 9 full flavoured steeps!

The leaves are long and unfurl beautifully. Scent is sweet, floral and lightly starchy. When brewed it has a slight syrupy mouth feel with cocoa, honey, and floral notes. Can be slightly malty depending how long it’s steeped for (longer steep = more malt) which is a nice addition. This tea takes milk well, but is so beautiful by itself that I much prefer it without.

6 grams of dry leaf used for 370 ml of water

The brewed tea has an aroma that reminds me of sweet black licorice. Musty, leathery. Faint aromatic, pungent floral. Fruity apricot-type note. Hint of sawdust.

On the sip I’m detecting an astringency which is bordering on being overpowering (burt/dark chocolate note). The apricot and leathery notes are upfront in the flavour. Mild floral hints in the background. Mushroom-type note/mouth-feel. Licorice-like from the scent translates into the flavour. Maltiness close to the end of the sip.

As the tea is allowed to cool a slight creaminess comes out in the taste. Char note near the end of the sip.

Second infusion at 4.25 minutes. The flavour reminds me of roasted corn.

My first attempt at this may have fallen a tad short. I didn’t read the brewing instructions on Steepster before making my initial cup. Too little leaf and not brewed long enough!

The second cup with more leaf and less water and a longer brewing time (see preparation details below) turned out much better.

Upon opening the sample package from Fong Mong Tea, I notice how long the rolled leaves are – unusual compared to my other black teas. Almost a fruity smell wafts from the bag.

The brewed cup is a nice clear-reddish color. The liquid is earthy, with a slight sweetness. There’s a smoothness to this tea – no sign of bitterness.

This really does hit all the checkpoints that I’m looking for in a black tea! It’s delicious without additives (and that says a lot coming from someone who regularly defaults to throwing in a dash healthy dose of sugar and creamer)! Once I clear out my tea cabinet of the “other” morning tea, I’m putting in an order for this!

Thank you for the wonderful sample, Fong Mong Tea!

Another strongly chocolate black tea from Taiwan. But this tea unlike the other black teas has a distinct flavor of a chocolate truffle covered in a bitter cocoa dust, what makes it a perfect accompaniment to sweet deserts and liquors. With the consecutive brewing the tea develops gentle sweetness and additional flavor of roasted peanuts. Wonderful tea and a keeper, particularly for the special occasions!

Free sample from Fong Mong Tea

I was curious to taste this tea because it sounded like something completely new to me. Opening the packet, I was hit with a malty aroma and could see that the leaves were large.

When I began brewing the tea I got more of the minty aroma coming off it. So, malt and mint. What would it taste like? There were undertones of other black teas I have drunk in this cup, but the dominant flavour was mint with a bit of malt. If anything the minty flavour was too much for me but I decided to resteep the tea with a slightly shorter steeping time and see what came up. I was able to reduce the mintiness a bit and that helped my enjoyment of the tea. Overall, I was not sure about this tea. It is clearly good quality and the flavours are there as advertised, but it did not enthrall me despite that. Now that I know what to expect from it, I think I need to experiment a bit with brewing parameters to get the best from it. Perhaps I shall learn to like it more, or perhaps it is just not to my tastes. Still, as I wrote before, it is a good quality tea and others may enjoy it more if the flavours suit them better. Thank you, Fong Mong Tea, for the chance to try this one.

So, I’m not sure I can properly rate or review this tea, because I had trouble with brewing it and I shared some with my coworker as it was her last day with us today. Initially, I brewed it, and when I added milk, the milk had soured in the cup, and curdled in it, so I decided to ditch it. The water I brought back wasn’t warm enough on the second steep, so it was really weak. Third attempt I used the bags from both of us and heated water from the kettle. this time seemed alright, but I lost track of time at work and may have steeped it too long.

So, I don’t think I had a proper cuppa to review, but here’s what I’ll say. It smelled sweet and like honey and chocolate. It was a slightly smoky, but mostly dark chocolate and some honey tones that the sugar and milk brought out.

Thanks to Fong Mong for providing me with this sample!

I have to say, and be honest, that it tasted a lot like a number of good quality black teas I drink, and in a blind taste test, I’m not sure I could identify each one solely on taste. But this was good, for what I was able to have, and my coworker enjoyed hers too.

Free sample provided by Fong Mong Tea-thank you very much

Wow, this is a truly unique tea! I can honestly say I’ve never tasted anything like this.

Dry leaves smell sweet and like a combination of fruity and floral. Brewed leaves smell a little malty and a little like some sort of cool mint. The liquor is coppery red.

At first, I didn’t taste the mint, and mostly tasted the floral/fruity flavor, but now that my palate picked up on the mint, I mostly taste that along with maltiness from the Assamica. This tea is smooth, sweet, and not bitter at all. It doesn’t fit into any preconceived notions of what a black tea should be-and I like that.

I have never tried a Taiwanese black before and I am grateful for the opportunity to have tasted this unusual and flavorful tea.

For a fan of Taiwanese oolongs, I haven’t gotten around to trying many Taiwanese blacks. Thanks to Fong Mong for the sample. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 185F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

In the pot, the long, wiry leaves smell like grapes, sassafras, and malt. The first steep is a coppery combination of tannins, sweet grape, sassafras, cinnamon, wood, and malt, with a long, drying finish and a bit of a menthol tingle. Unlike other Ruby 18s I’ve tried, this one doesn’t taste like liquorice (which is a good thing in my books). In the second steep, the grape gets even sweeter, almost like grape jelly, and lingers into the aftertaste.

Steeping this tea at 180F reduces the astringency and makes the grape and sassafras pop even more. By the fifth steep, malt, minerals, and some vegetal notes start becoming more prominent, though the lovely grape/sassafras combination is still very much there. It only starts to dwindle in the final couple steeps, which shows great longevity for a black tea.

This is an approachable, sweet, and long-lasting Ruby 18 with lots of flavour (and caffeine). It doesn’t have the overwhelming astringency that I’ve found in other Taiwanese blacks, especially if brewed at lower temperatures. It’s also a good value for the price.

ETA: I don’t know why there isn’t a flavour option for sassafras. Should I put it under something else?

I tried a sample of this and found it very unique for a black tea. Don’t expect this to taste like typical black tea. It’s more like a mix between black and oolong. It’s very complex. The malty, caramel, brown sugar taste of black tea is there, but there’s also vegetal, fruity and floral notes like an oolong. I also tasted some mint and a bit of a medicinal note. I’d recommend trying it for sure, but remember it isn’t a typical black tea and tastes very unique.

The taste…wonderful! You can never go wrong with a decent Sun Moon Lake Black tea. It’s rich and a delight for tea-thirsty mouths.
It’s sweet with a slight astringency but nothing that bothers you. Very well balanced!
If you like cinnamon flavored black teas, this tea has it naturally. And a quite intense one. I loved it!
It offers fruity tones as well. It’s hard to pinpoint but I get a mostly citrusy taste.
The mouthfeel is slightly thick and velvety.
The aftertaste is quite persistent, particularly the cinnamon taste, and refreshing. It left a nice trail of spicy and fruity flavor both in my throat and mouth.