Bai Lin Congfu

Are we at the point where there are too many high-end, farm to cup tea purveyors? It’s very easy to be seduced by the burgeoning websites touting personal relationships with family farms in China or Estates in India. How much variety is too much? How often is the Chinese black tea from X an upgrade from the one you’ve been enjoying for a while? Maybe the answer is a resounding, “Variety is the spice of life!” But it’s a question I ask myself as I find fewer and fewer of my forays into the offerings of new (to me) sellers end up replacing the teas I’ve come to love and drink regularly.

Now, this is not meant as a criticism of Joseph Wesley’s teas which I’m trying for the first time. I really enjoyed his high end Qimen (not reviewed yet) and this Bai Lin is certainly pleasant. But is the Qimen better than the ones I’ve had from Upton, a place I’ve been ordering from for years and from whom I can order a whole variety of excellent teas? Hard to say. When I go to the store, I can choose between 20 different kinds of olive oil or yogurt but the myriad of choices just makes me anxious (or maybe it’s just the fluorescent lighting).

Anyway, back to this tea, which I’m finding hard to categorize. It’s not as chocolatey as its nose suggests it will be; it’s actually more vegetal and grainy. I think I went too heavy on the leaf the first time—when I used less, I had a better result.

I’ve come to a realization today.
I’m really not that huge on teas with chocolate notes. I mean, I like the Golden Monkey teas that have chocolate notes in it, and GO is pretty good-not my favorite and still don’t know for sure if I’m gonna buy more again. Like I went into GO thinking it was gonna be super vanilla-y. So I was pretty disappointed when it was just chocolate tea basically, but it was more of a deep, richer chocolate…if that makes sense? So I liked it, and I still have a little left, I really should drink the rest soon to see if I still like it. Feel like I used to be bigger on things tasting like chocolate-but only like a deep richer chocolate like GO. I rarely even eat chocolate. If I do it’s because there’s caramel with it or it’s combined with matcha or something.
This tea kinda surprised me. It was a strong flavor but it really reminded me of milk chocolate which I reallyyyy do not like to eat. Even if it’s a chocolate bar filled with caramel it’s just not that good when it is milk chocolate.. White chocolate I like though. Dark chocolate, I have to be in the mood for and that’s becoming more and more rare.
Milk chocolate…just no.
So yeah, I mean, if you LOVE teas that have chocolate flavors this is one for you! It really is chocolatey. It also has hints of like wood….kinda musty actually-even though that sounds horrible, like the chocolate is the main flavor so it’s not bad.
Not my favorite tea, but I have been wanting to try it for so long, so I’m excited I finally did! (:

This was the tea I was most excited to try because the notes about caramel sounded so good. Unfortunately, all I got was malt. Not bad, but not great. I really like Classic Chinese and the Lapsang, and even the Dian Congfu better.

This is such a delightful tea. It opens with notes of smooth, silky cream, caramel, honey and baked bread. There are whispers of cocoa along with an almond nuttiness that makes me think of marzipan. There’s a hint of dried apricot. It’s decadent and sweet like cake batter; it’s thick and full, like pudding. I wouldn’t call it a “heavy” tea. Body falls somewhere between medium and full. Gosh, it’s so creamy! I don’t think I’ve ever had a Bai Lin that was so creamy.

I prepare a second steep. As the timer is about to ring, I lean over my cup to smell it…I sigh, and let out an audible “oh my god”. It smells like lightly toasted cinnamon bread, with buttercream frosting, and honey. It smells like French toast without syrup. It smells like a whole slew of delicious, mouth-watering pastries. The taste? It’s like apricot jam on buttered toast with a light dusting of cinnamon, paired with a tall glass of milk. It’s good. I’m still catching notes of honey, cream, and a tiny bit of malt. It’s soft, gentle, and buttery but it has so much flavor. I’m in awe. There are some brighter tones in this steep that are like white raisins or citrus, but they’re not intense enough for me to pin down. The citrusy notes are again in the third steep, along with honey and milk foam. Overall the last steep is much lighter than the first two. The leaves are nearly spent.

This was only a small sample in my last order, but it definitely goes on my reorder list. I’ll miss this too much when it’s gone.

Method:
2tsp/10oz
Preboiling
First steep: 1min 30sec
Second steep: 2min
Third steep: 3min

SOOO GOOD if you love creamy black teas! This black is super smooth with lots of creamy, raisin, chocolate, malt, caramel and toast. It’s like liquid bread pudding!

This tea does a great second infusion and can take long infusions for travel mugs or forgetful steepers.

Full review on Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/06-bai-lin-congfu-black-from-joseph-wesley-black-tea-tea-review/ (and cheese stealing owl)

And continuing on with my sample sip downs at work today, this was the one I was drinking later in the afternoon and was by far the best of the bunch.

The dry leaves in this are just beautiful, all nice golden and fuzzy. As for the taste all I have to say is WOW sweet potato!!!! Oooozes sweet potato. I’m getting some chocolate, cocoa in the aroma, but I can’t really actually taste them. I’m sure if I’d been at home I could have coaxed the chocolate notes out, but don’t really have that luxury at work. There is no doubt that this is a quality tea.
Thank you scribbles for sharing this wonderful tea. :))

Another sample from the awesome Scribbles!! She sent me a few Joseph Wesley teas to try in addition to all the Assam teas that she scent me.

When I first smelled the dry tea, there was a very strong scent of cinnamon and sweet fruit. I think there was some scent contamination from how it was packaged, I left it in an envelope with other fruity flavoured teas.

However, after it was brewed, the cinnamon scent was gone. There was a very sweet potato scent to the tea, slightly vegetal, a bit malty.

I quite like other Bailin Congfu teas and this one doesn’t disappoint. The liquor is thick but it is not bitter or too bold at all. There is a slight spice, which I am unsure if it is supposed to taste like that or if it was the contamination, but either way, I like it. There is the sweet potato flavour but also a hint of some fruitiness, makes me think of dried fruit. I feel like I am getting a bit of burnt flavour, kind of like burnt caramel without the over the top caramel sweetness, but also it makes me think of charcoal.

This one did not disappoint. I am very grateful to Scribbles for sending me these great teas to try. I think I am starting to like this Joseph Wesley character :)

Next up this morning is a tea sample from scribbles. I think this is third Joseph Wesley tea I’ve tried out of the four she sent. I’ve tried one or two Bai Lin teas before any enjoyed them, so I had high hopes for this one! The leaves remind me of Jin Jun Mei. They’re very thin and wiry and twisty, but they’re fuzzy and soft-looking and they have sort of a tiger stripe pattern going on. Dry scent is very mild malt and grain with some honey sweetness. I steeped a teaspoon of leaf for 3 minutes at 200 degrees. I think in this case, I would use a touch more leaf.

The brewed aroma is dark wheat bread and tangy molasses with some raisin/prune notes. Isn’t it amazing how sometimes the aroma and taste of a tea are completely different? That’s definitely the case here. While the aroma is dark, the taste is a lovely melange of lighter, airier flavors. The bread is there, but now it reminds me of toasted light bread with just that slight crispness. I would also compare it to a buttery pastry. There are some oat-y notes along with the lightest touch of honey and golden raisin. Underneath all of these light flavors is a nice deep caramel richness. Oh, so creamy!

I will say that there is the tiniest minerality here that leads me to believe I made it with tap water. Our roommate makes coffee in the morning, and he uses tap water. We’re out of coffee right now, but this morning there was some water in the electric kettle. I didn’t think anything of it, but it was probably tap water. Sigh.

Another tea from Boychik, I went with a lower temp on this one, & it was gentle & tasty. I know I should probably give a better description, but that’s all I’ve got right now, it was a few hours ago that I drank it.

i had this a long time ago in a galaxy far far away… another really nice cup from joseph wesley :)