Tanyang Gongfu

o Quantity: Half the sample packet/110ml
o Water temperature: 90°C
o 3 infusions: 45, 60, 60 sec

Stream of consciousness notes (ie. Don’t think too much, don’t care about grammar, just write what you are experiencing as you experience it)
- Dry leaf aroma: tcm (traditional Chinese medicine) stores (herby, sharp, earthy, musty… it’s a very distinct smell that is only found in those shops… ugh… I know that this is not a helpful description for those who have not been), dried fruit, roots, mushrooms, faint amount of sweetness, incredibly powerful aroma overall
- Dry leaf aroma in heated gaiwan: the tcm store smell intensifies, and there is a faint amount of cocoa added
2 sec wash
- Throat: sweet pastries and baked bread, sharp sweetness, a hint of caramel
- Wet leaf aroma: tcm store smell followed by a softer note of fresh pastries
- Liquor color: medium red with a bit of with brown
- Liquor aroma: soft sweetness, a faint note of the tcm store followed by sweet pastry note, and a faint note of milk chocolate
- Taste: pastry note hits first followed quickly by the tcm store, however, it is more faint than the pastry, that note then fades into bread, malt, and a hint of cocoa. mouthfeel is slightly oily. medium length. no astringency. medium body. overall sweetness lies between sharp and warm/soft. it’s not a strong sweetness but it does coat the mouth and is present during the entire sip.

- 2nd infusion aroma: the note of milk chocolate is stronger in this steep. Overall very little degeneration in aroma and consists of same notes of first steep.
- 2nd infusion taste: the tcm store note is barely noticeable, the notes of cocoa and malt are stronger and blend into the upfront pastry note quickly. body seems a bit thicker.

- 3rd infusion taste: tcm store note a bit stronger than in the last steep, everything else is almost identical

- 4th infusion taste: all notes have been muted, pastry note is mixed seamlessly with the tcm store note, bread and malt notes are faint, overall a very light steep, the tcm store note lingers longest

- Spent leaf aroma: wet bark mostly followed by the tcm store note, a tad of sweetness and baked bread

At some point, I will come up with a list of what the strongest aromas in a tcm store are in an attempt to better describe this tea.

This tea has the dark thin flatter leaves of the traditional gongfu tea with occasional bits of gold. The dry leaf smells grainy and malty with cocoa underneath.

I followed Nannuoshan’s recommended parameters if 3g/150ml which is slightly more leaf than I normally use but it did not make the tea taste bitter.

First steep: 45s the broth is light copper brown, when steeping I smelled a waft of malty chocolate. The steeped tea also had hints of tart fruit, caramel and cinnamon in its scent.

The flavour top notes were a mix of barley, tart fruit and malt, with cocoa, cinnamon and caramel underneath. The taste captured all the notes of the scent.

As it cooled, the caramel notes and malty chocolate notes intensified. A sweet spicy floral note also appeared. Hints of warm plum and a faint hint of mandarin appeared in the taste as well.

2nd steep: 60s : Malt opened up to caramel floral spice and tart sweet fruit, caramel and chocolate in the aftertaste. Strong flavour of floral spice and caramel at the end of the sip.

3rd steep: 60s more grainy with slightly citrus like fruit tones added to the other flavours. Again floral, and slight tropical fruit note in aftertaste.

4th steep 90s heavier malt with deeper darker tones, floral, caramel, spice tones still present.

Altogether this was quite a nice tanyang. The fruit was quite balanced in it( sometimes I find them too bright and need to let the tea age a bit before I enjoy it) and it is maltier than some examples I have had which gives it a nice body.

Thanks Nannuoshan for the opportunity to try this tea!

https://instagram.com/p/ziJbvDGK7b/
https://instagram.com/p/ziJwgFGK7v/

A big thank you to Gabriele and nannuoshan for this generous sample!

I feel as though I’ve dropped off the face of the earth these last few days. My husband and I hosted a wedding shower for his sister yesterday, and every last minute leading up to it was spent cooking and decorating. I tried so many times to make a quick pot of tea but each time I was pulled away to do something else. Needless to say, I’ve really been missing my daily cuppa.

I’m being lazy today so this is going right into a little glass teapot for a quick and easy, but sure to be extremely delicious, cup of tea. I read through some of the reviews here and saw that tea-sipper used about 1.5 teaspoons to make a nice-sized mug so I’m going to try that here.

The dark leaves are small and spindly and smell like a good, solid black tea. I’m thinking this would probably be really good made either iced or hot. The brewed tea has a malty smell, very strong, and the tea leaves themselves have taken on a burnt aroma not unlike the charred bits of a toasty piece of artisan bread. It’s hard to describe, but the flavor here is different than most other black teas I’ve had. It’s simultaneously lighter on the tongue and stronger in flavor. I stand behind my previous comment – this would make the perfect iced tea.

Second Steep
9 ounces water + 195 degrees + 5 minutes

This second cup seems to be even more flavorful. I’m tasting more of that black tea flavor I might normally experience – it seems more rounded and full.

Third Steep
8 ounces water + 195 degrees + 6 minutes

I decided to take a break for some lunch (leftover party food!) but I had to come back to this for a third steep. This cup is much lighter in color and in flavor so I think I’ll stop here, but it’s still very enjoyable on the third cup.

Thanks so much for the samples, Nannuoshan! The leaves here are a dusty black medium length. Some Tan Yangs are golden, this one is completely black. They have a lovely biscuit fragrance. I steeped 1 1/2 teaspoons in my 12 ounce mug 3/4 full of water. The flavor is DIVINE. It hits all the right notes on this exhausting winter morning. This burgundy brew is a sweet chewy chocolate biscuit, if it’s served with some red wine. I’m not sure if that is a good pairing (I’m a tea person not a wine person), but it works so well here. There might be a tiny hint of cherry as well. I think the way I steeped it is perfect, no hint of astringency in the slightest. The mahogany steeped leaves are begging to be resteeped. This one is leaving me in tea heaven right now, and certainly making the few feet of snow out there and below zero temps just a little bit better. The second steep has a great aroma of fruit and maple syrup, which translates a little to the flavor, but this cup is completely different than the first, much lighter.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 tsps. in 12 oz mug 2/3 full // 10 minutes after boiling (should be at 194 degrees) // 3 min steep
Steep #2 // 7 min after boiling // 4 min steep
Nannuoshan.org

Method:
~1.5tsp/10oz
Preboiling
Rinse: 3sec
First steep: 1min 15sec
Second steep: 1min 45sec
Third steep: 2min 30sec

Rinsed for three seconds before steeping. Liquor is a dusky reddish orange and the smell calls to mind grain, malt, cocoa, and cherries. It’s a deliciously bold tea. Not bold enough for breakfast, but perfect for midday. It has a playful fruitiness balanced by light notes of cocoa, malt, bread, and a sweet caramel finish. There are hints of stone fruit. It’s heady, thick, and syrupy. So delicious. SO Delicious. I quickly gulped down my first cup and made another. The second infusion smells strongly of freshly baked sourdough bread, chocolate, and honey. Not very much chocolate or cocoa in this infusion. It’s mostly fruit, honey, and grain with a slightly nutty aftertaste. It’s a tad lighter in body but the finish is still thick and syrupy. Caramel and pudding flavors dominate, coating my tongue. (Drooool.) By the third steep, it’s become noticeably lighter with honey and baked bread being the most prominent flavors. Wow. This tea was a definite win with me! I don’t recall being this impressed the last time I tried a Tan Yang. Thanks very much nannuoshan for the sample of this tea!

Thanks for the sample, nannuoshan! This is the first of the three black tea samples I tried. Gabriele wrote in his note that it seems like I like black tea because I requested three, and he’s right! I do love black tea!

This one sounded like a good one to try first. The dry leaf consists of about half-inch long, thin, twisty black leaves and smells like malt. Here’s a pic:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/97273956@N03/16504814202/

I followed the recommended gong fu steeping parameters, which are not that different than how I usually gong fu brew black teas. The steeped leaves smell like malt and cocoa. The liquor is reddish-brown in color and smells like cocoa and honey. It is medium viscosity, not overly thick or thin, and smooth and clear.

The first infusion is smooth and tastes like cocoa, honey, and nuts. Yum! In the second infusion, the liquor is more red in color, like a cherry wood, and the flavors continue with cocoa, honey, and some malt creeping in. I found more even more honey notes in the third infusion, at least in the aroma, with light malt and cocoa.

The recommended 3 infusions are perfect as the flavors start to diminish after that.

Of the three black teas I tried, this one is my favorite. The cocoa and honey flavor lingered in my mind. I’m excited that I still have enough leaf for another session! Maybe I’ll wait to have it in the new gaiwan I ordered!

oh man. This was a sample from nanuoshan – thank you SO much for tyhe opportunity to try some of your teas! Honestly, i think if i hadn’t tried this along side one of his other offferings, i’d have been over the moon with this one. First off, the aroma of this one is amazing….i poured it and was like OMG is that the tea!!!
That being said, this doesn’t taste like the aroma haha. It’s stilla lovely tea but funnily enough, while the smell is like a sweet caramel, the taste is more like a creamy, fruity, slightly cocoa like tea. There’s no smokiness to be had in this one. I brewed this one gon fu – with probably the latter steeps being my favourite as the tea really started to have that heavier feel to it. Initial steeps were almost creamy in their lightness. Overall, this is a nice tea and i’m curious as to how it would lend itself to a western brew. I may just pick some up in the future to check it out!

Thank you Nannuoshan for this sample!

After reading a brief description of the teas from a card Gabriele included in my samples box I thought this sounded like a nice late morning tea. The dry leaves are thin and wiry and smell like dry hay with a slight cocoa note underneath. The tea steeped to a much lighter color than I was expecting given the four minute steep time, but the results were lovely. There was a nice toasted grain flavor with hints of cocoa slipping in and out as I drank. As the tea cools there was more of a bready note at the front of the sip, which was nice in combination with the other flavors. Even with its lighter color I’d say this is a solid medium bodied tea, and I enjoyed having it in the late morning, but I also think it would be great as an afternoon tea.

Happy Sunday, my tea frens. First tea of the day comes from cookies and Nannuoshan. This looks different from the other Tanyang I’ve tried, from TeaVivre. That one was a more tippy tea, whereas these leaves are very thin and jet black in color. Dry scent is musty hay (I seem to be getting that a lot from black teas these days).

The steeped tea smells sweet and thick with honey and bread notes. This is a yummy one. It’s malty and thick with flavor – it has that intensity that almost verges on bitterness but doesn’t quite get there. There are tasty honey notes (one of my favorite notes in tea) as well as dark wheat bread. I can also taste just a touch of savory which rounds it out nicely. Perhaps a bit of the musty hay from the dry scent. Overall, it’s tasty and smooth. :)

This is really very nice. Extremely cocoa, little bit of woodsy, not smoky enough that I notice. Smells malty but not excessively so. A moderate strength with lightness in the sip, if that makes any sense.

I liked it at about 1.5 minutes, although even at 3 it wasn’t overpowering, just a bit stronger with more mineral tang.