Colombian Leafy Black Organic

Continuing to work on teas from the Discovery Teabox (thanks to Skysamurai for coordinating and all who contributed!), I brewed this up for my breakfast this morning. I had a terrible migraine yesterday (which I worked through 8 hours at work, then promptly passed out the second I got home and fed the cat yesterday) and it still isn’t quite broken and I have another 8 hours of work ahead of me, so I wanted some caffeine against the lingering pain. Hense, a hardy black for breakfast. Used a 2.5g sample in 350ml 205F water, western brew, for a 3 minute steep.

This tea had long, twisty dark leaves, and the brew has a deeply malty aroma, that smells very warm and bready, with a hint of cinnamon. The flavor has notes of malt, baked bread, a bit of lemon citrus, and a very subtle hint of spice. There is a bit of mild astringency and drying on the tongue after the sip. It’s a quite solid breakfast-type tea, deep, malty, and satisfying. It would probably take additives well, if I felt in the mood for that.

Thanks for the share, tea_sipper!

Measuring this out, it turns out I’m selling most of it, so I steeped up two teaspoons to review before it went out the door. I had to eyeball the two teaspoons because these leaves are very long and wiry. I’m pleased to see S&V selling Bitaco’s teas because I remember someone on Steepster said they are difficult to find. So now there is another source to buy them. I tried this tea a couple times before and I just wasn’t loving the flavor results, probably because I wasn’t steeping it the ideal way or I just don’t love lighter flavored teas. Steeping it this way, I think this tastes exactly like a Ruby black tea – it has a flavor like the almond nougat within a chocolate truffle or marzipan. It’s interesting that the Ruby teas are from Taiwan and this is from Colombia, so it certainly isn’t sourced from the same area. I don’t think I was tasting that it was like a Ruby tea in past steeps, so using this many leaves must cause those flavors to appear. I’m very glad I didn’t steep this many leaves any hotter or longer, because it was a touch overdone like this, though not enough to ruin it. I do like it with this many leaves. The second steep was starchy and had more of a bread flavor. Looking forward to trying the other Bitaco teas!
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons for not quite full mug // 17 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 5 minutes after boiling // 3-4 minute steep
tl:dr – This has the same flavor profile as a Taiwan Ruby tea if you use enough leaves.