2010 Bai Sha Xi "Tian Jian" Hunan Hand-Roasted Hei Cha

Thank you AllanK for sending me a sample of this prior to Dark Matter 2016.
I went ahead an rinsed this tea and then threw out the first steep just to be safe so I wouldn’t have the same experience as Allan. About four steeps in I am noticing one aspect that I dislike in general which is the dryness around the sides of my mouth. While that isn’t pleasant, the taste is rather interesting in a way that I enjoy. There is a touch of mossy grass hiding behind a light ‘ripe’ like taste. Lots going on with this tea is you take time to taste it all; hints of salt, scent of minor smoke that doesn’t carry over to the taste, and an odd taste of ‘old tea’.
I am already pretty certain that most people won’t enjoy this tea when they try it, but there really is a lot going on with tea all while keeping me interested in pinning down the mixture of these taste. Wishing that the dryness would not be an aspect, I still feel like this will be a tea for others to experience and be thankful that they did get to try a roasted hei cha regardless if it leaves positive or negative thoughts after.

In the end: I shall call this the roasted moss dashed with sugar and salt. :)

I can’t get away from one thing about this tea. It has a downright unpleasant taste to it, don’t know how to describe the note. The first thought that popped into my head was drain cleaner. While I’m sure that is an extreme exaggeration I didn’t like this tea. It was also very smoky in the first couple of infusions. I alternated between adding sugar to this and not adding sugar. Sugar did a fair job of covering up the unpleasant note. I’m glad I only bought 50g of the stuff. I wonder if all Tian Jian are like this or just this one tea. I am curious enough that I might try some of Scott’s other offerings the next time I order from the China site. I often find that Hei Cha is trying to imitate puerh and not doing a very good job of it. The one thing I will say about this is I didn’t really get any fermentation notes from it.

I brewed this eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with 7.3g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec.

Here’s another Hei Cha that I got from YS. This one reminds me of a cross between a Keemun, with it’s brown sugar pine smoke, & a Ripe Pu-erh, with a little earthiness. This is a rich & tasty cup!