Black Cloud Tea is a UK tea brand that was started over a love and passion for gong fu tea culture. They promote independent producers that craft high-quality tea and teaware. They explicitly state that tea can be and is for everyone, so they want to share it with as many people as possible. They sent me their Black Cloud Taster Set to review, here are my thoughts.
Wild Gold 2019: Something about this tea gives me the warm fuzzies. Right off the bat, the aroma had a nice and calming maltiness to it with undertones of sweetness that reminded me a bit of honey. As I breathed in the aroma, I could literally feel the stress and tension on my back and shoulders just melt away. The dry leaves smelled a bit sugary and sweet. The tea brewed a lovely orange tinged brown color. The taste of the tea was quite light and subtle but warming on the inside as golden tips always seem to do. It had an extremely mellow body with slight tannin feel to it, but zero astringencies or drying factor. The leaves expand into a perfect whole-leaf shape. There was an extremely bright taste to the tea with no heavy notes that I noticed. At the end of each sip, there was sweetness at the end of my tongue that lingered a bit. Not quite fruit like, but something sweeter.
Type: Wild Bush Black Tea
Source: Golden Pond & Shang Gaoji Village, Zhejiang, China
Harvest: Spring 2019
Old Honey Tree: This tea was just an all-around delight. The aroma immediately reminded me of roasted honey granules with a slight floral undernote. It just was really lovely and light with a softer feeling to my nose. I was surprised at how delicate this brewed. The tea brewed a golden-yellow with a slightly orange inside coloring. The taste was quite dynamic with a pack of sweetness that lingers on my tongue after drinking and almost a jasmine floral feeling. The entire tea was quite soft with a little zip at the end. I enjoyed quite a few steepings of this tea from my gaiwan, and each time had the comfort of slightly sweeter honey orchid loveliness.
Type: Honey Orchid Fragrance Dan Cong
Source: Da Zhi Shan, Fenghuang Shan Guangdong, China
Harvest: Spring 2019
White Clouds: This tea made me beyond excited. The aroma was sweet and floral and just looked so beautifully compressed in the small cake. The leaves still had small hairs on them, which is typical of white tea. I was mixed between wanting to stare at it all day and “I want to brew this tea now”. I used my gaiwan for this tea, and brewed it at around 185⁰F for 30 second infusions. Finally, I built up the courage to taste the tea. Right away, I notice a natural sweetness and floral undertone to the tea that lingers a bit around the mouth. It has quite a light body to it with a medium-like finish. When sipping, my mouth had this juicy feeling/reaction to the tea and I felt the sweetness most resonating in the middle of my tongue. Quite a delicious tea.
Type: Bai Mu Dan Tea Cake
Source: Banjiao Village, Zhenghe, Fujian, China
Harvest: Spring 2019
Master’s Garden: Right away, when I poured the water, I noticed a wonderful plume of jasmine goodness waft up to my nose. Jasmine green tea is the kind that I always forget about but get so excited when I drink it again. The scent of jasmine was quite apparent throughout the entire drinking and steeping process. I ended up making this tea more grandpa style (I just put the leaves in and let it steep without a strainer or infuser). As it steeped longer and longer, the green tea obviously got stronger, but it honestly blended very well with the strong jasmine notes. I really enjoyed it. There was almost a brightness/sharpness to the tea that was quite lovely to discover, almost shocking the tastebuds for a brief moment.
Type: Jasmine Scented Green Tea
Origin: Fuzhou, Fujian, China
Harvest: Spring 2019
Price: The Black Cloud Taster Set has all four of these teas for £19.95 ($26.25 USD). *Currently on sale, original price is $24 ($31.38 USD)* This set comes with 10 grams of the Old Honey Tree, 2 pieces of the White Clouds, 5 Grams of Masters Garden, and 10 Grams of Wild Gold. Each tea can be bought individually though.
Packaging: The packaging that this tea came in was absolutely beautiful and I did not want to throw it away! With a branded box, the teas were each in smaller tea pouches that were extremely good at keeping the teas fresh and did not release any aromas.
Sourcing: This company has excellent (and I mean excellent) information about their sourcing available to the consumer. I think this might be the first company that I have encountered that brought such transparency to their tea and consumers. Each tea has its sourcing and harvest information at the bottom of their review.
What do you think of single-origin teas? Do you often consume them, and if so, in what way? I love to use my gaiwan or do grandpa style, and just watch the entire tea journey. Happy Brewing!
-Danielle
All of these sounds wonderful– especially the honey orchid and the wild bush black tea. I am loving honey aromas this year; they are so comforting!
I have always loved single-origin teas, but this year I am appreciating them in ways I’ve never before experienced thanks to my gaiwan. It’s such a wonderful way to brew tea! I don’t have much experience with steeping grandpa style though. I’m not really sure what kinds of teas lend themselves to grandpa style steeping.
I don’t think I do grandpa style brewing correctly or with the right teas, but alas, to each consumer their own. I’ve also found a bit more of an appreciation for single origin, and am excited to continue discovering them.