I should note that this is a fairly old sample, so it may not be entirely representative of the fresh Yen Bai. I ended up steeping this one for longer than I usually would to try to make up for any lost flavor.
It has a smell that reminds me of a mixture of a black tea and a pu-erh, and a taste that reminds me of a Wu Yi oolong, because of the nice gentle sweetness to it. It is a fairly sophisticated black tea – I’ll need to come back to this one in the future when I’ve further developed my taste for black teas.
Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C
7 min, 0 sec
This is one of my favorite black teas and has become a staple in my cupboard. I like how it’s so dark, rich and flavorful, yet smooth. It’s pretty forgiving of being oversteeped, too.