This is the feed of all reviews of Dark Tea on RateTea.http://ratetea.com/style/dark-tea/179/http://ratetea.com/review/6914/http://ratetea.com/review/6914/Fri, 10 Mar 2023 14:42:48 ESTNote: this was a sample included with my order. Aroma is as expected earthy/muddy strong. The liquor (5 min steep) is a very dark brown, with some purple. I would say classic Pu-erh smell. Strong boarding on dank. The taste is enjoyable and lingers on the palate. Interesting enough for me to want to investigate Pu-erh teas further. For me, Pu-erh tea seems strong enough that cream or sugar would not overwhelm the enjoyment of this tea.http://ratetea.com/review/6905/http://ratetea.com/review/6905/Sun, 12 Feb 2023 15:43:51 ESTSo, I am going to generalize with this review as there is not a lot going with this offering from Numi. After breaking the first bar piece off I actually put this in the back of my cupboard, a few years later it has resurfaced, and I decided to give it a go. No matter the water temp, steep time, serving temp (hot or cold) I just couldn't get a lot of flavor out of this blend. There is a pleasant earthy nose while still in bar format and dry. I broke up either one or even two bars into smaller pieces ...http://ratetea.com/review/6791/http://ratetea.com/review/6791/Thu, 17 Mar 2022 13:04:06 ESTI recently ordered some tea and bulk herbs from iherb.com. This Numi pu erh brick was novel enough that I couldn't pass it up. I'll say up front that I'm not a huge fan of shou pu erh, but I've tried enough varieties at varying price points and even found some that I enjoy that I should at least be able to tell what I'm tasting. I've had a few teas from compressed cakes ("bings"), but this is the first brick-style that I've had. The rectangular brick is packaged inside of a paper envelope, itself placed...http://ratetea.com/review/6638/http://ratetea.com/review/6638/Sat, 20 Mar 2021 13:55:21 ESTI ordered two of these in 2018 as it sounded from the description as the sort of thing I would like. I broke off a tiny piece initially, and as I expected it was a bit strong for my taste. I was surprised though at how quickly this one mellowed out. Now, about 5 years from harvest, I broke off a bit again and it's starting to suit my tastes more. The flavor is surprisingly sweet and savory, and the bitterness is greatly diminished. The aroma is predominately floral and slightly vegetal and fruity, with ...http://ratetea.com/review/6637/http://ratetea.com/review/6637/Sat, 20 Mar 2021 13:54:24 ESTThis pu-erh tea is wonderful! It has this rich vegetabley taste and it is thick bodied, almost like vegetable soup stock. Its really smooth and has no bitterness to it, its really enjoyable! http://ratetea.com/review/6297/http://ratetea.com/review/6297/Sun, 01 Mar 2020 17:09:53 ESTHalf-litre pot at home, brewed from a tuocha, i.e. a pill of compressed fermented leaves. Pours nearly clear fudge brown with negligible brownish sediment. Clear aroma of tea leaves, with mild notes of fermentation. Bitter, but not aggressive, flavour of black tea, with leafy notes and barely discernible touches of fermentation, much milder than in the aroma. Rough and slightly astringent palate. Not bad, but I expected something more pronounced, especially in the aroma. The tea company's website and the s...http://ratetea.com/review/6167/http://ratetea.com/review/6167/Fri, 20 Sep 2019 12:00:51 ESTPrepared tea from 8 g, coarsely ground, of a 357 g cake. Used 18 oz boiled water and brewed for 6 min; added 4 oz ice. Final = 2.9 g/8 oz. The tea had a strong earthy flavor, not acidic or astringent, and no mushroom flavor like some Pu-erhs. Very full bodied, and great taste! The tea liquor is black, which is why the Chinese call it "dark tea".http://ratetea.com/review/6140/http://ratetea.com/review/6140/Sun, 14 Jul 2019 13:14:52 ESTSECOND UPDATE: I'm pretty sure now that this tuo is counterfeit and not really from the Xiaguan factory. I'd been drinking leaves from the surface, which were good, but just broke through to a second layer of chopped up leaves and twigs. I'm rather surprised at the amount of effort that went into counterfeiting a tea that isn't particularly expensive to start with. This is definitely a young sheng (raw) pu-erh and that's really about all I know about this tea. I'd yet to try sheng pu-erh (young or old),...http://ratetea.com/review/5877/http://ratetea.com/review/5877/Sun, 02 Dec 2018 01:49:25 ESTI'm not sure how others determine their point ratings for tea, but for me, an 85 is an above-average everyday tea. At first, when I tried this, I didn't like it. Something about the notes just didn't appeal to me. It took getting more used to rougher, young raw pu-erh for me to really start to appreciate this one. It has a kick to it in terms of energy, but it's not uncomfortable. It's fruity, the note that edges on tobacco put me off at first, but when I tried the tea for a second time (with another samp...http://ratetea.com/review/5876/http://ratetea.com/review/5876/Sun, 02 Dec 2018 01:23:37 ESTWhen the holidays came around (and the holiday sales) and I was treating myself to one of the more expensive cakes, I picked this one out of all of those available on TeaVivre. The reason that I picked this one was that it's drinkable now, it tastes like it has potential for the future (not all currently drinkable cakes taste like they'll fare well over time), it has a good balance between the presence of notes in the breath and the taste in the mouth, as well as an even effect, and a good bitter note whic...http://ratetea.com/review/5875/http://ratetea.com/review/5875/Sun, 02 Dec 2018 01:08:26 ESTI'd rate this one pretty high, but most of the flavor is in the breath, not in the taste itself. I think it's a matter of personal preference as to whether one prefers one, the other, or both. I prefer both because it gives more of a rounded experience. This just doesn't have enough in the taste to appeal to me. There is a delectable mouthwatering sensation. It's one of the strongest of all the teas that I've had. There's some astringency, but it settles out very evenly when the mouthwatering quality sets ...http://ratetea.com/review/5855/http://ratetea.com/review/5855/Mon, 26 Nov 2018 03:00:50 ESTI'm rewriting this review because I just gave the Dog Year tea another try and I was happier with it this time. Months ago, it was too smoky and unpalatable. It tasted nothing like the Monkey Year tea. But, after time, it's evolved. I had a sample and for part of the past few months, it was in the sample pouch. I eventually took it out and wrapped it up in a paper towel, so it was exposed to air, but protected from dust and debris. I then put it in a tea chest I had (to limit the air flow, but not get rid ...http://ratetea.com/review/5852/http://ratetea.com/review/5852/Sat, 24 Nov 2018 13:33:40 ESTWhen I first tried this tea, I used a Western brewing method and it came out terribly. At that point in time, I also had very little experience with the bitterness of younger raw pu-erh. Well, I let some samples of this sit around for about six months to a year and gave it another try. I was so happy I tried this again. Using the Eastern method directions provided by TeaVivre (though sometimes I'd use less time if it was a little too bitter for me), the first cups were more bitter, but the bitterness ea...http://ratetea.com/review/5710/http://ratetea.com/review/5710/Wed, 12 Sep 2018 08:37:10 ESTThe dry leaves still have a little wet pile odor, but fortunately, this doesn't make it into the cup. I mostly taste wood and earthy flavors. My preference with shou is for sweeter notes of cherry, dried fruit, chocolate, vanilla, etc. I'll let this air out for a few weeks and see if it changes, but it's pretty mediocre right now. Update: I wasn't expecting anything after just under a week of airing it out, but the wet pile odor is gone. It must have had something to do with being packed up for shipping...http://ratetea.com/review/5685/http://ratetea.com/review/5685/Fri, 27 Jul 2018 06:07:25 ESTI'll be surprised if I ever give more than 3 stars for aroma in a ripe puerh review. They all smell the same to me, excluding the odors of too fresh, poorly made, or improperly stored examples. The taste, though, is something else. Each one tastes noticably different in both subtle and obvious ways. What they all seem to have in common, aside from the smooth flavor, is a calming warmth that makes me want to brew some late at night, which seems to be the only time I drink shou. Like every other shou I'v...http://ratetea.com/review/5683/http://ratetea.com/review/5683/Mon, 23 Jul 2018 19:02:41 ESTAt first, this mostly smells and tastes like generic ripe pu-erh: wood, leaves, earth. It's sweet and syrupy, but the interesting flavors aren't immediately obvious. It does have subtle, non-generic-shou flavors that can be brought out depending on how you brew, though: caramel, cherry cola, dried fruit. Typical gaiwan brewing parameters for shou will give you unremarkable tea, so experiment or brew it western style, which I've had good luck with. http://ratetea.com/review/5682/http://ratetea.com/review/5682/Sat, 21 Jul 2018 07:11:00 ESTWhile the dry leaves have a rather muted scent, the wet leaves and brewed tea both have an amazingly sweet aroma, like if flowers were candy. Like the Daily Drinker, this is on the mellow side, but this one can be pushed further if you can tolerate bitterness. Brewed normally, the first couple steeps are grassy and vegetal, more like a mild green tea than anything. This evolves toward something thick and sweet, with a finish that lingers forever and coats your mouth with a satisfying floral syrup. Somewher...http://ratetea.com/review/5681/http://ratetea.com/review/5681/Thu, 19 Jul 2018 22:13:28 ESTThis tea has a wonderfully bright, fresh, floral fragrance, and a light bittersweet (more sweet than bitter) taste. It's moderately astringent, so be careful with brew times. As the name suggests, this won't be the greatest tea you've ever tasted; it's called Daily Drinker for a reason. It is quite good for the price, however, and I may end up getting a whole cake because it's so cheap. http://ratetea.com/review/5680/http://ratetea.com/review/5680/Thu, 19 Jul 2018 04:44:49 ESTMy favorite pu-erh so far out of the half a dozen or so I've tried, but it's also the most expensive. It does smell fruity (not sure what kind of fruit), but it also has a sweet rocky aroma, sort of like smelling the aftertaste of a good Wuyi oolong. Once brewed, it's strong and sweet without being astringent or bitter. The flavor is both fruity and earthy. I don't know how to describe it in any more detail than that. It's a weird tea, and I'm glad I tried it. My only complaint is that unlike a lot of oolo...http://ratetea.com/review/5668/http://ratetea.com/review/5668/Sun, 08 Jul 2018 03:14:03 ESTI was in the area, so I decided to check out a David's Tea shop. In all honesty, it looked more like a candy store than a tea shop. It had all these colorful spoons and containers and most of their "teas" looked more like trail mix or confetti than tea (some of them had the ingredients to trail mix in them). I'd written down the handful of pure teas they offered before going to the store and this was one that I decided to buy some of. The aroma was so much like bourbon vanilla that I checked the ingredi...http://ratetea.com/review/5643/http://ratetea.com/review/5643/Mon, 25 Jun 2018 04:54:28 ESTThis was a surprise bonus in my order. Being new to pu-erh, I really appreciated being able to sample something that I wouldn't have picked out, giving me a little extra variety to figure out what I do and don't like. The first thing I noticed about this mini cake (and the other ripe pu-erh I got from White2Tea, Old Reliable) wasn't what it smelled like, but what it didn't: fish. That's already an improvement over my first ripe puerh, which took a while for the fish smell to fade. After that I was a little...http://ratetea.com/review/5619/http://ratetea.com/review/5619/Thu, 31 May 2018 01:37:45 ESTThe smell reminds me of a more "pure" version of the hazelberry pu erh tea from Adagio, and is very "woodsy" But with a more mineral of rocky taste, it is a very good value too, especially for a tea from almost 10 years ago.http://ratetea.com/review/5607/http://ratetea.com/review/5607/Thu, 17 May 2018 04:59:26 ESTThis is my first unflavored puerh, so I don't have anything to compare it to. Mine was aged for 3 years so it might be slightly different from the normal version, but probably not that much. I had to air it out for a week to get rid of the smell of fish. Once that went away, the aroma of the dry leaves became earthy in a sort of wet way, like the ground near a river, with a similar aroma in the brewed cup. The taste is hard to describe. What stands out to me more than the flavor is the mouthfeel, which is ...http://ratetea.com/review/5567/http://ratetea.com/review/5567/Wed, 18 Apr 2018 02:10:18 ESTI had some very bad results with this tea, I'm sorry to say. It made me feel as if I'd been poisoned. The cake itself didn't smell too bad, it actually had a decent scent to it — like pu-erh, but different in a way. I wasn't sure if the scent was sweet in the way that some pu-erh can mature into having a sweet, sugary note or if it was something added to the tea. But, the effect the tea had on me made me think that they'd added some sort of chemical to it. It really got me sick. (And, I'm saying this as ...http://ratetea.com/review/5508/http://ratetea.com/review/5508/Thu, 15 Feb 2018 08:32:15 ESTIf you could brew the experience of sitting in a lush pine forest after a light rain, with a distant, vague scent of wood fire smoke on the air, this would be it. This tea has a clean, dark, wet earth note that underlies a pine note with an almost menthol-like quality to it, and a touch of smoke that comes in at times. It's very good-tasting, the quality is consistent, and the tea is hard to brew wrong. I had good results with 8g-10g of tea in a 110ml gaiwan using 100ºC water. The leaves don't expand m...