Black tea without milk/sugar? Suggestions?

have you tried the black yunnans that are kind of creamy smooth tasting, not much astringency?

I've been through tons over the years, but never a real focused or intense undertaking. I'd take a few suggestions for some specific teas (and even links to vendors of you have them) that fit your description. Really I'm amenable to try anything, even teas I've previously written off, I'm just really looking for some good jumping off points or well loved favorites from folks here.

I had been looking over Teaspring's Chinese black list and a few other bigger vendors like Upton's to get an assorted order together.

- Dominic

P.S. Anyone interested in honey should seek out and enjoy a red bamboo honey... it is a very unique flavor that matches well with black tea... and the real reason I'm interested in exploring blacks.

I haven't bought a really high-quality black tea since summer, so I can't give specific recommendations that you could count on. But:

A tippy Yunnan black (Dian Hong) can be beautiful, with peppery and maple-sugar notes and no astringency at all. Trouble is, they're very expensive these days because they use the same raw material as Pu'er, and you know what's happened to Pu'er prices.

There are Fujian blacks that often taste great to me. Golden Monkey is one, and a special favorite of mine is Zhenghe black (also called Chingwo), which is made from a cultivar usually manufactured as white tea.

/Lew

Why? If you're not interested, why risk repulsing yourself completely and turning yourself away from black tea forever, if not for a very long time?

Okay, if you insist. There was an Assam/Ceylon blend from Adagio that was quite nice. It was a special included with a teapot a few years ago and I didn't need milk or sweetener with it. I'm planning to order samples of whatever's similar from Upton to restock because I don't order tea from Adagio anymore having been extremely unhappy in the past with the too many stale teas they sent me.

Maybe you'll like an Assam/Ceylon blend, yourself.

the only one i have now is the Premium Yunnan Black Gold from Yunnan Sourcing, i can certainly send you a sample if you want to try it

other more smooth was Yunnan Gold from Jing Tea (UK)(malty, caramel, but it had a certain flavor that i dont like, not astringency) had another smooth one from Wing Hop Fung in Los Angeles... i asked Teaspring one time which was their smooth yunnan, and showed him some pics, he said:

Best Yunnans where there's very little peppery taste - which I also do not like - but, strangely enough, that does not stop me from enjoying these Yunnans immensely. In fact Yunnan Gold is my favorite tea after silver needles. Some Assams are very good, too. In my experience, adding honey to tea is not that good because it adds sour taste. Instead, I'd drink Phoenix Honey Oolong, which tastes very prominently like honey but without sourness.

My favorite blacks are all Upton; I drink them plain. TC58 (Ceylon) TN68 and TN96 (Nilgiri) and TA42 (Assam). Toci

The Yunnan Jin Cha I'm drinking right now sounds a lot like what you're after. Very smooth, but full flavor. I think I got it from Tao of Tea, but I don't see it on their web site now.

Alan

Try Upton's Panyong Congou (actually a Fujian tea) and maybe the Panyong Golden Needles.

--scott

I like the dian hong from ysllc, i drink it with some sugar :)

A top grade Lapsang Souchong will do it. Sweet, medium bodied, strong, maybe too smokey, but really good LS shouldn't be that smokey.

Top grade means very tippy. Anything with big-ish leaves is no good.

Brew it for 10-15s and dump and then do it again if you want to remove some of the smoke.

MarshalN

Dom> OK, I'm finally going to try to break my disinterest in black teas.

I would urge you to investigate hand made teas from village producers in ex Soviet Georgia - this August's Natela Gold Standard is excellent

- a cup for contemplation; and for a slightly more assertive brew, though never with milk, try the Kolkhuri Artisan made in a hobby factory in West Georgia.

Nigel at Teacraft

Wow, now that sounds interesting. Do you have any suggestions where I could purchase these? They seem like something right up my alley.

- Dominic

Teacraft has world exclusive selling rights to the hand rolled teas from the Georgian Hand Made Tea Makers' Association (now more than 500 members) and sells through Nothing But Tea but we also supply through some US distributors (though they do not carry all types). Fresh 2007 season stock can be had from Tea Embassy in Austin TX and Perennial Tea Room in Seattle WA - they both have Natela Gold Standard. Kolkhuri Artisan is a special not yet listed but I can let you have a sample if you email me with your street address.

Nigel at Teacraft

I missed the original message, but may I suggest a good grade of Yunnan Gold? I can't imagine drinking it with Milk (I never use sweeteners on anything), and it's really one of the best teas I know. I generally don't like black teas and I specifically don't like spicy teas, yunnan gold is a spicy black tea and yet it's probably my 2nd or 3rd place favorite.

dont mean to go off the track here but what exactly is this 'spicyness' everybody says? i dont feel anything spicy!.... can someone compare it to something?

Clove, cinnamon, ginger. Not flowery, spicy.

--scott

Recently, I had this pure orthodox tippy tea from Halmari tea and it has a very nice taste. Even I do not prefer sugar or milk in my tea but this tea has a very nice flavor & aroma of its own. This is Assam tea also, which is any way renowned for its black tea so you can try this one if you like.