Numi Chinese Breakfast Yunnan Black Tea Review

An Enjoyable Black Tea With a Slight Floral Hint

Summary : This is a surprisingly tasty, non-bitter organic black tea. I particularly enjoyed the slight floral overtones found in the tea. It is also not necessary to add milk or "anything else " to the tea either...as the flavor is not overpoweringly strong.

Review : I suspect part of my problem with "straight black teas" is that my first tea tasting experiences with them were by and large negative. And these experiences became all the more ingrained as I found delicious green, rooibos and herbal teas to try. As such...I've always been wary of trying "straight black teas," as all too many of them simply have nasty, very strong and rather bitter tastes to them.

Still, I am a very adventurous person...and will try anything once. And there...sitting innocently on my shelf...were a few bags of various types of black tea that have been begging me to try, but which I had successfully avoided...until today.

The tea I tried was from Numi, with the rather long name of Chinese Breakfast Yunnan Organic Black Tea.

This organic tea contains exactly one ingredient : Organic High Mountain Yunnan Black Tea FOP (Flowery Orange Pekoe).

Here is how Numi describes this tea : "This noble tea is grown in the mist covered mountains of Yunnan province. What distinguishes this fine, organic black tea is its perfect sense of balance, exquisite tiger's eye color, and a lean vibrancy which makes it suitable at any time of day. Like a complex wine, it is the perfect tea for food, marrying well with a wide variety of dishes. It has a distant and hard to place floral quality, yet it leaves the mouth tasting as clean as spring water. And it energizes the body and mind more harmoniously than the best of coffees."

For a change, I actually liked the way Numi described this tea...as it was quite helpful in explaining this tea without making the tea seem like the greatest invention ever.

In comparison to many other straight black teas I've tried...the flavor of this tea was, well...perfect. Not to strong. No bitterness at all. No nasty after-taste. Indeed...the tea has hardly any after-taste at all, hence the reason why I'm not picking on them for saying this tea leaves your mouth as "clean as spring water" which is still sort of a stretch.

Several things struck me about the flavor of this enjoyable tea. First, there is no doubt that this tea has floral overtones. It is by no means as "flowery" as say as Jasmine Tea, but you'll definitely get a hint of flowers here...due no doubt to the Flowery Orange Pekoe.

Secondly, the flavor of this tea...while quite full...was not overpoweringly strong. You will not have the urge to pucker when you drink this tea. Instead, it simply glides down nice and smoothly, leaving virtually no after-taste in the process...something I found very refreshing after choking down so many awful straight black teas.

And finally...leave the milk, honey, taco sauce, whatever in the cupboard. You don't need to add anything to this tea to make it taste drinkable. The tea is drinkable right out of the bag. To add anything to the tea will simply detract from the very enjoyable flavor this tea provides.

Recommendation : Yes. This is an excellent, full flavored yet subdued black tea. The tea does not have a overpoweringly strong flavor, and the hint of floral adds a nice touch to a non-bitter black tea. If you are searching for a black tea that isn't bitter and will not make your lips pucker when you drink it...well...this tea is for you.

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