Steeping instructions:

Amount of water: 6 oz

Amount of Tea: 1 Flat teaspoon

Water Temperature: Boiling

Steeping Time: 3 - 5 minutes.

Black Night is described on Red Leaf's website as "a robust tea with a very mild hint of sweetness. The Black Night has a strong flavor and aroma and can retain its strong taste for several years because it is more oxidized than the other varieties of tea". As soon as I brewed this one, I knew that Red Leaf's description was no exaggeration. The aroma of this tea was quite strong, and as I sipped this tea on my morning commute, my entire car was filled with this honey-tea aroma. The taste of the tea is quite strong and astringent, and thus serves wonderfully as a great morning pick-me-up tea. Despite the bold flavor, there is a muted underlying sweetness that prevents the strength of the flavor from becoming too powerful. Unfortunately, the website had no mention of the origin of the tea used in this blend, so I emailed the Red Leaf folks to inquire about the origins. Given the peppery notes of this tea, I would have assumed this was a Yunnan tea, but it turns out that it hails from Sri Lanka. The flavor of this tea lingers on the palette long after the the tea is swallowed. The flavor is robust and filling, and really much heartier than any other unflavored black tea that I have had. I guess it would be fair to say that this tea "packs a punch". I think that the perception of heartiness comes from the roasted flavor of this tea. Although this tea tasted nothing like coffee, I think this might be a good tea for coffee-drinkers because of the hearty flavor, the higher caffeine content, and the no-frills flavor profile. I tried my sample without any milk or sugar, but something tells me that a splash of milk or soy milk would be a great addition to this tea. In all, I was fairly impressed with this tea, and will consider ordering some of this myself.

Vanessa -Teaviews.com -Reviewer

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Poetry in a cup, any black tea lover should have this tea in their stash. The leaves are as jet black as midnight and have such a lustrous vibrant appearance.  The aroma of the dried leaves as well as the flavor of this tea is pure, velvety black tea.    It is such a decadent bliss to have the deepest of black tea leaves in your cup to savor.

This tea is wonderful no matter how you choose to enjoy it – plain, with or without milk and sugar, or however else you may normally prepare your tea.This is probably the most strongly oxidized tea I’ve seen, but it retains no hint of bitterness or sharpness. In fact it’s very smooth, robust, slightly malty with a hint of nutty taste.  As a Ceylon tea, I’m surprised of the strength and thickness of this tea.  It compliments almost any meal as well with complex flavor notes for a plain black tea.  If you want a high quality plain black loose tea, this is the tea to purchase.

The Tea Guru (Stephanie)

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This tea smells sweet and delicious. It's got a really nice, ever so slighty fruity flavor and is not bitter or overbrisk at all. It does not actually have the sweet taste that you'd expect it to have based on smell, but it is really delicious and smooth, and carries an aftertaste with just an ever so slight astringency.

It is a bit of a gentle black tea but it has an aged taste to it that I really like. I've never quite had a tea with this kind of taste -- it's not a pu-erh aged taste but kind of a dusty flavor that is actually much more appetizing than it sounds. I don't think this tea is very strong -- but it could be if you wanted it to be. I think that this tea would also blend very well with other teas...it's a great base. It has almost a slight wine flavor to it that I really love -- Black Night is a delicious, unique black tea with complex character and a lot of versatility.

Jessica -AuthoriTea -Reviewer

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