I will say within the first sip of this I could tell that I wasn’t the intended target audience for this tea.
Unfortuntely, I must have read the description wrong as YS was very accurate in describing it now that I am rereading it.
The tea itself is obviously good quality: it brews many steeps, and is nice and viscous in the mouth. Be very careful not to over steep this tea if you are going western style; I did a 20 second wash and followed with a 30 second gongfu at 200-205F and it was already very dark at that point.
If you enjoy bittersweet chocolate or dark chocolate 85% and higher or if you have semi-developed palate then this tea is for you.It has very consistent bitter notes, not something I enjoy in tea, with some slight orange notes and light pepper taste. Overall, bittersweet chocolate is a good way to describe this tea.
It is very strong, dark and of a thick consistency. It was not an easy drinker for me, and it felt like the tea version of biting into high quality chocolate. I ended up drinking the 5th steep with a high fruit/hazelnut (sugary) breakfast and it kind of sat in the background and brought out the nuts; it was very nice taken that way but probably not what it was designed for. I’ll most likely just drink alongside food after this review.
There is a nice, slight tingling sensation that occurs in the mouth area. It does leave a lingering, chocolate aftertaste though; which I can admit was pleasant.
In my own personal book this tea would be about a 65 as it’s going to be a hard drinker for me and the cost was rather high; however, it is my fault for not reading the description properly and the tea obviously clocks in at a higher rating based on the factors I mention above.
This is probably obvious but don’t get this tea if you do not care for bittersweet
chocolate (cooking chocolate).
Flavors: Dark Bittersweet, Orange Zest, Pepper, Thick
I love this one. I almost drank it today…