93 Tasting Notes
Not so great in my opinion. I have drank far better shu pu-erh for a similar price. This one is strongly earthy with some sweetness. However for my taste it is too dry, too earthy and not sweet and soft/thick enough. The strong earthiness quite quickly becomes unpleasant when overbrewn, because the flavor profile offers too little softness and sweetness to balance it. For my taste at least.
But maybe this one just hasn’t aged enough, yet? I am considering to store it away, curious to see how it will be a couple of years from now.
Flavors: Astringent, Earth, Sweet
Preparation
A nice Chinese black, especially for its price. Suits me well as an everyday tea, in addition to the more expensive teas I usually order from webshops (which really aren’t always better than this one).
Also interesting for beginning tea drinkers, due to its distinctive, recognizable flavour profile. It is fruity, in a very distinctly raisin- or grape-like way. A tea that is hard to overbrew, no bitterness and hardly any astringency. In fact I would have liked a little more astringency, since for my taste the sweetness and softness could use some ‘harder’ counterpart to really balance this tea out.
Long leaves that look great dry as well as wet.
Flavors: Fruity, Honey, Raisins, Sweet
Preparation
This is a complex tasting black tea that tastes mostly sweet and fruity. At first I steeped it in near-boiling water and didn’t like it. It had a nasty, pronounced bitter that for me spoiled the rest of the taste. It went better when steeped around 80 C. A bit strange for a black. Although the taste profile is interesting and complex, for me it lacks the balance to make it a perfect tea (but that may be highly subjective). I like it though.
