93 Tasting Notes
Yes, really nice. Happy to have bought two cakes of, one to drink now and one to keep.
When it had just arrived I feared a little. It seemed quite harsh and dryish, with an interesting, but very upfront fermentation note. After having sat for a few weeks though, it is really great. The liquor is nicely thick and juicy now and has plenty of sweetness. The storage/fermentation notes are quite present and remarkable, but hard to describe. It’s not like the rounder basement notes of some other teas, there is a kind of pine-like sharpness to it that I really enjoy. This tea is easy to brew and can get pretty intense without a lot of bitterness.
The rinsed leaves smell intensely refreshing. The scents are fresh and foresty, in a sweet way. The brew is really sweet, syrupy, mouth-coating sweet rather than foresty. This is a very pleasant and comforting tea. It remains sweet, never becoming grassy or harsh in later brews. It seems like good value to me, but it’s a little bit above my budget to buy a cake of. Maybe I would if it would really click with me, the sweetness is very nice, however this doesn’t feel 100% my thing, I guess it lacks that bit of edge or mystery for me. It’s just too accessible and pleasing perhaps. Really great tea though.
I would not really agree with the ‘medium oxidation’. As visible in the image quite a lot of green shines through these leaves, making it relatively light for a dianhong. That also doesn’t make it a ‘classic Yunnan black tea’ for me. It is pretty complex, with flowery, fruity and even somewhat vegetal aspects, and it lacks the classic honeyish, caramelly, sweet, thick and smooth dianhong thing.
If you don’t expect this to have that typical dianhong profile, it is a nice, lively and refreshing black tea with much character for its price.
Very interesting. In the wet leaves, especially after the rinse, along with the fruity/cherrie smell of shai hong there is a note of semi-aged warehouse sheng puer, a warm basement note. It makes me believe that this tea is indeed from 2012 and might possibly have undergone some microbial fermentation. I am not sure if that is a good thing for black tea.
The brew is very red and has a thick and velvety mouthfeel. The aromas remind of cherries and dried fruits, and the fermentation note isn’t present in a bad way. I really enjoy this tea, it feels very substantial and comforting. There is a good aftertaste/huigan, without bitterness or astringency.
Spring 2021 version. I have ordered this one multiple times in the past but the last time is already a few years ago. It’ s still just as great. What I like is the combination of strength and body with complexity. There are distinct high notes, especially when steeped lighter and in early steeps, but there is also great depth, with cocoa, caramel and peaty notes. The liquor is nicely thick and the visual appearance of the leaves is great.
