Dry – Pine wood, Malt, sweetness, refreshing.
Wet – Strong Malt notes, warm, faint cocoa bitterness, brown sugar/molasses, woody/piney and thick.
Liquor – Mustard/Golden-Bronze
Gong fu Style in 6oz Porcelain Gaiwan||7gm of tea
1st – 15secs – It has a thickness, full bodied woody notes with apparent sweetness and strong malt notes up front. As it goes down it is sweet with a refreshing Pine-wood notes, a good Yunnan character that becomes more apparent as you zip. The aftertaste is pine-wood, malty and thick.
2nd – 15secs – Starts with a very malty thickness and more present bitter-cocoa notes that become sweet and refreshing up front. As it goes down, it seems thicker and fuller bodied with more apparent maltiness coating the tongue; the bitter-cocoa note reappears but is overshadowed by the stronger pine and malt notes. Thick, malty and refreshing finish with playful bitter-cocoa hints.
3rd – 20secs – Thicker, Sweeter and more apparent malty notes up front with an incredibly pleasant full body and hints of pine wood. As it goes down, it keeps its full body qualities and the Pine and malt notes become more apparent in the mouth and even throat. Bitter cocoa, malt notes and sweetness in the aftertaste.
4th – 25secs – Sweet with very pleasant malty thickness that wears hints of bitter-cocoa. As it goes down, it is sweet and malty, but wears a more apparent pine taste and some more citrusy notes appear together with he cocoa notes. The after taste keeps its malty, pine and bitter-cocoa notes with refreshing finish.
Final Notes
I literally ran out of hot water for this tea in the 9th steep. I continued the next day and it was still capable of producing really good tea. I was surprised on how well it held it’s ground along all the steeps and even with the later steeps being longer it never gave me any astringency at all. It is teas like this that remind me why I keep coming back for Yunnan Blacks.
If I feel like anyone who enjoy Yunnan Blacks with strong malt and pine notes, should try this one. It has sweetness and some more complex ‘hidden’ notes but those are its more apparent traits. It is very well balanced and seems to hold forever. If you enjoy Sweeter but less malty and pine like Yunnan Blacks, I’d recommend Yunnan Sourcing’s Imperial Mojiang Golden Bud. I feel like Scott really hit something good with that one. It is really sweet and pleasant and still manages to deliver malty thickness.
ALSO Check out my Blog @ http://thetinmycup.blogspot.com/
