The dry tea is little tiny tiny black twisty threads with golden ones mixed in and it smells like hay or straw.
The liquor smells very different, like sweet raisin bread. It is a dark colored liquor that you can’t see through.
The flavor is smooth, rich, and malty. Though there is a sweet scent, the tea is not that sweet tasting to me. There is no bitterness or astringency. Very good.
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7/9/14
Tried a bit of this Gong Fu style today,,,,8 oz porcelain gong fu pot, 190F 15" infusions.
Liquor is a beautiful color, auburn orange clear jewel.
Wet leaves are cut and chopped. Smoky scent.
In the flavor, I was catching just smoke today. It gets better as it cools, but no sweetness and a bit one note really, just smoky.
It may be better served the way I first brewed it, Western style,,,, or I might do longer infusions gong fu style to see if I can pull different flavors from it.
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7/15/14
Gong Fu today at 175F and this is still very smoky and one note. I usually believe Gong Fu is the best method for all tea but this one might be better Western style.
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7/26/14
Having this one today, Western style in a new cup size teapot with huge infuser, the same size as the pot. I am loving these teapots (I got 3) bc they really let the leaves open up and I am now brewing by the single cup so I can have more of a variety of tea during the day. When I was brewing in my other Western teapots that house 2 cups,,,,I was brewing a pot of tea and the infuser wasn’t reaching throughout the entire pot like my new little cup size ones are. I got them on Amazon, they are Hario glass teapots and they are the bomb!!!!!
As a result,,,,this tea is awesome today. Very sweet and mild. I brewed at 190F for 3 minutes. It has a beautiful red auburn liquor with malt and bourbon scent. The flavor is malt, molasses, smoke, raisin pie,,,yumm.
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7/27/14
Having again this morning!!!! Smoke, malt, honey, raisin. Smoke is dominant for me this morning….maybe taste buds are working the smoky side more today lol
Flavors: Bread, Malt, Raisins, Smoke
sounds delicious!