Trying this again this afternoon after a very unfair first tasting yesterday where I had it the day after trying an exquisite 3x charcoal roasted dong ding and immediately after trying out a roasted gui fei mei ren (both also from Floating Leaves and appropriately priced more expensively than this modest $4/oz purchase).
While thinner and without the depth and complexity of either of the previous two teas I just mentioned, this is quite the drinkably affordable tea and pleasant enough on its own merits. The roast does not overpower and adds an extra element and nice aroma to the base, which has a nice returning bit of sugar sweetness on the end of a sip.
The tea is a lovely burnished orange color and has a light character, flavor, and sweetness that I would describe as almost cute under that roast. Doesn’t have much longevity (I stopped at about 4-5 steeps as it begins tasting mainly like roast at that point), but for the price point, that’s not surprising. Decent enough, but given the choice, I would pay the extra and spring for their gui fei (closer to $8/oz) to get that extra depth, warmth, and body.
Flavors: Caramel, Grass, Roasted, Sugarcane
