Sipdown (123)!
I’m glad I picked up a sample of this to try Gong Fu because tonight’s session was really lovely overall! Actually, for a pure tea from DAVIDsTEA I definitely thought this exceeded my expectations, which probably weren’t as low as they should’ve been. I wonder why the tea is being discontinued? Supply issues? Lack of popularity?
Anyway; the first thing I noticed about this tea right from the start was that it had a really powerful floral aroma and taste. My little sister was convinced that the tea incorporated lavender in some regard because that’s what it smelled like to her. Personally, I didn’t taste lavender per say in any of the ten infusions I had but it WAS very floral and sweet. Quite lovely, actually.
In addition to that, the middle infusions were absolutely the sweet spot with this tea: I was presented with not only the floral notes I’d tasted in the first infusions (and latter ones) but a bouquet of clean, crisp vegetal notes, and a really smooth butteryness which also reminded me quite strongly of coconut or coconut water in the first half of the session. Less so in the second half.
The last infusions were quite fruity; definitely stonefruit, I’d say. DAVIDsTEA calls it ‘plum’ but I disagree with that – if anything I’d say it’s more of a peach or apricot kind of fruitiness. It really isn’t super distinct though. Along with this fruityness I also taste cane sugar.
This tea was also a lovely one to share with my sister because I kind of got to show her how a tea’s profile changes over multiple steepings. I shared the second infusion with her and she disliked it a lot; she called it too grassy/vegetal (a word she’s learned from me) and not sweet enough. However, a few sips from the seventh and eight infusion changed her mind and she couldn’t believe I wasn’t sharing a totally different tea with her! The profile had changed that much.
Sadly, this one is already off the site. Too bad. I’d like to try it. It sounds like a good one.