Gong Fu Sipdown (245)!
I said I was going to try this one Gong Fu, and I do try to deliver on those kinds of promises/commitments, so I sat down today before we went out for my brother’s birthday and had a nice, but short, Gong Fu session with this tea.
I used 8g for a 150ml pot, and started with a ten second rinse and a rest before continuing the session. Here are the jot notes I took for the session:
10 Sec/Infusion One
- Pale yellow liquor
- Brightness to the top of the sip; clementime oranges/peach/apricot
- Finish is sweeter; a mix of honey and straw
15 Sec/Infusion Two
- More golden yellow liquor
- Flavour is a little fuller and has less top note brightness
- A mix of stonefruit, honey, straw/hay, autumn leaves, some LIGHT cream notes
20 Sec/Infusion Three
- Shifting a bit more to a cooked fruit sort of note
- With more mineral/leaf/straw/hay sort of focus and less honey
- Finish is JUST SLIGHTLY astringent
25 Sec/Infusion Four
- More of the cooked fruit thing, heavier on the apricot
- Still very strong mineral/leaf/straw/hay stuff but in a fulled, more ‘round’ kind of way
- Finish is a little nutty? Almonds, in particular
30 Sec/Infusion Five
- Same, but even nuttier with more finishing sweetness!
35 Sec/Infusion Six
- Very sweet and full bodied now
- Straight up marzipan notes dominating most of the sip
- With lesser nutty notes, cream, hay, and sugared apricots forming the rest
40 Sec/Infusion Seven
- Same as before; LOVING these later infusions a lot
I also did an eight and ninth infusion, just increasing the time by five seconds for each one, but I didn’t take any notes for those because, firstly, I was pretty tea drunk and, secondly, they weren’t anything super drastic from what I’d already recorded. I think I could have pushed the session longer but I had sort of settled into a point where there wasn’t anything new coming out of each infusion and I was both running out of water in my carafe and time before needing to take off for my brother’s birthday supper.
Anyway, this session started off in a way that I wouldn’t say was bad but maybe a bit lack luster? However, sticking out the first few infusions was certainly worthwhile because the later ones that I experienced were actually VERY good. It was a little weird, because that degree of sweetness and such clear nutty notes is something I haven’t experienced too heavily with aged whites/moonlight teas before but it was so pleasant.
While I’d totally skip over this tea prepared in a Western style, I think grabbing a small sample it worth it just to see the impressive flavour development of it when Gong Fuing.
Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts regarding the teas, and not the company’s.
Try 10g of this tea steeped for 1 minute each and see what you get. 80C temp.