Holy cocoa! For a moment this morning I almost thought I had prepared some hot cocoa and not some shou! The cocoa/dark chocolate notes in this tea are the strongest I have ever experienced. This is not a deep, dark and smooth shou like I normally like, which just goes down so smooth. Nope, this one totally grabs your attention but in a good way.
So this was a much anticipated shou for me to try, coming recommended by Crimson Lotus Tea in a reddit thread where we accidentally discovered that we enjoy shou that brews “thick and dark, a bit like motor oil”. Also a big thumbs up to CLT for helping out with some shipping issues and making it possible for me to get my hands on this tea.
So it was a quick and somewhat haphazard session this morning as I am away from home dealing with some family issues, but I am very impressed. I used approximately 7g of tea in a 150ml gaiwan. Rinsed twice and let it sit for 30 seconds. The first steep was pretty weak (about 10 seconds). Steeped about 15-20 seconds for the second, and woah, strong cocoa notes and a deep burgundy colour! A bit bitter, but a good bitter like a dark chocolate. No fermentation flavour or maybe its just well hidden, and didn’t really feel any earthiness either. I got 4 good 15-20 second steeps out of this, the 5th was a bit flat. Steeped it again for about 3 minutes but after the earlier explosion of flavour this felt pretty tame. I have a feeling that once I am back home and able to have a calmer session with shorter intial steeps, I’ll be able to get more out of it. I also want to try this western style as it feels like it would make a nice hot cocoao substitute!
I’ll reserve final judgement until I’ve had a calmer session at home but I strongly expect I’ll be ordering more of this (on top of the 500g I already got). Hmm.. it comes in a 2kg brick….
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Flavors: Chocolate, Cocoa, Dark Bittersweet, Dark Chocolate
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When you rinse this let it sit for about 20 minutes. Then do short steeps 5 seconds or so.. It will probably brew a bit different.
Will do mrmopar, thanks for the suggestion! This morning was way too rushed and I know I didn’t manage to give it the attention it deserves, and probably missed a lot of the notes and flavors.
I know lots of times I rush too. That is just a little trade secret as they say that IMO helps the tea. It always seems the water tends to creep on into the tea with the rest.
Thanks for sharing mrmopar, much appreciated.
When you rinse this let it sit for about 20 minutes. Then do short steeps 5 seconds or so.. It will probably brew a bit different.
Will do mrmopar, thanks for the suggestion! This morning was way too rushed and I know I didn’t manage to give it the attention it deserves, and probably missed a lot of the notes and flavors.
I know lots of times I rush too. That is just a little trade secret as they say that IMO helps the tea. It always seems the water tends to creep on into the tea with the rest.
Thanks for sharing mrmopar, much appreciated.