Yunnan Gongfu Fragrant Black Tea

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Citrus, Dark Bittersweet, Floral, Leather, Malt, Muscatel, Orange, Pepper, Smoke, Wood, Bread, Brown Sugar, Cherry, Dried Fruit, Earth, Mineral, Molasses, Plum, Rye, Smooth, Sweet, Sweet Potatoes, Apricot, Honey, Roasted Nuts, Stonefruit, Sugarcane, Toasty, Yams, Grapefruit, Honey Dew, Jam, Nuts, Almond, Flowers, Fruity, Lychee, Peach, Chocolate, Red Wine, Butternut Squash, Toast, Freshly Cut Grass, Milk, Orchid, Pumpkin, Graham Cracker, Oats, Sweet, Warm Grass, Red Fruits
Sold in
Bulk, Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Medium
Certification
Organic
Edit tea info Last updated by Mastress Alita
Average preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 2 min, 15 sec 5 g 10 oz / 292 ml

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32 Tasting Notes View all

From Teavivre

“Producing area: Fengqing, Lincang, Yunnan, China

Category: Dian hong black tea

Season: Spring tea

Dry leaves: Tippy plump leaves in tightly tired strip-type

Aroma: Smell faintly of flower and honey with a hint of fully-grown fruit

Liquor color: Colors of bright orange yellow

Mouthfeel: It tastes soft and mellow, having resemblance of ripe tea flavor

Tree species: Fengqing large leaf tea

Tea garden: Lida tea garden

Fermentation: Fully fermented tea

Caffeine: 40 mg / 237 ml

Storage: Keep this tea in an airtight container away from high temperature, sunlight, moisture and abnormal taste.

Shelf Life: 36 months

Description

Gong Fu fragrance black tea is a tasty spring tea with infusion-enduring taste. The first two infusions have soft, mellow mouthfeel with slight sugar cane sweetness in the throat and at the bottom of cup a hint of milky flavor remains. But from the third infusion it presents a flavor, reminiscent of raw pu-erh tea, helping produce saliva.

Comment

A good tea with excellent taste allows tea beginners to appreciate the smoothness of black tea and the astringency of raw pu-erh tea in one cup."

“In 2013, Lida garden got the organic certification and during the following 3 years of transitional period, tea production here was converted to the organic ways which meet the requirements of organic tea production and management.”

http://www.teavivre.com/yunnan-gongfu-fragrant-black-tea/

About Teavivre View company

Company description not available.

32 Tasting Notes

82
1216 tasting notes

For the sipdown prompt, “A tea you are thankful for.” Honestly, I could use any Chinese black for that prompt, but this meets my age criteria. I have, shockingly, prepared it gong fu… it seems wrong somehow not to when it’s in the actual name of the tea. Not my preferred method of brewing, but on a rainy weekend when I have the time to slowly savor a tea through several infusions, it is fitting…

180ml (mini teapot) | 5.6g | 205F | 15s/20s/25s/30s/35s/40s

This is definitely a very frangrant tea… the steeped tea smells of malt, citrus, smoked wood, and leather. It tastes that way, too… very brisk with a dark, bittersweet quality, with a flavor that is malty, smoky, and leathery with a slight peppery edge and a little citrus quality in the aftertaste. The second steep is a bit smoother, with some of the leathery/peppery notes toned down and a slight florality peeking through. Perhaps even a hint of a muscatel note. The fruity and floral notes popped a bit more by the third steep, with a sort of citrusy orange aftertaste, but the darker malty/woody flavors continued to dominate. The briskness of the tea paired well with my very-sweet breakfast of off-brand PopTarts (thanks tea-sipper, I blame that impulse grocery purchase on you!)

Very tasty, ticked all the boxes of a Chinese black.

Flavors: Citrus, Dark Bittersweet, Floral, Leather, Malt, Muscatel, Orange, Pepper, Smoke, Wood

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 5 g 6 OZ / 180 ML
Cameron B.

I was thinking about doing some gongfu too, maybe today is the day!

tea-sipper

haha, of course my eye gravitated to “Poptarts”. It’s funny…this week I for some reason tried the Great Value cherry “poptarts” and they were much better than I expected them to be! (not expecting greatness there.)

Mastress Alita

These were generic Kroger ones. Fine enough to save some $$$, especially with how groceries are these days.

tea-sipper

Same reason I went with the Great Value instead of the real deal – the dang price increase.

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88
1789 tasting notes

Sipdown 41-2021
Sad to see this one go, but I will probably repurchase in the future. Such a nice, easy drinking Yunnan.

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80
3986 tasting notes

Sipdown! (52)

Another tea from my endless pile of Teavivre samples!

This one falls a bit flat after having their Golden Tips version a few days ago… Don’t get be wrong, it’s a nice enough Yunnan tea. There are notes of soft baked bread and a bit of sweet potato on top of an earthy, mineral base. I find gentle hints of smoke as well, and a touch of caraway. The end of the sip is a bit more interesting, with some light fruity notes that remind me of plum and dried cherry. A hint of molasses or brown sugar there as well.

It was a pleasant cuppa to start my day! I’ve been trying to get up earlier (7:00) to get more “me” time out of my day, as I always feel like the evening slips away from me. It certainly helps to have a nice Teavivre black tea to start off with! :)

Flavors: Bread, Brown Sugar, Cherry, Dried Fruit, Earth, Mineral, Molasses, Plum, Rye, Smoke, Smooth, Sweet, Sweet Potatoes, Wood

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec 5 g 16 OZ / 473 ML
AJRimmer

Working from home has definitely messed with me. I wake up at 10:30 every day, and I should really fix that /:

Cameron B.

I have a daily meeting at 9:30, or I’d probably do the same thing… XD

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90
1403 tasting notes

Ooooh! Malt! Stonefruit! And lovely honeyed sweet potato earthy sweetness.

And a wee bit of harshness, gently softened by sweet potato, at the back of the throat at the tail end of the sip.

I am steeping this western style today. Well, perhaps not quite western. Sort of a combo of western and immersed in my Libre. Not quite grandpa style as I drain the steeped tea when it reaches a personal level of doneness. I must mention that I have the slightest trace of maple, as a result of yesterday’s flavoured tea lingering in my travel mug.

This is delicious and a most excellent start to my day. And a lovely continuation throughout the day as well.

Thank you, Angel, for the sample. Much appreciated.

Mastress Alita

Oh, I grabbed a sample of this one, too. Can’t wait to try it! Sound delicious!

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88
379 tasting notes

The dry leaves are long and twisted with golden tips. The liquor is an orange-reddish color. It started off with the Yunnan black tea notes, the malt, baked bread, freshly baked bread, sweetness, particularly the sweet potatoes. Very nice smooth and mellow beginning, fragrant. The mouthfeel was soft, there was some honey, sugar-cane sweetness that traveled down my throat, lingering there. In the beginning, it was toasty, malty, sweet potatoes, wood, cocoa notes, and a couple of infusions down the road, there were some nutty notes.

As I continued through the infusions, stonefruits and dried fruits came out. In the end, it transformed into something different. It was complex, and it did remind me of an aged raw pu’er as some other reviews mentioned, perhaps because of the astringency but also because of the mouthfeel and throat-feel, new fruit notes.

For $9.90 for 3.5 oz, this is a bargain for such a good tea.

Gaiwan, 194°F, 110ml, 8 steeps: rinse, 5s, 7s, 9s, 12s, 18s, 28s, 35s, 45s (I kind of sorta followed TeaVivre recommendation. I lost it at the end though lol).

Flavors: Apricot, Bread, Honey, Molasses, Roasted Nuts, Stonefruit, Sugarcane, Sweet, Sweet Potatoes, Toasty, Yams

ashmanra

Yes yes yes. This tea.

Kawaii433

You described it perfectly in your review, ashmanra :D.

tperez

I really liked that one too! I think it’s the best of Teavivre’s Yunnan blacks

Kawaii433

tperez, I am glad I finally got to try it :D. I think their tea is underrated. I suppose because they are also loved for their teaware,

ashmanra

Thank you, Kawaii433. I have a deep love for Teavivre!

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85
1 tasting notes

Nice smooth taste, sweet aftertaste

Flavors: Bread

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 5 g 4 OZ / 110 ML

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75
15006 tasting notes

tea from today and a sipdown. Day 1 on my own today so i wanted a straight black to kick off my day earlier. Figured i might as well try to make progress on my cupboard so that eventually i’ll have no teas and HAVE to order some haha. Still think this one is relatively uninspiring, but a decent enough cup.

Final Count: 30

Kittenna

I hope today went well for you!

Sil

it did, now i’m hoping for a repeat…though mornings are always super rough. getting up at 2 or 3 and then again at 4 or 5 and then again at 6 or 7 for the rest of the day is painful. Especially since Ian is not to helpful in the am until he’s had coffee haha

Evol Ving Ness

Oh boy, Sil, we are rooting for you in this endurance test.

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89
2 tasting notes

I assume at this stage of the game you can brew a pot. Yunnan Gongfu tastes much like a Darjeeling, fruity the first few brews with tones of mango and later honeydew and grapefruit in the finish. Successive brews calm to a more subtle cup- assam like in character.

Flavors: Grapefruit, Honey Dew, Jam, Nuts

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 1 min, 15 sec 7 g 8 OZ / 236 ML

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91
226 tasting notes

This tea is very fragrant, especially during the first two steepings. The aroma of tropical fruit, lychee, flowers, peaches. The color is very satisfying: deep amber.

The taste is quite mild and largely follows the nose. I somehow expected a bolder taste. Make sure not oversteep it since it acquires the rougher bitterness that crowds out milder floral notes. In the third steeping and later the floral notes are largely replaced with apricot, honey, and almond.

It is a very forgiving tea and comes out well in a gaiwan, grandpa style or the typical western method. I came to like it as a daily drinker because what eslse do you need for that but a tea that fragrant, good tasting, not harsh and goes well with almost any kind of mood? It has been growing on me steadily.

I will add it to the beloved keemun hao ya as my daily staple. It has the same robustness and is perfect as a morning tea. Will certainly order again.

Flavors: Almond, Apricot, Flowers, Fruity, Honey, Lychee, Peach

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 0 min, 45 sec 3 g 2 OZ / 70 ML

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95
257 tasting notes

Many years ago, I had such enormous faith in the quality of music by The Beatles (still my all-time favorite band), that I would buy their new record albums (the vinyl kind) before I heard any of the songs. I was never disappointed. I always loved every track on every album.

During the last six years, I have grown to have the same confidence in teas by Teavivre. I’ve tried a lot of their teas and I don’t remember ever being disappointed. So, for the first time, I actually bought a pound of this Yunnan Gongfu Fragrant Black Tea without seeing, smelling, or tasting it. My wife expressed skepticism and astonishment when I told her I sent our hard earned money all the way to China for a whole pound of a product I never even sampled! I gently assured my more sensible half that she need not worry. I know what I’m doing (I hope).

When the pound arrived, it was shipped and packaged in five 3.5-ounce silver zip bags. So, it is in reality a total of 17.5 ounces- more than a pound. I decided not to convey this fact to my sweet spouse just yet.

After consolidating the five bags into one tall metal container, I noticed the sweet and fragrant aroma (hence its name) of the long black leaves with golden accompaniments. The smell was like honey and chocolate.

I steeped the leaves for five minutes at 195 degrees. These settings were within Teavivre’s recommended brewing range. The resulting liquor was a deep amber color. The aroma was sweet like honey.

As I hopefully and optimistically took my first small sips, my palate was flooded with the sensations of honey and chocolate. These flavors were perfectly blended and the entire experience was smooth as silk with no astringency lurking under the covers. Through my entire first and second cups, the very pleasant tastes remained consistent, smooth, and steady. The aftertaste was light and amiable. It seemed to softly dangle on my tongue until it tenderly dissipated.

I am very pleased (and relieved) to report that this is another exquisite tea from the folks at Teavivre which I highly recommend. If you like sweet, smooth, and full-bodied black teas (and who doesn’t?), you will love this one. Now I will tell my wife how brilliant her husband is to purchase 17.5 ounces of this terrific tea! ;-)

Flavors: Chocolate, Honey

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 5 min, 0 sec 6 tsp 32 OZ / 946 ML
ashmanra

I read this through like it was a thriller! Is the tea good? Does Stoo live? LOL I am glad this story had a happy ending!

Stoo

LOL. Thanks for your comment, ashmanra! When I told my wife I really liked the tea and THEN told her I had actually purchased 17.5 ounces of it, she let me live. My tea and I happily rode off into the sunset together. LOL.

ashmanra

That’s the best!

Bluegreen

What a great description. I am also the lifelong fan of the Beatles who was also excited (and never disappointed) by their albums – including the singles their sung in German and the discarded studio takes. And I have the same trust in Teavivre. I guess good tea and Beatles go together well.

Stoo

Thanks for your comment, Bluegreen! The Beatles will always be my favorite band and Teavivre, in just six years of operation, has built a phenomenal catalog of fantastic teas!

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