I’m so excited for gu shu black tea!! I just got a new yixing pot, and I’ve seasoned it for black teas, this one:
http://store.thechineseteashop.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=YT-ND-008
A birthday gift from my best friend :) (Along with a number of great teas, including this sample, she’s the best)
Okay so yeah I’m brewing in my new yixing,
In the warmed pot, I get a very.. burning marshmallow aroma, with some chocolate. So excited, ahh after the rinse it’s just like burnt marhsmallows, I love it.
It brews a gorgeous dark vibrant red,
brewing at 96C
It tastes very burnty, like on the tongue it leaves this dryness of burnt, dry meat or like licking a rock, with a bit of bitterness, and there’s a honey-like quality, with a slight sweetness, a very thick body and a hidden fruitiness that I can’t place. Also sort of a terry’s chocolate orange taste
The fruit comes through a bit more in the second steep, it’s sort of a orangey grapey,thing, still mostly subtle, with some caramel in the finish, it’s quite bitter for so early in a session, I could be over steeping bc of the slow pour of my new yixing.
It tastes kind of like a.. bitter spaghetti squash..?
This is a very powerful tea, and it’s very satisfying and it does change a lot between steeps, it’s just in a way that.. I’m having a hard time describing, it’s like the bitterness changes each time and the burnt taste comes and goes with the fruitiness it’s like ebbing and flowing it’s weird, but I am really enjoying this a lot. It’s different. It might be a bit too much bitterness for me though, it’s tolerable but it’s just over my limit for pleasantness
You may be able to drop your temperature to reduce the bitterness as well.
That’s true. I really should’ve tried that, for some reason last night I was just stubbornly keeping it high
Happy birthday, whenever it was! Too bad it doesn’t taste like burnt marshmallows.
Thanks :) it’s actually this Saturday, and I did get a little bit of the burnt marshmallow in the tea soup aroma so it was still there throughout whic was nice :)