Hubei Province Golden Tips Congou (ZK68)

Oh, Doulton! Thank you, thank you for all the lovely tea to try!

The dry leaves have a very powerful aroma. Strong Golden Monkey? But wait! No, more similar to Zhen Quo Super China Black! But these are long twisted leaves instead of fluffy puffs! Now it is time to taste.

Big surprise, but it shouldn’t be since this came from Doulton who loves smoke, this tea that smells so very very sweet is also lightly smokey! Not too smokey, mind you! Just a bit! And it is delightful! It is lighter in body than Golden Monkey, maybe even than Hen Quo.

Youngest has decided to start tasting all new teas plain before adding the milk and sugar that she loves. I already knew about the smoke…she didn’t. I watched her taste it, and she pronounced it, “Not bad!” That is high praise for tea that doesn’t have milk and sugar in it yet! And now she says it is growing on her and she wants more. High praise, indeed!

Instead of measuring the leaves, I weighed them. These are so long, large, and twisted and I wanted to get it right! I think next time I may add more leaves. I am going to resteep this one and will post how it does.

Served for second breakfast with Baby Swiss, Dubliner, and bacon.

My after lunch tea today is this fine varietal. Opening a new bag of this, I was then surprised that I had already sampled this tea from a small sampler bag. Once again I find this tea is outstanding! The leaf is med-long, finely twisted and beautiful with it’s golden tips. The aroma of the dry leaf is wonderful. The light smoky caramel is nicely pronounced. I brewed for 3 minutes and sweetened with one Splenda packet. The brew is golden amber, medium darkness. The flavor is outstanding, clearly rivaling my all-time favorite golden yunnan from Tao of Tea called Emporer’s Gold. It has the slight smokey but caramel flavor with spicey notes thrown in. I will have to do a taste test between the two to determine the champion. In the mean time I’m going to really enjoy this mug of tea on this cold cloudy winter day. If you enjoy golden or tippy yunnan teas and you get a chance to try this congou from Hubei, you won’t be disappointed!

This was a great tea from Upton that disappeared quickly. Pronounced chocolate and tobacco notes, with a red-wine body reminiscent of good Keemuns. Upton has a habit of finding these unique China blacks that can really add a great diversion to our standard daily brews.

The leaves of this tea have a powdery residue. If you have the habit of shaking your tin like I do, you’ll get a nice tea cloud when you open the top. I suggest you do not do this! This tea brews up slightly darker than a golden amber/caramel. On first taste, you get a hit of acidity though the intensity is not strong. Maybe very light meyer lemon. The main taste is tanin or bitterness but not any stronger than other black teas and perfectly delicious. I have always been against milk or sugar in my teas but this would go well with a scone or some lightly sweetened dessert or pastry.