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“Tried this tea for the first time on Friday, brewed up Gongfu and paired with an absolutely incredible raisin and fennel corn crusted baguette from a local bakery! I actually started with the...” Read full tasting note
The Auburn first flush was a crowd favorite from last year’s tea club (and there will be a small sample coming in the 2018 June tea club as well!). The aroma is floral and complex, with a depth of fragrance that endures from steep to steep, evolving as the tea progresses through a session. The sweet body of the tea and its deep inherent smoothness make for a rich experience. This is one of our favorite high quality Fujian black teas; made with a focus on fragrance and quality over visual appearance.
Tried this tea for the first time on Friday, brewed up Gongfu and paired with an absolutely incredible raisin and fennel corn crusted baguette from a local bakery!
I actually started with the baguette, and then tried to pick a tea to drink specifically when I ate the baguette – so thank you to James/Shredsofmetal for helping me select the tea! We generally have very, very similar tastes in hongcha, so when he said that this was a really raisin-y tea that would suit the bread quite well (based on the description of the bread) I definitely trusted his opinion!
Of course, unsurprisingly, he was absolutely correct. I knew he would be as soon as I opened up the sealed bag of loose tea for the first time; the smell of the dry leaves was deeply, sweet raisin-y with a hint of malt and autumnal leaves. I was salivating before I’d even begun to heat the kettle!
Similar to my experience with a lot of W2T’s black teas, this doesn’t have a ton of longevity when brewed Gong Fu – which is why I often drink most of White2Tea’s black teas Western style or Grandpa style. I have a gut feeling this would be incredible brewed up in a big ass, huggable mug. So, I got about five really solid infusions of this when brewed Gongfu – and then two more lousy ones at the end of the session that I’m not going to count against the tea.
The tea was thick, full bodied and raisin-y right off the bat; and that raisin note continued all throughout the session – easily the most prominent flavour throughout the whole session. However, it wasn’t all raisin notes: I also thought that this was pretty sweet and malty, with undertones of very dark cocoa as well and even a hint of overripe, dark cherries during the middle of the session.
The bread was essentially fancy raisin bread – so of course a very raisin-y tea and a sweet, raisin heavy bread would compliment one another; but it did go farther than that: the maty, cocoa notes in the tea also complimented the raisin and the sweetness and licorice-y note of the fennel in the bread added a hint of sweetness to the tea as well. Essentially just making both sweeter and more robust feeling.
Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/BxlKasQgzUk/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqOICwwBUP4&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=13&t=0s
Don’t you not like raisins? Am I thinking of someone else? Also, talking about Montreal breads, I used to get a mini loaf of this amazing bread that had 3 different chocolate chips in it and it was SOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOODDDD!!! It was from Brioche Doree I think
Or maybe Au Pain Doree
You’re not thinking of someone else; I’ve always enjoyed that raisin note in straight tea, but I used to really struggle with actual raisins (the taste and the texture) but I’ve gradually gotten a lot better with them – and now even enjoy them most of the time :)
This tea sounds dreamy.