Dian Hong Yunnan red tea

When it comes to most black (red) tea, I am an advocate of “topless brewing”. I mean, using a topless vessel, like a teapot with lid removed. Many Chinese tea experts say Yunnan black yields the best flavor when it’s brewed in a lidded teapot with hot, hot water, for more than a few minutes. With that method, I have yet to experiment on teapot volume and leaf amount. But so far, topless brewing works the best for me.

Yunnan black is one of a kind. This tea lasts 3-4 consistent infusions. It has a light, pleasant smokey front taste combined with a hint of floral fragrance. I say “pleasant” because I normally don’t like smokey taste in tea but like such subtle smokiness. Following that, the tea yields a rich, warm fruity aroma. The texture of the tea water is very smooth and soupy.

Yunnan black is my “warming” tea. For some reason, every year I start to yearn for it in early autumn. Then after April, I barely drink it.

For a few times, I saw questions like “I am a coffee drinker switching to tea. What tea can replace coffee?” I used to think, how could any tea be possibly compared with any coffee? But this morning I ran out of coffee beans. Such scary situation is happening for the first time in the past 3 years! As a tea lover and coffee lover, I randomly want coffee or tea for the first cup of the day. Today, the inner me happened to want coffee when there was no coffee in the house! Then without analytical thinking, I brewed this tea.

Still, I don’t think this tea is anything similar to coffee, absolutely no observable similarities, not at all. But maybe it’s a possible answer when a coffee lover runs out of coffee :D

(I used a 150ml teapot, lay dry tea leaves to cover 1/2 bottom of the teapot, and fill the teapot to probably 4/5 full.)