Ming Hong

Brewed in a glass test tube steeper. Steeping times: 20 seconds, 30, 45, 60, 120.

Complex aroma, changing as the leaves air. Dry leaf: malt, bread, sweet potatoes. After staying for thirty seconds in the heated steeper, still dry, pure fudge. Wet leaf: chocolate fudge cake, returning to sweet potatoes.

Amber-colored liquor, on the lighter side for a Chinese black tea. Clear, with the exception of fuzzies. Full-bodied.

The first infusion yields notes of sweet potatoes and malt. Quite light in flavor and thinly textured, though – the leaves would have needed to steep more. The ball gets rolling in the second infusion – thicker texture, with chocolately flavors – but the third infusion is the high point of the session. There was even more chocolate, followed by smoky sugar, then grains, and, lastly, sweet potatoes cooked on fire. All at once, though easy to pick out separately.

After a two-hour break, the fourth infusion tasted of sweet potatoes. The final was very smokey (not any kind in particular).

I’m nearing the end of my 4 oz. stash of this very enjoyable complex Fujian tea. This morning, I brewed Ming Hong Black Tea from Yezi Western style: 7g / 8 oz / 203*F / rinse, 20, 35, 50 sec. without sweeteners, milk, or cream.

Leaf: Fine dark brown, tan, and golden twisted 2 cm long or less
Fragrance: Notes of hay
Liquor: Beautiful brilliant clear copper
Aroma: Sweet potatoes (as it cools)
Flavors: Baked Bread, Grain (barley?), Dark Chocolate, Sweet Potatoes, Malt, Creamy, Caramel, Green Beans

20 sec.: A wonderfully complex and very satisfying morning cup of Fujian tea with a wonderful sweet potato aroma! It’s a creamy-smooth, full-bodied tea without any astringency or bitterness. Notes of baked bread / grain (barley?), dark chocolate, malt, and sweet potatoes, are equally blended together with a mild caramel finish. It’s great to have one’s first 8 oz. cup of tea in the morning with so much flavor in only 20 seconds! Most black teas brewed Western-style require 3 to 5 minutes. Near the bottom of the now cool cup notes of green beans are apparent.

35 sec.: (Due to a momentary distraction, this was actually 45 sec.) This cup is very full-bodied without any astringency or bitterness. The same flavors as above are noted, but the dark chocolate is now stronger than all the others. Wow, this is a very satisfying morning cup! As I near the bottom of the second cup, the caramel finish now includes cocoa and persists long on the tongue.

50 sec.: Not quite, so I let it steep another 10 sec. This cup has the same flavor profile as the first cup, but a little less full-bodied.

75 sec.: The fourth cup was light to medium-bodied so I let it steep longer until it produced a medium-bodied cup, about two minutes. This cup had the same flavor profile as the original. Most of the leaves were now fully open, so I stopped here.

Impression: A very complex-flavored creamy smooth Fujian tea that’s not to be missed!

Thanks to Boris of Yezi for his brewing recommendations of this excellent complex tea!

Method:
RO water re-mineralized with an Aptera filter http://steepster.com/teas/teaware/39532-puregen-aptera-alkamag-water-filter
http://steepster.com/teas/teaware/37731-my-weigh-durascale-d2-660-digital-scale
Brewed western-style conveniently using a digital variable-temp electric kettle in a tempered tea mug with a brew basket:
http://steepster.com/teaware/bonavita/39130-1-liter-variable-temperature-digital-electric-gooseneck-kettle
http://steepster.com/teaware/royal-albert/45581-old-country-roses-afternoontea-mugs
http://steepster.com/teas/teaware/29177-finum-brewing-basket
http://steepster.com/teaware/teavana/39312-perfect-preset-tea-timer

still not sure how i feel about this one. Maybe i’ll try this one gongfu style and see if that helps me settle on how i feel about it. it’s not bad, it’s not great…the flavours are just kinda of all over for me haha

Oh em gee, I totally forgot that I have these Yezi samples to try! Silly me. I ordered samples during their Cyber Monday sale, and ended up getting 7 samples for under $10. Such a good deal, thanks Yezi! I admit, I chose this one at random out of the 5 black teas I got. They all have Chinese names that I am not familiar with, so I figured I’d just go with the first one I picked up. The leaves are long and thin and somewhat twisty. They’re a lovely dark chocolate brown with some grey spots, and there are a few stems included. Dry scent is very hay-like, though I can pick up on some grain/bread notes as well. I don’t generally weigh my teas, but since I knew it was a 5g sample, I weighed out 2.5g to make sure I would get two good cups out of it (it ended up looking similar to 1.5 teaspoons anyway!).

Ooh, the steeped tea smells delicious! I smell savory tones as well as bread and honey, possibly also a hint of green beans. Mm, yum. This tea is thick and bready and so comforting. I do taste a bit of a vegetal note, and it does remind me of green beans or something similar (edamame perhaps?). It’s definitely more of a savory tea than a sweet one, though I do get a little taste of dried fruit near the end and in the aftertaste along with a bit of caramelized sugar. Yum, so good! What a great start to my Yezi samples!

Sample from Yezi Tea I am trying this morning…

I was tempted to gong fu this but am running a bit short on time to get more caffeine into my body! I decided to steep it Western style for 2 minutes.

This is a really lovely red (black) tea. It definitely reminds me of a dark, hearty bread like pumpernickel. Then there is a nice sweetness in the brew, the sweet potato taste some people have picked up on. Chocolate notes are also present. This is really good when you drink it plain, but I also liked it a lot with soymilk added. The creaminess of the milk seemed to enhance this toasted grain quality. Overall this is a really delicious tea and I am adding it to my wishlist. Most of the black teas I have from China are from the Yunnan region, and this is a delightful Fujian tea, I’d love to have it in my evergrowing stash but it is not an inexpensive tea for sure.

This has more of a mellow, soothing energy than a get up and go type of energy. Good for a relaxing morning.

So the description on Steepster for this tea is:
“Baked Bread, Caramel, Cream, Malt, Raisins, Smoke”.
Didn’t taste smoke or caramel at all. But I definitely tasted the other four!
It tasted strongly of sweet potatoes too. And the creaminess took off the earthy edge.
I would buy this again in another really good Yezi Tea sale!

This is the last of my Yezi Tea samples also. Glad I got to try so many of them! And my tasting notes with Yezi ended on a good note! :D Would definitely recommend this one!

Autumn 2013 Ming Hong from China’s Nanhu Mountains.
The dry leaves smell like sugared raisin bread and pastries. They are black brown twisted threads and a few gold ones mixed in.
I brewed this Western style. The liquor is a deep auburn red and smells very sweet, like the top of a créme brûlée and also like fresh clean spring water.
The wet leaves are still twisted, autumn brown color and smell briny and like rye bread.
The flavor is delicious . Very naturally sweet with notes of sweet raisin bread, rye bread, honey butter.
YUmm!
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7/14/14
Had some more today Gaiwan style!!!!! Lots of essences and flavors of Raisin Bran. Little bit of smoke.
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8/4/14
Gong Fu style today. 195F Immediate rinse-20-35-40-40-50
Nice light orange Sunkist color liquor. Malty scent and flavor. So good. Cream, malt, tiny touch of smoke.
This is best brewed Gong Fu,,,I really have stopped brewing Western style for my Chinese teas. Darjeeling and Indian teas are my Western style brews.
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8/22/14
Good stuff!