Big Snow Mountain of Mengku Black Tea

Spring 2022. This is a strong hongcha with a lot of substance. The rinsed leaves smell deeply sweet and fruity, and the tea itself is remarkably foamy and very saturated and dark, with lots of forest-fruity sweetness and some spicy, tobaccoish notes. Nice.

I have the 2022 Spring harvest of this from Yunnan Sourcing.

Dry leaf smells incredibly sweet, and tangy, like red stone fruit––i’m getting really strong dried apricots and ripe plums
When warmed, scent did not grow stronger the way most leaves do when warmed, but I did get a hint of tobacco smoke this time.

1st infusion (90˚C, 0:20)
- Wet leaf smoky note has been toned down, now smells and tastes like fragrant woodsmoke instead of tobacco.
- Liquor has some woody astringency and tiny bit of maltiness that reminds me of Taiwanese #18, I think that’s the Assamica quality of the Yunnan leaves coming through––but not as malty or chocolatey as #18, more just woody and citrusy. Still, this will be a great replacement for my Namsang Assam breakfast tea after I finish the last 10-20g remaining. The aftertaste on this tea was quite basic/vulgar, made me lower its rating a bit.
Rating: 81

2nd infusion (91˚C, 0:30)
- I noticed the leaves are really whole and large – not a single leaf fragment escapes into the cup from my gaiwan.
- Liquor is more delicious, flavourful now, getting a strong note of lemons now in the aroma and general citrus like Meyer lemon in the flavour.
Rating: 83

3rd infusion (92˚C, 0:50)
- Still flavourful, but marked astringency now. Great for pairing with food
Rating: 79