Imperial Mojiang Golden Bud Yunnan Black Tea Autumn 2013

I brewed a pot of this last night. It was very good. Pretty much what you expect a good Dian Hong to be. I’ll have to get to know this one better with a gong fu session…

Yeah…thought the 2013 version of this tea would be better…but no. Tastes like horse manure. D: Not a fan! Blehh
Thanks for the sample though, Terri. Sorry it’s wasted on me! :(

I’m sitting here with an ice pack on my hand, wishing I could drink more tea.
My surgery is scheduled for 4:00 this afternoon. No food or beverages after 7am, so I got up extra early to have breakfast & tea, & plenty of water.

My first tea of the day was a gongfu session with this one, which is gentle & sweet, a real pleasure to drink.

Dry – Sweet, malty, chocolate, cream, faint pine-wood.
Wet – Warm sugar, molasses, maple, woody-pine notes, chocolate, spices, hints of cream.
Liquor – Bronze

The first steep is sweet, thick malty, woody with pine notes and hints of chocolate. As it goes down, it maintain its thickness and malty notes with subtle chocolate notes and lasting wood-pine notes.

The following steeps feel more sweet and thicker with very apparent malt notes, wood-pine notes and seems to become almost savory in the middle with a broth like quality. As it goes down, it feels thick again with sweetness, chocolate notes and a roasted note that gives deeper notes of wood and malt.

The final steeps are weaker, but still pleasant with a sweet but cleaner front, apparent malt and wood in the middle with almost no broth-like middle, it is mostly wood-pine like with the chocolate notes now switched to a very subtle roasted cocoa nibs like taste, more bitter to bittersweet side of chocolate notes.

Very pleasant Yunnan Black. I prefer Spring offerings so far. By comparison I’d say that Autumn offerings have a more malty and wood profile and ‘deeper’ perhaps roasted notes, while spring has a lighter yet more complex profile.

This tea has long, medium large slightly curled and loosely wound leaves covered in a copper gold down. They are beautiful to look at.

I used 1.6g in 150 ml of water, and the result was a golden brew that lasted me through 5 good steeps. ( 50*2, 2,3,5 min) in 85-90°C water.

50s. Honey, smoke, cocoa, spice, dried fruit.

Savoury spicy taste like a mole sauce, dissolved in honey and smoke flavour added in.
Plum lies underneath. The taste is surprisingly bold and rich for a delicate looking tea. The broth is creamy with a medium viscosity. Touch of malt apparent as it cool.

50s hint of butter, malt and stronger fruit among the other previous scents.
Very faint hint of candyish floral.

Savoury, smoke has dissipated and fruit, cocoa, lighter malt and spice all meld into each other, hint of citrus, bright mole and fruit, with a hint of beer.

Honey and citrus as it cools along with cream and plum!

2min in strong honey cocoa, plum, light malt, nectar, light citrus., butter. Faint leather and grains with a touch of smoke. It has a faint nutty tone.

3min leather, plum and a hint of grape, malt, honey, floral tone, hint of cocoa.

5 min, honey, malt, and floral notes, a hint of ash.

7 min. Discarded, vegetal.

This tea was richer and more savoury then I expected initially, but it was a great accompaniment to the first half of my day.

Thanks boychik I really appreciated the chance to try this tea. I like it.

An excellent dian hong – chocolatey, deep and sweet. I’m still not 100% OK, so I was looking for a delicious “comfort tea”. I usually go for white teas as my “comfort teas”, but as I haven’t been getting enough sleep in the past two days, this golden bud was called for. The leaves are gorgeous and smell magnificently of dark chocolate and caramel goodness. Highly recommended, especially for the price.

One of the best black teas I’ve ever tasted. The dry leaves are a sight to behold: large, wirey and radiantly golden. Smelling the dry leaves, one detects an intoxicating caramel aroma – the sum total of the simultaneous chocolate and floral notes. Tasting the tea, the immediate first note is malty – like fresh bread, but it soon gives way to a lingering floral or honey aroma that stays on the tongue. There is a subtle milk chocolate flavor throughout as well. Smooth, fresh, stimulating and complex. A real winner.