Spring 2014 Drunk on Red Sun-Dried Feng Qing Black Te

It’s been years since I’ve tried a piece of this cake, I only found it again after moving recently and unearthing it while packing.

I was a bit afraid that time had cost it much of it’s flavor, but it has proven resilient.

The dry leaf still doesn’t give off much scent, the wet leaf suggests currant, raisin and sharp tannins.

The first steeping was fairly light, with notes of spicy, drying woodiness floating on top of juicy raspberry, currant, raisin, fig and tobacco. Slightly astringent, leaving my tongue a bit dry after each sip. The aftertaste lingers with drying tobacco and spice.

The second steeping was even stronger as the leaf opened up. There’s a sweet tobacco-menthol scent, and blackberry dominates the flavor. Darker fruits come to the fore, fig and raisin becoming more prominent. I would almost compare this tea to a nice red wine. Aftertaste still lingers pleasantly.

That was all for this session, but I do want to experiment with a little less water and see how much I can stretch out the flavor.

I’ve always really liked the combination of spicy tobacco, fig and red fruit in this tea. I haven’t found any other teas like it and I look forward to trying the 2018 version in the future.

For the low price I was more curious than anything else.

Brewed in a Nixing teapot the leaf delivered a rich soup, the kind I like to have after a meal, not complex but bold and fruity.

Machine pressed but easy to separate.

Yet another black/red tea experience that has me more and more convinced that this group of teas deserve more respect – and more space in my yearly tea budget.

This is a wonderfully rich tea. Is it complex? Well, maybe not. It’s not bursting with all different kinds of flavors popping up here and there. Instead, it’s about the depth of flavor. Rich, intriguing fruit flavors that hang around forever is what this little guy is all about. It’s not cloyingly sweet, but the rich fruitiness do make it a great after-meal treat. Brewing harder will put out more tannins and smokiness if you wish to cut the fruit notes down a little bit.

For $5, this is one of the biggest steals you’re going to find. Seriously. Just don’t buy them all before I place my next YS order!
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Dry leaf: stewed blackberries, dried apricot, honey floral

Smell: blackberry, stewed berries, apricot, dark honey, pleasant wood smoke

Taste: blackberry pie, dried apricot, dark honey, honey floral, hints of light wood smoke, minerality.

Out of my last YS order this was definately the immediate stand out as I could smell it opening up the box. I smelled apricots, and I could not believe it was coming from this and not a sheng sample. I’ve brewed it gong fu style and was unimpressed. It did tease out that lovely fruity aroma, but I find most black teas more enjoyable western style.

I brewed this at work today in a travel infuser. The leaves were more tightly compressed than I thought and I ended up with half the infuser filled with leaf by the time everything unfurled. I steeped it multiple times over the day with the leaves staying in the infuser the entire time. After all that punishiment I could not be more pleased with this tea. It was strong, rich, and flavorful with just enough of a tannic flavor to keep it interesting, but it never got too dry or bitter. Lighter steeps have that lovely fruity aftertaste. Almost my entire YS order was devoted to tea I could abuse like this at work and this so far is the only thing that has far exceeded my expectations.

Now if only it came in 200g cakes.

The 2013 Drunk on Red has proven to be a delightful tea for me and my wife. But at my last YunnanSourcing order, I decided to buy a tong of the 2014 instead, based on the plethora of reviews on YS’s website.

Like the 2013, the 100g bings are neatly wrapped with minimalist art with a motif of the year’s zodiacal animal (2013 was a snake, 2014 is a horse).

I did notice that the 2014 bing is not as heavily pressed as are the 2013s.

As I did not expect much difference between the years, I tasted them side by side for a better comparison. I found that taste-wise, the 2013 and 2014 were identical – or enough as that my unrefined palate didn’t distinguish a difference. They were both well flavored teas with a dark red liquor. Perhaps the 2014 had a bit more potency, but not decisively so.

Both teas produce a strong meditative effect. In fact after sipping the two of them together, I was quite lost in my thoughts for some time. Both seem to live up to their name quite well.

Overall, I would recommend this tea. The flavor is good today, and if the 2013 is any indication, it will mellow some with age as well. Additionally the fantastic value of a tong – 1kg of tea in 10 cakes – is hard to beat. The cakes themselves are great to hand out as gifts to those who are into Asian culture, tea, or both.