Imperial Mojiang Golden Bud Yunnan Black Tea * Spring 2015

I haven’t been around lately because I’m spending all my time dealing with business-related issues. Apparently, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” is good marketing advice that I should have heeded long ago. I probably won’t be buying much tea until I can get things back on track. At least this will give me a chance to tackle my stash!

I bought this tea three years ago, felt indifferent about it, and forgot it. One thing in its favour is that it’s very pretty. I steeped about 5 g of loose, fuzzy golden curls in a 120 ml porcelain teapot at 190F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

I don’t know if it’s because of age, but this tea starts out very gentle, with notes of cocoa, honey, hay, malt, rye bread, barley sugar, and tannins on the first steep. By steep three, the flavour is intensifying and the malt and hay are taking centre stage, which is not really the direction I want it to go. By steep six, the chocolate has almost disappeared and it’s a typical Dian Hong, heavy on the malt and tannins and a bit drying. Cruelly, the leaves still smell like rye bread and chocolate, though these flavours no longer make it into the cup.

This tea started out as a sweet cocoa treat, but quickly morphed into your typical Dian Hong. While this isn’t bad per se, it wasn’t what I was expecting, and I understand why it’s now so old.

The leaves look as they do in the picture, but their texture is fascinating. hard and wiry, like tiny dreadlocks.
First smell of the wet leaves surprised me. It was far ‘darker’ than i had been expecting: raw cocoa, heavily roasted almonds to the point of being burnt, rounded out by malt. I got a whiff of dark berries like blueberries, but later I had a more consistent raspberry aroma.

these aromas follow through on tasting. malty cocoa, sweet and bitter. It walks the edge of medium-bodied to custardy mouth feel.

Overall very enjoyable. I did find it hard to eradicate my expectations on this one: it was far more ‘high-toned’ that i had anticipated

Received this tea for Christmas (15’) and it has been my everyday morning cup at work. This brews how you brew it… meaning: You can use 185 to 205 on this tea and brew it between 30 to 90 seconds and find different levels of malt and ‘tea cocoa’ to this. I think any good dianhong can have the same said about it. I will say that I prefer the straight strands opposed to the curly leaf, but that is a personal preference. Dianhong at work for breakfast is a automatic win; if you haven’t tried it, I highly suggest it.

This year’s version solidifies this tea’s standing as one of my two or three favorite teas—those you buy automatically each spring and turn to maybe 6 out of every ten times you brew a cup. This harvest strikes me as a somewhat darker and heavier tea, with stronger molasses and coffee flavors along with the cocoa and caramel. Dostoevsky versus last year’s Tolstoy.

Managed to forget I owned this one and bought it again. Luckily it is pretty good. There is a strong note of malt. And a lesser note of chocolate or cocoa. There is very little bitterness to this and not much astringency.

I brewed this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 3 min. I think it would benefit from a shorter steep time.