Light Roast Wild Tree Purple Varietal Black Tea of Dehong * Spring 2016

Having now sampled a large variety of purples I can safely add this one to my long list of ‘favorites’. This one is incredibly fragrant out of the box. The tea is very well balanced in all aspects: flavor, color, smoothness,etc. The overall body is medium; not overwhelming bold but has a backbone. The main body is fruit; I get red grapes from it with a hint of roasted flavors and very slight citrus notes. It has a crisp texture to it; alert but neither smooth nor bitter. Normally I brew purples at 185 F but I found that this one does better at 180F for 3 minutes or so. A very simple but nice tea. I think it might make great iced tea.

This is a very nice tasting black tea. There is very little malt flavor to this one. The roasting seems to bring out a sweet note in this tea. The Yunnan Sourcing write up mentions eucalyptus and sugarcane. I’m not really getting the eucalyptus but sugarcane is a possible interpretation as is ripe cherries. This is a flavorful and complex tea. Most importantly the roasting is not overdone.

I brewed this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 3 minutes.