Gong Fu Black

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Almond, Apple, Apple Skins, Caramel, Cocoa, Smooth, Malt, Fruity, Astringent, Muscatel, Bread, Chocolate, Tea, Walnut
Sold in
Bulk, Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Medium
Certification
Organic
Edit tea info Last updated by perfectly_imperfect
Average preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 30 sec 5 g 9 oz / 271 ml

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59 Tasting Notes View all

From Zhi Tea

This exquisite black tea from Fujian Province in China has become the favorite at Zhi. If you like the rich complexity of a classic Chinese black tea with all the hallmark smoothness and depth, be prepared to be enchanted.

Thin, twisted leaves present a deep rich red cup with distinct caramel and chocolate notes.

If you like a great Keemun or a Gold Yunnan then you will love this tea. www.zhitea.com/organic-gong-fu-black.html

About Zhi Tea View company

Company description not available.

59 Tasting Notes

1112 tasting notes

An Obsession: this tea and Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Crackers (classic). The roasty, grainy perfect sans additions tea and the salty cheddary crackers? My idea of heaven! It’s gotten to be such a thing with me that I bought an over 3.5 lb box of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Crackers at Costco.

I’m enjoying it right now. Mmmmmmmmm.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 4 min, 0 sec
Daisy Chubb

classic indeed! Now I’m craving those little fishies

K S

The snack that smiles back…

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92
985 tasting notes

Tea of the morning……..

I have not had this one in a while. I love gong fu black tea. The cocoa notes are so wonderful, especially when you are trying to avoid too much sugar in your life. I really should be drinking this type of tea more often, but I always seem to get distracted by the teas that are more fussy than this. This is awesome, but still, everyday tea.

Usual teapot method.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec
LadyLondonderry

I love its awesome non-fussiness. Looks like I’ll have to brew some this weekend and get in on the Gong Fu Black revival that’s goin’ on ’round here. And yes, “Kung Fu Fighting” just started auto-playing in my head. :-)

LadyLondonderry

BTW, the price of this one has taken quite a jump lately — the little tin has gone from $13.95 to $17.95, and the 8 oz. pouch has leapt from $22.95 all the way to $37.95! A little too expensive to be an “everyday tea,” at least for me.

LadyLondonderry

By “lately,” I mean since I ordered it last August.

SimplyJenW

Yikes! That is a price jump. I bought the 8 oz pouch back in August and I think I have about half left…..

SimplyJenW

I just looked. Something must be up with that pricing. Why would you spend over $100 on a 1 lb pouch when you can buy 2of the 8 oz pouches for around $76. Did you see that the sample is $12.95? Wow! I remember thinking last year that $40 for the 1 lb pouch was highish, but the $22.95 was good enough because I was pretty sure I would be able to drink it before it got old. It was a waste/balance thing…. But now, I know I will buy elsewhere.

TeaBrat

Jen – where else would you buy one like this? I liked it too but it does seem rather expensive.

SimplyJenW

Read my reviews on Teavivre’s Bailin Gongfu Black….. ;)

LadyLondonderry

You’re right — that per-pound price makes no sense at all!

LadyLondonderry

We are of one mind … I just went to the Teavivre site and checked that one out, because I remembered your reviews of it. $62.40 for a little over a pound — that’s more like it. Teavivre, here I come (next payday)!

SimplyJenW

It almost makes me wonder if the next season for this tea is not as good, so they are hoarding. Or maybe it just was not as abundant?

TeaBrat

I don’t know about this particular brand, but I’ve read generally tea prices are going up which reflects high demand…

ScottTeaMan

Yes, and once prices increasethey rarely come down [Sigh]. ://

SimplyJenW

I noticed the price is back down to a normal range….at $32.95 for 8 ounces. However, I also noticed the same picture up for their Keemun Mao Feng as Gong Fu Black. Can I just say that is one of my pet peeves? Use a place holder or put up the right picture. Those kinds of short cuts make you winder where else they take short cuts.

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96
4843 tasting notes

I love this tea. LOVE it. For those of you who loved and are missing Dawn from the Simple Leaf, try this.

gmathis

I still have a little Dawn. I’ll have to do a taste test!

TeaBrat

It is yummy!

ms.aineecbeland

I read the description for this tea and if I say: Everybody is Gong Fu fighting this tea Keemun style at Dawn would it be understood? I will add it to shopping list…worshipful list.

Stephanie

I miss Dawn!!!

LiberTEAS

@Stephanie: me too. Such an amazing tea. This one is really good though. Really good.

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91
294 tasting notes

This tea is a wonderful morning brew. Now that I have done away with my coffee habit I am searching for a great way to start the day. If there is one positive from my hospital stay it is doing away with coffee. My true love is tea in all of its forms. All of a sudden my love of tea has grown to unimaginable heights. My quest for a morning brew continues….

SimplyJenW

I am not missing my coffee, either! I hope you are seriously on the mend from your hospital stay. Sending good thoughts your way.

TeaBrat

Soon you will get used to being without it. I still have a cup of coffee once in a blue moon but tea is better for you. :)

Charles Thomas Draper

Thanks SimplyJenW. Amy, I am sure I will induldge here and there, but tea as we well know, rules!

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2888 tasting notes

Chose this one to prop me up today, and it has done so twice—once this morning out the door, and once this afternoon to celebrate selling the patch of dirt, all that remains of House that Was. Chapter closed.

Both cups from the same leaves—-if you’ve ever had a Cadbury Fruit and Nut bar, the kind that’s just packed with dried fruit—this is its tea equivalent. Second steep, of course, is a tetch lighter, but the shape of the flavor (if that’s not too weird a concept) is still there.

Here’s to moving on — in the care of the One who holds my future.

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100
45 tasting notes

Today is my birthday, and my present to myself was to brew an entire carafe of this for breakfast.

This wonderful tea has filled the place in my heart and my cupboard that was previously occupied by Upton’s currently unavailable Panyang Bohea Supreme. That insanely cocoa-y tea had become a minor obsession, as I compulsively checked the New Arrivals section of Upton’s site almost daily, knowing full well that, barring a miracle, it would not be restocked until late fall. If ever.

Zhi’s Gong Fu Black is, so help me, the identical twin of Panyang Bohea Supreme: rich, naturally cocoa-y to the max, little to no astringency. To me this is the pinnacle of what Chinese black teas, particularly Fujians, can be. And because it is readily available, I am able to stop my frantic stock-checking, relax and enjoy a pot of it whenever I like.

As I take stock of the many blessings in my life, I must include this remarkable tea among them. Thank you for restoring my mental health, Gong Fu Black! And a million thank-yous, Zhi Tea, for offering it!

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 30 sec
SimplyJenW

Happy Birthday! This is definitely Birthday tea!

Indigobloom

Happy birthday to youuuuu! enjoy the tea, I hope there are more tea delights in store! :)

Angrboda

Happy belated birthday. :D I hope you had a lovely day.

JacquelineM

Happy Birthday!!!!!!!! xoxoxoxo

LadyLondonderry

Thank you for the kind birthday wishes, everyone!!

JacquelineM

Also, I know we have very similar tastes so I just ordered a nice big pouch of this. I couldn’t resist :) I am so excited to try it!

LadyLondonderry

I too went out on a limb and ordered a big pouch without sampling first, and I have no regrets! I think you will love it, too!

SimplyJenW

You two are both braver than I. I ordered a tin first….and then put in a second order for a bag…. ;) (I am not super thrilled with the tins. They look very cool, but they don’t seal all that well due to the oval shape. They seal really well on the ends of the oval, but not so much in the middle.)

JacquelineM

If Jen and LadyL love it, I know I’m going to love it. I had no hesitations ordering that pouch. It’s as good as already tasted :) (Jen I have like half an oz of the Imperial Golden Monkey left that I ordered 4oz of completely untasted from your rec. Needless to say I am enjoying it so so much!!)

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90
2816 tasting notes

I am finally finishing off my sample of this tea that MzPriss sent me a while back.

Today wasn’t a good day for me, I’ve felt bad all day with a stomach virus of some kind and the weather here has been freakishly hot. I really haven’t done much aside from sleep and am having my first cup of tea now at almost 5:30.

This is super nice and chocolate-y tasting, smooth and delicious. I could definitely see myself buying some of this if I placed an order with Zhi at some point in the future. Right now I am wondering what other tea I can drink that might be easy on my tummy since I will probably stop with the caffeine here. Maybe ginger would be good.

Preparation
1 tsp
boychik

Shou takes away all my stomach problems. Feel better

Mikumofu

the whole state is freakishly hot today it seems ): hope you feel better soon!

TeaBrat

I’m sick of the heat, can’t it just rain for a few months?

Mikumofu

that used to be called “winter” around here, will it ever happen again?

TeaBrat

Right? I think everyone is hoping for an El Nino year…

tea-sipper

Feel better soon!

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3219 tasting notes

I hadn’t had this tea in about 8 years, and I got another sample of it not long ago. After these two very positive experiences with it, I really should order some, but my tea wall is groaning under the weight of the tea I already have!

I reviewed it for Sororitea Sisters and here is the link: http://sororiteasisters.com/2019/07/22/gong-fu-black-zhi-tea/

But since I don’t like to click on links, here is the review!

Really wanting to use my new gaiwan tonight, I pawed through my tea samples and my eye fell on this. Perfect! I don’t have to wonder if it is a good candidate for the gaiwan. The name tells me so!

The leaves are thin and twisted, and very dark. They have that heady chocolate aroma you find in black and oolong tea sometimes. After warming the gaiwan and allowing the leaves to rest in it for a moment, the scent is now much nuttier.

I experimented a bit and found that I like this one to have a little more time than I would give some teas. It didn’t become bitter – the main incentive for keeping a steep short would be to prevent bitterness – so I let those warm, rich flavors develop over a few extra seconds. The darkest steep was my favorite.

The tea is creamy, nutty, with a little hint of cocoa. It is so smooth that even a black tea phobe drinking with me liked it plain. Although there is virtually no astringency, there is the slightest briskness that develops over time in a very pleasant way. Walnut is the flavor that I most notice lingering.

I lost count but my guess is that we had about seven or eight steeps from this session. Overall, a very pleasant tea. I definitely want to have a look at this company’s other offerings, as well!

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92
417 tasting notes

Thank you, justnord, for swapping with me for this tea! This is really nice. It reminds me of very much of Laoshan Black. It is chocolatey and fruity with very low astringency. I believe that Laoshan Black was sweeter and more complex than this, but now I’m going to have to do a side-by-side comparison soon! I really enjoyed having this with one of my current vices- Gardein Chick’n Sliders. :-)

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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90
301 tasting notes

This leaf produces a scrumptious comforting cup of tea. The dry leaves are twisted black (with a little gold thrown in) wires with a very pleasant dark-chocolate fruit aroma. The reddish brown liquid has a smooth sweetness that is caramelized with a hint of bittersweet chocolate and a very pleasant aftertaste. No tea bitterness and very little astringency. This tea is a winner.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 30 sec
Kasia Pastuszek

Świetna i wyśmienita herbata

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