57 Tasting Notes
This pu erh smells smokier than it tastes. The initial flavor is fairly smooth and is not nearly as bitter as I expected.
The smokiness fades as the tea is steeped more and longer steep times seem to bring out a stronger more prune-like flavor.
As the bold flavor and smokiness starts to fade in much later steepings the remaining smoothness reminds me of chocolate drink I’ve had from a Chocolate bar that was made extra thick with soy milk.
Preparation
I prepared this tea gongfu style. I used about 3.5 grams for a 5 oz. gaiwan and steeped for a few seconds each steeping.
The tea grew much progressively over the first few steepings. The dried leaf smells slightly malty. The steeped tea is very sweet and quite vegetal in flavor.
The liquor was very light but fairly strong, though surprisingly I could still taste the flavor of the water through it. I used filtered tap water which wasn’t bad, but I think a more flavorful water would have been better.
Preparation
I just drank my first few steepings of this tea. There are not yet brewing instructions on the website so I improvised based on previous experience with another bilochun tea which favored lower temperature steepings.
This tea tastes very similar to the usual Laoshan green to me but it seems to be a little sweeter and taste a little more more like snap peas.
The initial steeping was very good, but it became too bitter after that (from steeping too long I think).
Preparation
I made the mistake of oversteeping this initially (steeped for about 2 minutes instead of 2 seconds initially). Subsequent re-steepings may have suffered from this, but the flavor held up better than I would have expected given how much I oversteeped it.
The liqueur smells like barbecued wood. The tea tastes similar to how it smells and has an aftertaste like prunes.
The recommended 2 minutes and 2 teaspoons for 1 cup of tea made a very nice first cup. The rose is somewhat berry-like in sweetness and flavor. The citrus and rose brought out the chocolatey flavor in the Laoshan black so much so that I thought there were cacao nibs in this blend.
The first cup was probably my favorite cup of Early Grey-like tea, but subsequent cups were somewhat lackluster. The second steeping was not nearly as strong nor as satisfying.
I just finished off my sampler. If I drink this tea again, I may try steeping it gong fu style to see if the flavor lasts longer. I’m afraid the rose flavor may not steep out as well that way though.
I would recommend you try more, for a 4 oz. gaiwan (~ 120ml?) I would recommend you use between 7-10 grams. Sorry you didn’t like it the first time out!
Thank you for the recommendation. I will give this another try today and rate again with my results. The 2003 Fu Hai 7576 is my favorite so far. It’s excellent.
No worries, maybe the Longma Tongqing is just not your cup. Everybody has different tastes – otherwise we would all eat nothing but Cool Ranch Doritos and the world would be a boring place.
The Fu Hai 7576 is quite good and used to be a total bargain. There was recently a release of some fakes into the market, which is usually a good (and bad) sign. If somebody is willing to make the effort to fake a tea, it is usually worthwhile. Unfortunately, the price has been climbing recently due to demand.