A tea I haven’t gotten to from Dark Matter 2016 yet. This tea wasn’t what I expected at all. The dry leaf was greenish, so I was kind of expecting something in the vein of a sheng puerh, which made me curious as to how it got into the Dark Matter group buy. To my surprise, this turned out to pretty much be a black tea.
The leaf smelled like a fruity black tea – I got notes of dates, fruit jam, blackberries and malt. The flavor of the first steep exhibited very similar notes to the aroma – malty with some dates or blackberry finish. The fruity flavors only lasted around one steep. After that, the tea got nice and malty with a bittersweet chocolate finish and sticky mouthfeel. Around the fifth steep, the texture started to thin down a bit and the chocolate notes mostly dropped off. After that, I just got another four or so malty and sweet steeps.
So I’m not really sure what this tea is, but the aroma, taste, and appearance of the wet leaves were all that of a hong. The dry leaf looked green (much like pine needles) but I guess that was just an odd anomaly. Certainly an interesting find in Dark Matter :)
Flavors: Blackberry, Chocolate, Dark Bittersweet, Dates, Jam, Malt
