Gong Fu Tea Shop

I’m don’t like this tea as much as before. It’s probably a different base year than the one I loved so because I don’t feel that the flavoring melds as well with this batch of tea. It’s honey creamy but the flavoring just tastes slightly off and I don’t like the base much. With a weird break between the initial flavor and the tea follow through. Or I don’t care for the flavoring….I don’t know. At 208F. Slightly better at cooler temperature, but I hope to polish it off soon.
I just know I’m disappointed with the tea. Another one where the remembered was better than the actual. And I’m dropping my rating a lot.

Honey creamy comforting black tea. It has a little astringency, but it’s oh so good. I’m completely out of it right now and need to restock. Also upping my rating because I keep going back to it.

Honey vanilla flavored black tea.
silky creamy mouthfeel

This is reliable black tea for me. It tastes good every time. Really only good for one steep. Lingering creamy honey at end.

I need to restock this tea.

The first time I tried this tea it was so astringent, I dumped the entire cup. This time I took care to brew for a shorter time period and waited a bit for it to cool before trying it. It is a astringent black tea with hits of fruit. Not my favorite, but it is okay. I think I will try this one iced and see what happens.

When I follow temp/steeping guidlines this tea is so much better. Strong jasmine scent in dry leaves. I don’t get strong jasmine flavor from this tea. I thought it was a black tea, but it’s a green tea instead. Which makes my review make more sense. I think I may have cooked the leaves the first time.
Smooth with jasmine flavor at the end. I got more jasmine flavor with cooler water. I can and will enjoy drinking the rest, but I won’t be buying more of this blend.
Steep 2 tsp at 190 F for 2 min in 15 oz

additional notes: So basically Nicole sent me a random package of mostly amazing black teas YEARS ago that I’m still in love with. They are some of the absolute best black teas I still have in my collection. When I want a solid favorite black, my go to is anything from Nicole’s ziplock bag of tea. So I’m still very thankful for these teas, Nicole, if you’re out there and if you ever have any more black tea castoffs, I will probably love them so let me know and they will find a good home! So so good.

Nicole, you’ll be happy to hear that another one of the teas you sent found a good home! Thank you! I’ve sipped this before but just now writing a note. I’m not sure where the ‘gold’ in the name of this one comes from. The leaves are pretty dark – the color and shape actually remind me of a loose ripe pu-erh. They could be cousins because even while using two teaspoons of leaves, this one doesn’t get bitter like a ripe pu-erh. The color of the brew is also a deep dark red (nothing light and gold there!) The flavor is something unique to me – dark while being bright and fresh tasting (maybe fruity) but also a lot of bready notes. I usually don’t taste all of those together in the same tea, which might be what makes it unique. Not like a typical Yunnan profile to me. Nothing chocolate here. I almost couldn’t tell the difference between the two steeps so this is a great tea to have to avoid that oversteeped leaves flavor. And the steeped leaves filled up half the infuser basket!
Steep #1 // 2 tsps. // 12 minutes after boiling // 2-3 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3-4 min

Thank you for a sample of this one a while back, TeaTiff! I’m not sure if it’s the sample itself or the tea itself, but I see so many tiny crumblies, rather than bigger oolong bundles that I know it’s going to be a problem in the flavor. The tiny leaves make the flavor bitter… but not undrinkable bitter. The strong flavor is very buttery, almost a neon yellow cup. I tried not to steep the second cup too long to prevent more of a strong flavor. I hardly ever say I don’t like an oolong, but this would have been such a better oolong without those crumblies. Not sure if that’s the fault of the tea itself or how I was storing it.
Steep #1 // 1 tsp // just boiled // 2 min steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 2 min

Sipdown 19 of 2016. Purchased 1/2016 – Finished 2/2016.

A week near Gong Fu. Oh how nice it was to have good tea just right up the street. I picked up 2oz of this and I enjoyed quite a few pots of this with my mom and sister over the week. My grandmother had a cup of this as well, but she likes her tea black and so she said this one just tasted like fancy water.

My mom lost her husband to a massive heart attack, as I packed to head home to help her I received my new little tea pot that I had purchased for H&S. I brought the teapot and my sister and I picked up tea from Gong Fu. It was a sad time., but it was also a good time spent with family. All of the women in my family have come to enjoy tea and being able to share a cup with all of them at the same time was so neat despite the circumstances. Thank you tea for providing an avenue to talk and socialize and stay warm!

This tea isn’t my favorite. It is good and calming night cup, but I can’t seem to get it to be the correct strength. It is either way too light or way too over powering with the lemon. My mom really enjoyed this one so I left what was left of the 2oz with her.

I took my little one to see Grandma this weekend and Gong Fu Tea’s is less than 2 miles from her place so we stopped by. I picked up 2 oz of the milk oolong and then ordered a cup to go of this tea. This was awesome! I waited until we were well on our way home before I took the first sip knowing that if I liked it I would have ordered some and I didn’t want to go over my tea budget this month. There is a strong lemon flavor combined with oolong, and floral. I really like this one and will be getting 2oz of it the next time I am around. My sister and mom also tried it. They are not tea folks and they loved it as well. A win win.

This is my favorite tea from Gong Fu. I brew it for a short period and add a tiny amount of honey to sweeten it just a bit – it’s delicious without the honey, too, though.

Nicole sent me a sample of this. I do like Milk Oolong, because of the subtle flavor and the floral notes. It’s light like a green tea, but it’s sweeter and doesn’t have an overwhelmingly vegetal flavor. It has a nice buttery taste. It smells a bit like jasmine, and I was able to steep it successfully three times. I’m sure you could steep it more, but I tend to let it sit a while. I enjoyed this.

This tea has been on my wishlist for a while, and I was happily surprised to find it in my stocking for Christmas! It was wonderful. The dry leaves are long and beautiful and have the aroma of soft hay and honey. The taste of the tea is excellent—it’s a nice “lighter” black tea that tastes slightly of plums and honey. (Despite the name, I was surprised by the plum flavor. I just figured it was a cute name they came up with because the tea goes with sweets and is a reddish color. But it really does have a lovely plummy aspect to it!) Yet, it’s not what I would consider a “fruity” tea. It’s a nice solid black tea with just the slightest, pleasantest hint of plum and sweet honey, and it’s perfect. I will definitely purchase this again.

I was little worried about this one, because the brewing aroma was quite floral. I’m not really a fan of floral type tea’s. Sure, my initial sip was quite floral, but I didn’t give up on it. As the cup cooled I found those creamy buttery notes that I enjoy so much in milk oolongs. The floral notes took a back seat as the cup cooled.

Steep two was even less floral, but the butter notes were still very present. The peach notes came through as well once the cup cooled down.

I’m surprised at how much I enjoyed this cup, despite the initial heavy floral aromas. Thanks to Cameron B for the sample!

In the evening when I return from work my first thing to do is to heat the water and brew a cup or two of the tea. Sit in my favorite chair and sip the tea letting the cares of the day fall away as I slowly unwind reducing my thoughts to only those of peace and pleasure

I received this sample from Charissa. Thank you!

I had know idea what to expect with this tea. I read roasty and toasty, but this surprised me. It was really sweet with the roasty flavor. I am not sure what to think about this one. The roasty on this was almost too much. I think I may trying steeping this a little less next time.

This is another Gong Fu Tea sample from Charissa. Thank you!

This was so lovely. It smelled so wonderful and then it tasted just as nice. I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one as the word floral tends to scare me a bit. The black base was smooth and present, but not in your face and it blended well with the floral notes in the background. It had a slight fruitiness to it that I can’t quite explain. I think this is great hot, but would also be amazing iced.

I am not sure how I have not logged this one. I am finishing off the small sample that Charissa sent me. Thank you!

This is a good kick in the pants morning cup. It is a CTC, it s strong bold and slightly fruity. It has a good mix of astrigent with fruit. I like it. I am not sure if I would get this one again or the Kenyan Sufarie. A good cup.

From the Round 3 Here’s Hoping TTB

Tea of the morning. There was one serving of this left in the ttb, and I’m glad I decided to try it because this is some yummy stuff. There’s a good black currant flavor which, while not super strong, is spot on and very fruity. The same is true for the vanilla flavor. No strange artificial flavor. It’s well balanced with the black currant and the base tea. The base tea is medium bodied with just the tiniest bit of dryness at the back of the throat. I may try resteeping this one later today to see if I can coax one more cup out of the leaves.

I’ve had this sample hanging around for a while, I believe it was from TeaTiff originally. I’ve put off trying it because I’ve found in the past that I don’t really enjoy milk oolongs as much as other people seem to. But then again, I don’t seem to enjoy green oolongs in general, so that makes sense. I figured I’d at least give this one the benefit of the doubt and try it before I just automatically put it into the rehoming box. I was too lazy to look up parameters for steeping this, so I just did 190 degrees (the oolong button on my kettle, lol) for 3 minutes.

And honestly, this isn’t bad. The floral is fairly mellow and it’s quite creamy in texture. Something about it reminds me of buttered popcorn, hah. And the aftertaste is lovely peaches which goes amazingly with the cream. However, I find I just don’t love it. The overall flavor is too light for me, and I find myself wishing for more peaches and more cream. Ah well, I gave it a try! I only have one serving left of this, but I’ll still put it into the box since I’m sure someone will love it much more than me.

HHTTB Round 3

Settled down with a cup of this this morning. It was a nice. Definitely very similar to Harney & Sons Paris, which is ironic considering that was the tea I made for my MOH this morning while I was making this one for me. I was lovely and not too overpoweringly flavored. I think I’d choose Paris over this one if I had to choose, though.

It has been an insane weekend, so it was nice to just sit down with a cup of tea for once. This weekend was my 10 year high school reunion, and we had events all weekend. I had a great time and really enjoyed myself, but this introvert was happy to have her quiet home to come back to and sit on the sofa and sip tea in silence. haha. I still cannot believe I’d been 10 years since I graduated high school. weird.

Mmmm, a bold black tea perfect for busy days! It’s not incredibly complex with lots of different flavors, but it’s a nice solid tea when all you want is a no-nonsense dose of energy. I prefer Gong Fu’s Kenyan Safari a bit more, as it’s more silky-smooth and super rich, but this is definitely robust and good-tasting as well.