Wow. This is a unique tea, especially for a jin jun mei. Following a laoshan black that tasted like burnt pumpkinseeds, the roasted aroma of this when it’s hot set off my fight or flight, but it’s far more pleasant than that smoky catastrophe. Neatly twisted leaves the color of wet bark; dark, cool-toned liquor, and an initially pungent scent that mellows to unsweetened chocolate.
This somehow tastes more like chocolate than black blends with added cocoa powder. The mellow, dark black tea and raw chocolate notes are so perfectly melded together. There’s some bitterness, but it’s definitely not tannic in origin. A hint of dark berries, a bit of raisin, but nothing that adds sweetness.
Really impressed with this one. You can coax out the fruit notes by cold brewing it or lean on the dark chocolate with water just off a boil. Very diverse and polished for a tea in its price range. I’m used to jin jun mei price tags being…. eyewatering, to say the least.
Flavors: Blackberry, Dark Bittersweet, Dark Chocolate, Raisins
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I don’t typically like teas with added chocolate flavouring, I think they taste fake. But I love rich chocolatey Fujian blacks! I’ve often said they taste more chocolatey than ‘chocolate’ teas.
Me neither! Even flavored chocolate rooibos is on thin ice. This is really making me see the appeal in Fujian blacks, though. I thought it was a marketing thing that hyped up a bittersweet note and not actual intense dark chocolate.
Haha nope, actual rich cocoa (: Whispering Pines and YS both do some great Fujian teas with lovely dark chocolate notes.
I don’t typically like teas with added chocolate flavouring, I think they taste fake. But I love rich chocolatey Fujian blacks! I’ve often said they taste more chocolatey than ‘chocolate’ teas.
Me neither! Even flavored chocolate rooibos is on thin ice. This is really making me see the appeal in Fujian blacks, though. I thought it was a marketing thing that hyped up a bittersweet note and not actual intense dark chocolate.
Haha nope, actual rich cocoa (: Whispering Pines and YS both do some great Fujian teas with lovely dark chocolate notes.