Alright, so in an effort to detect the subtle distinctions of different straight black teas, I decided to do a side by side by side comparison of this tea, Zhen Qu, and Jin Pin.
This tea is courtesy of the very generous Cavorcorax (thank you!!). Of the three, it is my second favorite. It is very smooth and has a nice malt. It is also quite rich and I am definitely picking up on the clove element of the tea. Oh and unfortunately this cup means it is a sipdown and there is no more PTA in my cupboard :(.
I pulled the sample of Yezi’s Jin Pin out of the SSTTB. It is my favourite of the three I am trying and the one I think I want to have stocked (which makes sense given it is the tea that inspired this exploration). I get a lot of malt and caramel in this and for my tastes, it is the most preferable. This is not to say the others are not amazingly delicious, however this is the closest to dessert teas of the straight blacks I tried and so it is a good transition while my tastes are still changing.
Zhen Qu is my least favorite of the three teas but it is still a really amazing tea. It has an astringency to it which in this case is not a bad thing but is still one of the reasons I prefer the other teas. Flavorwise, this is quite nutty which is enjoyable. Also, the malt on this is a bit less than the other two cups. Very tasty but just not preferred when compared to the other two options. Nonetheless, thank you Cavocorax for helping me with my straight black journey! Oh, and this is a sipdown as well so no more Zhen Qu for me.
