Hubei Province Golden Tips Congou (ZK68)

Oh, Doulton! Thank you, thank you for all the lovely tea to try!

The dry leaves have a very powerful aroma. Strong Golden Monkey? But wait! No, more similar to Zhen Quo Super China Black! But these are long twisted leaves instead of fluffy puffs! Now it is time to taste.

Big surprise, but it shouldn’t be since this came from Doulton who loves smoke, this tea that smells so very very sweet is also lightly smokey! Not too smokey, mind you! Just a bit! And it is delightful! It is lighter in body than Golden Monkey, maybe even than Hen Quo.

Youngest has decided to start tasting all new teas plain before adding the milk and sugar that she loves. I already knew about the smoke…she didn’t. I watched her taste it, and she pronounced it, “Not bad!” That is high praise for tea that doesn’t have milk and sugar in it yet! And now she says it is growing on her and she wants more. High praise, indeed!

Instead of measuring the leaves, I weighed them. These are so long, large, and twisted and I wanted to get it right! I think next time I may add more leaves. I am going to resteep this one and will post how it does.

Served for second breakfast with Baby Swiss, Dubliner, and bacon.

My order from Upton arrived today so even though I don’t usually drink black teas at night, I was anxious to sample at least one of the teas I had purchased. I selected this tea from the batch.

It’s a Chinese tea, my favorite country source of tea, from the province of Hubei. I’ve had Congou tea before but I don’t recall ever having a golden tipped tea from there. This particular tea was recommended by Karen Park in the Upton CS dept. She stated it was currently an office favorite there and brewed up every day. I can see why! This tea is outstandingly yummy.

The aroma from this tea is wonderful. It smells almost good enough to eat. Once brewed, the liquor is darker golden color and the flavor has a slight smokey-bacon flavor. That may sound odd and even distasteful, especially to a vegetarian like me but the flavor is really good. It reminds me of a green tea I used to be able to get called Chinese Beauty Rings… green tea wrapped around chop sticks and having a slight hint of smokiness like this one. This one is a similar flavor but stronger and more complex. I highly recommend this tea!

This was a great tea from Upton that disappeared quickly. Pronounced chocolate and tobacco notes, with a red-wine body reminiscent of good Keemuns. Upton has a habit of finding these unique China blacks that can really add a great diversion to our standard daily brews.

The leaves of this tea have a powdery residue. If you have the habit of shaking your tin like I do, you’ll get a nice tea cloud when you open the top. I suggest you do not do this! This tea brews up slightly darker than a golden amber/caramel. On first taste, you get a hit of acidity though the intensity is not strong. Maybe very light meyer lemon. The main taste is tanin or bitterness but not any stronger than other black teas and perfectly delicious. I have always been against milk or sugar in my teas but this would go well with a scone or some lightly sweetened dessert or pastry.