I’ve been thoroughly enjoying this lovely tea all day today.
I find it lays somewhere in between the two Xinyang Hong Chas I have. Appearance wise it is closer to the Yixiang tea version with black straighter leave an with some golden tips, but it’ s flavour is closest to The Old Tea’ s tea. Perhaps if I steep the Yixiang tea Gongfu tea it will display more sweetness.
I brewed 1.5tsp of tea in a 150 ml gaiwan and chose to do short steeps at boiling. As of now I steeped for 5,10,15,25,35,50,75,96,120s on top of am initial rinse. I am still getting a rich and dense flavour. Even the rinse was flavourful.
Over the course of steeping this tea I have tasted chocolate ( cocoa in the last couple steeps), caramel/honey, malt, citrus, longan, citrus zest, cinnamon, cream, and jasmine. Malt and chocolate, fight between each other for dominance depending on the steep, by later steeps the Malt is prominent with cocoa underneath, the caramel/honey lies underneath and intensifies as it cools.
This tea has been lovely company throughout the day and I may have a cup or two before I go to bed.
I’m trying this tea thanks to TastyBrew and our fabulous swap. Thanks, I love it!
