I had wanted to become more familiar with Korean tea when I placed my last What-cha order so I grabbed a few including this one since I’ve never had a Korean black tea.
Opening the package the first think I notice is the small thin delicate tea leaves. They smell a bit like chocolate, and dark raisins, and…Corn Pops? I spent a few minutes trying to inhale the bag, but it was uncannily just like the Corn Pops cereal.
1st steep: ~35 seconds at around 175 F
Brews orange gold. Smells like raisins and tastes like raisins. It very much like the sweet water left over from soaking raisins which I’ve tried many times from baking something or other. It also had a bit of a corny cereal flavor like fresh ground whole grain corn meal. The texture had just a bit of silky come out.
2nd steep: ~1 min 175F
Brewed to a deeper orange color. Now tasting more (I guess anything) like a black tea with a bit of brisk astringency that coats the mouth. There’s a malty sweet taste to it and also a mint like mouth tingle thing going on.
3rd steep: ~160F lost track of time switching over laundry.
This was so Corn Pops.
Subsequent steeps were much lighter and sweet flavored. I think I did up to six with increasing time and temps. I rather liked trying this tea as it was pretty unique to anything I’ve had previously. I’m glad I got only 10g though because I can’t see myself drinking such a sweet tea on a regular basis. I rather prefer blacks with more of a punch or greens that balance out any sweet flavors with bitter. I’ll probably use the rest of it in trying a cold/ice brew and maybe a cup with a longer initial steep time.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIFqqGEDq2o/?taken-by=gooseberryspoon
Flavors: Malt, Raisins, Sweet
