A sample from ashleyelizabeth. I’ve heard a lot about this one, and I’ve recently had some very positive experiences with Chinese black teas, so I was pretty excited as I brought this one out to try. The dry leaves are simply beautiful — slightly curly, golden brown with cocoa tips, darkening to almost-black. I used 1 tsp of leaf, and gave it approximately 3 minutes in boiling water. The resulting liquor is a medium golden-brown, and the scent is sweetly malty with a hint of smoke.
The initial flavour is similar to the scent — sweetly malty with a very slight edge of bitterness. The flavour of sweet potato develops mid-sip, and I get a hint of milk chocolate. A vague smokiness swirls around in the background, adding a mildly bitter, savoury overtone to perfectly augment the sweetness of the malt. I like this as a middle of the road kind of tea. It hasn’t got the chocolate and bread of Teavivre’s Yunnan Dian Hong Golden Tip, nor the deeper, darker, leathery notes of their Balian Gongfu. Instead, it treads a line somewhere in the middle — the best of both worlds! It’s wonderfully delicious! I would purchase this one as a breakfast/morning tea, simply because it’s strong and tasty, and has many of the flavours I enjoy in a black tea. Truly lovely stuff! Thanks again to ashleyelizabeth for sharing this one with me.
