Surprising new favorite from Hugo. I’ve wanted to try this tea for a few years, but it was sold out frequently or difficult to restock. I already had some high hopes-coffee notes are usually a sign of interest, and I wanted to see if it lived up to the tasting notes.
I am really picky about Yancha, especially any form of Red Robe style kind of tea. I like minerality and rock tea, but I want something more than licking rocks, char, and ash. It was also the kind of tea I tried while I went through a coffee convert stage, even going through one where I was trying more Shu Pu-Erh, but never really stuck. Most of the Red Robes I liked were too expensive for me to buy in more considerable amounts.
This one, however, stands out as being really freaking close to coffee and dessert. It’s heaping with mountainous rock, salt, and roast, but it’s combined with developing and prominent flavor, beginning with the roast, then transitioning into coffee, chocolaty toffee, and then caramel in the finish with some roast sprinkled it. The chocolate notes are bit of an exaggeration, but it’s there in taste in aroma. I brewed it 4 times western. It thinned out by cup five, and the first and second cups were incredibly after 2 and 3 minutes.
I kinda wish I got a little bit more of it. I’m not settled on a rating and need to test it tumbler and gong fu. I am extremely impressed so far, and wish Hugo Tea would have more pictures of what the leaves actually look like because they are artfully made for what yancha can be.
Flavors: Campfire, Caramel, Char, Charcoal, Cocoa, Dark Chocolate, Dark Wood, Mineral, Roasted, Smooth, Sweet, Toast, Toffee, Wet Rocks
