87
drank Zhen Qu by Butiki Teas
2201 tasting notes

This is the fourth tea that I ordered from Butiki. Once again, a black tea varietal from China that I haven’t tried; count me in. I ordered a small amount of this to try and I am not disappointed.

I don’t know what I was expecting the dry leaf to look like, but not like it did. I guess I was expecting longish glossy black strands, but instead it is curly, golden and fuzzy. The tea steeped up fairly light for a black, more like a dark brownish maroon. It smells both a bit chocolatey and a bit fruity.

The flavor to me is a bit of cocoa, a fair amount of malt, some soft breadiness and definite nuttiness like a pecan or walnut. It’s lightly sweet, too, which gives it some honeyed notes as well. It’s not a robust black tea but I would say it is full-bodied in that the texture is rich and not thin. Quite tasty and definitely up my alley. I do like having all of these different Chinese black teas around for a little subtle variety. :)

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec

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Bio

I am tea obsessed, with the stash to match. I tend to really enjoy green oolongs, Chinese blacks, and flavored teas with high quality bases, especially florals, bergamot-based teas, and chocolate teas.

In my free time I am a birder, baker, and music/movie/tv addict.

Here are my rating categories, FYI:
100-90: Mind-blowingly good, just right for my palate, and teas that just take me to a happy place.
89-86: I really really like these teas and will keep most of them in the permanent collection, but they’re not quite as spectacular as the top category
85-80: Pretty tasty teas that I enjoy well enough, but definitely won’t rebuy when I run out.
79-70: Teas that I would probably drink again, but only if there were no preferrable options.
69-50: Teas that I don’t really enjoy all that much and wouldn’t drink another cup of.
49 and below: Mega yuck. This tea is just disgusting to me.
Unrated: Usually I feel unqualified to rate these teas because they are types of teas that I tend to not like in general. Sometimes user error or tea brewed under poor conditions.

Location

Ohio, US

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