Wow! I purchased this tea after reading a bunch of reviews here on Steepster and finding out that it was as cheap as it was. I hardly regret my purchase, and will likely add some more to my cupboard at some point. Following the reviews, I gave this tea two boiling rinses of thirty seconds each, with a firm shake of the gaiwan in between to loosen up the nuggets. The lid of the pot smelled rather savory, with notes of beef broth and dark earth. After time this loosened up and I started to smell more of the chocolate that I had been reading about, and knew I was in for a ride. The taste began dusty and like dark earth, which flowed into a rich chocolate, almost like dark chocolate brownies. There was a definite savory note, of course, but it was the savoriness of the salt you put in the cookie dough, rather than a fishy sense. After a while, the cocoa started to fade, and I was left with something more like a snickerdoodle or soft oatmeal cookies sweetened with molasses. The sweetness went on and on. After six steeps, I tipped the tea nuggets into my thermos and poured about a cup and a half of boiling water over them to let them sit for ten minutes. I’d heard about boiling this stuff, but I guess my pots are aluminum, because everything tastes metallic and awful, so I figured this would do. The broth I wound up with was earthy, bitter and sweet, with lots of molasses cookies and a tinge of mineralness that was very good.
I reviewed this tea with some pictures here: http://writing.drab-makyo.com/posts/tasting/2016/04/07/white2-laochatou/
Flavors: Bread, Broth, Cacao, Chocolate, Cookie, Molasses, Sweet
