The dry leaf smells exactly like chocolate chip cookies with a bit more malt, I let this tea sit for a few months to settle into itself before brewing, but I think it was one of the quicker to acclimate black teas I have tried.
I brewed up 6g in my 120ml gaiwan with 190F water, and the liquor brews into a delightful light brown color (almost with a hint of light green) that gets darker at each infusion. It smells heavily of malt and chocolate like a malted chocolate shake with a hint of the more plant like sugarcane. The taste is pleasantly balanced with an undercurrent of astringency that accentuates the sweetness and keeps it from being as one note. I get heavy malt and sugarcane with marshmallow and chocolate taking a step back but still very much there. The mouth feel is like drinking soup, much more reminiscent of a bud/tip heavy tea, or a good puer.
I get about 10 infusions out of every session with the second to last infusion at 200F and the last infusion at a rolling boil ( at my altitude `~2k meters water boils not much above 200F) The taste steadily moves into more malty flavors and picks up more astringency.
I am usually a big fan of black tea made from material traditionally used to make puer, and this tea is no exception. I find myself reaching for this tea every other day to start off my morning, and it pairs spectacularly well with my sourdough cinnamon rolls I have been perfecting lately. I’m almost out of my 100g, and this will be in my next YS order.
Flavors: Brown Sugar, Chocolate, Cookie, Honey, Malt, Marshmallow, Sugarcane
