Golden Heaven

Day 8 of the Inoki Bathhouse advent calendar. Gong fu. This tastes like the mental image I have of a Chinese black tea: rich, chocolatey, chicory-esque. Slightly astringent, but when I overbrewed the third steep by 20 minutes it didn’t get more astringent, which I found impressive. Solid entry in this calendar.

The lid fell off my gaiwan teapot while I was pouring out the third steep. It shattered. I felt weirdly sad and guilty because it’s one of the first pieces of teaware I bought on my first trip to Taiwan, and I have really fond memories of that trip. But I guess the bottom piece will now get to have a second life as a pitcher and it could be worse.

Adventageddon Day 8

Gongfu!

This might be my favourite tea from Inoki so far! It’s a black tea from Yunnan, and the dry leaf was both visually quite lovely with golden tips scattered throughout along with amazingly rich and chocolate-y smelling. My mouth was watering before even brewing it up.

Steeped up this was very, very full-bodied and intense but in a really nice way. Quite fudge-y with incredibly strong notes of dark baker’s chocolate complete with a pleasantly bittersweet quality. The undertones were a little bit more woody and earthy, with hints of beetroot and smoke to go alongside that intense cocoa profile. It was a bit astringent, but a welcome astringency that suited this very unsweet but heavily truffle-esque profile. As soon as I’d steeped out the leaf it was very much the kind of black tea I immediately just wanted more of. I’m hoping we see more teas like this as the advent continues!

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDVVeu3SUWV/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpNsGfmLmGM&ab_channel=ClubHalifax