I revisited this tea because I just had some awesome green tea from Yezi using their proper steeping instructions and I realized that I over-leafed this one the other day. I looked at the wrong section for steeping and today I looked at the right one lol.
This is my old review from the other day that I am deleting but keeping here (because I like to have my reviews for a tea all in one place):
4/28/14
From Nanhu Mountain; Fuqing City, Fujian province, China.
Dry leaves are small black/brown twisted threads with a few golden ones mixed in. They smell malty, like malt-o-meal cereal.
I used a little glass gong-fu pot that I got. I love this little pot bc I could both brew the tea gong fu style and see the leaves and liquor progress at the same time.
The water was at 200F and first steep was 15 seconds then subsequent steeps for 25-30 seconds.
Liquor was a golden-amber color and wet leaves smell smoky.
Flavor is smoky,,,this tea tastes like Da Hong Pao. The dry leaves don’t look like Da Hong Pao but the flavor tastes like it with the smoky, espresso, and cream notes.
5/1/14
I got all those smoky notes on the 28th because I had too much leaf in there. I got a proper Gong Fu tea set too with serving pitcher because you need the serving pitcher.
This tea is delicious with notes of Vanilla and Cream and a natural sweetness of subtle honey. There is a light light touch of smoke but not like when I overleafed it the other day. It is subtle and hardly there.
I kept my old review here because you can see how overleafing can change the taste. I am glad that I had some more of this one to do a re-do. Yumm and I’m glad I know how to brew it now :) lol !!!
7/5/14
Brewed this one Gong Fu style today. Dry leaves are thread shaped and it has a beautiful golden colored liquor. The wet leaves are course, like a Da Hong Pao. They have definitely been twisted and smoked. The flavor is high mountain smoked creamy with not a lot of sweetness. This type of tea always gives me a caffeine buzz too so it is a good one for morning or early afternoon pick up if you are feeling drowsy.
All of Yezi’s teas are so delicious and high quality!!
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7/28/14
Tried this one both Western and Gong Fu this morning. I brewed it at a lower temperature, 190F for 3 minutes in my little glass one cup size pot and then gong fu was immediate rinse, 30-15-30-30
Gong Fu brings out subtle notes and a focus on vanilla, cream, and honey with a touch of smoke. Western brings out a more intense blend of them all but completely balanced both ways. This tea is really really balanced in its flavors. Super good and I like the lower temp for me but Yezi recommends 200F. This tea is good all ways as long as you pay attention to your leaf and don’t overleaf.
gao shan (Gao1 Shan1) = high mountain (高山) or high elevation, especially in Taiwan
Flavors: Cream, Honey, Smoke, Vanilla