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This is one of my favourite all day teas. Its initial cups are bright and fruity and almost creamy, it lasts anywhere between 7-11 steeps,and it finishes in caramel honey. I haven’t had it for a while and the fruit is mellowing and is less tart as it ages but it’s still pretty fabulous.

The tea consists of dark tightly wound short leaves with copper gold tips.
1.5 TSP in a 225ml vessel steeped at boiling for 45 seconds yields an amber red liquid tinged green gold at the edge of the cup. This one does require a slightly longer steep than some of my Jinjunmeis and does not brew as deep a red but it has a great bright flavour.

The scent of this tea is warm, sweet and bright with sweet potato, caramel, smoke and longan, hint of chocolate and cinnamon.

The flavour is of fruit and very light smoke/ roast and cinnamon notes on top, with caramel, cocoa and hint of sweet potato with peppery notes underneath. It tastes bright, sweet and smooth and leaves a cooling sensation at top front of my mouth. The tea yields a good dose of caffeine. Longan dominates the aftertaste, with light peppery notes and a lingering caramel sweetness. Through later steeps them long an will fade then it will have a couple of sterps that taste like an orange pekoe Ceylon and then it yields caramel towards the end. A great tea for all day.

I’ve enjoyed all the black teas I’ve got from this aliexpress seller and he has really great sales. However he had problems with his partner and currently reorganising his business. Hopefully he returns to selling teas soon as they seemed to be well received.

This one really does benefit from a longer steep time and from being allowed to cool to get the full benefit of its flavours. I steeped it for around 6 minutes this time with no ill effects. The tea has a thick slightly chalky texture on the tongue from the cocoa and the prune. At short steeps I find the flavour is dominated by the prune and clementine which reference some of the flavours found in really fruity ceylon with the citrus notes thinning out the plum/prune flavour. At longer steeps the flavours balance each other better. Caramel adds a richness to the tea and softens and dulls the fruit a little and the cocoa becomes more present in the blend. I do taste the vodka, but not as an alcohol/liquor taste but more as coolness added to the taste and a slight mineral note. I don’t find this to be an over the top sweet dessert tea, but a comforting, soft, sweet, sweet and slightly fruity tea. The Clementine note intensifies as it cools with the caramel being the second most dominant note underneath with the cocoa adding texture and depth. This tea grows on me every time I drink it.

I’m really enjoying this bright and lovely tea this morning thanks to the generosity of CrowKettle.

After a four minute steep I’m left with a sweet scent that is a blend of citrus, sweet fruit such as tart plum, cinnamon, a hint of cardamon and nutmeg and a touch of floral like gardenia and rose cross.

The tea tastes sweet combining citrus/malt, honey, floral, plum, and spice notes. It is a pretty orange red colour, and tastes smooth but refreshing. as it cools it combines to create a taste like lemon scented waffles with a hint of sweet syrup.

The second steep is sweeter with stronger pastry notes. Caramel notes are present with hints of raisin.

Looking forward to further steeps throughout the day.

Thanks again for this very generous sample!

This is quite a nice Ceylon. It seems to lie between those Ceylon’s that are sugary sweet, those that hold lots of citrus notes, and those with deep malt notes. It’s a pretty well balanced cup, with just the right touch of briskness.

The tea smells of malt, a touch of brown sugar, spice (cinnamon and a hint of nutmeg), citrus, and berries with some deeper slightly bitter notes. The flavour is deep and robust with all of the above notes. This Ceylon would take milk well. It is not an overly sweet tea, and has a lovely citrusy and spicy aftertaste. I’m quite enjoying this cup. 96°C 4 min.

Edit: The resteep is lovely and sweeter. I think that this tea would benefit from a shorter steep than I first gave it. Cocoa notes are present in this steep.

This tea is kind of interesting. I’ m not sure if it was quite what I was expecting, the flavouring is subtle and the base underneath is quite robust. The scent of the tea is a blend between vanilla, lavender, and the base tea that gives it a slightly floral caramel like scent. When hot The lavender is slightly dominant over the vanilla, but both are only subtly present over the base. As it cools, the mint displays its presence both in the flavouring and the sensation on the tongue, but its flavour blends masterfully into the lavender and vanilla. The lavender and mint are present at the first sip but the vanilla is the strongest note afterwards. The vanilla is kind of a French vanilla ice cream vanilla, cool and creamy. The mint acts to emphasise the ice cream note by creating a bit of crispness in the blend. I am enjoying this without additives but brewed a little stronger it would go excellently with milk or cream. I brewed 1 heaping tsp in 225 ml for 2.5 min. the first time I had this I used 1.5 tsp but I found the base to be a little bitter and strong at that point but if you take milk you might want to use this amount. A really lovely blend.

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying this lovely tea all day today.
I find it lays somewhere in between the two Xinyang Hong Chas I have. Appearance wise it is closer to the Yixiang tea version with black straighter leave an with some golden tips, but it’ s flavour is closest to The Old Tea’ s tea. Perhaps if I steep the Yixiang tea Gongfu tea it will display more sweetness.

I brewed 1.5tsp of tea in a 150 ml gaiwan and chose to do short steeps at boiling. As of now I steeped for 5,10,15,25,35,50,75,96,120s on top of am initial rinse. I am still getting a rich and dense flavour. Even the rinse was flavourful.

Over the course of steeping this tea I have tasted chocolate ( cocoa in the last couple steeps), caramel/honey, malt, citrus, longan, citrus zest, cinnamon, cream, and jasmine. Malt and chocolate, fight between each other for dominance depending on the steep, by later steeps the Malt is prominent with cocoa underneath, the caramel/honey lies underneath and intensifies as it cools.

This tea has been lovely company throughout the day and I may have a cup or two before I go to bed.

I’m trying this tea thanks to TastyBrew and our fabulous swap. Thanks, I love it!

I’m enjoying this tea more and more as it cools and the flavours intensify at first it seemed a little mild. I really like strong Earl Greys.

The ingredient list is bergamot and orange essential oils, but the way they merge together reminds me of sweet lime, with sharp bright citrus notes.

Brewed, I smell light leathery notes from the base, mixed With hints of cooked lime mixed with bergamot. Maybe this is a tart orange like the ones bought for juice in Ecuador.

The initial flavour was not quite as strong a citrus note as I was expecting but the flavour intensifies as it cools. The flavour is bergamot with hints of ginger and spices,the orange oil tempers it and kind of removes the floral notes from the bergamot. The base tea is robust but is kind of innocuous after a 3.5 min steep. Enjoyable but not a must have for me.

More lavender experiments…

This time I used less than 1 tsp lavender
2 1cm thick slices of ginger
A pinch of dried lemongrass

The dry tea smells very much like the dessert it’s named after! Brewed for 4 minutes, the brewed tea smells of chocolate, and amaretto infused with a touch of wood smoke, with the smoke and some of the cocoa coming from the base tea. The chocolate and amaretto notes are prominent with the smoke adding a note that reminds me a little bit of a mole poblano sauce. The bit of smoke helps to make th tea seem more robust and deepens the chocolate note. It makes me think of late fall, early winter evenings curled up by a fire place. Very nice, I can see why this tea is sought after.

I bought this tea as part of an attempt to find a tea similar to a really amazing sample I had of a tea of this type. While this one is not the caramel chocolate tea I am looking for it definitely has it’s own charms and merits.

This tea is more robust than the other Zhengshan Xiaozhongs I have . It is not smokey, but it has stronger roasted notes than my others. it is sweet with hints of caramel, spice and honey, tempered by the bitter notes of molasses. it also Has notes of roasted sweet potato and grain, as well as plum and citrus lychee notes. In later steeps the molasses tempers into caramel over darkened bread crusts.

While it is not exactly the tea I am a searching for it is a nice easily drinkable tea which offers good value.