I can’t get away from one thing about this tea. It has a downright unpleasant taste to it, don’t know how to describe the note. The first thought that popped into my head was drain cleaner. While I’m sure that is an extreme exaggeration I didn’t like this tea. It was also very smoky in the first couple of infusions. I alternated between adding sugar to this and not adding sugar. Sugar did a fair job of covering up the unpleasant note. I’m glad I only bought 50g of the stuff. I wonder if all Tian Jian are like this or just this one tea. I am curious enough that I might try some of Scott’s other offerings the next time I order from the China site. I often find that Hei Cha is trying to imitate puerh and not doing a very good job of it. The one thing I will say about this is I didn’t really get any fermentation notes from it.
I brewed this eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with 7.3g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec.
