Red Fennekin Send Message

So, I got a lovely little packet of this with my first London Tea Club delivery (December) and whilst at the hospice today, I quite fancied a cup! I probably did it a bit of disservice, brewing it Western style in one of the LTC’s adorable little fill-your-own teabags, but it was the only way I could manage whilst working.

To be honest, though, it made for a really lovely cup of tea. The leaves were lightly fragranced and a little drier than I’m used to, for oolongs, but I went ahead and scooped 1 tsp of the tea in and, as directed, brewed for a little over 3 mins.

The resulting liquor was really quite lovely – colour wise, it was a light caramel brown and the smell was delightful. It had all of the loveliest qualities of darker oolongs, but without any of the “dark” flavour, or the roastiness, and it still had lots of the fragrant floral notes of the greener oolongs.

The taste was sublime – cinnamon and apple-y, with just enough strength that meant it was perfect as the afternoon pick-up I’d chosen it for. It was also rather sweet, which I guess makes sense as it’s a Bai Hao.

After a basically perfect first steep, I also got a delicious second and a pretty decent third steep. After that, it was time to go home from the hospice so I had to throw the leaves out. I’m not too sure how much further they’d have gone, but I was glad to have gotten three lovely cups.

I probably have enough tea left (basically the amount shown in the dodgy photo I took – sorry to all of the photographers out there T_T) to make another one or two lots in this semi-Western style and one rather nice Gong Fu session. Since I’ve had lots of good experiences with drinking oolongs this way, perhaps I’ll try that next! In the adorable cards that LTC send with their deliveries, they do recommend it, so I guess that’s all the more reason.

I’d strongly recommend this tea, actually. And, as LTC sell little packets like this to subscribers, I imagine I’ll buy myself a bag at some point in the future.