Brewed 4g with 125ml for 1 minute in a glass gaiwan.
Smooth and similar to a Hao Ya Keemun without any of the ash or light bitter notes Qi Men frequently expresses.
I originally made this just to see what would happen mixing various blacks and greens together. Some worked out okay, but mixing high quality pure-bud Yunnan or Fujian red tea with white tea actually produced a flavor I’d hoped for in a red tea. Pain in the butt to blend and it’s sad blending teas that are around $0.50 per gram, but I really like the results. Nice vertical expression of flavors – you take a gulp and are presented with several tastes, smells, and sensations in sequence headed through to the aftertaste. Hard to pin down anything other than a few definitive notes, though.
Pine, apple pie crust, cinnamon, pepper, juniper, cotton, honeysuckle, and cocoa powder come strongly to mind without having directly analogous flavors. Slightly burned balsa wood is certainly there in the aroma, though.
Smooth and rich with a fleeting astringency if brewed with water beyond 80 degrees C or more than a minute. Brewing it longer or hotter is fine, but you won’t get as dynamic a play on the flavor. The flavor really opens up in the third infusion, where some ginger-like savory comes to play.
I’d expound on about this, but would rather encourage others to experiment. Personally, I actually like special prep Fujian red tea mixed with two-year rested Bai Hao Yin Zhen, but again, that’s blending expensive, special order teas that ought to be enjoyed separate first (and the pure bud Fujian reds are actually even harder to blend homogeneously).
180 °F / 82 °C
1 min, 0 sec
