Dry leaf – FRUIT, SWEET: dried apricots, dried fruit, coriander, overripe oranges, dark chocolate with sweet cherries
Smell – FRUIT, SWEET, SMOKE: dried apricot, kumquat, dark chocolate and berries, charcoal smoke
Taste – FRUIT, SWEET, SMOKE, and MORE!: Arrival is musty fruit with a hint of bitterness – dried apricot, bergamot. Development is complex – “resiny” smoke from pine is noticeable, dark chocolate and berry, strongly brewed English breakfast tea, hint at brewed coffee grounds. Finish has raw nut dryness and woodiness. Aftertaste is a dry fruity experience – hints at the apricot and chocolate flavors, very long lasting and pleasant.
What a great find this was. This is a complex, delicious session. I had to keep going back and revising my tasting notes because the taste just kept evolving and showing new sides of itself.
This was, for a me, a “what-the-heck” sort of buy – the thing you add to your cart in the middle of a caffeine-induced tea buying extravaganza. At $0.60 for a 5g pack, I had nothing to lose; so I added a few to my order. It was an inspired decision.
Great flavors, dynamic session, and some considerable staying power that suited itself very well to gong-fu style. 5 sec brews yielded a ton of flavor.
Overall, the flavor is much more akin to a black tea (i.e. “red tea”) experience than any sort of pu’erh. But, of course, it’s different! My experience with this tea has convinced me to make a more serious investment in “hei cha”, as this was a very enjoyable and rewarding session. Great little buy to see if this genre of tea is for you!
I liked that one a lot, too! Inspired me to try some more tian jian