Changtai Tea Group (King Tea Mall, AliExpress)

This tea is quite good. It had a fair amount of fermentation flavor left but not too much. There was no fishyness or funk to it however. It was also fairly sweet from the beginning with very little bitterness. I wasn’t paying enough attention to the specifics to tell you much about notes of chocolate or anything but there was some fruity flavors in later steeps when the fermentation flavor faded. Overall this was as good as any of the best ripes I’ve drank from Menghai Tea Factory. I highly recommend the Aliexpress store King Tea.

I steeped this tea eight times with 12.2g leaf and boiling water in a 180ml teapot. 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. The tea was not finished but I was at my caffeine limit so stopped. I probably could have gotten another four steeps out of it at least.

I would be rating this tea quite highly for its overall taste. It’s very good. Like I said I would be rating it quite highly but for what I found on the brick, mold. The mold appeared to be confined to a small section of the brick so I decided not to be deterred. I broke of some tea from a section of tea that appeared to have no mold and found some there too. Eventually I believed I had found about 12g of tea without mold and drank it. To the naked eye there was no mold in this sample. I am not sure about the photo. But I drank the tea anyway and have seemed to have no ill effects. The tea itself was bittersweet in the early steeps with very little fermentation flavor. What fermentation flavor was there quickly dissipated. The bitterness dissipated after a few steeps and I was left with a delightful tasting tea. There were fruity notes in the later steeps. Didn’t notice any chocolate notes but they could have been there. As it is I am going to give this tea a pretty low rating. If it weren’t for the mold it would probably get a 90% or so. As it is I think 60% is a better rating.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 180ml teapot with 12.3g 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, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min. This tea wasn’t really done. I think I could have gotten a few more steeps out of it had I wanted to continue.

https://instagram.com/p/6C4aWSTDR4bWo0-clg-eyb8jD3sCdt21QUYI0/?taken-by=allanckeanepuerhtea
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