Chinese Tea Zhao's Store

Revisiting this one, I used more leaf this time, probably 1/2 teaspoon more than before at around 95*C. Nice comforting cup of teas with a nice medium thick body and a warming mix of dark cocoa, and honey, with a hint of orange and a touch of cinnamon and just a hint of leather notes. For some reason this one suits me today. I’ve been drinking it all day.

The dry leaves of this tea is really beautiful, full of golden furry buds ranging in colour from a yellow gold to an almost copper colour mixed with brown leaves coated in gold down. Most of the tea appears to include 1-2 buds and a leaf. The picture doesn’t really do it justice. There are better pictures in the product description available here:

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/dian-hong-honey-kung-fu-black-tea-black-tea-250-G-bags/891225644.html

The dry leaf smells of rye bread, chocolate, honey and when allowed to air, dried clover.

This tea is a little bit of chameleon depending on what brewing style and temperature you use. The dominant flavours though tend to be cocoa, honey, and orange with light pepper notes. The honey is fairly light though and is more of a reference to the flavour notes of honey rather than the sweetness of it. The tea brews to a maple colour.

With more leaf regardless of temperature there is a consistent mix of cocoa, orange, honey, and pepper. When brewed at higher temperatures the tea tastes thinner and leaves a kind of effervescent feeling at the front of the mouth followed by a heavier feeling at the back of the mouth. When brewed at lower temperatures the tea has a kind of creamy texture.

When brewed western styles there are flavour notes of orange flower, honey, sweet potato, light malt, deeper note hinting at cocoa, light pepper, cinnamon, clover nectar, and light fruit notes including plum, and orange. The tea is slightly bubbly in the mouth. It tastes sweeter as the cup cools with the fruit and honey notes become more prominent. The cocoa and malt also come out more. The tea finishes with bitter cocoa and pepper notes and a citrus top note.

Altogether an interesting tea that I look forward to experimenting further with.