CNNP (Chawangshop)

Sour mushrooms floating in some discarded liquid.

Not for me, that’s for sure.

This is perhaps the most unusual tea I have ever reviewed. It is Fuzhuan otherwise known as fungus tea. The brick was loosely compressed. There was a potent and musty smell to the dry leaf. The color of the initial steeping was dark brown. There was a note of astringency to this tea and a note that I can only describe as sour lemons. I know this is an odd description but I have yet to come up with a better one. Like most unpleasant notes in tea this too largely went away after a few steepings. I’d say it was largely gone by the fifth steeping. The astringent note remained however. Strangely this reminds me a little of drinking Lipton tea before I discovered real tea. I so want to give this a high rating but I think it has to get a lower rating. This is one I regret buying the whole thing but Chawangshop didn’t actually sell sample sizes of this Fuzhuan. Perhaps this tea will improve with age.