Rivers and Clouds

The Yunnan Oolong Black is a Dianhong for sure, but it’s not your normal dianhong. Pu’er, Yunnan old tree grown leaves treated like a Taiwanese oolong but then fully oxidized, it’s a lot finer and somewhat fresher in flavour while at the same time with a strong flavour of dark unsweetened chocolate. Btw, the first brew, just brewed max. 10 seconds is maybe the most interesting part of it, when the stronger flavours don’t hit too much yet, but a lot of warm and sweet floral notes are quite obvious. Try it yourself, it’s worth it!

The Red Leaf Black is another special Yunnan black tea by German tea folks riversandclouds.com – and again something you wouldn’t get in your corner tea shop. Made from red leaves of mutated old tea trees high in anthocyanin production, this tea is a black tea version of the purple leaf pu’ers – and I like it a lot more than those. In a pu’er, the anthocyanin kinda overthrows all other light flavors with a bitterness and is mostly just interesting for it’s looks this black tea does an amzing job spreading it’s fruity notes all the way between cherries, and as blogger Amanda Freeman at ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com puts it pretty well red wine, stewed plums and mulberries, tobacco and mineral, while still being a dianhong. Try it, it’s awesome!
Again: don’t brew it too long in the beginning. First brew is great at just 10 seconds and 82 to 85°C.