Bailin Congou

I recently received this tea from a new seller on Aliexpress http://www.aliexpress.com/store/1393073 called Leisure Garden.

The first time I had this tea it tasted almost like fruit cocktail which surprised me. I have had other fruity Bailin’s but this one was intensely so. Since then I have played around with it and have found you can either focus on its grainy caramel honey notes or it’s intense fruit notes depending how you steep it. Cooler temperatures and less leaf draw attention to the former. This company suggests that this tea can be steeped at least 4-5 times and it has always delivered at least that. I haven’t tried brewing it using the 5g recommended with it’s short steep times (10-15s)I think this would still bring focus to it’s fruity elements.

This tea is not this companies premium Bailin. It is there higher grade everyday tea. The leaves are dark and shiny and thinner than other Bailin gongfu teas I have tried with occasional copper tips appearing.

Tonight I used around 3/4 TSP in a 100ml gaiwan and used water temperatures between 95-100°C for my steeps.

The tea brewed to an orangey brown colour that deepened and brightened by the third steep.

The tea smelled of longan,cocoa,honey, sweet bright fruit, like a touch of pineapple, mixed with stone fruit and a grainy note.

This tea is produced from cultivars normally used for white teas and the makes were able to capture some of these elements within this tea including a creaminess and a lemon tinged spice that reminds me in a couple of the later steep of sweet tea roses. Other notes include: longan, pineapple dipped in dark chocolate, grainy notes, honey and caramel, sweet cherries, butter, cream, and cinnamon and coriander. While not as cocoa rich as some Bailin’s I have had, nor as spicy, it is certainly the fruitiest. The tea while being fairly light in body is very creamy on the tongue and makes for a pleasant experience.

This companies teas are certified organic under several international agencies.

This is quite a nice tea and the price I paid for it which was under 10.00$ is close to the t-mall price and maybe even less when shipping is factored in. I wouldn’t mind trying some of their white and scented teas.