I bought a bunch of black teas from Wang in 2020, and I think I’m nearing the end of them. Red Rhyme is harder to find than many other Taiwanese hongcha, and I was curious to see what it was like. I steeped 4 g of leaf in 120 ml of 195F water for 40, 40, 50, 50, 60, 60, 75, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus some long, uncounted steeps.
The dry aroma is of raisins, grapefruit, florals, and malt. The first steep has notes of raisins, muscatel, grapefruit, honey, malt, orchids, and brisk tannins. The next steep offers more grapefruit, rose, orchid, and earth, but the tannins are also quite pronounced. I get some citrus reappearing, or “rhyming,” in the aftertaste. Steeps three and four are very tannic, but still have lots of raisin, muscatel, grapefruit, other citrus, and florals. Subsequent steeps have notes of malt, minerals, raisins, honey, earth, and tannins. Cooling the water to 185F does little to make this tea less astringent.
I enjoyed the fruity, floral profile of this hongcha, but the astringency was not so fun. I might try using 3 g in my 150 ml teapot to decrease the astringency. However, I think the tannins are just part of this tea. Age might explain the raisiny flavour, but if anything, I imagine it would have softened those tannins if there was any hope of softening them. Fortunately, Wang has many other teas I love.
Flavors: Brisk, Citrus, Earth, Floral, Grapefruit, Honey, Malt, Mineral, Muscatel, Orchid, Raisins, Rose, Tannic
I thought the same thing. It was too much for me. Their Rose black is really good this year.
Their lower elevation black teas seem to be too astringent for me, but the SLX Small Leaf Black you gave me is excellent. I think their rose black tea is also from Shan Lin Xi. Did you get the Golden Buds black tea as well?
I was very, very tempted to order from Wang during their Black Friday sale. I ended up ordering from Tea Masters instead so I could finally try this company and compare notes with someone on TeaForum, but it was a close call. I also have way too much spring 2024 gaoshan.
I didn’t get to try the Golden Buds Black yet. How is it if you tried it?
And how were the 2024 Gaoshan? I limited it to just a few teas. I got some from TheTeapl and Wang, but mostly stuff I’ve had before.
I actually didn’t order the Golden Buds Black, but it was on my BF wish list. They seem to do well with their Shan Lin Xi teas.
I was working through a lot of green tea this summer and haven’t had the chance to try much 2024 gaoshan. The consensus is that it’s decent, though not as good as some other seasons. I bought several oolongs from Ethan and Tea Masters. Bok sold only one gaoshan this year (Lishan), which I bought alongside his BZ, hongcha, and roasted Lishan.