2016 A&P

First Steep – 1 minute

Tea Colour and Scent – The colour is burnt orange and it bares a thick, malt scent.

Tea Flavour – This has a lot of flavour for a one minute steep. It has both malt and dry wood attributes with sour cocoa that transcends into chocolate for the after taste. Some sweetness though mostly sour and with a rich mouth feel.

Second Steep – 2 minutes

Tea Colour and Scent – Red colour with a sour malt scent.

Tea Flavour – Thick and rich with sweet malt dominating a sour wood undertone. The aftertaste is cocoa like and sour but smooths out quickly. Also slightly drying in the after taste.

Third Steep – 3 minutes

Tea Colour and Scent – Orange/red colour with a sour wood scent.

Tea Flavour – It’s toned down but still thick in malt and sourness. Whilst still sour it has at least relaxed and it doesn’t last for long. The after taste is just as thick but evermore drying. Perhaps my favourite steep as the balance is better.

Overall – A thick and flavourful tea which is more like a classic black, albeit better quality than average. It’s a good quality everyday black tea which has it’s pro’s and con’s. I found it became sour very quickly but I did enjoy the richness of it.

The processing tastes more like a classic black tea and what I am more familiar with, so this method must be quite common in production. It’s also my usual preference in a black tea, I like them strong and rich.

It says that this tea should improve with age and I am very tempted to test that theory, given that it’s a new tea it should smooth out in a couple of years. If I can leave it alone for that long!

Pics and more information: http://www.kittylovestea.co.uk/2016/07/13/white2tea-club-july-2016/

This is a very tasty black tea. It is really good but not what I would call spectacular. There are strong notes of malt and notes of chocolate in this tea. I steeped the hell out of this at twelve steeps. That’s quite a lot for a black tea. And it held up to all twelve steeps without getting too weak. It did of course weaken a little but that is to be expected. To anyone who is not in the club and want’s to buy this it is I think worth the price. I think he gets $17.50 for this if my memory serves me. At that price per 100g it is worth it. I doubt I would buy more but it is good to have the one. The writeup on this says it is smooth, that is also true. This was a very good tea, unless you compare it to something expensive from Whhispering Pines that is. It doesn’t hold up to that standard but is still pretty good.

I steeped this twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 8.2g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 10 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min.