Wow this is very different than my other Xingyang the other tastes more of chocolate malt balls with leathery spices and needs low temperatures.
This one has flatter more needle like tips, thicker leaves, with some golden tips, is less sensative to temperature and reminds me of an Irish breakfast or some Kenyan teas, with bitter coffee like tones.
I brewed this tea for 4 min. which resulted in a mahogany coloured brew that smelled of malt and cocoa.
It tasted of malt,cocoa (the dark bitter kind), floral notes with some grain notes and very little sweetness. As it cools, it becomes a little sweeter with bitter cocoa, floral, and some malt notes. Malt is apparent in the aftertaste along with some peppery notes. Very smooth with little astringency and a moderate level of caffeine.
Good tea for those who like the bitter notes of coffee would probably taste nice with cream.
