Today I finally drank the last of the five or six hong samples included in a previous w2t monthly club box, Black Buddha. This one was made up of some really tiny little leaves, which had a heavy chocolate aroma with a bit of maltiness to back it up.
I tasted some of the chocolate during the brewing, but also found myself battling a pretty hefty bitterness/astringency. I think this is due to the small leaves. I brewed it at 200F, so maybe going down to 190 would have helped. Despite the kind of rough bitterness, I did taste some nice chocolate, malt, and slightly fruity notes. Towards the end of the session, it got a little of a bready taste to it.
I preferred this one brewed more western-style. It seemed to help with the off-putting bitterness/mouth-drying effect rather well.
