Backlog, and to be continued log. I cannot thank Alistair enough for including this generous sample. The leaves are beautiful to look at, having an almost purple hue amidst is white tips, darker brown and black highlights. The dryleaf smell is also very interesting, giving off an especially earthy smell like clay. There was a bit of a plum hint, and it had the weird fruity smell that plato does.
In my appartus it went, and I alternated between longer and shorter steeps a bit more akin to western brewing. I went light the first time at 45 seconds, and the tea tasted like, well, tea. Surprisingly malty with a hint of tannin, but something else developed. The blackberry sneaked into the middle aroma and taste of the actual tea, and ended with a plum aftertaste-not too sweet, not too dry, not too bitter. The overall texture was smooth.
My consecutive brews were longer, going to a minute and 30 sec, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, then shorter at 2 minutes, 1 minute, and 4 minutes. I know, weird. The malt was prominent in the second steep with only fruity hints and a bit of tannin backbone that was almost woody, but not nearly as woodsy as its Taiwanese predecessor or its Darjeeling cousin. I almost was hoping for something like dry leaves, but fortunately, the texture was always smooth.
As I got into steep four and five, the black berry note become much more prevalent with a plum finish and a bit of mineral emerging texture. The minerals and blackberry was the strongest in the last steep, being the lightest drink overall with the lightest color, but having the sweetest finish out of all the session.
I am not going to rate it quite yet since I need to do it properly western, and gong fu. I played with it too much, and I want to get less malt. Otherwise, I do recommend people trying it. Oriental Beauties are strong hit or misses for me anyway because of their fruity notes and inherent dryness, but this one was not too dry and a little darker in fruit which is fairly impressive. It reminded me of the notes I got with the Shan Cha, which is one of my favorite blacks so far.
If you like blackberry flavors, this one is not a bad match, and I also HIGHLY recommend trying the Taiwanese Shan Cha Black Tea.
