Versatile and Dynamic
Without repeating myself too much, I really enjoy this tea for its balanced dian hong profile(spice, sweet, malt) and awesome body with silky mouthfeel as you swallow.
This time around I used hotter water (boiling today versus 190 usually) and left the gaiwan lid on between steeps. The dry leaf had a pleasant smoky quality to it like a nice Qimun that proceeded the normal spicy malty assam leaf scents and tastes. Adding further to my surprise was that the sweetness actually came through as well and paired with the smoky spice reminded me of korean bbq which is super atypical for this tea’s flavor profile. I literally stopped and laughed to myself due to the oddity of the situation before continued on. Which put me into an internal dialogue that resulted in me forgetting I had water in the gaiwan so ended up with steepings that looked like 5s, 7s, 7s, then 3 mins … whoops but still was not bitter or astringent.
Flavors: Brown Sugar, Malt, Smoke, Spicy
