Used around 4g, 90ml @ 212F.
Starting off with a really quick wash — small leaves = fast diffusions.
First off, the smell after wash was fantastic. Smelled primarily of roasted dark chocolate with cherry hints
Steep times were 5s, 7s, 8s, 9s, 10s, 12s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 40s
First steep. The smell was identical to hot chocolate. As for the flavour? hot chocolate. A tiny bit bitter but the trade off for that hot chocolate taste is absolutely worth it
Second steep. Imagine hot chocolate which has some cherry extract added to it. This is the second steep
Third steep. The dark chocolate with cherry hints remain. The bitterness is starting to change and open up with a woody flavour instead.
→Temperature is now around 190-200F
Fourth steep. Zero bitterness. No taste of the wood, but instead it tastes like hot chocolate with milk mixed in (i.e. milk chocolate).
Fifth steep. Cherry hints disappeared (probably due to lower temp), but the ‘dark hot chocolate’ taste moves towards a ‘milk hot chocolate’ taste. Quite delicious.
Sixth steep. Absolutely the same as the previous steep.
Seventh steep. Same as sixth, just much fainter.
Eighth steep. Same flavour as seventh, but getting much sweeter.
Ninth steep. Tastes like the eighth. Probably has a couple more steeps in it before going kaput.
Overall a really nice black tea. Instead of having the honey’d sweet potatoe taste that most chinese black teas taste like (at least from my experience), this brings to the table a whole new chocolate viewpoint towards black teas.
Really tasty and lasts for several steeps, highly recommend!
Flavors: Cherry, Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, Roasted, Wood
