I am going to keep the reviews coming today, as I have some more free time this evening. Since I have a number of reviews of Yunnan black teas waiting to be posted, I want to go ahead and get one of them off the books. This was one of the last of the 2018 Yunnan black teas that I tried. I never rush the formed teas, as I know that they can handle some age, but that was not the reason I put off trying this one for so long. In truth, I have never been a huge fan of Feng Qing black tea cones. I have no clue why, but they never appeal to me as much as the Feng Qing black pearls. This was again the case with the spring 2018 offering of this type. I worked my way through a 50g pouch of this tea immediately before switching to the Feng Qing Black Gold Pearls, and I can safely say that I found the latter tea to be significantly better than this one.
I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a 10 second rinse, I steeped approximately 6 grams of the formed black tea in 4 fluid ounces of 194 F water for 10 seconds. This initial infusion was followed by 18 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, and 30 minutes.
Prior to the rinse, the dry tea cones produced aromas of malt, cream, chocolate, sugarcane, vanilla, and sweet potato. After the rinse, aromas of roasted almond and roasted peanut emerged. The first infusion added aromas of baked bread and butter. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered up delicate notes of roasted almond, butter, cream, malt, and sugarcane that were chased by fleeting hints of chocolate, baked bread, vanilla, and roasted peanut. The bulk of the subsequent infusions added aromas of orange zest, earth, honey, and caramel. Much stronger and more immediately detectable notes of chocolate, baked bread, roasted peanut, and vanilla came out in the mouth along with notes of minerals, earth, orange zest, caramel, honey, pear, red apple, cooked green beans, and sweet potato. Hints of eucalyptus, grass, lemon, and plum could also be detected on occasion. As the tea faded, the liquor began to emphasize notes of minerals, cream, baked bread, chocolate, roasted peanut, orange zest, vanilla, and earth that were followed by hints of honey, sugarcane, orange zest, butter, roasted almond, caramel, lemon, and sweet potato.
This was not a bad Feng Qing black tea, but it was very much what I expected it to be. Compared to a lot of the other Feng Qing black teas that I have tried, the black tea cones always strike me as being lighter and mellower with fewer quirks and rough edges. Unfortunately, I enjoy the quirks and rough edges of Feng Qing black teas and never seem to find enough of them in the black tea cones. I know that was very much the case with this tea. Overall, this tea struck me as being pretty good for what it was, but it also struck me as being a bit boring and predictable.
Flavors: Almond, Bread, Butter, Caramel, Chocolate, Cream, Earth, Eucalyptus, Grass, Green Beans, Honey, Lemon, Malt, Mineral, Orange Zest, Peanut, Pear, Plum, Red Apple, Sugarcane, Sweet Potatoes, Vanilla
