A relatively new tea that was released as part of our Garden to Cup collection!
This actually came out a few weeks ago but I wanted to drink it more recently before writing my tasting note for it. I’ve had it a handful of times prepared the Western way just hot and straight and I find that brewing it in that method brings out a little more sweetness and quite a bit of malty and woodier flavours, with just a hint of cocoa and red fruits. My favourite way to brew this one, however, is gongfu! It holds up really well and if you’re generous with your leaf to gram ratio you can just get the most beautifully robust and full bodied session!
On top of a pretty thick liquor and a hint of pleasant astringency, the tasting notes for a gongfu session range from very dark almost bitter baker’s chocolate to deep woodier notes and maltiness with a hint of very black cherry sort of “peaking out” from the undertones around the midsession mark, sort of as if to say that the reward for such an intense and more umami leaning session is this syrupy fruit note that breaks the mold of those earlier steeps even though it’s not necessarily a bright fruit note in and of itself.
I do hope we carry this tea for a while, even though it was released with the intention of being limited edition since it’s a small batch production, because it’s nice to see a solid quality Chinese black tea on the wall – right now our only (unflavoured) Chinese black tea is the Jasmine Black Pearls and though they’re delicious and malty in their own right, there’s definitely a difference between a jasmine scented tea and just a very good plain black…
Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.