Dian Hong Congfu

Backlog:

I am simply in awe of this company. The black teas they offer are so good. And they not only taste good, but the leaves are absolutely gorgeous. These are artistically crafted teas using nothing but the camellia sinensis leaf. No extra ingredients to make the tea look pretty. It looks good on its own.

This tea is a bit more astringent than the previously reviewed Bai Lin Congfu Black from this company. It has a nice malty tone. Sweet with a very enjoyable “bake-y” sort of taste and that ‘chewy’ sort of texture. Whispers of smoke in the distance.

Bold and strong. Caramel-y and somewhat earthy.

Another MUST TRY from this company. Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/11/25/4-dian-hong-congfu-black-tea-joseph-wesley-black-tea/

For our Dian Hong Congfu, the dry leaves greet you with a smell of sulfurous dried peaches, the ones you bought last summer and left forgotten in the back of your pantry until now. They’re still edible, but you might not want to serve them to anyone else–just in case. Once steeped, the hot water resusci-tea-tes the fruity scent and your peaches get a bit more lively. Happy zombie peaches.

The first infusion is a sweet golden cup to go along with your newly revived fruit basket. It hardly needs sweetener or milk, because that peach just… Full review here: http://snooteablog.com/2013/11/09/snooty-tea-review-joseph-wesley-black-tea-round-2/

Another one of those “finally opened this one up” teas. I am incorrigible.

The flavor was a bit light, despite following the vendors instructions, so I may need to overleaf a bit, or maybe brew it longer, or maybe at a higher temp. I guess I’ll need to play around with it. The bread-y, malty, honey, earthiness was very much there as expected, and if it was just a bit deeper I would deem this almost perfect. Thought about gongfu-ing it but went western with it. Second infusion was markedly weaker, but still very enjoyable. Looking forward to future experimenting with this.

Backlog. Sipdown.

I had a uneven session with this tea. I started with half the sample 5g in 100ml gaiwan and 200F water. Dry leaf smells malty and bready.
10s-fruity, little too light in body/taste
I decided to add the rest of my sample. I knew that I had probably overleafed at this point, but I didn’t want 3g floating around. Probably could have tried it westren, but I thought why not?
10s- fruity, now fuller bodied, bit tannic (the overleafing)
10s- dark fruit, strong
I ended up getting another 10 steeps out of it before stopping. It was almost too strong at 10g. 7g was probably the sweet spot.
I wouldn’t get this again. Have to leaf pretty heavy otherwise it’s thin.

I gongfu steeped this and got this Dian Hong to produce some excellent sweet apricot, malt, molasses, and mineral flavors. The flavor is full force (though I did ratio on the high side), and got a nice silky texture. A little bit of astringency at the final 9th steep, but no bitterness.

Full review on Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/04-dian-hong-congfu-joseph-wesley-black-tea-tea-review/

I cold brewed this the other day. SO GOOD! A ratings bump is in order. I wish I’d known this over the summer. Even though it means forgoing multiple infusions, I say its worthwhile, for me. It all comes out at once. Syrupy molasses, with a lemon edge, but more intense than usual.
The only thing I dislike about cold brews is that the chill really sets in to the liquid. I’ve never been a fan of super cold drinks, even in summer. Yeah, a cold beverage is refreshing and nice, but I don’t want my throat frozen either. It isn’t a pleasant sensation. A lot of people I know feel differently, so to each their own!
Oh. and rating bump! just a tad

This was the afternoon tea for me today, and to be honest I do not know what to make of it. The best words I can use to describe it today are soft. It was like it left me hanging a bit. The flavor was there. The upper range of light and fruity, but I guess I was expecting more base to really give it more of a hearty edge. I haven’t had many, if any, Dian Hong, so i think it was purely poor expectations for me. I will keep experimenting with my sample. For me I got a light sweet bread flavor out of this tea that was really smooth.

Again, gorgeous leaves. A mix of dark and light brown, medium length, and twisted. I gong fu-brewed this, starting with about a 45-second infusion. The liquor is a gorgeous dark amber. The taste is complex, with notes of malt, potato, caramel. It has a silky texture, and there is also a hint of cinnamon or nutmeg. In the third infusion, some fruity notes made an appearance. This is good stuff!

This one is again, from Scribbles!

This will be just a quick note. I either did not steep this one long enough or use enough leaf.

The overall taste is good. Malty. Earthy but not is a dirt way, if that makes sense. There is a very nice natural sweetness to the tea. I get hints of roasted potatoes or something like that.

It is just too thin and weak. I will have to adjust and report back.

Edit:
I made another cup with about 2 tsp. This tea is pretty “airy” so I thought I should use a bit more. The flavours stayed the same but it was much more thicker liquor. Even though the mouthfeel was thicker it still tasted a bit thin/weak. Overall still a good tea. Not the best Dian Hong I have had though.

Tonight’s tea adventure come courtesy of scribbles – wonderful, caring, generous, amazing tea friend. She sent me a message awhile ago saying something like – “I was browsing through your cupboard and noticed a gaping hole, so I’m sending you some samples that I think you should try.” At the time I had about 300 teas in my cupboard and couldn’t really believe that I had any holes – but as always scibbles was correct…..

This tea, what can I say about this tea. This is everything I love about Yunnan black tea. This is exactly what it should be. It’s sweet – honey, it’s a little malty, it’s a little sweet potato, thre is just a touch of stone fruit hanging around in the back. It’s awesome. I’m not getting the smoke that others have mentioned. The leaves are beautiful – not really tippy, more of a combination of black and gold leaves. I love golden teas, but the black balances this nicely – makes it more tealike. Yep even in my exploded cupboard, there is room for this one.
Thank you scribbles for introducing me to yet another amazing tea.
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