Tanyang Gongfu

I had pretty much forgotten all about this one. But I’ve been moving some tins around and the short little tin I have this in finally poked out a bit, reminding me of its existence. I remember this being a nice if not overly special tea, which could be why I had forgotten about it.

But how did I forget about how pretty it was? Long, thin, dark leaves with shoots of golden laced throughout. The picture on the tea info doesn’t look as pretty as my leaves do, though perhaps because my leaves are in a brass colored tin and that really brings out the gold bits… Who cares for the reason why, though. It’s just so pretty.

Now that I’m drinking this, I’m not sure why I thought it was so unexceptional. It’s actually very busy taste-wise. Not stressfully busy – it just has a lot of lovely tastes mixing together. Earthy and sweet, it has a slightly heavier body than I remembered. Perhaps because I made two cups up whereas I think I’ve only done single cups in the past (the husband is working from home today and has a scratchy throat so I made him some tea)? There is a sweet taste that occurs right after I swallow but before I open my mouth after the swallow. It’s almost like the aftertaste of cane or maple syrup. The aftertaste of the tea, however, is very earthy and very tea-like. (Go figure).

There’s a lot going on with this tea. I’m surprised I’ve not really noticed that before. I’m thinking I actually made it a little stronger than I have in the past (more leaf) and that’s making the complexity more noticeable. Mostly, there’s a lot of different sweet flavors going on. Fruity sweet, sugary sweet, earthy sweet. It’s quite pretty.

But even with all those tastes going on, it’s not an aggressive tasting tea. It’s very pleasant and relaxing and mellow. I’m thinking it is the mellowness this evokes (vs. the wow factor other teas with this complexity might have) that what made me forget about this tea. And the husband likes it too – he managed to empty his cup before I did!

Yesterday was such a great adventure that I feel that I should be a bit more adventurous in my morning tea choice. So I’m trying this Tanyang Gongfu black, which is quite a pretty tea with small twisted leaves and little golden tips mixed throughout.

Later on I’ll be doing more puerh exploration with my new Xiying tea pot which I seasoned day before yesterday. More on that later today.

In the meantime this tea is quite nice. It has a very sweet fragrance with notes of a very light fruitiness and a slight coconut or vanilla note. It brews up into a reddish brown liquor with some slight murkiness. A slight bitterness and astringency mars the sweetness of the tea but it is otherwise a fairly nice black tea with complex notes of fruit, cocoa, raisins and something else I can’t identify. It gets sweeter as it cools.

Pretty smooth, touch of sharpness in aftertaste somewhat like a darjeeling, but smoother. Good flavor, all-around good tea.