2018 Natural Redhead

Free mini sample. Initial experience is like licking hot metal. Not my thing. Some of the flavors like citrus and spicy notes are nice, but the metallic taste on the front end masks these desirable flavors.

It doesn’t come off as bitter to me really, although astringency is medium. As a lover of super dry red wine, though, my astringency scale may be a bit askew :).

Stopped after 6 infusions.

I found Ariel’s review of this tea pretty much on the mark. It does start off pretty bad: I prepared it gongfu and first several steeps were very astringent, metallic and mineral. There was also a lot of apricot but, regrettably, the unripe kind. And not much of an aroma.

By the 5th-6th steep this tea underwent a pleasant transformation. First, it acquired an agreeable aroma of wood, fallen leaves and fallen needles. Second, the apricot ripened, the metallic astringency turned into cranberry and all of that was balanced by honey and floral sweetness.

Unfortunately, all of that lasted only a couple of infusions, after which the tea rapidly gave up. The last steepings were rather undefined, with strong notes of pine and citrus.

Overall – meh. Too much work for a couple of decent steeps. On the other hand, it does have a character.

This is an odd one. I want to like it, but it has this mouth-drying astringency that isn’t at all what I want in a black tea. The first couple of steeps are downright horrid. Gets progressively and massively better as it steeps, but by the time it mostly tastes really good, it’s starting to get a bit weak. It does get this wonderful sweet perfumey apricot-honey fragrance going on 4-5 steeps in, which lingers in the cup and delights, but the burr of acridity never leaves or ceases to be unpleasant. Perhaps it settles down after some aging and turns that nasty uncivilized edge into something more intriguingly wicked, but I don’t think I would want to buy any more of it to find out.

I received a 7 gram minicake from my teaware.house order, so i’m brewing this with my new teaware!

The very first thing that springs to mind when smelling the wet leaves, and tasting the first steep, is tobacco. This fragrance, and to some extent taste, will be consistent throughout the later steepings aswell. Out of the various other hints and notes, i find this to be the main distinct one.

There is a certain tingling minerality and astringency in this tea, leaving my tongue a bit dry after each cup. This feeling isn’t unpleasant to any extent, as especially on the later and longer steeps, it is accompanied by a slightly mouth-watering sweetness, mostly taking place at the sides of my tongue.

One thing that must also be mentioned is the persistence of this tea! I had to cut it at around 15 steeps, as i simply couldn’t stomach more tea for the day, but i’m confident in claiming that it could’ve gone for at least 5 more steeps.

If i were to pick a favourite steeping, it would be in the later period, where i brewed it much longer, and more on intuition. Here, the sweetness kicks in, along with more minerality, and a more smooth tobacco, smokey note.

The colour of the liquor stays quite consistent, and is a clear amber.

Other notes i get, although much harder to define are:

Dried fruit skin.

Damp sweet hay.

An old tree log.

I used the whole 7 gram mini-cake, and filled my 100ml gaiwan to about 80ml.
Water temperature must’ve been around 95 degrees Celsius. I was using a water kettle with no thermometer, and i simply drew the kettle off, just when i heard a rumble before the boil start.

Has some spicy notes which is interesting. Tastes almost like chili peppers, but extremely faint and hard to detect. interesting tea!

This is a review of a mini redhead I got as a freebie from White2Tea. I have to say that more than 7g of tea in this coin is a bit too much for me, as I usually do solo sessions.

At first I was baffled by the tea, beacause I remembered reading in the description it was made dianhong style. However, the smell and taste is quite far from dianhong – rather it has the characteristics of shaihong, a sundried black tea. And of course it makes sense it is sun dried if it’s going to be pressed in cakes.

It doesn’t have a strong smell, but it’s interesting. It smells like a mix of pinewood, molasses and white pepper. In the empty cup it smells like beeswax, not unlike a young sheng would. The taste is savoury, spicy and bitter. In the finish is becomes a bit more sour and astringent with a hint of sweetness lingering. I found it to be quite defined and evolving taste. There are notes of wood, cranberries, honey and white pepper. The aftertaste is even more spicy and sour. It is very long and expansive.

The best aspect of this tea is the mouthfeel though. It is super thick, coating and soft. I also feel the tea is quite caffeine heavy, it really makes me alert.

This tea sits somewhere between white and black tea with some pu-erh characteristics as well. Even if you don’t like dianhong, I would suggest you try this one.

Gongfu!

Nothing tops the 2017 production, but this is still a delicious hong cha with such smooth notes of amber honey, cacao, brandied stonefruits, cranberry, and some type of drier wood-y undertone that is contributing to the mild astringency. Thick liquor throughout, but the flavour dies quickly – only four good steeps with this one. It’s a good everyday type of black tea so it’s really no surprise I’ve torn into this cake as much as I have…

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CO1I7qkAzLV/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85OrZhYwMH4