A Tea Addict's Journal

As it seems to be my custom these days, after a long day of tastings I go back to one of my Wuyi teas to calm my body down.

Today’s no different, but it’s a different tea. This is a Wuyi I got a few weeks ago with the Lapsang Souchong and the other, lighter Dahongpao. This one’s also a Dahongpao, but it’s a much heavier fired one. The leaves are quite dark, and the tea brews a strong colour

There’s an unmistakable taste of charcoal in the tea, but it’s not an overpowering one that covers all other tastes, as is sometimes the case (those are really mismanaged roasting that went overboard…. or tea that is too bad and need to be roasted as such to be drinkable). The first infusion came out slightly sour, which from what I know means the roasting was not handled perfectly, although the rest of the infusions were fine. It lasted something like 6-7 infusions…. and when I thought it was dying, I left the water in there for quite a few minutes, which resulted in a dark brew, but still very drinkable and not bitter nor sour. I’m very glad of that.

Incidentally, this is the tea supplied to the National People’s Assembly in Beijing, or at least one of the teas being used. However, it’s much, much cheaper than the lighter Dahongpao. The cha qi, while still evident, is just not comparable…. and the subtlety of flavour is lacking as well. It’s good for when I want a nice strong roasted tea.

Wet leaves

Looking…. like a lot of Wuyi.

On a completely unrelated note — I remembered a factoid that I learned yesterday that I thought was interesting. Apparently, the cheapest gunpowder tea that China sells, exported mainly to Africa, is about $1 per kg…. stuff that gets sold to the US is a bit more…. but…. I should really get into the gunpowder tea business 🙂