Holy grail of black teas Hairy handmade snails With care at the steeps rewards of chocolate, malt and rose note

Oh. My. God. I bow in reverence to one of my Holy Grail teas—the Imperial Pure Gold Bi Luo Chun Black Tea of Feng Qing. I first experienced this nectar of the gods when I managed to glom onto a 50 gram packet of the Spring 2018 picking. That's all that was left. Scott wasn't able to get much of it, and it flew off the shelves in a quasi-vanishing act that did justice to its sublimity. I promised myself to pounce on it if it ever came back into stock. And now, for joy! The Autumn 2018 picking obtaineth! Frankly, I expected the Autumn 2018 picking to be different...maybe a bit less nuanced, or more stout. Nope. If anything, it's even more incredibly smooth; almost buttery—something you rarely find in any hongcha (red tea). The naturally sweet maltiness is the first thing you notice in the pouch aroma, with a secondary fragrance of ripe alfalfa hay. However, unlike so many of the pure bud and "pure gold" teas, there's no grassy or vegetal undertone. The buds are soft, almost silky to the touch, not hard and dry. The unbrewed tea smells and feels like its still alive. The color is most accurately depicted in the default image (above) of the scoop full of buds. When I view the buds under a color-correct lamp, the tea is pure gold, without even a tinge of green. There's certainly no "greenness" in the flavor of the brewed tea. It's all warm and malty and ultra smooth. I'll second the "sweet potato" note in the description, but there's more—something like butternut or roasted acorn squash. The mouth feel is creamy. There's a wine-like nuance in the flavor and aroma of the early infusions, which becomes more pronounced as steeping time increases. There's no hype or hyperbole in the description. This tea is wondrous stuff. I've spent more on tea and gotten much less. It's well worth the price of admission. Brewing info: 16 grams of buds and 300 ml. of 195°F water per infusion. Steeping times: 15s, 15s, 25s, 40s, and then 60s thereafter until the leaf is spent. For my taste, I typically get ~8 infusions...sometimes more or less depending on what my smellicles and tasticles prefer at the time.

Great. ordering again