Kimberley's Kyusu

After I had finished all of my session with the tea included in the black tea box, I took a day or so break and then moved on to the Oolong Selection Box. Included in this box was: Tie Guan Yin, Minnan Narcissus, Da Hong Pao, and Feng Huang Dancong. I tried all four over two days and again prepared them all using the exact same teaware and used freshly filtered water at 95-100°C to steep them to make sure they were all treated fairly and the results would be as similar as possible across the board. After trying all of the teas included in this box I came to the conclusion that my two stand out teas were the Minnan Narcissus and the Feng Huang Dancong. 

As someone who was already a fan of Dancong before jumping into exploring this box, I knew for a fact that I was going to enjoy the Feng Huang Dancong, however the Minnan Narcissus was a completely new experience for me so I went into it not knowing what to expect and was pleasantly surprised by how complex and delicious it was. I had expected to enjoy the Da Hong Pao and Tie Guan Yin a little more and while they did have some redeeming qualities to them, when compared to other Dang Hong Pao and Tie Guan Yin I have tried over the last few years, they were just a little underwhelming for me. 

Here is a summary of my notes from my session with the Feng Huang Dancong: 

Origin: Wudong Village, Fenghuang Town, Chaozhou City, Guangdong, China

Season: Autumn 2022

Tea Garden Altitude: About 850m

Plucking Standard: One Bud With Two Leaves

Oxidation Levels: 30%-40%, Medium Oxidation

Dry Leaf Aroma & Appearance: The dry leaves are a dark chocolate brown, with some lighter brown auburn toned areas. All of the leaves are long form and slightly twisted. The aroma of the dry leaves is so incredibly aromatic with notes of orchids, tinned lychee, flower honey and sweet limes being the standouts. The sweetness in the dry aroma is a mix of both floral sweetness. 

Woody undertones are present and when mixed with the aforementioned notes, it made me feel like I was walking through a fruit orchard on a sunny day. Notes of sherry soaked raisins and walnuts are also present but much subtler. When placed into a warm gaiwan, the aroma grew further with  balsamic notes, dried fruits, tobacco and other autumnal aromas coming forward. If I could bottle this aroma and wear it as a perfume I would. 

Wet Leaf Aroma & Appearance: The aroma of the wet leaves has an insane level of canned sweet lychee, as well as notes of warm dark/red wood that were much stronger than they were in the dry aroma. New notes of spiced plum dipping sauce and fruit and nut milk chocolate with pieces of shortbread in it were also present. In terms of the appearance, the wet leaves are a lighter shade of brown than the dry leaves but still on the darker side. Once fully unfurled, all of the leaves are large and full leaves with minimum breakage and some signs of slight bruising. Some leaves have areas that are lighter in color and a muddy brown with green undertones. 

Liquor Color: The first steep is a peachy orange, the second steep is a similar peachy orange but a little more yellow than the first. The third steep is much more yellow and the aroma elements star to mellow out. The steeps after this are very similar in color overall and begin to get light slowly as the steeps go on. 

Taste: The taste of this tea is a lesson in balance and transformation. The first steep was bright, sweet and very floral, roasted plums with buttery crumble and drizzled with a super floral honey. As you move through the steeps, that floral element clams down a little and allows other elements to shine through such as roasted semi-sweet nuts, a subtle creaminess and a perfect balance between sweet, savoury and sour like a savoury bread slathered in sloe jam.

In the later steep of the session, notes of slightly caramelized white chocolate with cranberries, floral hard candies and orange blossom buttercream were the standouts and while subtler due the session coming to its end, the fact that they were present at all was such a treat and are the sole reason I pushed this tea for as many steeps as I did.  

Mouthfeel & Finish: This tea is super smooth, bright and easy to drink, with minimum levels of floral bite. The finish is long lasting, with lingering floral and stone fruit notes like peach and apricot. They lasted for such a long time after the session had finished, which was really delightful. 

Final Thoughts: From start to finish, everything about this session was delightful and by the end of it I was left feeling relaxed but inspired, while the Minnan Narcissus is much better suited to the mid-late autumn. This tea is one that I would reach for during late summer through to early autumn to help bridge that gap between seasons. 

Here is a summary of my notes from my session with the Minnan Narcissus: 

Origin: Dongguan Town, Yongchun, Fujian, China

Season: Autumn 2022

Tea Garden Altitude: About 380m

Plucking Standard: One Bud With Three Leaves

Oxidation Levels: 30%-40%, Medium Oxidation

Dry Leaf Aroma & Appearance: In appearance, the dry leaves are a mix of dark chocolate brown and light auburn, red undertone brown. The leaves are matte in texture and have a slightly dusty look to them. In terms of shape, the majority are larger and ever so slightly tasisted, with some parts of them being flattened. At the ends they are thin and more twisted, but they get wider as you move up the leaf. 

The aroma of the dry leaves has notes of chocolate chip panettone, malted fruit loaf with lots of butter, Milky Way Magic Stars, redwoods, cherry compote, apple compote with browned butter and golden raisins, a distinct roasted note, charcoal and an underlying subtle floral. A very sweet and fruity overall aroma. 

Wet Leaf Aroma & Appearance: The transformation in terms of appearance from wet to dry leaves showcases that this tea is made up of mostly fuller leaves but also some slightly broken ones, with most being large or medium in size. The dark chocolate color is still present but it is glossier as opposed to a matte finish. There is a dark green tone across all leaves and still some auburn tips. 

Liquor Color: The liquor started as light copper mixed with auburn, with a charcoal, fruity and woody aroma. The second steep is darker in color but the same tones as the first steep. The same thing goes for the third steep, the color started to become a little lighter but still stayed the same colours and tones despite getting lighter. At its lightest, it took on a yellower appearance with hits of auburn and green.

Taste: The top notes are mostly roasted notes with prominent notes of charcoal, and warm redwoods. Cherry compote notes are still present but mostly reside at the back of the tongue and linger a little in the aftertaste. It has a coffee feel to it, like one of those sweet but slightly sour coffees that has both the roasted element of coffee as well as natural cherry notes and dark chocolate. In the second steep onwards, ruby chocolate, prominent charcoal, roasted notes and woodiness are present.

At around steep four, those roasted notes started to become a good bit lighter and once they did, the fruity and floral notes seemed to be able to become a little more prominent. In its last two steeps, it has a very prominent minerality present that was much subtler in all steeps prior. 

Mouthfeel & Finish: This tea is smooth and so easy to drink that I could sip on this for hours on end. There is no bitterness or astringency present. From the second steep onwards, it remained smooth and easy to drink but some woody dryness was also present. The after taste like the previous oolongs is long lasting with a lingering sweetness and notes of light cherry, freshly baked buttery puff pastry, cherry cola bottles and ruby chocolate.  

Final Thoughts: After my session with this tea I did find that it was the only one out of all of them that left me feeling quite sleepy, which I will attribute to the cosy, autumnal notes within its flavour and aroma profile. Looking forward, if I were to only be able to buy one tea from Iteaworld in the future it would, without a shadow of a doubt, be this one. 

Overall Thoughts

Personally I would say that my overall experiences with the teas in both the black tea and oolong boxes were somewhat of a mixed bag looking upon them subjectively within the framework of my palette. However, when looking at them from an objective point of view, those experiences do lean more towards the positive side of the scale. 

With the black tea box I thoroughly enjoyed three out of the four teas, one of which I have found impossible to enjoy up until I tried this one, so I would say that my experiences with that box was definitely a positive one, and I believe that had I not tried other unsmoked lapsang before this one I probably would have found this one a to be more of a stand out. However I think my level of experience with unsmoked lapsang in particular is what limited my overall enjoyment. Therefore I would recommend that this particular box would be great for those not already well acquainted with the teas within it and suggest that it be used as a learning tool for those who are just starting their journey with gongfu cha and I want to try out a multitude of different teas without committing to a large amount of each tea. 

I would also view my overall experience with the oolong box in the same way, because I adored two of the oolongs in the box, and the other two were of a standard that I found to be a little underwhelming overall but they did have some redeeming elements. I do feel like if I had gone into this session having previously never tried a da hong pao or a tie guan yin, I would have enjoyed them a whole lot more. It was my experience with both of those teas prior to trying these ones specifically that limited my overall enjoyment. Just like this black tea box I would recommend this box to people out there who are not familiar with the teas within it. Again, I can see both of these boxes being fantastic learning tools and I can see myself recommending them to the tea newbies when they ask me for the advice of the best ways to learn more about Chinese tea and preparing tea gongfu style at home. 

If you want to try out these teas for yourself you can find the black tea selection here and the oolong selection here. All teas featured in these boxes are also available to be purchased separately. Use my code Kimberley10 to get 10% off of your order.

If you have tried any of the teas included in either of these boxes let me know your thoughts on them in the comments. 

Until next time, Happy Steeping! 

Kimberley

*Both posts are part of a paid collaboration between KimberleysKyusu & ITeaWorld*