It sunk in when I was at Joseph Wesley Black Tea’s booth at the World Tea Expo and what, he has a Dian Hong??!?!?! Despite going to their website often, I never noticed their 04 Dian Hong Congfu, and likely focused on the deliciousness of their 07 Lapsang or Special Edition Qimen.
Dry Leaf and Steeping Instructions
The leaf is gorgeous – small twists and folds of black leaf with plenty of gold tips plus whole gold leaves, with the scent is of malty peaches. I was planning to follow the steeping instructions of 190F for an 8oz serving…
…but this leaf was just too gorgeous to Western.
I went with gongfu style in a gaiwan. I used boiling water, 1 rinse, 1 gram to 13ml tea weight to vessel ratio, with flash steeps to start. The scent of this tea got me so excited that I leafed harder hoping I can get it full strength into my gullet faster.
Tasting of Joseph Wesley Black Tea’s 04 Dian Hong Congfu
The hot leaf smells very sweet and fruity, like a sugary white peach. The colour steeps up clear and dark amber. This is totally not the greatest cup to show colour, but I love how the tea shifts the blues to greens.
First and Second Infusion: Dian Hong Congfu sips in malty, molasses, and baked potato with a finish of bright caramel. The aftertaste is like dried apricots. The body is a little thin, but the texture has a nice slickness to it.
Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Infusion: The flavor tightened up with being full flavored and bright. Joseph Wesley Tea’s Dian Hong tastes like dried apricots, molasses, a background of rich malt, with a drooling salivating aftertaste of more apricots. If I take a long time to the next sip, the flavor shifts to a savory leather flavor. The texture is slightly silky still.
Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Infusion: I did couple minute infusions to start, with a 15 minute infusion as the finale. As the flavor lightens, it shifted to mineral, raisins and a touch of malt. The aftertaste is soft, but the texture is still present. The final steeping slips to mineral with an astringent bite in the back of the throat.
Overall, a pretty good session.
Comments
Joseph Wesley Black Tea always has the best, high quality black teas – if you love black tea you need to check them out ASAP. 04 Dian Hong Congfu is for the black tea drinker wanting something fruity sweet, bright and full flavored, without being too earthy or dark. I could see Dian Hong Congfu being a great tea to pair with food, it would do great with pork as well as desserts.
I quite enjoyed the fruity notes and delicious fruity scent, however I am still biased that 07 Lapsang Souchong and Qimen are the best. At this time, I haven’t had 01 and 02 (Darjeeling and Assam), but so far the entire line up has been exceptional.
(tea provided for review)
