Today’s review is a Tea Art of China’s 5 year old Golden Flower Dark Tea, also known as Fu Zhuan. This Fu Zhuan is of Anuha, Hunan origin.
I love Fu Zhuan and it is a strange dirty tea. This tea is encouraged to be covered in mold, like blue cheese. I had samples off friends and I loved how the mold adds a spun honey flavour. Fu Bricks are also pretty affordable but harder to get your hands on. Funky heicha is one thing, but moldy tea generally makes people run for the hills. I bought an 800 gram brick at a World Tea Expo a while back and it is one of my favourite teas of all time.
Also be aware moldy Golden Flower tea makes a huge mess to break off pieces. Your breaking tray and tools get covered in mold dust, so you will need to clean after. This is likely why you don’t see samples of this tea sold if a vendor happens to carry it. Our review Golden Flower Dark Tea is from Tea Art of China. This company breaks it down for you into 50 grams tubes. One hand I love having a monster brick, but a 50 gram tube has all the mess contained and broken for you.
PSA – Fu Zhuan / Golden Flower Dark Tea can contain wheat/yeast, which they use as an agent to stimulate the mold production.
Also, note this mold will also spread to your other teas. If you do not want gold mold on all your puer, store separately.
Dry Leaf and Steeping Method
This leaf has a huang pian appearance with big long sheets of leaf coated in golden spores. It is easy to flake off pieces. Some are moldier than others, I find with this type of tea the insides are jammed pack. Some pieces in this sample are crazier than others.
I used 1 gram of leaf per 14ml of vessel size. I leaf a little harder here as with my other fu brick I find it responds better.
Tasting of Tea Art of China’s 2013 Golden Flower Dark Tea
First and Second Infusion: The flavour is honey, heavy mineral spring water, and a bit of juicy particle board. There is an excellent level of sweetness in this tea making for an easy drink. Not much of an aftertaste other than some honey.
Third and Fourth Infusion: Golden Flower tea got dark! It has a watered down molasses taste. Other notes are of honey and soggy driftwood.
Fifth and Sixth Infusion: These last infusions I steeped long, with the final being 10 minutes. This tea definitely tasted best with a long infusion. It did not get bitter or dry. The flavour just got concentrated honey and birch. The finish has a wet stones mineral flavour that is super strong – strongest wet rock note I’ve tasted.
Grandpa Style: I threw in a fresh 5 grams of leaf into my grandpa mug.
This is it, the best way to make Tea Art of China’s Golden Flower Dark tea. It’s smooth honey, wood, and wet rocks. It has this powdered honey flavour that makes it easy to drink. The longer it steeps, the more woodsy birch it gets. Grandpa style never got bitter, strong, or dry.
Comments
Tea Art of China’s 2013 Golden Flower Dark Tea is likely the easiest (at this time) to get your hands on some ultra moldy Fu Zhuan in a reasonable quantity to try. My 800 gram delicious Fu Brick requires an agent and at least 800 gram size. The western facing sellers that do have them do not do sample sizes, which I totally understand as it is a nightmare to break.
I found this one has a nice level fo honey and woody notes. It isn’t near as tea drunk as the other fu brick I have. Be sure to leaf on the harder side and consider grandpa style for maximum flavour.
By the way, Tea Art of China has a super gimmicky site of LOLZ. The health claims are quite funny. You can read those on your own. I generally do not accept healthy claim insanity tea to review as I do not want to promote that crap, but I cannot say no to moldy tea. This is likely one of the few ways to get to try this tea without committing to a monster brick. Oolong Owl subscribes to drinking tea because it tastes good, not magical properties.
(tea provided for review)
