Months back, Moychay sent me their collection of Fu Zhuan (Fu Bricks). I am a sucker for Golden Flower mold in my tea as I love the honey flavor and it gets me tea drunk. These teas I often buy but I write about the most accessible ones I find. Fu Zhuan is also affordable, though quality can be low and tends to have a dirty reputation. A number of times Fu bricks come up, I have gotten an, “Ew, you drink that?” response.
To the task at hand – four Moychay Fu Zhuans, 2017, 2016, and two 2014s, clocking in a value of $155 ($35 to $50 each) for 2.2 kilos of tea.
I find a bit more leaf makes Fu Zhuan taste best, so my ratio for all these teas is around 1 gram of leaf per 12-14ml of vessel size, all steeped with boiling water. I always drink the rinse on Fu Zhuans as it has the most golden flower flavor.
2017 Anhua Fu Zhuan from Moychay
Out of all the Moychay Fu Bricks, the 2017 Anhua Fu Zhuan is the biggest at 800 grams.
The brick has that characteristic spun sugar honey scent of Fu Zhuan. This is the youngest of the bricks and quite green. Chiseling in, I don’t see any golden flowers. I don’t want to tear apart a whole 800g brick to see if there are any.
The steeped leaves smell of autumn with some honey. 2017 Anhua Fu Zhuan tastes like how spring maple leaves smell, wood, sappy twigs, and a heavy-handed dash of honey. Honey in Fu Zhuan tastes like honey powder to me.
A couple of infusions in, 2017 Anhua Fu Zhuan shifted quickly to sour rose hips and tart berries, tree sap, over a mossy woodsy note sprinkled with honey. The leafy taste is still here, but now I’m in autumn as it is more rustic and darker tasting. Each infusion gets more tart and medicinal, and building an astringency to dry the back of the throat. The final sixth infusion has a stewed herby taste and totally spent on flavor.
This is the youngest and cheapest of the Fu Zhuans on Moychay – 800g for around $35. It appears they also offer samples – a 25g is around $1.00! I think this one needs more age, or maybe I need to tunnel deeper into the brick for visible mold, but it certainly tastes as it has it. It is certainly got a greener flavor. This is a budget option for someone who wants a bunch of cheap and accessible fu brick.
2016 Anhua Shou Zhu Fu Zhuan
The 2016 Anhua Shou Zhu Fu Zhuan looks like they originally had big bricks and split them in half, then rewrapped. I think this is smart as some find 800g-1.2kilo bricks simply too much to deal with or fit in their stash. Another benefit is golden flowers are often in the middle, so a half brick finds the mold faster.
Once I dug into the brick, I struck some gold! 2016 Anhua Shou Zhu Fu Zhuan brick has a sour and a bit dank forest floor scent to it. After an infusion, the leaves have an almost coconut sweet scent.
The first impression of 2016 Anhua Shou Zhu Fu Zhuan is this tastes like sweet buttery coconut hand lotion, before settling into autumn fallen leaves taste, finishing with that spun honey flavor. The texture is creamy, unlike the previous Fu Zhuan that I didn’t even notice the texture on.
The broth is blurry, that isn’t the photo out of focus.
Once into the meat of the tea, 2016 Anhua Shou Zhu Fu Zhuan settles into a more leafy profile, similar to the 2017, with tree sap, fallen autumn leaves, and bosc pear.
After six infusions, the flavor slips, going back to a basic leafy and woody taste, with a hint of honey maple. Thankfully this isn’t as tart compared to the previous tea. The final eighth infusion is watery wood and honey with a gentle astringency.
I don’t know if it is this tea, or the time spent drinking fu bricks, but I am feeling the tea drunk. My skin is crawling and my ears are popping. Your results may vary – Fu Brick with golden mold seems to set my tea drunk off like no other. Either way, I do have four Fu Bricks to drink and two tea sessions appear to be my maximum as I have the urge to log roll down a hill and claw at my eyes.
The fruitiness of 2016 Anhua Shou Zhu Fu Zhuan is quite nice. This tea is friendly to drink and has an excellent smooth texture, a good introductory Fu Brick.
For my own Fu Brick addiction, this would be a good daily drinker. Admittedly, if I start daily drinking Fu Zhuan, there is something serious going on in my life to need to self medicate.
2014 Anhua Shou Zhu Fu Zhuan
Immediately once I started prying pieces off there was dust and mold flying. I hit the jackpot!
2014 Anhua Shou Zhu Fu Zhuan smells simply of honey. After an infusion, and I wish I had a better description for this tea, but it smells like acrylic paint.
The main flavor here is wood but is balanced with a spongey old apple, decomposing crusty leaves, plywood, with a soft honey finish. As 2014 Anhua Shou Zhu Fu Zhuan steeps on, it develops a creamy pumpkin and spice note. This Fu Brick is like eating Thanksgiving pies in the lumber section of the hardware store.
At the fifth infusion, the wood notes are getting stronger and the main flavor now. There are wisps of honey, but this mostly tastes like fallen leaves, chipboard plywood, and cloves.
As the 2014 Anhua Shou Zhu Fu Zhuan fades in strength, it got tart sour woody, and medicinal forest floor in taste. Despite nine infusions, this Fu Zhuan was never bitter or dry.
Moychay’s 2014 Anhua Shou Zhu Fu Zhuan was pretty balanced to start but developed interesting (and strange) aged woody flavors. It is the least sweet of the bunch but the most visible golden flower. I didn’t like the smell of this Fu Zhuan, but it was a fun session.
2014 Anhua Hong Fu Jin Zhuan from Moychay
The final Fu Brick is Moychay’s 2014 Anhua Hong Fu Jin Zhuan. The dry leaves smell like an old closet scent while the wet leaves have a strong old kitchen cupboard wood scent.
The early infusions of 2014 Anhua Hong Fu Jin Zhuan are sweet luscious honey butter that is thick and smooth to drink. The end of the sip is green wood and nuts. With each steeping, this Fu Zhuan develops a nutty and balsamic acidness that tickles the throat. There is an aftertaste of old dried apricots.
After four infusions, my ears started popping and I got a brain massage sensation. I was also ready for a nap.
With five infusions, the aged flavor is started to show more as 2014 Anhua Hong Fu Jin Zhuan has a medicinal old dried apricot taste tasting over, acidic and dried but decomposing forest floor. As 2014 Anhua Hong Fu Jin Zhuan fades, it goes a bit more tart wood and medicinal tasting, though very little in the dry and bitter department. I got nine gongfu infusions.
2014 Anhua Hong Fu Jin Zhuan is a ride of starting very sweet, progressing to aged medicinal flavor, all with a lot going on. If you enjoy aged tea and maximum honey flavor, 2014 Anhua Hong Fu Jin Zhuan is the one to pick.
For me, I liked 2016 Anhua Shou Zhu Fu Zhuan the most, with 2014 Anhua Hong Fu Jin Zhuan I might pick on days I feel like that flavor profile. Both teas had the most tea drunk, but it is hard to tell as I drank so much Fu Zhuan.
All these Fu Bricks all have honey, wood, and fruity notes. Though I do say after drinking a number of Moychays teas they have a house taste of wood, fruit, with acidic contrast.
(tea provided for review)
