Long thin with a wonderful aroma and various shades of browns and blonds, I grow quickly excited and head for the Bonavita to get the water ready. I have literally just finished my very last three grams of Tea-Sides Red Tea Jin Xuang, which amazingly enough my husband even liked, and hoped that this tea would be a good continuance of my last brewing session with that. And it WAS.
The quality of this tea is so obvious from the moment you look at it. Even as a newbie I can see that. No wonder they don't vacuum pack it, every piece is unbroken, its like opening a bag of hand-crafted pasta!
According to their website the trees these leaves came from are at least 300 years old.
This is definitely a brew to enjoy after supper, and if you are an 'Oriental Beauty' lover, you will surely be pleased with this offering. The color of the leaves after the first rinse and first steep are shown here...
Just look at the color of the leaves after being brewed! They really are as red as shown.
the broth color is a fantastic deep orange.
I brewed in a 4 ounce gaiwan at 200f flash steeps for the rinse and the first brew. Now I am off to go brew it through until it is over and done with, and will play with the parameters. I will also be checking in with my knowledgeable tea group on Facebook, "Beginner's Mind Gongfu Tea" for parameter pointers with this one. It's large sample but I would hate to ruin even one piece of this extraordinary tea.