Tuesday, August 11, 2020

Tea Review: Lotus Fuzhuan Heicha (Phoenix Tea)

Lotus Fuzhuan Heicha
Phoenix Tea
Type: Heicha
Origin: China, Hunan Province
Product Description: 
This fuzhuan is scented with lotus blossoms during processing, giving the hei cha a characteristic floral aroma and taste, complementing the post-fermented, compressed tea leaves. Plentiful jin hua (golden flowers) gives the tea a pleasantly thick mouthfeel and sweetness. You'll get a 100g bag of tea taken from a larger brick. Produced by Axiangmei factory.
Temperature: 208° F
Amount: 3 grams
Steeping Time: 3-5 minutes

The dry leaves have a light aroma of sweet rice and wood.

The copper-orange infusion has an aroma of camphor wood and sweet cinnamon.  The taste is smooth with wood, mushroom, and herbal notes and a hint of pepper and cinnamon near the end.

The flavor deepened with each sip and the wood notes became more prominent after the first infusion.  Following the initial 3 minute steeping, I steeped the second infusion for 3 minutes and for 5 minutes.  While the 3 minute infusion was flavorful and aromatic with more wood and mushroom notes at the front, the 5 minute infusion had a more prominent sweet cinnamon-like aroma with stronger pepper notes at the end of each sip.  Adding a minute or two to each subsequent infusion helped to bring out more flavor and aroma.

Please note that fuzhuan cha is not celiac-safe.  The light speckling of jin hua (golden flower) that makes this style of dark tea unique is Eurotium cristatum, a potentially beneficial probiotic fungus which is sometimes encouraged to develop with a light dusting of flour.  

This tea was purchased by me.




No comments:

Post a Comment