Review topics: ["taste","value","price","tea","chocolate","aroma","energy","malty","bitterness","flowers","mouthfeel","soup","astringency","huigan","warming"].
Reviews
Other comments about this being
"Other comments about this being one of the tastiest, ugly teas are spot on. What a delight to drink; and at a very reasonable price."
— Kim J. (5/5)
You Can’t Judge A Book By Its Cover !
"Never has a statement been more true ! I opened the sample pouch to find probably the worst looking tea I’ve ever seen !!! All stems and coarse broken leaf ! However don’t let that put you off , this tea is FABULOUS !!! I can only echo the review above written by Norm J , his review is very accurate. I personally also found notes of malt, cream, sweet hay , spicy Virginia pipe tobacco and sugar cane . Well worth a sample !"
— Simeon (5/5)
Unexpected - would definitely serve to guests.
"Excellent tea overall, disappointing for my palatte… my sample was the end of a brick, not seeing any golden flowers. The package contents smell strongly of almond flavor. Agree with Norm, brew smells like honey on toast but with a pinch of cinnamon. I am all for malty caramel and chocolate!!! Instead, i got a mouthful of amaretto or better put, a bear claw: almond paste with cinnamon. (Almond extracty things make me cringe, to be polite). That being said, i did find this tea comforting and warm especially for rainy autumn day, full bodied, thick, sweet, has a uplifting smooth energy. On the 4th steep I added plain almond milk to coax out the notes mentioned by others, especially chocolate, with no luck, ended up with milk tea, which was fine as the amaretto flavor dissipated. I did get a backbite of astringency back of tongue, down my throat, and hui gan. (Purchased on US site)."
— LinneaL (5/5)
Throwing 5 more stars on the pile
"This is a stand out Fu brick that has it's own personality, it's own 'thing' that is difficulty to pin down by a word, but you'd know it when you taste it. I love dark soupy Fu cha and this Fu is that Fu. It's thick, oily, viscous with a mellow sweet malty mildly earthy rich caramel honey-like taste. But even that description isn't "IT". The taste of root beer maybe? If root beer was a Fu brick. Still, its not *exactly* a root beer taste, but that's as close as I'll get. Excellent value - more brick for the buck. I'm convinced the overabundance of stems must add something to this brick because they certainly don't take anything away. The leaf to stem ratio might look uneven in the pot but it always comes out tasting full flavored. Lots of golden flowers send me to that relaxing drowsy buzzy Fu qi happy place."
— Ryan P. (5/5)
Michael S.
"I LOVE this tea. I’ve been buying teas from YS for 10 years & this is one of my top 5 favourite. Has a silky slight caramel taste, very satisfying as an afternoon or evening tea to relax. I find that this tea & similar hei Cha teas relax me & help me sleep & also improve my bowel movements. Great tea, great medicine..."
— Michael S. (5/5)
Very tasty and excellent value
"This is a great tea. As it is visible from the pictures above, it is full of stems and the leaves do not look really good, but it is not shown how very full of golden flowers some of the inside parts of the brick are. The tea is thick, dark and smooth. There is virtually no bitterness. Flavour somewhat reminds me of non-bitter dark chocolate in some ways, a bit nutty and moderately sweet. Woody. I'd certainly recommend this tea to anyone. If you are unfamiliar with this kind of tea like I was, it would be certainly worth to buy 50 g at this price just to try it."
— Aljaz S. (5/5)
Excellent and surprising tea
"First, the appearance: A number of people mention the high percentage of twigs in this tea, but I will add that it has more golden flowers than I've ever seen in a tea before. Maybe this was just the sample I got, but it was very noticeable. From the very first steep, the taste was strong, mildly sweet with a full, decadent honey flavour. Beginning on the second steep, it gave me a tingling feeling and a tart flavour almost like kiwifruit, with a melon-like aftertaste. This is a very flavourful tea that doesn't have any 'funky' notes, so in addition to being delicious for anyone, I think it would make a good introduction to hei cha for someone previously into flavoured teas or fruit teas. The price is fantastic, too; given that this is well-suited for daily enjoyment, I might get a whole brick."
— Avery F. (5/5)
remarkable
"If you look at the amount of stems you would think of a very low quality tea, but the taste is wonderful! Next order I will probably buy a brick of it :-) I used 5gr in a 60ml gaiwan, and with steeps 10 seconds to very long (up to 10 minutes), I could get 10 good, and some more ok steeps out of it. This is less than other cakes, but this one also is quite a bit cheaper."
— Ward R. (5/5)
Awesome value
"Cha Duo Tang is an easy to drink, comforting tea with complex aromas and a nutty taste profile. However, the best aspect of it is its mouthfeel. The liquor is very thick and bubbly, with a slick, oily texture. This might very well be the best tea in its price category that I’ve ever had. It is not funky, so I would recommend it to everyone really, even those new to the world of fermented tea."
— Tomáš G. (5/5)
A diamond in the rough
"This is both the worst-looking tea I've got in stock, and one of the most delicious. A new favourite for my wife too. Will buy a brick. have been looking for something similar to Qian Liang Cha and been disappointed by some other hunans. This really hits the spot and has some notable similarities. Mid-rise nutty/woody complexity, with fruity tones"
— Sam S. (5/5)
