Tea Tasting: Dark Faerie (Spring 2019)

I purchased this tea from Whispering Pines, because, well, I liked the name! It's been sitting in my cupboard for a bit and I finally got around to tasting this tea. It came in a small 5.5 grams brick.  I broke it in half to try in two sessions.

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Whispering Pine Notes

Toss the leaves into a warm teapot and you'll find aromas of figs, raisins, and hints of cocoa. The wet leaf aroma is very oolong-esque, reminding me a lot of the oolong version of this (Faerie Pillows)...it's creamy and floral with some maltiness. The mouthfeel is super silky and clean, with a touch of spice and walnut notes. Malt and cream follow with a strong dried papaya note, and the finish brings to mind dark honey. Delicious tea!

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These mini black tea bricks come from the Fujian province of China, and are made with the shui xian (translation: water faerie) varietal of tea. They are triple bagged, first in a paper wrapper, then plastic, and finally vacuum sealed. This ensures the absolute freshest tea possible!
This is the highest grade of these available. I like to break them in half and get two sessions out of them. Each brick is just under 1/4 ounce (~6.5 grams of leaf). Price is per brick. Vacuum packaging color varies.

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Summary

Overall, this is a decent tasting tea. If you really like sweet fruity teas, then I’d recommend this to you. There’s hardly any astringency or bitterness no matter how far I pushed out the steep times.

Personally, I liked the flavor profiles (with the dates & plums) but I really wanted more body and viscosity to the tea. IMNSHO, I think it’s a bit thin, which would make it a higher rated tea in my opinion.

I think a leaf vs. water ratio would help or a CZ with a bit of crushed leaf. I probably should have just brewed the whole square instead of trying to conserve the tea. (Also, I really think this tea would be most excellent as a cold brew!!) The only other “ding” I would give it is that it didn’t last as long as I hoped, given the price point. Flavors started to wash out by steep 5.

Detailed Steep Information:

I brewed this GongFu style.

• Water: 90-100ml
• Temp: 200+ deg
• Steep times: 15s, 30s, 60s, 60s, 60s, 90;120
• The dry leaf: hints of plum and fig
• Leaf in warm gaiwan: Fresh plums, figs, prunes.
• No wash.

Infusion Information

1. Time: 15s – 
• First steep is the color of medium red amber. The wet leaf smells of sugar water and plums. It’s very sugary sweet! Did I accidentally add sugar? Nope. It’s just THAT sweet.
• There’s hints of plums, figs, apricots with a very mild astringency with a drying in the back of the throat & back of my tongue. However, the tea soup is very thin and the flavors are hints of what this could be. (Maybe this should have been a 20-30 second steep)
2. Time 30s –
•  a little bit more body but not by much. There’s a hint of Chinese salted prunes in the leaf aroma. 
• Broth: The flavors of plums & figs are much more stronger and distinct. It’s still sugary sweet.
3. Time 60s – 
• Lets see what happens if I push it out? The color is much darker than the #1 or #2. I still get scents of plum and sugar from the leaf, but with the added scents of dates and fruit bread(?) The sugary sweetness is not as strong. 
• Now I get the flavor of dates. I probably should have kept the steep to about 45seconds if I wanted to keep the sweetness of this tea for longer. - 
4. Time: 60s – 
• The color is now lighter than #3; 
• The leaf smells more of cooked plums/dates versus fresh plums & dried dates. There’s still some sugary sweetness in the leaf.
• The tea broth definitely has more of a date flavor with the ever present plums. The sweetness is now in the aftertaste.
5. Time 90 seconds — Flavors are starting to fade a bit. I don’t think the tea has that many longer steeps in it.
6. Time 120 seconds — Flavors are definitely starting to fade. Still no bitterness and an extremely mild astringency.