Curious Tea – Dian Hong Feng Qing Classic 1938
There was a famous bit on BBC’s Food & Drink programme back in the 1990s when Jilly Goolden compared some wine to a “wheelbarrow full of ugli fruit”. She was always doing that sort of thing. She and Oz Clarke would review a bunch of beverages by saying stuff like, “It’s got mango, it’s got ripe pear, and I’m getting a hint of marzipan and cheese on toast”.
Anyway, that’s what I always feel like when I’m reviewing Curious Tea’s teas. Take this Dian Hong Feng Qing Classic 1938 black tea (named after the year of the establishment of Yunnan black tea production, apparently).
It’s got cherries, it’s got almonds, there’s a brisk little blackcurrant flavour and just the tiniest soupcon of ginger nuts. It doesn’t have any of those things, of course. It’s 100% tea leaves. It’s incredible that it comes out of the ground that way. (Well, it hasn’t come straight from the ground, obviously. There was a whole bunch of painstaking orthodox prep-work before it made it into my teacup.)
You know when I reviewed those terrible Poundland teas that didn’t taste of tea? This is like the opposite of that. This tastes like so much tea! This is the tea-est thing you can imagine. It tastes so much like tea that it kinda tastes like other things. I have no idea how that works.
It’s ruddy marvellous is what it is. Cheers!
Today’s book pairing is To the Edge of the Sky by Anhua Gao.
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