"Returning Sweetness" - 2014 Singapore Aged Dian Hong Red Tea

This is an incredible aged Dian Hong fron my friend's collection on Singapore.

When I was over there in April, I managed to take a scent from a sealed tin just before leaving, and though I hadn't had a taste, I knew I wanted some of this tea.

This Red Tea has been aged sealed for the last 11 years. In my opinion it's one of the two best hongcha I have ever had, both aged (the later had 6 years aging).

Though it's not very popular to age hongcha, and a lot of what we see is still that was left over in tea shops or warehouses, in varying qualities of storage, this tea has aged masterfully.

The thick malty notes one would expect from a "Yunnan Gold" style has been subdued considerably, and the flavor is perfectly blended together with a thick and soft sweetness and texture.

I recieved this tea in the mail and brewed a small pot (I usually never buy tea unless I sit with it extensively) and was pleasantly surprised:

Early on in my tea journey I found this basic yunnan red tea at a tea shop. It was the first tea I brewed perfectly, and one that made me realized I had been missing something in the tea up until that point.

I only had about 50g of that tea, and I spent the next 2 years searching and sampling red teas, hoping to find that exact perfect "textbook" Dian Hong profile- to no avail.

This tea has that perfect red tea profile I was looking for, and is miles ahead in quality, sourced by a good friend and someone who holds purity for tea dearly in their heart. It was said to be from the Lincang region of yunnan.

Though the age of the trees are unknown, it is most certainly yunnan big tree material, and very clean.