Seven Bowls Fuzhuan Brick | 2017

Tea: 2017 Anhua Heicha (安化黑茶） 

Type: Fu Zhuan Anhua Heicha 苻砖安化黑茶
Fermentation Level: Light
Harvest: Spring 2017
Press Date: Autumn 2017
Press Size: 1000g
Region: Jiulongchi Terroir Region, Anhua County.
Producer: Seven Bowls Tea House
Tasting Notes:  Smoke, Iron, Cirtus, Pepper, Pine Bark. 

The Fuzhuan brick is one of the most common styles of Anhua Heicha on the market today.  Made of late April picked leaves, they are processed whole and pressed lightly into roughly 800 gram bricks and set aside to age.  This tea, similar to the same style and year of tea from the Easy Teahouse (Liao Xian), is easy to brew gongfu, easy to pick off the brick, and full of complex flavors.

This tea brews up very quickly, giving up a lot of vegetation with edges of cooking spices.  The brew is a clean amber which is surprisingly sweet to the taste.  In contrast to the other offerings procured from the Seven Bowls Tea house, this heicha is light and refreshing rather than dark and powerful.  There does persist an edge of bitterness that has not yet mellowed down into the tea as it will in time.  Notes of minerality shine through this tea from the first infusion and on into the last.