Day 63: Keemun Queen's Hope

Brand: Lupicia
Type: Black
Brew Time & Temperature: 3 minutes, boiling
Leaf Appearance: Dark black, rolled/needle like leaves; they're a decent size, considering that they're not too broken up
Color: Medium-light copper; clear
Smell: Similar to puerh (a little fishy, earthy) with some hints of mint
Recommended with/as: As is
Rating: 8.5/10

Tasting notes and thoughts:
Gonna be a short review again today, since I've had a bunch of tea before this, and I have to make some new tea for my family (see below). Also, I think reviewing a tea with only 1 cup is actually a better way for taste testing, since it forces me to pay more attention.

After smelling, I thought that this would taste a lot like a puerh, but after tasting, I was moderately surprised. While it does have the fishy smell, it's more tangy and brothy than puerh. The earthy taste is relatively the same, if not less than the average puerh. There's little astringency and is very smooth; it doesn't leave any dry taste in the mouth, and has a very nice (in my opinion) texture. I don't really drink keemun tea that often and I'm not sure if it's right to compare it to puerh, so probably take this review with a grain of salt. Overall, however, I like it and would finish the whole pot (if I didn't have to use the pot right now for chai, heh).

Other notes:
Well, sleep wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Got a good 12 hours in (which is good and bad- it's a lot of sleep, which means I woke up super groggy), and only woke up 2-3 times. I'll try another pill in a couple days, since I'm going to SoCal and I'll get home super late.

In other news, today I went to San Francisco and picked up a couple of teas and a large gaiwan. Here's the haul:

From Red Blossom Tea Co.:
Chai (black, with a lychee flavored base)
Pi lo chun (green)
Monkey picked tieguanyin (oolong)

From Vital Tea Leaf:
Blue People Ginseng Oolong
Gaiwan

Next on the 100 Days of Tea: Afternoon Tea