Golden needles is impressive all around, and while at the end of the day I prefer to drink Jun Jun Mei to this if I crave black tea, this can do things that Jin Jun Mei cannot — it’s a very different sensory experience. Golden Needles gives such a powerful sense of fullness — the tea is dense, heavy, oily, and rich beyond the norm for black tea. On top of it all, the leaf is really interesting looking! I was enamoured at first glace! to see such a meticulous processing and delicate care put into its shaping and packaging. This doesn’t look like tea, it looks like art, and it makes a great gift because of its obscurity for even tea veterans.

These buds are coming from the assamica side of the tea family, from an especially large leaf clone found in Lincang. This tea is a Dian Hong, of which I currently stock many! A standard Dian Hong can exhibit very malty, very classic black tea notes and a Dian Hong made only from buds like this display different aroma sets. I’d say these giant golden buds smell like a high quality cacao (cacao barry) mixed with dried red chilli peppers. If you’ve ever had a Mexican hot chocolate, I’d say this comes pretty close.

When I brew this tea I like to accentuate the weight by steeping for a longer period of time. One of the things you pay for by drinking bud based tea (of any type) is a reduced difficulty in getting a great result. They are hard to screw up. They don’t have large amounts of compounds (other than caffeine) that people would describe as bitter, sour, or astringent because they have been picked before those chemicals in the leaf can really develop.

My favourite recipe for this tea is using a ratio of 1:69 (tea to water), rolling boil, and letting steep for 5 minutes.