Anhua Hei Cha

This aged Tian Jian offers a complex profile, revealing notes of molasses-like mineral sweetness, a hint of light tobacco smoke, and a comforting sweet mushroom broth character. It's a superb example . It leans sweet, mineral and earthy.

Water around 95–100 °C (203–212 °F). In a mug, steep 3–5 min. For gongfu, use 5–7 g per 100 ml, 10–20 s steeps (10–20+ rounds). You'll get to see how the flavor changes across multiple rounds. Rinse the leaves once with boiling water before your first real steep. It cleans off storage dust and gets the flavor going.

Grown in Hunan, China from the An Hua tea varietal cultivar. This batch is from the 2011 harvest.

Starts at $10.25 from Yunnan Sourcing, or about $0.15/g. A 50g package gets you around 8 gongfu sessions at ~6 g each, which works out to about $0.90 per session. Compare dark prices across vendors on Teadar.