Empress’ Gratitude 2018

This is the 2018 harvest of our Empress’ Gratitude. The sought after Rougui cultivar from the famous WuYi region of Fuijan Province.

One of the famous Chinese ‘rock tea’ Rougui. Meet Empress’ Gratitude.

This tea gets it’s name from an alternative Big Red Robe origin story.

Another legend tells the story of a Ming Dynasty empress who had grown up in WuYi mountains. Away from her home she grew sickly and only recovered after drinking this tea. To show his gratitude, the emperor sent large red robes to cover the bushes from which the tea was taken. Empress’ Gratitude is grown in the protected Shen Yan tea gardens, in WuYi.
Where no outsiders are allowed to set foot.
It’s certainly worth experiencing!

The dry leaf smells of toasted warm nuts, when wet the leaves release an amazing intense sweet chestnut aroma.

A gorgeous amber liquid fills the cup, and on first sip your senses are flooded with deep toasted flavours. So many aspects to describe, there is a fantastic surprising sweet end note to this liquor.

The minerality of this tea lingers around the edges creating a lovely slightly sweet and lingering after taste.

Within all this, a cinnamon note creeps in.

These leaves just keep on giving, the intense flavours do mellow slightly as you get further into the infusions, and the sweetness builds on your tongue.

How do I prepare this tea?

For Western style brewing

Use 2g of leaf to 300ml of water (china tea cup size).
Bring the water to boil, then pour over the leaves.
Infuse for approx 3 minutes.
Leaves used this way can be reused up to 4 times.

For Gong Fu or Chinese style brewing

Use 5g of leaf to 150ml of water (general gaiwan size).
Bring the water to the boil.
Then pour over the leaves, wait 10 seconds and decant your tea.
Leaves use this way can be reused at least 11 times.  Increase infusion times by 2 seconds on each subsequent infusion.

These are intended as a guideline only, everyone is different.
We encourage you to play with different water temperatures and infusion times.

Store in a cool dry place away from sunlight.

Ingredients: Camellia Sinensis