(The following is all my personal opinion, and my camera, unfortunately, didn't do either tea justice.)
I’ve been meaning to do this Peps- er Assam Challenge for a couple of weeks now, but with an infant crawling around, planning means nothing lol
Anyway, I brewed these at the same time (and for the same time), with the same filtered water, at the same temperature, in the same gaiwans, and used the same amount of leaves. The results – Harmony wins.
Part 1 – Gonfu
The first time I brewed these teas I tried it using the Gungfu method. I found Harmony to be the clear winner, keeping better color, smell, and flavor over multiple steeps.
Color – Harmony’s color is a very nice reddish, while Melody’s is mostly brown (not unpleasant though), with a tinge of red.
Over multiple steeps I found that Harmony retained a more pleasing color than Melody.
Smell – Harmony has this great fruity smell that doesn’t quit even when the leaves have given their all. It’s in no way overpowering, or sickly, but it’s a smell that definitely makes it stand out in this contest. Melody also has a nice smell, definitely not as strong as Harmony, but very nice, very typical I would say, when black teas are the topic.
Taste – This was the hardest for me. I find Harmony to have more of the taste I’m looking for, barely beating Melody. To me, Melody is, straight up, a nice black tea. Harmony is also that, however it has just a little something more to it, some subtle flavor I can’t quite describe, a sweetness, or a maltiness. Whatever it is, it's very nice end.
Strength – I’m unsure of strength honestly, I’m pretty wired right now after drinking several cups of both. If I were judging strength on taste, smell, and color, I would again go with Harmony, which kept both, better than Melody, over multiple steeps.
Part 2 – No Gongfu here, just a regular brew.
Everything the same, just as before, but this time I brewed it for 5 minutes. Much of the previous results are the same, with Harmony winning in every category. Melody is VERY close, so close that I’m thinking of trying a blend to see if, I can get the best of both teas.
Overall, if I was restricted to just one opinion concerning these two teas, I would say that I just liked drinking Harmony more.
The reason it took me a bit longer to get around to doing this...
