Finally getting to this. Too bad I didn’t have any Three Friends to directly compare. To note, I did enjoy that one, but found that it benefited from a longer steep than recommended, and I picked up on the orange quite a bit, with a hint of chocolate in the background.
As for Two Friends, I’m still going to have to experiment with this more. Both times I’ve had it, both the chocolate and orange were weak. I even got my mom to smell and taste it without telling her the notes, and she had no idea what the flavouring was supposed to be. Even after I told her, she could not smell/taste chocolate or orange. With light cream, it tasted like a light malty Assam with a smidgen of orange. Perhaps I should add more leaf.
As much as I love Assam, I think the Zhen Qu base in the original Three Friends blended more harmoniously with the astringent orange.
