I am finishing my sample of this tea, but I might actually order the brick this weekend. It’s a lovely aged tea unlike any other one I have in my stash. I love its strong and invigorating aroma as well as how smooth it is. It brews up a super clear and dark liquor with a purplish hue, a beautiful tea visually too.
The aroma reminds me of old books, wood, upholstery, and brown sugar. It has a sort of “dungeon” feel to it. The taste is hard to describe, but it seems to have more umami and vegetal notes than your average ripe. There are flavours of pine wood, tea tree oil, later on also fava beans, conifer forest and a sort of woody sweetness. The aftertaste is strong and somewhat sweet, displaying a distinctive dark cherry note at times.
Mouthfeel is definitely among the highlights of the tea. It is lubricating and creamy with a slight dry chalkiness and a throat cooling quality. I also found the cha qi to be fairly uplifting.
This tea seems to evolve slowly but with resolution, it’s like a conversation with an elderly wise person. It doesn’t seem to express everything it has in one go, a lot of its qualities are subtle and take a while to uncover. But it’s not like a super complex tea that just throws all the complexity at you, which can be overwhelming as you try to make sense of it. Rather, I would describe this tea as having a sort of a muted clarity.
Song pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzIFbTKMYHw
Flavors: Beany, Brown Sugar, Camphor, Cherry, Creamy, Forest Floor, Pine, Sweet, Thick, Umami, Vegetal, Wood
It is so interesting song. I let it play when reading tasting notes. I was immediately like in some kind of video game with some very serious quest.