Two sessions with this tea: One in a purple clay pot, and one in a gai wan. I’m still getting a sense of how this particular clay affects the tea, so I wanted to compare them.
Clay:
First steep: Super soft, lubricating, rich experience. Fairly light brew, so deceptively textured in the mouth. Indeed, very much texture-driven for me, which is nice. The taste was a rich fermented taste; hard to describe to those not familiar with fermented tea. Not quite chocolatey. A rich, almost starchy, almost sweet, kind of interesting taste. A clean fermented taste. You know it when you taste it.
Steep 2 – 4: The same as the above, which was nice, though slightly less texture each time. Naturally, as it’s loose leaf. A sweetness did start to come through as the richness gradually faded.
Ceramic:
First steep: Very lubricating, soft, velvety texture, with a rich fermented taste. Oil slick on the top. I wouldn’t say sweet at all. I know rich doesn’t say much, but that’s really what it is to me: rich, clean fermented taste. I didn’t wash it this time, just straight into the first steep. (Cha Qi hit me nice at this point). Texture was I think more pronounced from the gai wan.
Second steep: More of the same, which was delightful. Again, very texture-driven and non-specifically rich in taste. Slight sweet chocolatey taste, too.
More of the same in subsequent steeps.
Ceramic brought out more character. It’s already a soft tea by nature, so ceramic is probably ideal as it doesn’t need clay to slightly mute the harsh notes and bring out the texture. There aren’t any harsh notes. Very good tea in my opinion. I love clean young rich smooth (thick, though this one wasn’t thick) ripe tea. Does run out of the goods on the quicker side, though.
