Thanks kieblera5 for sending me a sample of this!
Gongfu session with a ceramic gaiwan. Fifteen second rinse.
Wow, so newb, very logic. I couldn’t tell how many grams I was sent (at least ten?), so I simply dumped everything into my 3-ounce gaiwan. There was a lot. The leaf nearly filled the bowl when it fully expanded. To not oversteep and make yucky cupd, I did a bunch of flash infusions in the beginning and then climbed up to 120 seconds in the end, with total of 15 infusion.
This session lasted for a day and half because I had a dentist appointment the first day and I am strict about my caffeine cut-off time.
The dry leaf, after staying in the heated bowl for a bit, smelled sweetly of stick rice. The wet leaf aroma is the same but much sweeter with an undertone of damp sand.
As one can imagine with so much leaf, the liquor was incredibly dark red at the very start. Also cloudy, but it cleared after a few more infusions. This is a simple shou. The texture and flavor notes did not change throughout the session. Basically creamy and tastes of sticky rice and mushrooms.
For $6 small cake, this is decent. OK tasting, very every day.
