994 Tasting Notes
This tea hasn’t aged a great deal yet, but it’s just as tasty as before. It has a complex aroma that blends fruity, nutty, and floral notes with hints of forest and sawdust. The taste is full and pungent. It is bit more on the savoury and bitter side, but also has a mild apple flavour.
The mouthfeel is very thick and oily, and the aftertaste very long and flowery with plenty of returning sweetness and various notes of spices.
Flavors: Apple, Bitter, Floral, Flowers, Forest Floor, Fruity, Nutty, Oily, Pungent, Sawdust, Spices, Sweet, Thick
This is always a unique one to return to, although I miss the times when it had more of that bitterness of purple raw.
The tea is now very smooth with flavours like cola, strawberry, earth, and only a very mild bitterness. There is also a hint of mint in the aftertaste.
Flavors: Cola, Earth, Mint, Smooth, Strawberry
Preparation
I really enjoy this tea’s development. It has planty of character and seems to progress towards a well rounded and balanced aged pu-erh in the future.
At present, its aroma reminds me of barn, hay, and alcohol. The liquor is thick and smooth with a fruity and herbaceous taste as well as mild bitterness.
Today I also used a new gaiwan I picked up from Laifufu for the first time, and I love it already :)
Flavors: Alcohol, Barnyard, Bitter, Fruity, Hay, Herbaceous, Smooth, Thick
Preparation
I didn’t like this tea much today. Both my "dry"and “humid” version were quite astringent, herbaceous, and not particularly tasty. I notice significantly clearer and sweeter aroma in the dry one, with notes of candy and honey. The other one had more vegetal notes of bog and parsley.
This tea is very well aged given its age. It has a strong heady and warming cha qi, slick mouthfeel as well as pungent taste. The flavours are a bit like beetroot, wild mushrooms, the sourness of coffee in the liquor and more like whiskey, bergamot, and sweet wood in the aftertaste.
Flavors: Beetroot, Bergamot, Coffee, Forest Floor, Mushrooms, Pungent, Smooth, Sour, Whiskey, Wood
Preparation
This is a superb black tea that is very well balanced and complex. The taste is positioned between bitter, woody, leathery notes and more fruity, sweet, and sour ones. The mouthfeel is thick and buttery with a numbing touch and a decent astringency. Aromas remind me of eucalyptus and strawberries when dry, and of gnocchi and cherries when wet.
Flavors: Astringent, Biting, Buttery, Caramel, Cherry, Eucalyptus, Fruity, Leather, Potato, Raspberry, Sour, Strawberry, Sweet, Thick, Wood
Preparation
Just a superb tea, early on dominated by bitterness, later on by slick textures and energy that’s warming and bringing presence.
In the aroma I noticed notes of popcorn, peat, and physalis this time. The taste is obviously bitter with the characteristic grapefruit note. It also has a strong forest vibe with notes of moss, fiddlehead, wood, and leather.
Flavors: Bitter, Forest Floor, Gooseberry, Grapefruit, Leather, Moss, Peat, Popcorn, Smooth, Vegetal, Wood
Preparation
One of the coziest teas I own, it’s so sweet and medicinal :)
It gives me a lot of warming energy throughout the body and a fragrant woody aftertaste.
Flavors: Astringent, Biting, Fruity, Honey, Medicinal, Pear, Pungent, Sap, Sweet, Wood