Verdant Tea (Zhenyuan Dongsa Cooperative)

This is a lovely tea in November 2023. The flavors are of a refined type, high toned, with forest flavors, but also a lovely fish taste that is unlike what I tend to think of as a flaw in shou teas, but rather a lovely and clean sea like fish flavor that enhances this tea. It is worth trying just to see how this differs in its flavor profile. Color has mahogany hints, quite attractive. The tea has many subtle tree and forest flavors that all in all are quite enjoyable to me. It seems quite ready to me. It is hard to tell if this tea is different from the same year’s loose leaf version since I have not tasted that, but if you have some of this cake I’d recommend you try it. Jim

This is a complex, flavorful, interesting tea from a single tree. It has a strong cooling flavor, rather green in taste, like basil, as well as a forest, piney flavor and has a strong salivary response for me. Really very interesting tea that I look forward to tasting for a few years.