Recently, I haven’t been paying as much attention to tasting as I’d like.
The dry leaf is very fragrant with notes of vanilla, cream, florals and vegetal. Warmed was vegetal, lemon, sugarcane, cream and floral. With the rinse, I could also pick up on some pine. Brewed gongfu in a clay teapot, I noticed how fragrant the tea was, just overall pleasant. I did not notice much change in flavors, with the dominant notes being florals, lemon, cream and a brown sugar sweetness with some vegetal on the swallow. And dang, what a swallow. The liquor was very smooth and thick with oil, only a little astringent.
Brewed western in a glass mason jar, it was even thicker, almost like the leaves were suspended in a thin gel matrix. However, brewed this way, the astringency became much more prominent. I also noticed the minerality of the tea more and some kind of stone fruit, maybe apricot? It’s not like the apricot of puer tea, though. On the second steep, there was a strong aftertaste of something like spaghetti squash. Not sure, but definitely squash in character.
Brewed grandpa in a thermos, both the oiliness and astringency really stuck around. My tongue was slick for a few hours with no food. Here the brown sugar and spice notes that Daylon R Thomas talked about were very prominent. I could see Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I think I liked it best brewed grandpa because of that quality.
I don’t think this is my favorite of the four Lishan I’ve tried in the past few months, but it is worth picking up a larger quantity and having better attention paid to it. I’d also like to try brewing it at a temperature lower than the recommended 100C to see if that will tame the astringency.
I have not read your notes on the others, but what did you think of them?
I wasn’t sure when I first purchased from MST if I’d like Lishan so I bought just this one. Did your sampler contain Fall and Winter 2017 and Spring 2018?
Yep, and the snow pick.