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TEA
I guess this was a very cheap cake at one point. It is now only $58 USD for 400g. Plantation Yiwu tea from 2012 aged 3 years before pressing. It’s developing aged tastes. I wonder where the maocha was stored for those 3 years.

Appealing, appetite-stimulating aromas come from the dry leaf like beef jerky, hickory smoke, cranberry and a mild honey-brown sugar. When warmed the sweetness smells more like caramel. The aroma is of tang, smoke, strong camphor and wintergreen and a meaty umami. With the rinse I pick up on old furniture and books, steak and camphor.

Once brewed, the aroma is of marshmallow and tobacco. The main flavor of the tea is straw which displays itself in a somewhat viscous body. The tea is kind of sweet in a nectar-caramel-red fruit way with some added florals and bright tobacco, hints of leather, minerals and decaying wood, somewhat metallic. A tangy, mild bitterness penetrates the tongue, leaving it uncomfortably numbed. I feel camphor deep in my throat. The aftertaste is the strong point. It is definitely violet with very light caramel.

This is a short-lived tea with decent mouthfeel and a strong aftertaste, good for a daily drinker. It’s not a bad tea by any means but my preferences in sheng do not lean this way. It was nice to try an Yiwu plantation tea with what seems like some humid aging taste to it, so thanks for the exposure, mrmopar :) At some point, I’ll be making another note when I move into a round of tasting all the Hai Lang Hao puerh I have.

LIFE
I didn’t get any sleep. First my old girl woke me, hissing and spitting at the sliding glass door to the garden. Then I was startled awake shortly thereafter by what sounded like a massive explosion. And then again at 5am by my neighbor across the street banging on the front door. My first thought was oh-fuck-is-there-a-fire-are-we-evacuating.

Turns out some amateur lifted my motorcycle from the front yard and out into the street. Lifted — because the steering lock was on. Ran into our trash cans on the curb because amateur thief and trash night. He woke up my neighbor who chased him off several times over the course of getting ready for work before putting a cable and lock through the back wheel. The amateur totally bashed the steering lock cylinder, so now I can’t even unlock the bike to move it. And he left his hammer, which the police took. What’s amusing is that I have a tool kit with all kinds of useful things in an easily accessible compartment on my bike.

I hope the night happenings aren’t a sign of things to come today.