95

New Year’s Eve ended up being all about comforting teas in my household. This was the tea with which I rang in the New Year. I stayed up (didn’t end up watching the ball drop) and started a gongfu session somewhere around 10:00 PM, finishing up a little after midnight. The fact that I took my time with the session allowed this to technically be the first tea consumed by me in 2018, and honestly, there were far, far worse things I could have consumed to ring in the year. This ended up being a great baozhong and further proof that the fancy competition grade teas do not always provide the best and most satisfying drinking experiences.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a very quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 185 F water for 7 seconds. This infusion was chased by 14 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, I detected surprisingly strong aromas of lilac, violet, sweet pea, cream, and butter. After the rinse, I found emerging aromas of pastry, vanilla, custard, gardenia, and magnolia. The first infusion brought out a hint of sugarcane on the nose. On the palate, I found pleasant notes of butter, cream, vanilla, pastry, and sugarcane that were thicker than expected. These notes were balanced by hints of lilac, violet, sweet pea, melon, and orchard fruits. Subsequent infusions brought out stronger floral notes on the palate, and on these infusions, the magnolia and gardenia appeared. I also started noting fully formed notes of cantaloupe, honeydew, pear, and green apple. New impressions of sweetgrass, mango, lime, tangerine, minerals, and lettuce emerged, though I could also find faint underpinnings of peas, spinach, and custard, which had surprisingly both disappeared from the nose and never bother to turn up in the mouth until this point. The later infusions offered lingering impressions of butter, cream, green apple, pear, sugarcane, and minerals balanced by lingering floral and citrusy hints.

A surprisingly heavy, complex, long-lived baozhong, this tea clearly had not lost a step in storage. This seems to have been out of stock for quite some time at this point, but if I could acquire more of it, I most certainly would. I really found it to be that good, and to be honest, I’m much pickier than most people would ever imagine with baozhong.

Flavors: Butter, Cantaloupe, Citrus, Cream, Custard, Floral, Gardenias, Grass, Green Apple, Honeydew, Lettuce, Lime, Mineral, Pastries, Pear, Peas, Spinach, Sugarcane, Vanilla, Violet

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 6 g 4 OZ / 118 ML
Daylon R Thomas

I wanted to try that one so badly. If only it were not sold out.

eastkyteaguy

I got mine very shortly before it went out of stock. I should have bought more because baozhong tends to age gracefully. I still have the Toba Wangi baozhong, the machine-harvested baozhong, and a couple recent Floating Leaves baozhongs, so I’m not exactly hurting.

Daylon R Thomas

I have two of those other ones that I’m about to sip down. My Floating Leaves teas from last year was gone in days.

What-Cha

I’m pleased to report that I’ve just got more of it back in stock and available on the website again :)

eastkyteaguy

Very good to hear!

Daylon R Thomas

Just after I bought some! Dang! I should have waited…Can I have a sample of it?

What-Cha

Too late alas, your parcel has already gone out, I’ll save one for next time

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Comments

Daylon R Thomas

I wanted to try that one so badly. If only it were not sold out.

eastkyteaguy

I got mine very shortly before it went out of stock. I should have bought more because baozhong tends to age gracefully. I still have the Toba Wangi baozhong, the machine-harvested baozhong, and a couple recent Floating Leaves baozhongs, so I’m not exactly hurting.

Daylon R Thomas

I have two of those other ones that I’m about to sip down. My Floating Leaves teas from last year was gone in days.

What-Cha

I’m pleased to report that I’ve just got more of it back in stock and available on the website again :)

eastkyteaguy

Very good to hear!

Daylon R Thomas

Just after I bought some! Dang! I should have waited…Can I have a sample of it?

What-Cha

Too late alas, your parcel has already gone out, I’ll save one for next time

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Profile

Bio

My grading criteria for tea is as follows:

90-100: Exceptional. I love this stuff. If I can get it, I will drink it pretty much every day.

80-89: Very good. I really like this stuff and wouldn’t mind keeping it around for regular consumption.

70-79: Good. I like this stuff, but may or may not reach for it regularly.

60-69: Solid. I rather like this stuff and think it’s a little bit better-than-average. I’ll drink it with no complaints, but am more likely to reach for something I find more enjoyable than revisit it with regularity.

50-59: Average. I find this stuff to be more or less okay, but it is highly doubtful that I will revisit it in the near future if at all.

40-49: A little below average. I don’t really care for this tea and likely won’t have it again.

39 and lower: Varying degrees of yucky.

Don’t be surprised if my average scores are a bit on the high side because I tend to know what I like and what I dislike and will steer clear of teas I am likely to find unappealing.

Location

KY

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