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Here is another review from the backlog. I think I finished a couple samples of this tea during the first half of November, but I can’t really be sure. Prior to trying this offering, I discovered that I had actually tried a Bai Hao green tea back in 2016. That kind of surprised me too because they are not the most common things in the world. Unless it is Liu Bao, you do not often see Western tea drinkers paying a lot of attention to teas from Guangxi. Interestingly, I rated this tea about the same as the one I tried a couple years ago. I found it to be very, very good, but maybe not quite something I would seek out for daily consumption.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a brief rinse, I steeped 5 grams of loose tea leaves in 3 ounces of 185 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 15 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 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, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of peach, apricot, straw, and plum. After the rinse, I noted new aromas of chestnut, sorghum, and sweet corn. The first infusion then introduced a malty scent. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of sweet corn, corn husk, peach, apricot, sour plum, chestnut, and malt that were backed by hints of sorghum molasses and sugarcane. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of lemon zest, grapefruit, spinach, green olive, and hay. New impressions of minerals, lemon zest, grapefruit, cream, butter, spinach, hay, umami, pear, and green olive appeared in the mouth alongside belatedly emerging straw notes and stronger impressions of sugarcane. As the tea faded, notes of minerals, malt, straw, chestnut, and corn husk came to dominate the mouth, though they were backed by hints of lemon zest, umami, sorghum molasses, butter, and sugarcane.

Brewed gongfu, this was a surprisingly thick, filling tea. I was greatly impressed by the strength of its aromas and flavors as well as its longevity. It had something of a unique profile compared to many of the other Chinese green teas I have tried; in some ways it was a little reminiscent of some of the higher end Vietnamese green teas that are currently available. Overall, I greatly enjoyed this tea, but it would not become an everyday thing for me. Its chewiness, heft, and richness marked it as being just a little much for a daily drinker. Still, I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone looking for a memorable, resilient Chinese green tea.