28 Tasting Notes
Definitely the most dynamic young sheng I have tried. Steeped forever as well. Dry cup aroma last well into the session and actually lasted longer than any tea I’ve tried.
Just finished the sample of this tea. Enjoyed everything I’ve tried made from this varietal. It’s a unique tea for sure.
This tea started out a bit light and felt the need to push it for the first few steeps. Floral and a bit peppery with a somewhat light and sharp mouthfeel that goes into the throat. Not much bitterness or sweetness.
Middle steeps develop a rounder flavor and mouthfeel. Bit of huigan. Dry cup smell out of this world. Bitterness building pleasantly but no sweetness. Flavor very good, interesting and unique.
Later steeps I started to push this tea pretty hard and got some good bitterness which was followed by a pretty heavy astringency that almost overpowered the rest of the experience. Flavor still excellent. Shortened steep times but still got intense astringency. Still not much sweetness.
I guess I’ll just keep hitting it with water and see what happens…
Still later steeps. Finally the astringency gives way to a very clean bright soft sweetness. Wow what a nice way to end a session.
Like I said before. Dynamic. Surprised me several times. Just when I was feeling bored or overpowered with any aspect of the tea it would change up. Longest steeper I’ve encountered out of about 25 young sheng I have sampled so far, most of which are much more pricey.
Huigan overall is deep and present but not particularly strong.
Good balanced pleasant well rounded cha qi.
Definitely buying a cake.
This was one of my favorite teas from the 13 sample pack from CLT that I got a couple months ago. The best word I can think of to describe the taste is “detailed”. It’s like the flavors were sculpted and very specific. Not lacking bitterness. Not too green tasting or muddy either. Exploring the possibility that my palate loves fall teas. I hope this is true because then I can afford to build my pu’er collection a lot quicker.
Update: After trying several more fall teas including an LBZ I realized that I’m not really that into them. I just happens that one other tea I have and this Moon Princess happen to be excellent examples of fall material.
Clean, solid, dynamic tea.
First tasting of this was in a thermos with 150ml boiling water per gram. Was immediately impressed. The dry cup smell was out of this world. I really love dry cup smell and it is a big factor for me in choosing cakes.
Enjoyed this tea gong fu as well with my 60ml gaiwan using 3.5 grams. There’s some smoke in the first couple steeps which I’m not into, but after that all good. Very clean. Just enough bitterness. Not too vegetal. I’m pretty new to pu’er so not sure if lack of veg flavors is because it’s had a couple years to rest or if it is inherent to this tea. Would like to know. Good session.
Brewed up more of this sample today. 7gr in 110ml porcelain teapot. Lately I’ve been brewing tea doing 10 second steeps from start to 8, 10, 12 steeps or whenever a tea seems to be needing a push and then I put the leaves in a 500ml thermos for at least half an hour. The short steeps are nice for enjoying the more subtle flavors and enjoyed the progression of this tea. Even without the thermos portion of the session this tea is recommendable and worth buying a cake. But with the thermos steep this tea shines even more. Very thick but soft mouthfeel. Warm maple sweetness. Amazing puckering bitterness. And a huigan that stayed with me for nearly an hour.
If you have not brewed tea this way I suggest you try it. There are some things that just won’t come out of tea leaves without a thermos or boiling but boiling boils off a lot of flavors. Basically once you are two thirds of the way through a session is a good time to feed the thermos. And I’ve noticed that the better the tea, the better the results.
I cannot remember which YS tea I did this with. I used an infusing basket as work for most the night, then before I left I threw into my 40 oz Hydroflask and covered with boiling water. I steeped it untul I woke the following day hopping in the shower ( day off: off at about 7am, shkwered mid afternoon so less then 12 hours). The results were surely stewed, but so complex and amazing. The mouthfeel was soo velety. I sat in the shower sith a nice warm cup, and I thought “this is how tea should be enjoyed”
I also sometimes stew 3 to 4 grams tea in 500ml thermos and pour off a portion every 10 or 15 min making sure the last portion has stewed about an hour. This method preserves those top notes you get early in gong fu throughout the whole sesh. Lots of room to experiment too.
