This tea was harvested in 2006, so it’s 13 years old now. It was a bold, strong roasty-toasty aroma. The roasted flavor is hard to describe because it’s strong roasted flavor but not campfire like nor charcoal-y. It’s an embracing roasted flavor, and yet they mention the 5 years one they have even more of that taste. How can that be? This was so toasty and full, all-encompassing and had subtle sweet fruit notes. The roasted flavor was the star but it wasn’t the only player. It has lots of mineral rock sweetness, some dark cocoa bitterness with dried sweet fruit, blackcurrant, red berries, some unique spices, and yummy roasted almonds. The roasted taste mellowed as the infusions went and the fruitiness and minerals came forward to offer their dance but the toasted flavor never let up, never gave up the stage completely. It is a complex cup of tea, very smooth and delicious. The finish is long lasting, interesting… After the last sip, I can still smell the toasty fragrance, a stonefruit exhale through my nose… Or is that roasted currant? It’s kind of like jams or jellies on the exhale. The smooth liquor coming in, the roasted almonds and dried fruits on the exhale, and then the curious feeling on my tongue. As Togo mentioned, a powdery feeling.
Yixing pot, 8g, 212°F, 130ml, rinse, 11 steeps: 10s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 35s, 45s, 55s, 1m5s, 1m15s, 1m30s, 2m.
Flavors: Almond, Black Currant, Cocoa, Dark Bittersweet, Dark Chocolate, Jam, Mineral, Roasted, Roasted Nuts, Stonefruit, Sweet, Toasty, Wet Rocks
