2007 YQH Xishi Shenpin
7.0g, 100 mL gaiwan, boiling, complex syrup water
Dry leaf has a dark mushroomy smell
17s rinse
Wet leaf has taken on a minty herbal hint as well
7s: soft and minty, with a brothy aspect. Slight sweet aftertaste.
9s: wet leaf has a slight incense like aspect. Muted bitter taste. Slight warming, relaxing
15s: still a muted woody base. Similar slight warming and relaxing. Slight sweet, crisp aftertaste
23s: slight medicinal bitter with a mushroom hint. Sweet aftertaste, slight numbing in mouth, slight warming mostly in back and back of neck. Slightly drowsy
32s: medicinal bitterness. Slight sweet aftertaste. Relaxation and warming
20s: soft and rounded woody taste, with a slight sour medicinal note. Slight sweet aftertaste.
30s: comforting medicinal profile. Slight sweet aftertaste but fades almost immediately
45s: a sour, slightly bitter medicinal
30s: a bittersweet mushroom
1 min: slight bitter, herbal, medicinal
2 min: much stronger bitter than before. A coating bitterness lingers in aftertaste. Slight warming.
2 min.: bitter mostly receded. A sort of hollowed mushroomy taste. Slight warming.
3 min: slightly bittersweet.
5 min: not too much taste
20 min.: a tart, almost bitter and bright fruity. Will thermos the remainder.
Overall: This particular tea made me feel too tired to complete work but also too caffeinated to fall asleep. Thus, this was probably the wrong choice when I was supposed to be diligently preparing for exams, leading to overall none too pleasant connotations when I struggled on my primary midterm this morning. Shh, let me scapegoat this tea in peace. Was interesting to try, but didn’t quite command the current $/g ($2/g) for me. The cake price is especially hard to argue for when you can get similarly interesting offerings from Yang for half the price or lower (though apparently YQH has had erratic price shifts somewhat recently). I’m not sure if I would’ve caked prior to price increase, but I certainly would not with the current pricing.
