5.5/90/212
wet: berries, smoke, sweet
2 flash rinses, since the small chunks were very compressed.
1st: barnyard and musk in aroma. minty bitter taste upfront, but something floral about it. Quite smoky and strong, and a BBQ note, as well as a sour note. Calming, but not overwhelming… yet.
2nd: BBQ, sour in taste, floral aftertaste
3rd: similar
4th: smoky, woody, meaty
mugged after since I was distracted. Overall not super comfortable to drink yet, imo. energy is activating rather than downing, and some age will help smoothen out the edges. bought a sample from Hou De since I wasn’t sure I wanted to cake blind at $550 a pop (450g). The 2001 8653 at TWL is $385 for a 357g cake, and the 2001 iron Zhongcha (not official XG, 310g) is $290. I’ve heard good things about the iron zhongcha, and at ~30% premium for this cake compared to that I couldn’t really spring.
edit to add pic of wet leaf (not sure why it looks so green in the uploaded pic. IRL is a little more orange-ish red on the edges of some leaves, and then more of a camo brown green, indicative of some aging and heat, but still having a ways to go): https://imgur.com/a/jc1i1eC
