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August w2t club, ~90g cake. Loving the back-and-forth between the white flavors and the dark smoke. Bitterness is welcomed in later steepings and melds the two together. My mind was fooled into thinking that I was having a smoky aged sheng during gaps in the session. Great focusing energy.

Curious how it’d be if the smoke were dialed back just a little bit.

Haven’t been on here that much lately which makes me a little sad. :( Been dealing with some mental health stuff but I’m on the mend. Drinking plenty tea just not logging it.

Mellow, lasting shou with calming, restorative energy. Starts off with the sweet, woodsy shou profile I’ve come to expect, then has a subtle zing to it, like peppery umami.

First experience with an old sheng, and it was excellent. The foresty goodness I crave for was so vibrant and complex here. Interesting notes of a brick oven and fresh rice. Hui gan was like an empty cinnamon Altoids tin. Great mood lifting energy. I brought this home as a sample but I’d like to try it at the tea house next time.

Great session. Floral, sweet, smooth at first, later fruity, thick, bell peppery, brassy. Sharp tingly quality on the tongue as I’m drinking, then that same sharp tingly quality at the bottom of my throat as I swallow. Became unpleasant when I overbrewed an individual steeping and that effect became too strong. Felt like I had to tame those demons.

Got so many steepings out of this one that I lost count. After a 30-second rinse, steepings were 15 seconds then at most like 30 to 40 seconds by the end. Astringency and bitterness never really came up. Despite the consistently short brew times, flavors were never light.

Just such a fan of this one, thematically. The appropriateness of the name, the evil, murky feeling it conjured up, the care and/or luck needed to get each steeping right, and the music I was listening to at the time (Shinichi Atobe which is uhhh, experimental house maybe? It matched this session perfectly).

Oh, I’ll finally be drinking from something other than YS and w2t! Just got an order from CLT and also subscribed to OWT club. I know there’s so much more out there but it’s easier to just focus on a couple stores at a time, for me at least.

Knew this was going to be an enjoyable session from the fragrance alone. Fruity reds just instantly bring a smile to my face.

First steeping was my favorite. No bitterness and the medicinal quality was strongest. I was lazy and used only the loose bits in the sample, usually I throw in three quarters larger pieces and one quarter loose bits, so I suspect that may have front-loaded the session. Later a fruity bitterness with a steady complexity. Still pretty good. Managed to get ten steepings out of it.

Euphoric, magical energy, though the weather change and setting are likelier to be the cause of that. Windowsill gong fu at predusk with a nice fall breeze wafting through my new sheer curtains just hits different.

https://i.imgur.com/fALne5c.jpg

Powerful beginning astringency that overwhelms, followed by great sweetness and hui gan. Full bodied and complex. Lovely fragrance. I get the feeling that this would be great for aging. Energy is not physical nor mental, but rather emotional— feeling uplifted.

$250 for the whole cake eh? Add it to my list of sheng to consider buying and aging after my first or second year of newbie tea exploration.

Nice blend. I’ve grown a bit bored of rooibos and how inoffensive it is but this one was punchy enough to regain my interest.

Sample from a Sips By box.

So unusual. I don’t have a good basis of comparison for this type of oolong. For all I know, this could be a common profile.

Strong scent of a charring onion over a flame, burnt rice. I initially recoiled at the smell of the wet leaf but sipping it was fine, the sweetness took over. I get a charcoal mustiness throughout. Transitioning to a deep dark chocolatiness in later steepings. I like it.

Wallowing in my emotions today. Better to have this than actual bourbon. Threw into a mug to refill. Sidenote. It feels kinda weird for me to use the phrase grandpa style when both my grandfathers were dead before I was born. So I’ll just say “threw into a mug to refill.”

Anyway I like this a lot. It works. Tastes like I imagined it.

Some body-tingling energy for just a couple of minutes that prompted relaxation. Nice evening tea.

I took a photo for the cover image, hope it’s okay! Tried my best with the color grading.

Listening to So Real by Jeff Buckley.

Vastly prefer the 2001 Te Ji grade Chen Xiang. I’ve been spoiled by that one.

But I wasn’t disappointed by this session. It stood in as a sort of ghostly memory of the former’s taste profile and progression, though it lacked the energy. It was enjoyable to discover this.