78

First to be tried out of my Secret Santea teas! Thanks again, twinofmunin! I made this today with 205 F thermos water, 100 ml preheated ruyao gaiwan with a short rinse. It starts off light wood, with the main flavoring being the light, but distinct humid basement storage that reminded me faintly of the funk of shou. That fades out pretty much completely by the second steep and we’re left with a distinct dried fruit and green wood breadiness in the cup that tastes surprisingly like Fig Newtons, honestly.

This base of fig newton flavor lasts for a solid three of the beginning steeps, although each individual flavor progresses and intensifies throughout, getting more syrupy, smokey, sweet, and astringent as the session goes on. The accompanying qi is very settling, like how sediment settles and collects on the bottom, with a bit of heaviness, but not to the point of actually feeling weighted down.

Overall, very calming and interesting tea with a bevvy of transforming flavors and a nice dried fruit wood base that I enjoyed. My main issue is, as usual, the considerable dryness/astringency present throughout, but it was quite enjoyable even with that, and a solid amount of aging for a 2011 in both flavor and color, which was a nice orange.

Flavors: Cookie, Drying, Fig, Green Wood, Herbs, Smoke, Sugarcane, Wood

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 8 g 3 OZ / 100 ML

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Bio

Favorite Tea Type: Darker oolong and sheng puerh

Rating Scale:

90-100: Amazing. Will buy and keep on hand all the time if finances and circumstances allow.

80-89: Strong argument for keeping it around all the time, even more than the prospect of trying more new tea. It’s that good.

70-79: Pretty solid. Glad I tried it, several factors that were unique or that I highly enjoyed.

60-69: Nothing that stands out for the most part, but with a quality or two that speaks to me.

50-59: Fairly run of the mill, pleasant but not much more to be said.

40-49: Something here is off putting in an otherwise decent tea.

30-39: There are a few things wrong with this tea. I did not enjoy.

20-29: Disliked this, could maybe see something, some redeeming quality in it others might find worth drinking without spitting back out.

10-19: Begin to question whether any tea is actually, in fact, better than no tea.

0-9: This causes actual food poisoning.

Location

Washington

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