Lindsay Send Message

Hello, Steepster! I’ve been away for a while. Still drinking some tea, just not as much as before, and not bothering to log it. Anyway, I’ve been getting email notifications about the Sheng Olympics and will hopefully have some lovely sheng in my mailbox soon, so I thought I’d better reaquaint my palate with this kind of tea. Figured I’d start with this one as a bit of a baseline. I steeped 7g in a 4oz gaiwan, with boiling water and quick steeps, foolishly forgetting that cooler water would probably be better. Anyway, it’s quite bitter – not necessarily in a bad way, it didn’t make me stop drinking the tea, but it’s definitely at the upper end of what I consider tolerable in terms of bitterness. To balance that out, there is a lovely throat-coating sweetness that sort of randomly appears while drinking (especially if I clear my throat between sips). I got some apricot in some of the earlier steeps, especially in the aftertaste, but mostly it’s a kind of medicinal vegetal flavour. Quite bold and no-nonsense, so overall I think it worked out reasonably well as a sort of palate-cleanser. What should I try tomorrow? Maybe the autum or huangpian from this collection, or something diferent?