2016 "Moon Princess"

Oh. That’s nice.

I can be pretty sensitive to perfumey teas. Really dry florals in a tea can give me headaches, whereas pungent, heavy florals like citrus blossoms and bulb flowers can be wonderfully intoxicating. Based on the reviews of Moon Princess, I wasn’t looking forward to trying it.

I did not find this tea to be perfumey in the slightest. Highly fragranced, yes, as autumn teas are said to be, with impressions of tobacco, lemon, honeyed plum and jasmine. The taste is weaker but still satisfying, kind of like dry grass with dark honey that comes in and out. Nothing dominates. The swallow leaves a citric, lemony aftertaste that lingers and even an appreciable cooling sensation. The medium body deposits a soft, oily bitterness that coats the tongue, eventually leaving a numbing sensation. Later, the bitterness reminds me of blueberry skins and lavender. At first, I wasn’t feeling much energy but I later notice it, calm and defocusing. Its delayed presentation is well accepted.

I’m so far enjoying my first session with Moon Princess. While the fragrance is stronger than the taste, the liquor overall has a good balance for a young sheng, lacking the penetrating bitterness and lashing astringency that might turn away more timid explorers. Nice oolong-style daily drinker that reminds me something along the lines of a lavender-infused dark honey lemonade with blueberries, jasmine and a hint of mint. I don’t think any sheng has ever given me such a detailed impression as this one.

I had the Moon Princess for the second time today and I liked it a bit more than before. It seemed more fragrant in particular, I wonder if it could be due to the very dry air that is inevitably linked to Canadian winter. I recall hearing people talk about how short term dry weather brings out the fragrance of sheng more.

In any case, this tea is good but not spectacular (like most of what I sampled from CLT to be honest). I like that the bitterness is strong, but it’s not that interesting. A dominant note that keeps coming back both in aroma and the taste is that of honey, the dry leaf smell especially is really honey-like. On top of that, there are scents of sweet grass and ale, with a strong (matured) Camembert cheese note in the empty cup.

The taste is crisp, fragrant, and floral with a mix of sweet, umami, and bitter (think quinine) flavours. There is a bit of grassy and bark note as well. Aftertaste is dominated by a long-lasting floral sweetness in the mouth (rather than the throat). The body is medium to full and the mouthfeel is coating, slick, buttery and somewhat tongue numbing. I didn’t notice any cha qi in the two sessions I’ve had with it.

I didn’t really take good notes of this one, but I do remember it being pretty heavy on the florals, with some crisp green vegetal notes as well. Quite perfumey, as fall teas sometimes can be. I enjoyed all my sessions with it, but didn’t find it all that remarkable.

This tea is every bit as fragrant as potpourri in the first few steeps. It feels like I am being allowed/forced to drink a strong perfume. It largely dissipates by steep 4 or 5, and there is no way to know if the people lovingly packing [Btw these rectangular sample packets are very thoughtfully wrapped. After months of opening designer ziploc bags (hip and efficient but soulless, and basically impossible to reach the final bits of tea wedged into the hard inner folded corners) from other sources, I was moved by the meditative novelty of unwrapping chunks of tea swaddled like a baby in a single sheet of very intentionally designed paper. It is non-intuitive for modern times, I would not have gone with this palette, and maybe it will get tiresome as time passes, but it is a lovely human touch nonetheless. Koreans hold dear an untranslatable value called 정성 that includes, among other things, an extraordinarily high level of attention paid throughout a given task, and a version of it is palpable in this sort of packaging, which exudes warmth, expertise, focus, and care, all in one go. I think the slang for this sort of thing is “so extra”. Top marks here for memorable user experience design.] the samples are matching up the labels to the correct teas, but I would not describe this scent as vegetal or “sweet corn”. To me, it’s aggressively floral, more like lilies or lilacs or hyacinths or some other very pungent flower. I would believe it if they told me they’d accidentally splashed an eau de parfum on this tiny chunk of dried leaf. I was apprehensive to taste it at all, because I had not enjoyed teas labeled “Lincang” before. Then again, my process for brewing sheng has evolved considerably over this past year, so perhaps I should go back and give the other one another go. I don’t know yet if it’s good or bad, but these teas from CLT are so far not what I expected. The first sheng I tried from them was like warm sticky rice water, and this one was most like concentrated floral perfume. I am very curious now what the others will be like.

This was one of my favorite teas from the 13 sample pack from CLT that I got a couple months ago. The best word I can think of to describe the taste is “detailed”. It’s like the flavors were sculpted and very specific. Not lacking bitterness. Not too green tasting or muddy either. Exploring the possibility that my palate loves fall teas. I hope this is true because then I can afford to build my pu’er collection a lot quicker.

Update: After trying several more fall teas including an LBZ I realized that I’m not really that into them. I just happens that one other tea I have and this Moon Princess happen to be excellent examples of fall material.