2017 "Whispering Sunshine"

When I tried this tea more than a year ago, I thought it was nice – as a green tea. It really smelled and tasted like a Yunnan green tea, had a lightly coloured green/yellow liquor, very green leaves and little bitterness. Maybe only the wet leaf aroma was a bit distinctive in that regard, with notes such as sage, manure, and freshly cut grass.

Since I’ve heard that pu-erh processed on the green side doesn’t age well, I decided not to finish my sample but rather keep it around to see how it progresses over time. After today’s session, I can definitely say that the tea has not improved in one year – quite the opposite. While before it had the bright, crisp and floral character with sugar peas sweetness and notes of green bell peppers, apple skin, or lemongrass among others; now it just tastes like a stale green tea. The liquor is still lightly coloured for a 3 year old sheng, although a bit more on the brownish side. The main problem is that the taste is very muted and lost most of its edge.

There is some nice huigan for sure, but the aftertaste is also affected by this taste of stale green tea underlying it. In terms of cha qi, I feel like the tea hasn’t lost anything and it is probably the main aspect that would differentiate it from an old green tea. In particular, it induces a strong throat-warming sensation and makes me feel full of energy.

Sunshine? Not here much today. it is cloudy, quite cold. Finally.

But the name is very nice. As well the dry leaf aroma; it is quite floral; violets and some other flowers. No rinse.

1st steep is 15 seconds, pours light yellow-green liquor. It became bit more fruity in aroma and vegetable (cucumbers). In taste light and bit of citrus fruits, but not so much. Maybe bit of stonefruits.

2nd / 30 s.
Lemongrass; by heichaholiday? True too! Now it is full of different flavours. Lemongrass, stonefruits, just more full-bodied.

3rd / 45 s.
Maybe little of white grapes appear.

4th / +- 60 s.
Little of astringency appeared. Good though.
Of course I continued, but it just had mood (and time) to write these.

Song pairing (sad): https://publisher.bandcamp.com/track/never-wanted

Thank you derk for sample; I used all in one go.

If you’re out there Crimson Lotus, I think your description of this tea is perfect.

Clear, sparkling gold liquor with some fruity tones (not tastes) like cucumber-melon, apricot and citrus. I can see how others describe lemongrass from previous years. Apricot aftertaste early on leaves by the third steep. Second steep my note says YUM. Here I noticed some cooling on the swallow and a warm and spicy peppery bite in the throat. By the fourth steep, this transformed into a medium returning sweetness. Fifth steep brought out a very rounded savory and bright tone, I want to say like baked lemon and yellow squash. The tea lasted another 10 steeps without much change from there. Cha qi was interesting… kind of meditative — knocked me out for about 20 minutes. I could feel something like waves of long, thick golden-brown hair flowing out of my eyebrows and cheekbones.

A really clean and bright tea with very little bitterness and astringency and not super sweet. Very refreshing with a medium to light body and some smooth oiliness. I can see why Crimson Lotus likes to take this on hikes. So far this is my favorite from the sheng sampler.

Hey it’s #300.

You know how sometimes you’re feeling kind of bleh and know tea would help? Yeah, that was last night. It had been raining all day but it was hot and I had a dry throat.

I pulled Whispering Sunshine from out and it was perfect. Cucumber, lemongrass, and some vegetal flavor later on. Good balance of sweetness and bitterness. Great qi. I was really feeling it around the jaw and inner ear, just warmth, lightness, faint tingling.

Normally, I’m not in the proper mood for this tea, I have some maocha from Hidden Song that I prefer to day to day drinking as it has more bitterness, but last night this was a 10/10. I can see why Glen takes his hiking.