This is going to be my first time trying to write any sort of tasting notes so please go easy on me! ;~;
I tried brewing this in a relatively new little yixing pot that I got for roasted oolongs. I stuffed it as full of leaves as I could get it, which came out to around 6.5g. After doing a quick rinse and getting the pot warm, I started with really short steeps lasting only around 1 second or so for the first few infusions, then gradually started to add more time later.
The dry leaf smells a lot like honey, with a little bit of floral and charcoal behind it. The paper that came with this month’s teas mentioned a cannabis smell, which the wet leaf does remind me of, but again with the same charcoal and floral smells with it.
The tea itself has a fairly thick mouthfeel to it which I found pleasant. The first thing I tasted was a roasty flavor which then gave way to stone fruits and some sweetness. The mineraly rock taste normal for yancha is present in the back of the mouth and is very noticeable when swallowing. The first few infusions have a really strong, fruity aftertaste that I loved, and it lasted pretty long.
In later infusions, the roasted taste at the start became less noticeable and the other flavors started to feel really well balanced and smooth. Usually I find the rock taste in yancha to be a bit rough, but not at all with this tea. The aftertaste also started to taste sweeter and not as fruity.
Overall I really enjoyed this tea. Normally I’m not really into Wuyi oolongs, but the past couple months of this tea club have been really great and made me appreciate good yancha a lot more than I used to. Tomorrow I’ll get to trying the other Qilan that came paired with this one and I’ll be able to compare the two!
Flavors: Mineral, Roasted, Stonefruit
