A sipdown! (M: 15, Y: 77) 15 sipdowns in one month? I think it is record for me!
Anyway, I have used last 5 grams I had. Dry leaves aroma was that strong, sheng astringent note, very drying. I did 15 seconds long rinse, which I have tossed; I found out that the leaves are easy to pry from each other, so I had a whole bottom of gaiwan filled with leaves. A good start. Wet leaves had that astringent note too, which was something I wasn’t really pleased about.
I did following steeps — 7/15/20/30/45/60/a few longer ones.
My apprehensions were wrong. It was (and I dunno how, maybe I have a good storage) very mellow, grassy, mellow tea without any astringency (that appeared only in the long steeps); with hints of stonefruits… apricots and plums (a bit raw ones) the most, florals (meadow flowers) and also some refreshing note was there. I was always happy and looking forward to next steep and all of them were just so great.
As I wrote, it has highly surprised me. Because previous attempts were just rather harsh, bitter and astringent. Last session was like completely different tea and actually, I feel I will miss this tea a bit. I am considering trying more teas from Bingdao (or Bing Dao) village, to find out if all are so astringent at first and after 9 years they will mellow.
