The smell of the dry leaves reminds me of my grandparent’s barn after my grandpa died and my grandma got rid of the cows – dusty but clean with a residual sweet smell of hay. After steeping, it smells very freshly green and rich, almost like sencha but not as grassy.
The flavor is rather delicate and sweetly floral and green with a fresh hay and flower taste going on. Really very pretty but with less mouthfeel than I’m used to having with baozhongs. Ah, there’s the mouthfeel. Apparently the tea has to cool a little bit to get that silky, almost textured quality that I’m used to/look for in this type of tea.
Second Steep: 2:00, slightly less delicate with less floral and tasting faintly of buttered greens though I can’t identify what type.
Third Steep: 3:00, a more solid flavor but I do miss the sweet hay and floral. It’s leveled out to a more buttered steamed asparagus. Based on the smell, the leaves might have one more steep in them.
Overall a nice tea that I like but I have the feeling that I should be able to get a bit more out of it. I think I’ll try this with more leaf next time and see how that goes. If it doesn’t work, I’ll up the water temp.
2.8g/5oz
