I only got a sample of this instead of a cake. I was tempted to get a cake due to price but I never tried it and just wanted a sample first. Dry the leaf smelled so good, so sweet! Kind of like a mix of brown sugar and caramel…mmmm! There was a hint of a spicy note, like cinnamon, and a hint of pepper with underlying creaminess. It smelled like a nice rich dessert!
I brewed this gaiwan style at boiling after an initial rinse. The wet leaf was more spicy and sweet, it kind of reminded me of a darker oolong rather than a puerh. There was a hint of tobacco I was picking up. The infusion was a lot like the dry smell, nice sweet and creamy.
The first steep was 5 seconds and amazing! It had notes of sweet caramel, it was smooth with a bit of creaminess and a nutty note. It was very similar to almond the way the notes and textures blended together.There was a hint of a floral note that I couldn’t pinpoint, the was also a juicy fruit-like note that I couldn’t pinpoint either with a vegetal note in the background.
The second steep was for 6 seconds and tasted like tobacco but still retained the sweetness from before. But along with the tobacco was now an ash note that was not pleasant. I let it cool off a bit and the ash note faded and the almond note came back with vegetal note in the background again.
The third steep was for 30 seconds and apparently way too long. The ash note was strong and coated my mouth in a very unpleasant way, akin to licking an ashtray…yeah not good.
Fourth and fifth steeps I took back down to 3 seconds and was rewarded with vegetal notes and sweet tobacco notes. I’m afraid that I’m still tasting a little bit of ash, but I can’t tell if it’s from these steeps or lingering from the last one.
I’ll leave unrated for now until I try again.
