I bought for $1during special offer some time ago. I felt like finding a small treasure during treasure hunt.
I brewed went gongfu on this one with 3 grams of dry leaf and 100 ml water on 85 Celsius.
Infusions (in seconds)
1st: 60
2nd: 45
3rd: 60
4th: 80
5th: 120
Dry leaf is small with light roast and faint TGY aroma. Wet leaf reveals some light oxidation on edges of few leaves with slightly fresh, floral and buttery notes.
Infusion is clear with light emerald tone. Since I only took quick notes on each steep, I’ll copy-paste them and write an overall impression.
1st
Light, fresh, and buttery.
2nd
Light, fresh, buttery, a bit less floral than previous, faint citrus sour, and decent floral aftertaste.
3rd
Light, fresh, same floral tone like from previous, buttery note fades away, citrus sour more expressed than previous, and gets a bit astringent at tip.
4th
Light, fresh, floral note fading away and overall taste as well. There isn’t any sign of citrus sour.
5th
Light with even more overall loss of taste, starts to give out watery impression. Surprisingly, sour citrus appears but overall impression isn’t enough for additional steep.
When I got this a whole ounce was packed in single foil, the kind used for packing 5-8 gr of tea. I couldn’t believe it when I opened it and found a small ‘oxygen absorber’ bag. It was my first encounter with something like that in tea packaging. Quite ingenious!
First sniff made me remember of Ben Shan, but the dry leaf itself resembles TGY with tightly rolled, more roasted and more even leaf texture than Ben Shan’s.
First and second infusions are subtle, but impressive. I would recommend it to those that find TGY too strong to their taste, and than there is that buttery-ness that gives it additional character. On third steep you get a drop with buttery notes fading away and getting more of floral and citrus sour background.
