Sipdown, 177. (I stealth sip-downed another tea by including it with some others in a cold brew). Thanks to Ellen for a sample of this tea!
This is one of those long, wiry teas that makes it impossible to portion out in a teaspoon. I used to fret about them, but now if I make them at work, western style, I just put what “looks right” into my infuser and fly by the seat of my pants. The sample that Ellen sent looked like maybe a bit much for one cup but possibly not enough for cup, so I decided to just put it all in one and only do a 1 minute steep to start. My winging-it was compounded by the fact that Tea Trekker no longer carries this tea and it doesn’t appear on their website, so there aren’t any steeping instructions for it. Nor are there any other notes for it here on Steepster. Nor is there any other tea in the database that seems to be the same type of tea from a different supplier. They describe it (preserved here on Steepster) as a green tea and/or baozhong, so I decided 180°F sounded good.
Seems to have worked out well (for any tea-newbies out there reading this, it took me a long time to become that confident winging it with an unknown tea). The steeped tea smells buttery and a bit chestnutty, and that carries over to the flavor as well. It’s a bit sweet and definitely nutty. I like the heft and body that it has, which definitely reminds me of a baozhong/pouchong over a green tea. As it cools, more floral orchid notes come out, especially in the aftertaste, which is pleasant and slightly unexpected! It’s a tasty tea, and too bad it’s not available anymore!
