Dry Leaf – Sweet and faintly earthy.
Wet Leaf – Sweet, creamy with citrus notes
Liquor – Dark Bronze / Brown
Gong Fu in 5oz Porcelain Gaiwan 6-7g
1st 5secs – Clean and soupy/bread/pastry taste up front. As it washes down it becomes sweet and peppery. The aftertaste is sweet like sugarcane and lingers in the mouth.
2nd 3secs – Creamy and sweet up front. As it washes down it becomes slightly savory with bread/pastry like taste that is smooth with slight puckery pepper finish. The aftertaste is sweet, creamy with citrus hints.
3rd 4secs – Creamy, pepper and sweet up front. As it washes down it has a creamy, bread-like taste followed by some citrus notes that linger through the aftertaste. The aftertaste is sweet and refreshing.
4th 4secs – Creamy, sweet, citrus notes and peppery up front. As it washes down it is creamy, bread/pastry/like that lingers. The aftertaste is sweet and refreshing.
5th 7secs – Creamy, sweet, citrus up front. As it washes down it becomes peppery and has a savory pastry/bread taste that lingers for a bit. The aftertaste is sweet and refreshing.
6th 11secs – Creamy, sweet and smooth up front. As it washes down it becomes peppery and has a savory pasty/bread taste that lingers, a citrus notes appears before the aftertaste takes over. The aftertaste is sweet, smooth and refreshing.
7th 16secs – Creamy, sweet, smooth and slightly citrus up front. As it washes down it has a smooth pastry/bread taste that linger a bit before turning peppery. The aftertaste is sweet, smooth and refreshing.
8th 22secs – Creamy, sweet, smooth and citrus up front. As it washes down the liquor has a faint bread taste with smoothness that turns peppery. The aftertaste is sweet and refreshing.
Final Notes – This cake is beautiful, small.. but beautiful. You can easily appreciate the fact that is hand made as the pressing is not too tight and you can easily separate the buds. This was completely hand made which is the main reason I decided to use short steeps to ‘better appreciate’ the teas as it opens/changes. I will try it later with longer steeps but I doubt I will like it more than I did this way (I might prove myself wrong).
The liquor is very sweet and clean with a slight creaminess/smoothness that makes it pleasant. The camphor is light but strong enough to notice. It took 10 steeps pretty well with the 10th (1 minute) being slightly weak in depth but I since the tea is sweet it allows you to to have a sweet break even if other notes are faded.
