A friend of mine visited me for a tea session (and swap) today, this one was the highlight of the day’s menu. I haven’t tried it in almost a year and a half, so it was definitely nice to revisit this beast of a tea.
The dichotomic nature of the bitterness I mentioned in my previous note was once again very apparent today. The second one – present in the aftertaste of later steeps – reminded me of quinine. Another distinction we noted between the two kinds of bitterness was that while the early one was very broad and seemed to attack the whole mouth if not the whole head in fact, the later one was more restricted to a tongue sensation.
In terms of the overall impression, I would say the tea was certainly less bright, even though we brewed it in a silver pot this time round. The herbaceous and woody character was more present, and there were also some notes of root vegetables (parsley, celery) and their stalks. I thought I detected the faintest hint of smoke in the aroma towards the second half of the session, but only just about.
Flavors: Bitter, Celery, Drying, Fruity, Grapefruit, Herbaceous, Herbs, Mineral, Parsley, Plant Stems, Sap, Sweet, Thick
