“floral aromas and juicy character of this tea lull the drinker into an ease of drinking that masks the potency of this tea.” I concur.
dry leaf smells amazing
First cha-hai was amazingly good, aromatic perfume coming from cup, juicy, smooth, really easy to drink. flavor was very good, it reminds me of northern teas. there’s a honey-like, sweet floral lilac (?) perfume from cup. I held cup to my nose for a whole minute just smelling and enjoying it
goes down very smooth and is smooth to drink, no throat catch, but slight astringency interferes with smoothness.
second cha-hai was very boring, vegetal, monotonous, and effortful to drink. I had to actually force myself to drink it and it was not settling in my stomach. I realized I was still drinking this out of habit, so as to not waste tea, but really not liking it.
after 2nd cha-hai the aftertaste wasn’t bad, but it started to annoy. vegetal with a hint of tangy, cloying, bland/sour after taste. the aftertaste was also sticky and mouth coating, in an unpleasant way.
But wait, there’s more! At the end of the session is when all the stuff happened. the kuwei and strong cooling huigan showed up. I had to lean back and started taking deep heavy breathing – right when I was about to discount this tea is when the tea showed up to the party and made me relax and rethink.
Summary: this tea is extremely smooth body, good perfume in the first few steeps…then some intermission you have to suffer through (drink the bitter tea?) then you get to the nice effects (huigan, kuwei, chaqi). However, I didn’t get any qi in later sessions.
Overall this tea was light but still had some kick to it that I think this could withstand a little aging, but I’m not sure if it will improve with age or in what direction it will develop. It also seems like maybe its already entering that “weird” phase even though its only 2 years old, but I don’t know.
I think its way too expensive for what this tea is delivering. Its good, or rather its not bad, but for $.79/g, I’d be better off buying a higher end cake of some other (older) boutique tea.