Trying this one again to see how it does for me at a lower temp. Based on how the dry leaf smells (sweet, rich and nectar-y), I can’t imagine not liking it but I sure didn’t have success with it the first time we met.
Post-steeping, I’m getting a rich and fresh smell. Reminds me of a pouchong, which is good because I do adore me some pouchong. Sipping and yeah, this is so far much more successful than my last encounter. It’s got a pouchong-like floral richness to it even though the taste is fairly mild. Heavy but floral – more like nectar than flowers with maybe a little hair of buttery thrown it. There is still a hint of the super-dark green flavor that I tasted previous, but now it isn’t overly heavy and comes just at the end of the sip, which makes the overall taste seem much lighter and more balanced. Before, that taste made this fall a little flat for me but now it adds a little depth and keeps the tea from being a total floral puff of insubstantial lightness.
As it cools, that darker green taste spreads through the tea, but the lightness is still stronger so once again, this makes it feel balanced to me, not heavy on the dark side. That dark green taste is starting to show up more like… fresh peas or plants. In the back yard of the house I grew up in, we had this little swampy section that had some cattails growing in it. My dad, being the alternative food kind of guy that he is, read that parts of the cattail leaf were edible. So yeah, call me a guinea pig. It was a light green and fairly textured but mild tasting and very much like eating a thick but young leaf (which is exactly what it actually was). That’s the taste this dark green flavor, the heavy flavor, is turning in to. Which sounds weird but is actually pretty pleasant.
Okay, lower temp is the way to go for my enjoyment here. To recap: flower nectar and young cattail leaves, balanced nicely to give a good, interesting flavor with nice depth while still remaining a relatively mild (but not truly delicate) tea.
