A sample from White Antlers’ Swedish Death Purge — I hope you’re well wherever you are.
A good pick for a Sunday morning in which the valley is again blanketed by autumn’s marine layer. The cool weather complements the scent of the dry leaf which has pleasant aged notes of old books, forest mushrooms, bamboo grove, an old leather jacket embedded with the smoke of a long-ago extinguished campfire, remnants of dried cherry and jerky in the pocket. Overall, the leaf scent is a combination of lukewarm-dry and cool-damp-petrichor associations.
The warmed leaf smells like a dense walnut bread with brown gravy as part of maybe some kind of eastern European meat dish. TCM comes to mind as well. Rinsing mellows this aroma and brings out a hint of berry-ish wintergreen.
In terms of aroma and flavor, it is not a particularly penetrating tea. Most notable in expression are its mild alkalinity and smooth and flowing, almost creamy mouthfeel. Some gentle effects present on the tongue such as a numbing of the tip and a mild tannic rasp. The expression of flavor is a very rounded warm nutty-woody, cool limestone and gentle TCM character with steeps that range from probably 30 seconds to several minutes long. Not until the second steep can I pick up on the low-sitting aroma of dried jujube, olives and latex hidden within the liquor.
I agree with Togo’s description of the energy as sedating and would also say it is soothing in a way that wandering through a foggy old-growth forest with an old friend can feel.
It’s been a while since I’ve had aged heicha and this was a gentle re-acquaintance.
Flavors: Alkaline, Bamboo, Bark, Bread, Campfire, Cherry, Dates, Leather, Limestone, Meat, Mushrooms, Nutty, Olives, Paper, Petrichor, Round, Smooth, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Walnut, Wet Earth, Wintergreen, Woody
