2011 XG Huang Jin Yun 下关黄金韵 (simplified) or 下關黃金韻 (traditional)
From LiquidProustTeas, ordered as part of golden Xiaguan sampler
212f, Brita filtered tap, 6.6g, 100 mL gaiwan
Dry leaf has a light mushroomy smell
10s rinse
wet leaf has something of a burnt wood, campfire-y smell. Dark, but not nearly as forward or as crisp as a lapsang souchong might be.
7s: herbaceous and cooling, leaving a slight minty edge on the tongue. Lightly woody and mushroomy
11s: definitely brisk as LP’s description said. A bitter note appears that fades into the same herbaceous, cooling, and mushroomy profile overall
15s: less bitter, more rounded. More cooling with the mint edge sort of way, but less herbaceous and mushroomy.
25s: bitter woody mushroom. The minty edge is much lightened and takes on an almost sweet aspect
31s: losing steam. A bit drying.
1 min: woody water with an edge. Tossing into thermos.
Overall: Glad I finally got around to trying this one. Need to get better at sample organization, as I have unintentionally built up a sample backlog that probably rivals my actual tea collection, which is a little sad for me. slight caffeine buzz. Would recommend to leaf heavier on this one. A very affordable aged tea (pressed from 2003 maocha) if you like this profile, and probably hard to beat for the price + age + HK storage (from what I can tell anyway, and I believe LP sourced from Cloud’s Teahouse iirc). Not a personal favorite, but I can’t say I particularly dislike it either.
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Just a chronicle of a stranger’s tea journey. Keeping old notes up to see progression, but no longer really believe in all of them. Trying to learn!!
As of 4/21/21, I will no longer assign numerical ratings to a tea unless it is terrible enough to warrant one. There are a fair amount of solid teas out there, and reading mildly subjective reviews from others > very subjective numerical rating that gets skewed by Steepster’s calculating system anyway.
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