Brewed gong fu in a 170ml unglazed interior teapot at boiling.
Bought this cake blind based on all the really positive notes on it. Not expecting it to blow my mind, but I don’t mind having a solid shou in my cupboard. The cake smells woody and slightly musty, which concerns me slightly, but thats somewhat common with puer
Rinse: cup aroma after feeding to my tea pets is like a distant campfire, not too smoky though. Liquid is a transparent red-orange
1st steep (15s, ~65% full since the tea hasnt opened yet): still orange-red, not as transparent. Pot aroma is like old books. The tea hasnt opened up yet still, which is apparent in the flavor – shou notes, but a bit wattery
Steep 2 (17s, full): Color deepens to a blackened orange. Not completely opaque, but getting close. Pot aroma is old books and tibetan incense. The flavor is still curiously a bit light. The tea still hasnt fully opened up in the pot, so I think that’s part of it. mostly just distant shou notes, but not really bready at all.
Steep 3 (25s): Color is basically opque black-brown, burnt orange at the edges. I jostled the leaves a bit in the pot with my finger to encourage them to separate a bit before this steep. Flavor is finally remarkable – the musty scent note reveals itsself in flavor, spread amongst maybe a soil and sandalwood with an incense spice. A wood note in the mid level. Not at all bready in contrast to the shou I had yesterday.
Steep 4 (30s, 70% full): Color is a shade lighter, in between steep 3 and 2. Flavor has the wood note coming forward more in this steep. Musty notes have mostly moved to the back. Overall flavor is dark, wood notes (not pine or cedar, maybe oak)
Steep 5 (50s, full): Getting the sense I need to push the tea a bit based on the last color. Wood and incense/sandalwood notes forward here, but flavor has weakened.
Steep 6 (1-2 minutes maybe): Color is a shade lighter still. wood and spicy incense notes forward, no must.
Steep 7 (long time): Color is dark amber, but not as dark as the darkest steep. Considering I let it steep for around 10 minutes, I think the tea is done here. The tasting notes are a bit stronger than the last steep, same wood and incense spice, oak further in the back
Overall: A good non-bready shou, which is nice to have in my stock, but honestly, at least from this first experience, not remarkable. I’m not upset for buying it especially at the price I got it, but I might not have opted for it in search of something a bit more compelling. I saw a lot of people talk about smoke notes, and maybe its because I drink a fair number of actually smoked teas, but I didn’t detect any smoke apart from distant notes in the pot aroma. To be clear its not bad in any way, just I think a bit over hyped in the grand scheme, maybe properly hyped for the price-to-quality ratio if you don’t have a lot of shu already
Flavors: Incense, Oak, Sandalwood, Soil, Wood
