Well, I finally have summer classes out of the way. Finals week ended yesterday, and I should be looking at straight A’s for the term. I would be more proud myself, but this is like the fourth time I have found myself back in school, so it stands to reason that I should have the whole school thing down by now. Probably the best thing for me now is that I finally have time to start getting some more tea reviews posted. This was one of my more recent sipdowns. I think I finished it around the end of last week. My only prior experience with Yunnan Sourcing Shui Xian was borderline terrible, so I did not expect much from this tea. Fortunately for me, this turned out to be very nice. It was not the best Wuyi Shui Xian I have had, but I certainly enjoyed it.
I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 205 F water for 6 seconds. This infusion was chased by 16 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, and 10 minutes.
Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of cinnamon, ginger, raisin, and dark wood. After the rinse, I noted new aromas of roasted almond, roasted peanut, smoke, and bizarrely enough, dried cranberry. The first infusion then brought out hints of rock sugar on the nose. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of cinnamon, raisin, ginger, roasted almond, roasted peanut, rock sugar, and smoke backed by subtle impressions of brown toast and grass. Subsequent infusions saw char, roasted green beans, mushroom, and cannabis appear on the nose, while new impressions of roasted green beans, char, cannabis, mushroom, tobacco, cooked spinach, cream, lemon, and tart cherry appeared in the mouth. Dried cranberry and dark wood notes also emerged in the mouth around this time, and I was just able to catch some faint hints of nutmeg in the background. The final infusions presented lingering notes of minerals, cream, raisin, and dark wood balanced by fleeting roasted nut and lemon accents and a belatedly emerging popcorn impression.
A surprisingly pleasant Wuyi Shui Xian, I would definitely be willing to purchase a more recent version of this tea if one were to ever be stocked. I particularly appreciated the nice balance of nutty, woody, fruity, and vegetal components, and this tea certainly displayed a satisfying longevity and nice texture in the mouth. Overall, I have no major complaints with this tea. The only real knock I can throw out here is that I have had other teas of this type that I have enjoyed somewhat more.
Flavors: Almond, Brown Toast, Cannabis, Char, Cherry, Cinnamon, Cranberry, Cream, Dark Wood, Ginger, Grass, Green Beans, Lemon, Mineral, Mushrooms, Nutmeg, Peanut, Popcorn, Raisins, Smoke, Spinach, Sugar, Tobacco
