This tea was quite inexpensive, $34.99 for a big 660g cake. It was also fairly tasty. Berylleb sells some good stuff. I don’t figure buying a whole tea without sampling it is too much of a risk with Berylleb. This one had a lot a fermentation taste left of course as it was a 2016 ripe tea. But it did not find that taste unpleasant or fishy. It seemed clean tasting to me. It was also somewhat bittersweet at the start. It slowly turned into a sweet taste. Not sure how to describe that note however. It did not seem chocolaty to me. It will be interesting to see what this develops into given a couple of years of aging. Overall it was quite good. It’s not for those with an aversion to fermentation taste though.
I steeped this twelve times in a 120 ml gaiwan with 10g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. The leaves weren’t done at twelve. They would have gone a few more steeps if I wanted to continue but I rarely take a tea past twelve steeps.
Flavors: Dark Bittersweet, Earth, Sweet
