This is a tea I bought back in 2013 and have slowly been consuming since; eyeballing, I’ve got roughly half a cake left, and I currently plan on dragging that out for the long haul. Looking back on some notes I took when I first tasted this, it’s interesting to see how this has evolved. At the time, I noted tobacco and smoke, with some mild qi; this differs substantially from my impressions today.

Admittedly, the nose on the initial steep was much as I remember it, with camphor and notes that I can best describe as minty (common to a lot of semi-aged stuff; I’m pretty sure this is wrong); this was present in the flavor and recurred a couple of times throughout the session, but didn’t dominate. Instead, I noticed mostly lightly bitter, alkaline notes on the first several steeps, not unlike those in the 2012 Essence of Tea bulang, although not quite as pronounced. The flavor was remarkably pure, with no noticeable smoke and a slightly bitter, cooling finish. As the session continued, the flavor deepened, moving into dark fruit territory, albeit with a distinct sour note riding atop it. This sourness was new, even in the past six months; it came and went throughout the session, missing from some steeps entirely only to reappear on the next, and I’m not quite sure what to think of it. The qi was gripping: while drinking the last of the third steep, I suddenly found myself, cup in mid-air, staring intently at the bookshelf.

The evolution in this tea has been interesting, though the appearance of sourness has me more than a little concerned. I recently exposed my tea to far too much cold, as I currently keep it in my apartment in a sealed plastic tub, which had been by a very large window; this worked fine in the summer, but with temperatures dipping below freezing, the tea got properly frigid. I’ve relocated my storage away from the window, and with any luck, things will normalize themselves. Suffice it to say, though, that I’ll keep an eye on this tea and revisit it in a couple of months.

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