I started this one last night but dozed off after only a couple of steeps so I’m finishing it today. An advantage to keeping the house so cold and dry, I guess…it’s almost like storing my tea bottle in the fridge overnight, no gross funky spoiled tea flavors/smells if it sits for a while. I might be constantly bundled up in multiple layers of clothing or blankets and have daily nosebleeds from the dryness but at least the tea is still drinkable the next day. Priorities! (Don’t worry, my tea boxes get Boveda packets so they don’t have to endure the 20% humidity with me)
I haven’t met a chenpi tea I didn’t like. Big O v2 smells more orangey than it tastes to me but it’s tasty. It smells really good. I would buy a candle or potpourri or something that smells like this tea. Or maybe a bath product. (You listening, Lush? Enough with the chocolate-orange and citrus with more citrus blends, give me a chenpi pu-erh bath melt). It’s pleasantly tongue-tingly. Compared to Channel Orange, this one falls apart quickly and seems more “normal”. There isn’t anything really mind-blowing or complicated about it, it’s just good. Good, happy, sleepy tea that doesn’t make my brain hurt trying to figure out what I’m tasting.
It’s interesting to see how your tea habits change over time. Last winter I was really into ripe pu-erh with rose petals and raw cha gao. Over the summer/autumn it was more green teas and trying to find a raw pu-erh I really like. This winter I’ve been drinking lots of chenpi ripes and moonlight white.
