The smells of Spring are all around me, and I’m inside! Fooey! To combat the doldrums, I thought I would drink a little Spring instead, since I no longer feel the need to horde this sample, since my preorder is on the way!
First steep 30 sec: The smell is much sweeter than the first time I had this tea! Probably about 60% of the sweetness in the smell of Quanzhou Milk Oolong from David’s Tea. The flavor is much fuller, and the liquid actually has a mouth-filling and smooth texture to it. The taste is very slightly floral, kind of like the general breeze during this incredible Spring we are having here in Ohio! I could finally taste the sweetness once the tea cooled a bit. A vast improvement over the last time I brewed this!
Second steep 40 sec: The floral nature of this tea has burst into the scent of it. It is now a full bouquet of lilacs and fruit tree flowers (not the spicy kind of floral, or the sweet, but the stately!). The flavor is also much more floral and a sweet aftertaste lingers. I’m having a hard time not gulping this down. It is good! A touch of minerality is beginning to creep in as it cools, along with a more ‘green’ depth to the flavor. This cup is so good, how did I miss it before?
Third steep 50 sec: Way more minerally, but the sweetness is deeper and lingers longer. Starting to taste the ‘leafiness’ of a steeped-out tea. I think only one more steep, this one isn’t nearly as nice as the first two.
Fourth steep 1 min: Yup, steeped out. Pretty much just leafy-tasting with a bit of sweetness left over.
Still, this experience was phenomenally better than the last time I brewed this tea. I think my cheap-skate-ness causes me to chronically under-leaf. Didn’t even know what I was missing!
Bumping this score up some!
Flavors: Flowers, Sweet
