This is a standard ‘every day’ shou. I used 10g in a 150ml duan ni (Fang’gu shape) pot with boiling water and rinsed twice. The first few steeps were a bit on the pale side, but it got nice and dark after steep 3. It’s good for about 5 infusions, after which it weakens noticably.
Worth noting that this just arrived from China after a 2 month wait and I haven’t let it rest or aired it out. So this might not be entirely fair.
The tuo is quite loose in compression, but possibly my example was a bit on the dry side. Inserting a pick had tea practically falling off the tuo.
It tastes pleasant, mine has a vague concrete note, probably from the floor piling or storage. The main flavour notes are earth, wood and nut shells, more specifically it’s like concrete dusted walnut shells and the smell of fresh rain. It’s lost any of the ‘wo dui’ and gives a nice clear reddish soup. There’s a slight hint of charcoal minerality or smoke at the very end.
Not bad tea, very clean and transparent soup. It’s dry (mildly astringent) without being sour and never bitter. Smooth, but not creamy or thick in mouthfeel and in terms of ‘energy’ this is very mild.
It just doesn’t ‘stand out’ much. If you’re looking for an everyday non-sweet, nutty cup of shou, this could be a winner.
Good, but a bit boring (it’s pretty cheap). So we’ll say 3-star tea. Maybe it’ll get better after a few months of ‘awakening’. I have a lot of tea to get through though, and the five cakes I have will be in storage for quite a while before I revisit it.
When I was young, we would boil up ‘black walnuts’ and pour it over the muddy ground to summon worms (which we used as fishing bait). This reminds me of those wet steaming ground puddles.
Flavors: Walnut, Wet Earth
