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This was day ten of last year’s Tiger Box, which I still haven’t quite finished but am working my way through along with the last of my advent calendars. Huge thanks to Roswell Strange for making a note at the time, because this is no longer on Yao Cha’s website and I had no idea how to steep it, having never had a coin before. In retrospect, I was probably overthinking it – I’m not sure that a coin is a significantly different form than any other compressed shape, like a ball, but for some reason I was really thrown by the new-to-me shape.

So, following Roswell’s example, I steeped this up grandpa-style. I really enjoyed watching the bubbles of air escape and the shape plump up in my cup! It starts off with strong leather, roasted notes. There’s also a berry jamminess that gets stronger as the leather mellows later on, though not quite as astoundingly jammy as the scent of the dry coin. This isn’t something that I would have picked up on my own but I enjoyed it a great deal. It’s absolutely the best-case-scenario of doing a box like this: getting to experience something you otherwise wouldn’t, expanding your horizons, and really enjoying it.

What I didn’t account for was the sneaky caffeine punch in this one. I never felt jittery or wired or anything, but then I was up until 4am! Definitely should have started earlier and cut myself off earlier.