I have had 10 grams left and I never wrote a note for this tea? Let’s split it up and prepare western today. They say it can handle harsher steepings and western method definitely is.
Parameters: 5 grams / 85 °C water / 300 ml / plastic strainer / 4-5 minutes
Also, the leaves used to be more green than now; now they are definitely more yellow than they have been. I assume it is high time to sip down this lovely tea.
And how it is lovely? Well, first of all look at the picture. Long and wiry, not broken leaves, wonderful hue of fresh green color, with wonderful aroma; sadly no fuzzy leaves here.
Aroma is slightly nutty and buttery, grassy and meadowy, definitely it seems very fresh to me (this mostly applies for previous sessions, when it was much fresher). Now it is still quite nutty and grassy, but it is like a hay a bit.
When steeped:
1st steep
Definitely it is still very nice, though sadly in the flavour it is obvious it’s not so fresh anymore. The meadow notes are like in Indian summer, so hay is there; not so aromatic and floral, but lovely nutty aftertaste is still there and quite distinctive. No astringency or bitterness, even after such long steeping.
2nd steep
I would need to have side-by-side to notice differences between those two steeps. Second one seemed to me a bit more buttery and more hay-like, but that slightly nutty and some other notes like sunflower seeds are prominent.
In conclusion, it is good tea for western steeping too (I did it before though) and looking forward to use remaining leaves for gongfu steeping. It won’t last long, as I have wrote, it is high time to sipdown this tea. Afterall, it is a green tea… which tend to get over their best time quickly.
