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This was a pretty nice tea – I pulled a small sample out of the TTB last time I had it. The dry leaf smelled sweet and woody with a bit of a dry chocolate note to it.

I didn’t find the flavor particularly exciting, but it was certainly good. Smooth and sweet throughout. Nice texture. It was softly woody, with a bit of nuttiness. For some steeps, there was a sweet, creamy finish. The tea didn’t taste fully aged for sure. There was a bit of a “raw” note to the flavor still, which sort of tasted like a fruity flavor, but not the juicy fruit notes you can get from really young sheng. Sort of presented itself as a bit of an unripe fruit note, though…not particularly sharp either. Hard to describe. Maybe fruit rind. I didn’t pick up on any qi from this session.

I looked the tea up on YS after this session, and was surprised to see it coming in at $260/cake. Based upon this session alone, I would absolutely not spend that kind of money on this tea. That said, it’s rather unlikely I tried this tea at its best. I only had a small sample, so I just had this one session with my 60mL gaiwan. I don’t know the storage of whoever put it in the TTB or how long it was riding around in the TTB. Then it sat in my little sample bag for a few months before I got to it. That still doesn’t mean I want to go out and buy a cake, but it’s perhaps excusing this tea for not being anything more than “good” this time ’round.