85

Date drunk: 2023 Jan 17th
- Purchased and first opened this sample in 2020, so it’s been ‘ageing’ in Singapore for the past 2-3 years.
- 5g in 100ml porcelain gaiwan
- Wet leaf smells like chocolate bread with a bit of funk – lovely
- Rinsed twice
- First infusion (100˚C, 0:15)
- Leaves smell sweet like baking bread and dried cherries.
- Liquor pale amber. Flavour still a bit light, maybe because I had just manually pried open the leaves before this so it’s like another rinse? Sweet aftertaste, not heavy sweetness but light like… sugarcane?
- Rating: 76
- 2nd infusion (100˚C, 0:15)
- Leaves smell like chocolate bread.
- Liquor clear dark reddish-brown. Full-bodied, delicious, sweet, mushrooms, wet rocks, bittersweet chocolate. Faint woodiness. This tastes like a pinnacle infusion for me.
- Rating: 88
- 3rd infusion (100˚C, 0:15)
- Liquor clear very dark brown colour. Tastes chocolatey. I’m also getting a lot of umami, mushrooms, brothiness, wheat. No earthiness or mustiness, which is how I like it.
- Rating: 89
- 4th infusion (100˚C, 0:30)
- Very smooth and nice. Sweetness is gone and a tiny bit of sharpness has crept in. Will drink this with my breakfast.
- Rating: 83
- 5th infusion (100˚C, 0:45)
- Even smoother and silkier than the previous. Still got chocolate notes, along with wheat, shimeji mushrooms, and almost creaminess.
- Rating: 90
- 6th infusion (100˚C, 1:00)
- Rating: 83

Verdict: Want to try this in a Jianshui pot at some point, after I get my aroma kit.
Rating: 85

Flavors: Bread, Cherry, Creamy, Dark Chocolate, Dried Fruit, Mushrooms, Umami, Vegetable Broth, Wet Rocks, Wheat

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 5 g 3 OZ / 100 ML

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Bio

Amateur tea enthusiast here. I told myself I would start with studying Chinese teas when I first encountered good tea at Song Tea in San Francisco in 2016, and it’s now 2023 and I feel like I’m still just beginning to scratch the surface of Chinese teas.

Maybe someday I will move on to Indian, Japanese, Korean, etc. teas…

For my day job I work in tech as well as write some fiction on the side.

The next step in my tea journey is to start training my nose with an aroma kit to get a more precise handle on floral notes.

My Tea Rating Scale: (adapted from @benmw)
100 : Unforgettable, life-changing tea experience.
95–99: Extraordinary – Beyond impressive.
90–94: Impressive – Deep complexity, extreme clarity, or unexpected discovery of wonderful flavor. Made me reconsider the category. Would always want to drink this if I had the chance.
80–89: Delicious – Nuanced, balanced, clear, and complex layering of flavors. Would probably buy this tea again.
70–79: Very Good – Nuanced flavors, perhaps not as balanced or complex as the next step up, but clear and very enjoyable. Would consider buying again if the price was right.
60–69: Good – Clear flavors, representative of the category, but doesn’t set a standard. Good as an everyday tea. Would not buy unless desperate (e.g. when travelling without access to better tea).
50–59: Average. Would not pay money for this, but would drink if it was provided FOC.
30–49: Below Average. Would not drink this again even if it were free.
0–29: Undrinkable. Could not even finish the cup.

Location

Singapore

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