After having quite a lot of sessions with the 2016 Autumn Da Qing Gu Shu (which I have a cake of), I decided to sample the spring version from the following year. As such, I will inevitably be comparing the two. Overall, I think I prefer the autumn version by a little bit, but both are quite good.
The dry leaf smell here is floral and creamy, similar to the autumn harvest but unsurprisingly weaker. From the wet leaves, I get an aroma of forest floor, tobacco, and bog. It is also slightly nutty and grassy at times.
I found the taste of this tea to be very well integrated in the sense that nothing really sticks out, but at the same time it is not flat. It is vegetal and more bitter than the autumn one. There are flavours of rapini, hops, pasta, bread crust, spinach, and spices, among others. The aftertaste is then sweet in the mouth and sour in the throat, just like the autumn version. I noticed a thyme flower note, as well as a black pepper spiciness that emerges after a while.
The mouthfeel is less smooth then in the autumn tea I think. It is also more watery, but still somewhat oily in mid infusions. It gets more drying and throat-constrictive in the second half of the session. The cha qi subtle and enveloping, nothing very strong, but quite nice. I also found the tea to be quite heavy on the stomach unfortunately.
Flavors: Bitter, Black Pepper, Bread, Creamy, Floral, Flowers, Forest Floor, Grain, Hops, Pleasantly Sour, Spices, Thyme, Tobacco, Vegetal
