This is a good tea. I took a 10g sample and spread it out over three sessions with my trusty little 60ml gaiwan. Each session brought out significantly new and different notes.
The more I became familiar with the tea, the more it surprised me. And that, my friends, is a good tea. This is a tea to explore, with lots of flavors hiding in little nooks and crannies.
In general, it is very similar to a black/red tea (specifically a Taiwanese black), with a bit of slightly aged leafy white tea. It’s nutty and fruity and caramely. But the flavors behind these foreground flavors are where things got interesting: oatmeal cookie, cherry-chocolate, that weird “mulberry” note that I noted in other Taiwanese black teas… Quite a busy, but complementary, flavor profile.
The price is reasonable for the experience it provides.
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Dry leaf – currants, honey floral, light floral (lavender?), dried dates, Fig Newton, mulberry, dark syrup. In preheated vessel – intense plum and honey notes; red tea-like prune notes
Smell – floral, sweet and perfumey, green leaf and green stem, dry nuttiness – roasted peanut and peanut shell, a certain sweet and floral waxiness (“mulberry”), date, toffee
Taste – NUT: almond nut and peanut shell, nice dryness; FRUIT: prune, mulberry, waxy fruitiness, date, fig jam; SWEET: honey, malt, oatmeal cookie, dark toffee, light milk chocolate, cherry hard candy
