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Well these dry leaves look perfect for a lapsang souchong, with a dry aroma of earth and wood, pretty basic smelling, the slightest note of like caramel and a tiny bit of smokiness. Right okay so this is one of those times where for some reason, I’ve drank like 3 or 4 sessions of this one before getting around to writing it up, and honestly I’ve found it a little plain in the past, I wasn’t getting quite as deep before, but especially when I made it western that one time, it tasted to me like .. boring plain teabags without the bitterness.
Alright in the warmed gaiwan here I get uhh it’s very distinct, seafoody kinda like scallops, and sort of dark chocolate with like.. sniffing the outside of a melon. There’s also a saltiness. Anyways let’s go!
(pics: https://www.instagram.com/p/BMM-ZStjAEo/?taken-by=mackie_tealife&hl=en)
I’m getting like a fudge cake sort of aroma after the rinse, it’s really thick smelling and very decadent, and sort of a pie-like smell, with apples. ooh the brewed first steep smells just like fudgesickle!
It does not taste as fudgesickley. It’s pretty thin-bodied, sort of berries, it’s really not that satisfying, there’s some bitterness and some underlying strawberry notes, like strawberry ice cream notes, and it’s quite earthy and leaves the mouth dry with spices lingering on the tongue.
There’s a very notable cooling in the second steep, it’s also quite a bit thicker, which I’m happy to see, I get sort of coffee beans, earth, sweetness, there’s an unpleasant sourness, but there’s also nice peach/apricot/cherry notes, but the fruitiness is dominated by orange in the aroma. The dryness and sourness is accompanied by a spiciness that hits you right away. The sourness is very reminiscent of a young sheng, which in itself I don’t mind but it is really strange in a red tea,
It has all the early sweetness and breadiness of a jinjunmei, and the chocolate and very strong wood notes,
I’m only on steep 4 (3? idk) and the dryness is taking over my mouth, it’s so distracting I find it difficult to search for notes, I was brewing at 92C, I’m dropping it down to see what I can actually get out of this
okay well it got rid of the near-painful astringency, but it suddenly tastes.. muddy and bland, very very bland, .. vaguely fruity. that’s pretty much it,
Steep 6: Malty tonic water
I was considering giving up but then I went for a seventh steep and it’s not as astringent, nice sweet and spicy, apples and creamy chocolate, how did that happen? It’s not thick and satisfying but at least it’s tasty now.
Nevermind, the ninth is bad again. I think im finished with this session,
not a very enjoyable one for me.