Thanks to Wymm tea for sending me a sample!
The dry and wet leaves for this tea smelled really sweet and fruity, like fresh apricots. I used 90C water with a quick rinse and a first steep of 5 seconds. The first steep was almost completely clear and without scent, but the flavour was slightly sweet, with no bitterness or astringency.
The flavour of the first few steeps was mild — I can see this being a really good tea for a beginning drinker, someone who’s never tried pu’erh before. The first few steeps smelled peachy, apricot-y, and grassy, like a summer morning! This tea had a great mouthfeel, too; it was thin but full in my mouth like wine.
By the fourth steep, the leaves must have really opened up because the colour of the tea darkened to amber. The flavour was still really fruity though, with grape added to the peach/apricot from before. This was also the first steep that tasted bitter. The bitterness was a smothering sensation rather than a sharp one, though.
By the fifth steep, astringency showed up along with the bitterness, and I also started to feel a tickle at the back of my throat. My mouth felt like I had bitten into a really underripe fruit. The next few steeps were more bitter than fruity, though, with fruitiness on the front of the sip and bitterness in the back.
As I continued to drink, the puckery astringency continued, and the apricot/peach flavour receded. The dryness in my throat stayed, though. However, at the 11th steep, the flavour became very mineral. By this point, my belly was full of tea but I wanted to finish off the pot, so I stopped sipping and started chugging. Luckily, the leaf was starting to wear out (and so did the bitterness) so it was easy to drink.
On the final steeps, there was a nice juicy, fresh aftertaste like watermelon rinds. Interesting!
Full review at http://booksandtea.ca/2015/09/wymm-tea-sheng-and-shou-samples/
