“Trip to Changtai, vol. 2”
Natethesnake nailed my experience with this tea. Good dry storage, fairly mild aged sheng that is a relaxing after-dinner brew. Antiquewoody, orange zest citric with some mild pithy bitterness, orange blossom floral without being heady, fleeting brown sugar sweetness and baked bread. Incense tone, like light wafts have embedded themselves in porous wood furniture. Light aftertaste and a cooling mouthfeel that turns into side-tongue tingling and mouthwatering.
In general, mostly antique woody, citrusy, a touch airy — and mellow but with a background both heavy and bustling. Edited to add: There’s a warm, burly energy to it that makes me think of a cheery, swarthy, ruddy-faced drunkard who’s fond of rich foods.
The the previous day’s tea, 2018 Changtai Wild Menghai was like… arriving to a large city and being enamored with your new surroundings. A loud and long, grating bus ride later (the excessive rattling, bouncing and abrasive chatting of both the jalopy you’re an almost unwilling passenger in and the foreign souls surrounding you), you realize the seat spring that pushed its way into all the wrong places was actually the success of a pickpocketer (sucker only got some folded-up papers)… And your love for your new surroundings quickly turns bitter. But you reach your destination (2006 Changtai 65th Anniversary of Tong An Teahouse) and everything that picked and poked and rubbed you raw earlier becomes a distant annoyance, fading away as you step into a dark, wood-adorned tea house with a mild scent of orange blossom in the air. (I wonder what the Tong An teahouse is or was? like!)
Flavors: Bitter, Bread, Brown Sugar, Camphor, Dark Wood, Mineral, Orange Blossom, Orange Zest
Preparation
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applauds wildly for the tea house description BRAVA!
Love your prose. Reminds me of “Dreaming Spies,” a favorite of mine in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes mystery series. I think I have read more Holmes spin-offs than the Conan Doyle originals. I need to do something about that.
meekly Thanks
@gmathis, ever read any Robert Howard? I like Doyle too.
I love the Sherlock originals, gmathis! I think I read half of the books so far…
Love this review! Esp. the satisfaction of foiling a pickpocketer. So I’ve bought a cake of this 65th and I, too, wonder about the eponymous teahouse. Googling turned up nothing, so maybe it hasn’t been translated? Or is a made-up name? Or has gone the way of the famed JUMBO Floating restaurant?
applauds wildly for the tea house description BRAVA!
Love your prose. Reminds me of “Dreaming Spies,” a favorite of mine in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes mystery series. I think I have read more Holmes spin-offs than the Conan Doyle originals. I need to do something about that.
meekly Thanks
@gmathis, ever read any Robert Howard? I like Doyle too.
I love the Sherlock originals, gmathis! I think I read half of the books so far…
Love this review! Esp. the satisfaction of foiling a pickpocketer. So I’ve bought a cake of this 65th and I, too, wonder about the eponymous teahouse. Googling turned up nothing, so maybe it hasn’t been translated? Or is a made-up name? Or has gone the way of the famed JUMBO Floating restaurant?