Lot 1319, Spring 2024
Excited to have made tea for somebody for the first time in our new house! The friend who I shared the gaiwan with said this was really light and sweet. My boyfriend who doesn’t drink tea and prefers strongly flavored fruity beverages said it was subtle and very sweet, different from the other teas he’s been taking sips of recently but “It’s still tea.” Another friend who is also not a tea drinker, I think I heard him say, “That really sweet.”
Silky soft buttery spring water in the mouth. It’s a bold tea in terms of immediate impact of sugarcane sweetness which is layered heavily throughout the sparkling “green” balsam/fir taste that’s not at all vegetal or grassy. The florality is complex; it permeates through multiple layers of taste. It feels heavy, warm, and fleshy rather than piercing and perfumey, a nice balance to the green quality. Aftertaste is a mingling of banana (which I also smell in the wet leaf) and peach, both thick and ripe. Strong sugarcane returning sweetness from far back of tongue. Later, there’s a pleasant tartness on the back sides of the tongue akin to lemon. Pushing the leaf to the very end gives a rare thick and oily brew and absolutely no sign of bitterness or astringency.
The experience almost reminds me of butter mints.
Overall, the tea is very warming in the body in comparison to the taste. It really had me sweating during the peak heat of the evening.
5g in a 150mL glass gaiwan was plenty of leaf for a 4-brew session that has continued the following morning. Enough caffeine to keep my perked up for only 1 but not 2 full games of Star Munchkin after dinner.
I think this was a good pick for sharing but maybe better for a quiet sitdown than an evening filled with card games and video games.
Flavors: Balanced, Banana, Butterscotch, Buttery, Cherry Blossom, Fir, Floral, Green, Lemon, Lily, Oily, Peach, Silky, Soft, Spring Water, Sugarcane, Sweet, Thick, Viscous
Western steeping really brings out the thick and buttery/butterscotch quality ahead of the fir greenness.
A sesame seed stowed away in the last bit of leaf. Surprising find for tea from Taiwan. Usually Chinese tea contains little treasures.