First tea of the day. I’m making slower progress with the TTB than I anticipated. A big part of the problem is that I feel compelled to re-steep many of the teas, especially the Pu-erh and oolong. Today, I will make matters worse by trying a modified gaiwan approach. I use my small glass teapot to steep 6 oz at a time, using 3 grams of tea and 60 second steep times. This is my usual approach for oolong, though I often use a Western-style of 1.5 grams in 6 oz, with one re-steep, which is what I usually do with TTB tastings, in order to not use too much tea.
1st steep (70 s): light fruity nose and taste. 2nd (1 m): Rich nose is more spicy than fruity. Taste starts grassy but spice increases towards the finish. 3rd (60 s): The leaves were fully unfurled, so I expected lots of flavor, but it’s really light and disappointing. What flavor there is I like. 4th (2 m): See if extra steep time helps. The tea has more favor, but lacks complexity.
Overall, this was a disappointing tea. AliShan #1 was excellent and I was hoping for an even better experience. It wasn’t meant to be.
Thanks to *Stacy at Butiki Tea* for putting this box together.
