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This was my most recent sipdown since I finished my sample of this tea this morning. It was an excellent Wuyi black tea with great body and texture to go along with wonderful aromatics and flavor components. I suppose I should not have been surprised, however, since Old Ways Tea seems to have a way with Wuyi blacks.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a brief rinse, I steeped 5 grams of loose tea leaves in 3 ounces of 185 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was chased by 17 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, and 10 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of baked bread, sweet potato, and malt underscored by hints of grass. After the rinse, I noted new aromas of roasted peanut and honey as well as a slight orchid fragrance. The first infusion introduced aromas of brown sugar and candied orange. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of sweet potato, honey, orchid, and candied orange that gave way to impressions of malt, roasted peanut, and brown sugar. There were also subtle notes of pear, grass, and peach in the aftertaste. The subsequent infusions brought out scents of violet, apple, pear, and chocolate. Baked bread notes came out in the mouth along with impressions of minerals, violet, cream, apple, chocolate, and nectarine. There were some very subtle hints of straw too. The previously mentioned notes of pear and peach were more intense, swelling on the finish and merging with lingering touches of brown sugar, violet, orchid, candied orange, and honey in the mouth for a unique afterglow. By the end of the session, I could still pick out mineral, malt, cream, and roasted peanut notes that were accented by hints of violet, honey, pear, brown sugar, and sweet potato.

Okay, I may as well just come out and say it: I enjoyed this tea much more than I expected to. It was a much sweeter, fruitier, and more floral tea than its name suggested, and it clearly had not lost a step in storage. All in all, this was a wonderful Wuyi black tea. I could see it being tremendously satisfying for fans of sweeter and more robustly flavored black teas.