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2006 Dayi Classic 66 (sample purchased from Liquid Proust Teas)
5.2g, 100mL gaiwan, 212f, Brita filtered tap
1x 5s rinse
dry leaf has clean woody smell
wet leaf is the dark spices & shou kind of smell
5s: tastes like it smells. Classic Shou profile & taste
10s: stronger woody taste. Just the barest touch of sweetness. Less of the light peppery shou note than previous cup
18s: basically the same as before.
20s: stale bread and woodiness. I don’t dislike, but it’s not like I’d be fighting to have this
in my collection or whatever either… Also a bit of shou peppery note, and just the barest hint of sweetness
30s: Lightening in depth, but noticeably sweeter, perhaps because other notes are gone.
40s: same sort of muted sweetness.
1 min: sweeter again, sort of in a papery sticky rice sort of way. Improved thickened mouthfeel.
2 min: Same bready Shou taste, almost a hint of sour too.
2 min. 30s: A sweet medicinal that leaves throat a bit dry.
3 min: similar to before, but less medicinal so sweet is more forward
4 min: very light medicinal sort of taste, again leaving mouth a bit dry. Slight hint of some dried fruit that I can’t place in aftertaste, maybe dried persimmon?
overall: Nothing too noticeable in terms of body effect. If slight warming, hard to tell if it’s due to the tea or just how warm it is inside rn since the dorm traps a fair amount of heat. Tried this since LP mentioned it was a shou w/ lighter fermentation. It still has that distinctive shou backbone, but it’s definitely lightened in comparison to most shou I’ve tried before. Was this alright? Yes. Would I repurchase? No. I still don’t love shou in general, and a cake of this being 660g just sounds painful. That being said, I’m starting to appreciate shou more on its own merits as it’s meant to be. Shou is a different game/ballpark than Sheng, and trying to evaluate them on the same playing field like I had generally in the past is just invalidating, so I will admit my own mistake in that aspect.