6.5g:120-ish pot. boiling Brita tap. Rinse was a lot longer than I meant, since slow pour.
woody taste and slight bitter initially, along with some florals. some warmth. aftertaste is a crisp sugar, shifting to an almost acidic, dry fruitiness. Some mint. unfortunately, died very quickly after (like two, maybe three steeps in…), and so will definitely not rinse in this pot next time when I’ve already broken up the leaves.
On an unrelated note, I tried my first very dry red this past summer, and subsequently struggle now to apply the term astringency to any teas, but maybe dry reds are on an entirely different level. Then, I accidentally had a not fully ripened Hachiya persimmon the other day, and that really redefined astringency for me. Truly awful.
Astringency and dryness are different concepts to me but sometimes experienced together. I can handle one or the other and see neither in itself as a flaw, but when both appear in the same cup, the experience is often jarring.