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A very powerful tea. If you brew this with >5g/100mL with flash steeping you’re in for a bitter and sour brew – which for me was enjoyable! Underneath the bitterness and astringency is a lot of aroma, with tonnes of fruit and floral notes, very complex and enjoyable. The aroma notes come through in a strong sweet and sour aftertaste that lingers and lingers. Underpinning all of this is a full body, a little oily and some mineral notes. The tea will go on and on, getting slowly but surely sweeter and fruitier as time passes.

Finally the qi, strong and warm, I felt like I was wrapped in cotton wool, high as a kite and happy as Larry :)

A tea that can be enjoyable now, if you’re into this sort of thing, or I think a worthy ageing investment :)

4g brewed in a 60mL gaiwan.

Smell and taste are reminiscent of aged sheng funnily enough… I think I would call this a hybrid between oolong and aged sheng.

I can taste the age for sure, which comes through in leather and wood. Subtle hints of fruit and florals linger in the background. The wet leaves smell sweet, medicinal, woody and leathery. It reminds me of a dry forest in autumn or an old library of leather bound books (but no mustiness per-say) both in smell and taste.

Mouthfeel is thick in a gaiwan, but I’m sure it will be thicker in Yixing clay. This tea will steep many times with a nice qi.

Overall a must have for any tea lover, especially those who enjoy fine oolongs and puerhs.

Rinse = Honey, coffee, vanilla

1st ~25s: Sweet, sour, vanilla, coffee
2nd ~30s: Coffee, spice, sour, vanilla, astringent finish
3rd ~50s: Like 2nd, but better
4th ~1.5mins: Same again but very sweet with spicy undertone finish
5th ~2mins: Vanilla and spice… Cinnamon buns perhaps?

Aroma: Caramel and earth, sweet.

1: Earth, sweet, heavy mouthfeel, thick, clean, strong, caramel, tobacco, coffee (cools more earthy and thick) – Dark redish brown

2: Smooth, Earth, less on the sweet, clean, more mellowed, possible vanilla, dash of coffee and caramel. Similar mouthfeel, slightly astringent. Long finish. Very dark redish brown

3. Even smoother. Similar. Colour as before.

Aroma: Earth, tobacco

4. Mellowed earth, duller flavour, sweet undertone, lighter mouthfeel, caramel/tobacco.

5. Longer brew. Very dark colour. Heavy mouthfeel again, slight spiced tone.

6. Weaker, mellow, earth, sweet, vanilla. Juicy.

7. Weak.

Strong but soft qi, alert but no jitters. Very good for a pre desk work drink during lunch. Nice daily drinker that is cheap.

Not going to give a break down but basically fruity, sour and bitter, not appealing for my first taiwan dry stored pu-erh, won’t be purchasing again.

One hot flash rinse yielded a light nutty/grainy and buttery tea, almost like plain egg noodles.

30sec 1st cool infusion (70-80 degrees celsius): Like the hot rinse, but stronger with the buttery notes stronger than the grainy, and vegetal. Savoury and satisfying with the lightest of astringency lingering on the tongue.

60sec 2nd cool infusion: Same as above but more vegetal and a little more astringent on the tongue.

90sec 3rd cool infusion: Buttery, vegetal and slightly grainy, less astringent than 2nd infusion.

90sec 4th hotter infusion (80-90 degrees): Weaker tasting notes as above (grainy notes coming through more than butter), a bit more astringent.

120sec 5th hot infusion (~90 degrees): Vegetal and grainy, less astringent, quite light.

After one short rinse, and 2 10sec infusions, woody forest flavours give way to sweet 70-80% dark chocolate with a hint of strong caramel, bitterness giving to underlying sweetness, so smooth and satisfying.

Then, adding ~5-10 sec per infusion, the tea thickened while the bitterness mellowed out from infusions 3-6 giving way to nutty and a hint of vanilla tones in the dark chocolate

Now adding 30 sec per infusion until infusion 12, when the flavour had weakened to the point of stopping.

I used a 120mL gaiwan, so yixing would probably enrich this tea much more and get more infusion out of it.