I’m trying a sample portion of this tea and even with this small amount of leaf I am picking up a lot of that sweet smell of the dry leaf the other reviewers mentioned.
Rinse: lid smell is fresh hay and powdered sugar. 1st steep (5s): lid smell is hay and molasses. Very light yellow soup. Taste is creamy and gentle grass. Very little bitterness and practically no astringency. 2nd steep (7s): sweetness is starting to come through. Astringency rose a touch but it’s a pleasant amount. Nice aftertaste. 3rd steep (10s): Astringency still rising but not too much. Very grassy this steep, similar sweetness. Flavor is getting deeper in my throat and body is growing nicely. 4th steep (12s): About the same, astringency fading back a bit. 5th steep (15s): I need to head into longer steeps, this is pretty watery. Still getting nice grass and sweetness. 6th steep and beyond: developed really nicely. Stayed pretty light and sweet with low astringency and bitterness.
Very pleasant and inoffensive tea. I must try to stretch this tea until my partner comes home and I can prove to her that not all puer is funky fish or mouth-puckering grass clippings. At $0.15/g, this is a buy for me.
