YUGE camphor smell right away. Nice taste on the rinse actually even though I put one solid chunk into the gaiwan. Creamy taste, slightly fruity. Color of the soup is teetering on orange but is still pretty yellow. Smell is evolving to woodsier but the camphor is there still. Flavor is very mild but my chunk hasn’t finished opening yet.
3-5th steeps are gaining astringency but still nice. Flavor is starting to get where I want it, I should’ve broken up the leaf a little bit but oh well. A little chalk and earth, a little citrus, a little eggplant. 6th+ are all pretty similar, nice astringency level and decent flavors. Not intensely exciting and absolutely not worth the $50-100 that a cake is going for to me. Good though.
Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C
8 g
4 OZ / 120 ML
