While my experience has been very good with tea from YS, once in a while one misses the mark for me. All of this is so subjective though YMMV.
Nose; honey, malt, freshly baked bread, plums, wet leaves.
Palate; slightly bitter, plums, slightly tannic — astringent, malt, cocoa at back of palate, was unusual and had a very dry mouth feel. I did not like that aspect.
Drinking tea is fairly new, but have had good wines for many years, so that is my perspective…
I generally brew in small ( under 200 cc and often under 100 cc ) pots either Japanese Tokoname or Chinese Yixing. I vary my steeping times a lot before I decide on tasting notes — I take a sort of experimental approach, gong fu one time, western short steeping another, vary the water temp, etc. to see what the tea will offer. Also, I will take notes on different days since what one brings to a cup one day will not be the same the next. I rate teas somewhat the same way as I rate wines, with over 90 being excellent, and over 95 being truly remarkable — even once in a lifetime. Over 85 very good, over 80 good.
USA
