2017 Midas Touch

Starts off with a great mouthfeel, very viscous, rolls around. It feels on my tongue like what I used to call a ‘sea cucumber’ toy felt in my hand. Unfortunately I can’t find a picture online of the toy. Leaves a clean swallow followed by lots of side-tongue tingling that later turns pleasantly metallic. Astringency is controlled. Overall, very mild vegetal-dry grass like taste accompanied by bitterness that is also controlled, though it does become more pronounced. Soft and yeasty, honeyed plum-melon aftertaste is light and short. It reminds a bit of some Yiwu flavors. Peppery warmth in throat. Thin stevia-like returning sweetness sits at my sinuses. I feel in the future a lot of camphor will come out in this blend as I can in its young age already feel it in my ears, throat and chest. Sweating, calm, tight feeling in my head like there are dry florals hiding in the tea. Edit: That tight feeling later developed into a headache. It’s a good tea that in its current state doesn’t jive with my constitution.

As far as the leaf, one is still olive green; another noticeably browner, my guess is aged or autumn leaf or maybe even wild material. Some leaves, like oolong, possess oxidation along the serrated leaf edges. It all looks healthy and somewhat stemmy.

Delicate in taste yet strong feeling in the body (acidic in the gut), certainly a clean tea. Good tea for stepping up from more introductory sheng. Not my bag but I’m happy to sit on the rest of this sample for several more years. Realistically, it won’t last that long.

Fun fact: one half of the wrapper art is tattooed across my shoulders.

Hey there Steepster folks, I am back after a short break caused by a great deal of travelling and basically being away from home for about two months, visiting Orange (California), Zurich and other places in Switzerland, Slovakia, Banff, and Vancouver. I should get back to tea reviews now though.

Here’s a tea I chose for today’s evening session, my first tasting of Midas Touch. I found it to be a good quality, medium-bodied tea that could be very enjoyable 10-20 years down the line, but it’s not interesting enough at the moment for me personally.

The dry leaf scent is mild and most reminiscent of green peppercorns. On the other hand, the wet leaves smell of cannabis, pumpkin leaves, sandstone and cookies.

The wash presents a mineral and vegetal drink which tastes like a mix of sweet grass and wet rocks. The first proper infusion is more balanced with a decent umami and a nice sour note like sorrel. I can also taste menthol and there is a noticeable green tea like bitterness, even though I steeped this one at closer to 90°C than boiling. The aftertaste is not super pronounced, but there is a hint of cantaloupe. The next few infusions produce an even stronger sorrel impression. Around steep two, I notice a strong and disorienting feeling, arriving almost without warning. Overall, the cha qi is pretty strong throughout the session and gets a bit rushy later on.

Later infusions display more floral qualities and astringency as well as notes of honey, brown sugar, fruits and resin in the aftertaste that gets quite drying towards the end.

All in all, the tea has a nice energy, a sorrel like and vegetal taste, and quite a lot of astringency.

Kelp-y. It was good company for a few hours of music appreciation. I’m afraid I paid more attention to the music than to the tea. That’s not always a bad thing. That means it was smooth. Better notes next time.

Not on the website yet, but its the same as last years, a blend of different sized trees from Jingmai, same trees as the 2008 maocha.

Perfect example of puerh je ne sais quois. It has young floral character but balanced with a depth of flavour helping keep it in the neutral zone. Soft and welcoming, lacking the sweet juice of the 2008 but I can taste some of the elements of the fruitiness that the older sheng has.

Really quite nice, I love it when tea has that something you cant put your finger on, but like.

Also i noticed different flavours being extracted when brewing at different temps, the joy of drinking blended tea. It is less forgiving than the 2008 though, as to be expected from the younger leaf.

edit* Warning – creates earworms of a well known 80s midnight star track