Unfortunately, I don’t have much information about this tea. It disappeared from the website almost as soon as I ordered it, so I guess it sold out. But even before, it didn’t really mention much about the material. It is tightly compressed, which as far as I understand, is the standard for huangpian. Therefore, I gave it a long rinse followed by about 10 minutes rest. However, the first few steeps had to still be roughly a minute long in order to get some flavour.
In any case, it is the first huangpian sheng I have had a chance to try. All in all, it definitely made me want to get more exposure of these large leaf pu-erh teas. I think they should be good for the times when one wants a more straight-forward raw pu-erh session.
As for this particular tea, I will record my observations, even though they are not as useful given that we don’t know what the tea is. The smell is surprisingly complex in fact. I found it to be really pungent. At the very begining of the session, it was more fruity with an alcohol like feel to it. Over time it became much more vegetal and spicy, resembling bay leaves a lot. Other notes I picked were black pepper, rosemary and mint.
The taste doesn’t actually differ that much from what I could smell, although less distinctive and more on the overripe fruit side of things. When in control of the steeping time, there was very little bitterness or astringency to be found. In the early infusions, the body is medium to light and the mouthfeel is like skimmed milk. Later, it is thicker and smoother, with a bubbly feel to it. Aftertaste is also not too strong, but lasts for quite a while. It becomes cooling and tart once the leaves open up properly.
edit: I increased the rating, because although not too complex, the taste is actually quite delightful.
Flavors: Alcohol, Black Pepper, Fruity, Herbs, Honey, Mint, Plant Stems, Plants, Spicy, Vegetal
