Teji Rou Gui 特级肉桂

Spring 2020 harvest.

Dark, damp earthy aroma mixed with a darker milk chocolate.

Malty and juicy, bitter flowers like lavender. Catches in the throat on the way down and leaves a sweet mineral finish. Salivary glands tingle – salty. Peach and orchid bloom from the throat while a vaguely minty and fruity wild blueberry persists in the mouth. Floral bittersweet and woody bite is ubiquitous from 4th steep on.

It was nice but… but what? Maybe the throat catch turned me off a little? Am I sad that the spice notes of the rinsed leaf don’t come through in taste?

A bit let down by this tea. I have heard that OWT is pretty good with Rou Gui. As this is my first time trying Rou Gui, I have nothing to compare to. However, it does not have the “classic” flavor profile for RG that I read about online. Furthermore, the tea is fairly bitter to my taste. Not much complexity to most of the infusions for me either. I might try brewing the other half of the 8g sample at a lower temperature. Perhaps this tea needs to breathe a bit? Might try the second half of the sample after 3-4 weeks of opening the pack.

For me, the smell is the best part of the tea.

Harvest: Spring 2020.

Dry leaf: Charcoal, fruity.
Wet leaf: Malt
Taste: Bitter, spice, woody.

both reviews for ~4 steeps before i mugged. yancha brewing never peaks past the first couple of steeps for me and I’m lazy and don’t care enough to do long drawn out sessions for a lot of teas anymore. since I don’t drink yancha often enough to seriously evaluate, this is a much better approach to get a handful of decent steepings, and then I’m happy enough usually with the grandpa results.

3.7g/90. have been doing lower ratios recently, but this was also bc I was wary from the last time I tried something from OWT that was much lower roast than I expected and was far too much with low ratio. I shouldn’t have worried. I couldn’t find the 2020 page anymore, but this is medium roast and the minimum level acceptable roast for my preferences. overall, not too sweet or too much aftertaste. some vegetal, floral, and light medicinal woody notes. not too standout at low ratio, but usually I’d use a higher ratio, so I’ll give it that. prelim. judgement is that for the .53c/g I purchased at last year, this is acceptable, and better than any of the similarly priced steeping room options.

4.6g/60. woody, slightly medicinal taste, with vegetal hint. sometimes crisp sugary, sometimes floral aftertaste. again, not terribly sweet or lasting, but I enjoyed the higher ratio more than yesterday’s.