Lotus Peak Rou Gui
Tong Xin She Teahouse
6.2g, 100 mL duanni, boiling, Poland Spring water
Dry leaf is a sweet roasted smell, also something nutty and sweetly bread-like underneath
In prewarmed pot, roasted note is clearer
wet leaf smell is mostly roast, but with a slight underlying sweetness. Roast in this one seems lighter than in the Lotus Peak Shui Xian from TXS
Didn’t rinse today
~15s: roasted taste, with slight bitter and sourness, then vegetal/crushed minty note in aftertaste. Smell of soup is sweet in a floral/somewhat sweet potato note way, but roast smell present as well. Empty cup is usual roasted oolong smell of dried graham cracker-like notes
10s: soup is more sweet potato like smell. Roasted taste, sweeter upfront, but sour bitter note is still present. Similar aftertaste, gaining a slight sweet potato-like quality at the end. Somewhat more rounded in the mouth than the LPSX, but didn’t achieve the same power of that aftertaste or extend into throat, concentrating in front of mouth.
15s: soup retains same floral sweet potato note. Taste is somewhat lightened from before. Crush mint aftertaste with slight sweetness is stronger than before, but still concentrated on front tongue. Will do a longer steep, then thermos the rest.
1 min.: just a sort of roasted taste with the slight bitter edge, only slight aftertaste, a bit drying. Thermos’d the rest.
Overall: Somewhat warming. Historically I’ve tended to prefer Rou Gui over Shui Xians that I’ve tried, so surprised that didn’t hold true here since everything should be constant (brewing variables-wise and growing area, etc.) between these two LPSX and LPRG other than the strain. This wasn’t terrible, by any means, but I was disappointed in it as compared to the LPSX so I wasn’t interested in pushing it for more steeps.
2.1g, thermos, boiling: a sweet roasted taste, slight florals with the osmanthus-like, sweet potato-y note, with a hint of the bitterness and mint underneath. A lightly sweet, crushed mint aftertaste. Whereas the LPSX was better pincha, this one is better grandpa. Seem like flipped versions of each other for better pincha or better grandpa.
Probably wouldn’t repurchase this one either