2016 Poundcake

I enjoyed this sample more than I recall enjoying the 2015 Poundcake – I would not say that this one is better or anything, perhaps just that I brewed it differently or have different tastes/expectations than when I tried last year’s. This tea is just really solid. The dry leaf has a nice sugary sweet smell.

The flavors are quite nice and evocative of the tea’s name. There’s a bit of a dairy vibe to it, both in thick texture and the flavor. I get notes of vanilla and occasional hints of cinnamon. The tea is quite sweet, but there is also a pleasant bitterness behind the sweetness that prevents it from being cloying. Despite the bitterness to balance it out, this tea is still incredibly sweet and heavy – I had to get up mid-session to grab a bite to eat as I was starting to feel a little bit sick. The qi hit me pretty hard right around then – I felt it in my belly and also as some pressure in the front of my head. It got pretty intense before I had my snack. Good stuff, this.

There is a direct line from W2T’s Milk, Cream and Alcohol to this to Tuhao As Fuck. They are all these deeply creamy, deeply mouth filling, subtly dairy, subtly sweet, not at all cloying things. Each is appropriate to its price. Poundcake ain’t some weird candy thing (although maybe if you’re used to camphor-power it might seem so) – but its full range of bizarre German-baking spices is totally cool.

8g from a 25g sample. I tasted this right after tasting the 2015 version and will include comparisons here.

The tea started off moderately bitter/astringent. In the early steepings I noted caramel or honey sweetness and a floral note. A minute or two after taking a sip I would get a strong apricot or stone fruit aftertaste which made me want to drink slowly so that I could enjoy it. By around the 4th infusion the fruitiness came forward with apricot or maybe peach. The bitter notes were still present, and included a grassy/woody flavor, but were well balanced with the sweetness.

Compared to the 2015, I thought this was significantly more bitter. I got more peach/cream from 2015 where as 2016 was apricot and floral. At this point, if you don’t want bitterness, go with the 2015, or maybe wait a while on this to see if that ages out. I personally would enjoy drinking the 2016 first thing in the morning, whereas the 2015 would be nicer as a mid-afternoon easy drink.