2017 tuhao af

At first penetrating foresty aromas. Leather, wood, barnyard, undergrowth, and cooling/medicinal feeling.
The liquor is thick and coating, mineral. Not very aggressive, feels smooth and complex, leaving an interesting aftertaste in the throath difficult to define. Lingering cacao notes. The aftertaste changes and evolves in the next 10 minutes, inducing saliva.
This is a strong and serious drink. I think of a cold and confident middle age man. I think of a deodorant.
As the session goes on it gets more drying, herbal and bitter. The aftertaste doesn’t leaves me alone.
At first the tea was polite, but now is showing his true nature of asshole.
After 6/7 steeps I decide to take a break, as my mouth is dry and the tea is strong.
The qi is slowing me down a lot, giving some numbness but I wouldn’t say relaxing.
After the break is hay/herbal/minty/cooling (I’m not a big fan of mint/camphor/excessive cooling). Lost the bite, still has a good presence in the mouth.

I’ve kept a sample of this around for a couple of years while waiting to do a direct comparison with 2015, which I finally got around to today. If anything, the website seems to understate the increase in bitterness for the 2017; the initial steep was a lovely mix of lightly Menghai bitterness with a strong sweetness. Then I pushed the second steep to a whole five seconds, and the bitterness took a commanding hold. By judiciously controlling the steep times, I kept the bitterness in check until the sweetness came back out in the later steeps. Regardless, though, the tea’s durability is formidable, and there’s a recurring sweetness in the back of the throat that I really appreciate. This is good tea, and I look forward to the final session of my sample, though I plan to approach it much more gingerly.