2013 Shou Mei White Tea Cake from Fuding

Disclaimers:
This is my first shou mei tasting so I have no basis for comparison.
I am only starting to expand my tastings into white teas.

Steep amounts: 5.4 grams tea / 150ml water @ ~185 deg F
Steep times: 15s, 30, 45, 60, 90, etc.

The cake seems lightly compressed, so it was easy to pry out the amount I need.
Color: The color starts a light yellow gold and goes to a deep amber red at the longer steeps.

Wet leaf: The wet leaves definitely have a strong vegetal undertone, which are coupled with mint (on the first steep), medicinal herbs (on #2), honey (#3), and earth (#4) with subsequent steeps.

Tea aroma: It was hard for me to really distinguish any separate smells from the liquid. There was a damp/musty scent coupled with medicinal herbs. It could have been me — allergy season is rife this time of year.

Tea broth: This tea reminds me of a honey lozenge (similar to a Manuka honey lozenge). The tea starts off very clean with a slight honey sweetness but there’s an underlying tone of herbal medicine (specifically reminds me of all the Chinese herb shops I went into as a kid with my family) and eucalyptus.

This tea starts off very clean and has a good mouth feel with a mild viscosity. The broth is very silky in feel. It never seems to get astringent or bitter, which is why I pushed out the brew times by 15 seconds on each steep. There’s a slight dryness in the throat after drinking it, and a very slight tingling on the tongue by steep #3. Overall, this is a very easy tea to drink. There’s a complexity and balance that I like in my teas.

Do I like it? I’m not wholly sure. The flavor profile is not one I might go for on a regular basis, but I would drink this tea. It warrants additional tastings for me to make a decision.

This is still a great tea, maybe even better now than when I first had it. Since it is very close to being fully oxidized, I don’t think it will develop very quickly from now on. I will keep an eye on it in any case.

Today, I found it to be more woody, mineral/savoury and medicinal than earlier. There is an aged note in the dry leaf aroma and a strong nectar presence in the wet leaf aroma. The aftertaste is also somewhat biting and expansive. It blends the sweet and mineral notes very well.

Some of the new flavours from today include root vegetalbes, peach, sushi, caramel, mead, resin, ash among others.