2018 Cha Yu Lin "Liu Bu Xi Village" Tian Jian Basket Tea

It’s smoky, but less like an actual campfire and more like an Islay scotch. The first few steeps are almost overwhelmingly bitter and smell of hay. On the third steep it becomes delicious, with a lingering smoky aftertaste.

Now that I know what I really sampled, I’ll put a note in the correct place. This was a really good gateway tea for those of you/us who are suspicious of lapsang. It was gently smoky, but not so much that it overrode the savory tea underneath.

This is a really beautiful cup of tea. The smell from the pouch made me feel like I had made a horrible mistake in buying a sample, because it has the approximate aroma of a burnt forest floor and charred bone right off the bat. Decided to give it a try this afternoon, though, so I can stop fearfully side-eyeing the pouch whenever I open up my tea chest.
The whole leaves are easily pried apart from the compressed brick with the tips of your fingers, no pu’erh pick necessary to avoid breaking them into dusty pieces. They smell like burned oak leaves; or the first whiff of a freshly opened scotch with tarred rope, heavy smoke, and peat notes. The liquor is a much lighter hue than you’d expect. Dusty rose brown. A very smoky aroma, but not an off-putting one. The taste is spectacular to me. Not savory, but ever so gently sweet, with a clean pleasant smokiness. A touch of minerals, a hint of aged wood, and the oakiness of something aged in a barrel. Feels like something that would be served to you by a chivalrous sasquatch in a pacific northwestern pine forest. He could easily win you over with it and weasel his way into a second date.