Biyun Hao

5.9g, 90mL, boiling, mixed water

1. bitterness that dissipates immediately into candied florals on tongue. bit of medicinal woody taste and maybe watermelon rind white part. some oversteeped hongcha taste reminiscent of the 04 nannuo gushu from TWL. Engaging and dyamic

2. more medicinal taste. heating, and sinking in center chest

3. dull leaf taste like most of my YQH. nothing like steeps 1 and 2

4. still dull, but feeling seems intact

5. kill steep. sappy mushroom taste and some bitterness when cooled

this is the second time I’ve had this tea and maybe the cake edges are just not very good compared to when i had the MZ. Will need to revisit down the line bc for the hype this tea gets, both sessions w this were disappointing. I guess I’m glad to have a cake to revisit, since the other tea I remember being amazing upfront and then dying almost immediately was one of the YQH jinchas. An experience akin to fireworks…

5.6g/90mL/212f in a gaiwan, Brita filtered tap.

Drank this with a lunch guest back to back with Zipin. A mistake, though my friend was a very good sport about it lol. Have had bad reflux symptoms more and more lately, so have had to stick to lighter meals and avoid tea for the most part.

Anyway, the tea was nice, but punchier than expected. I had a poor frame of reference for this going in I think, since most things I choose to drink in the limited time I have for longer sessions are things with some age (mostly >15 yrs+), so I didn’t expect this to taste quite so young. Lingering floral, apricot, and licorice notes, and a trailing string of bitterness throughout from brewing with too heavy of a hand, most likely. Stopped at around 5 steeps, but could’ve continued a bit longer. Wisp of smoke on the wet leaf at some point. Dried leaves after steeping were still very floral.

Some quieting and a burst of warmth that gave way to cooling. Friend didn’t think of it as warming at all though, so maybe just something for me.