Bi Yun Hao

5.7g, 90 mL ZZZ

wet leaf: berries, campfire smoke, BBQ, inky sweet

1. spices. woody, fruity in throat. spaced out heady. some underlying bitterness

2. dark, medicinal, smoke, woody, grassy. something sour incense like lingering sweetness in throat

3. greener in taste. mushroom-y finish

4. indistinct woody

5. softly sweet. mugged

I like this tea, though longevity leaves something to be desired across a lot of my BYH teas. Split a partial cake with a tea friend and haven’t seen more full cakes offered by TWL since the initial offering in March. Though given the cost (1.30/g after shipping), I would not go out of my way to buy more.

Thanks to R2 for the sample! It’s been what, 3 years? lol.

5.5g, 90mL, boiling, mixed water
wet leaf: woody, berries
1. woody upfront, turns into a bitter taste that dissipates into sweet florals.
2. stronger bitter. Florals on breath and in mouth
3. light and sweet, honeyed w slight bitter in background and something tangerine like

Did not take notes for this after, but overall feeling is a bit downing, but maybe a few more years until that’s more gentle. Where it really excels is the aftertaste. Definitely one of the most enjoyable and interesting ones I’ve had. In the recent TWL release, there’s a quarter cake available in the MZ set, but I wonder if they’ll sell cakes of it in the future, and if so, for how much. Jade Leaf sells for $414, and a group buy a few years back had some available for I want to say ~$300, but I balked at the price then, and at that price still wouldn’t spring for it now. However, I do have my fingers crossed that my LSGCs age into something interesting like this.

Thanks to Obritten for the sample!

2015 Biyunhao 500 Year Yibi Gushu
7.7g, 212f, 80mL shuiping, Poland Spring water
Dry leaves smell of fruit and has a fair amount of stems mixed in.

20s rinse: accidentally let it go for too long since dry leaves were too long to fit neatly into pot

Wet leaf smells sweet, vegetal, and herbal

12s: light LME-like crushed pill bitterness (inherent or from my shaky brewing…who knows?) initially that resolves into a sweetness with a minty edge that settles in the upper throat. Slight candied floral undertones.

12s: lighter bitterness, more fruity and rounded, with crisp sugared edges. Warming in lower back, slight frissons. Starting to sweat a little. Pleasant crisp sweet exhale, although slightly astringent.

12s: still the crushed pill bitterness initially, though far less than before. Slight sweetness on exhale, but like before, still astringent. Continued warming, though lighter.

20s: strong and crisp sugar, less bitterness and astringency. Probably burned off most of the florals, but they’re more noticeable here than before. Exhale is sort of medicinal, with an herbal edge. Calming. Aftertaste has not been too present for this tea, but once the drying feeling fades, there’s a feeling of sweetness.

26s: kind of like crisp water. Not sure how many more steeps this will last.

30s: same sort of slightly bitter water

5 min.: very bitter. Borderline LME lol. Will thermos the rest

overall: seems to have faded rather quickly? can’t remember much else about it other than what my notes on it mentioned above