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This was another tote cleaning discovery. I ordered several samples from Unytea back around the start of the year, but only got around to trying one of them. When I stumbled upon this tea, my initial reaction was more or less something to the effect of “oh, I should probably go ahead and drink this. I’ve had it for awhile.” Then I remembered that Chou Shi is far from my favorite type of Dan Cong. I soldiered on anyway, and lo and behold, I really liked this tea. The fact that it was from last year’s harvest may have had something to do with it, but this was much more approachable and mellow than I’m used to Chou Shi being.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. For this session, I steeped 7 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 190 F water for 5 seconds following a brief rinse. This infusion was followed by 13 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were 7 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted pleasant aromas of butter, cream, peas, and fresh flowers. The rinse allowed me to get a better feel for the tea’s floral aromatics. I picked up more clearly defined scents of lilac and violet. I also began to get touches of spinach and vanilla. The first infusion brought out touches of orchid. In the mouth, the tea led with gentle impressions of butter, cream, vanilla, lilac, violet, and orchid before vegetal touches reminiscent of garden peas made themselves known. Subsequent infusions brought out aromas and flavors of damp grass, spinach, green beans, honeysuckle, sweet pea, squash blossom, and fresh zucchini. Unlike the other Dan Congs I have tried, I curiously did not get much soapiness in the mouth. The body was slick and relatively thin, but not soapy. Around the middle of the session, I began to get fleeting impressions of incredibly gentle minerality and some vague, distant fruitiness. I couldn’t decide if it reminded me more of green apple or underripe pear. I continuously waffled on that. I also got what struck me as a more definite touch of cantaloupe. The late infusions were mild, buttery, creamy, and vegetal with a slightly strengthened mineral presence.

Normally when I think of Chou Shi Dan Cong, I think of a slick tea that often awkwardly juxtaposes fresh floral tones against a buttery, vegetal backdrop in an effort to approximate the characteristics of a typical jade Tieguanyin. That may not be entirely accurate, that’s just my perception of this style of tea. Until I tried this one, I had little interest in teas like this. When I tried this tea, however, I found an approachable, straightforward, immediately gratifying tea with a nice balance of savory, floral, and vegetal. My only wish now is that I had purchased more.