This tea was very good over the course of sixteen steeps. There was no fermentation taste to this tea. You knew you were drinking a ripe tea and not an aged raw however. It started out with a strong and slightly unpleasant aged flavor. Not the leather and tobacco of an aged raw however. I am not sure how to describe it. This flavor gradually changed over many steeps until it was gone and replaced with what I would describe as a sweet note of sorts. Not the sweetness a young ripe exhibits however. It was different. This was a tea witih many layers as I went through sixteen steeps. I could have gotten a few more steeps out of it but sixteen seemed a good stopping point. Plus I was getting impatient with the longer steeps. This is an expensive cake but well worth a sample if you want to try a real ripe that you know is really from 1992. Not like many teas you see online that claim to be this old but are not really this old. I went into this cake the day after receiving it and didn’t let it rest because I wanted my 1500th tasting note to be a special tea and I couldn’t think of any better tea than the oldest verifiable one in my collection.
I steeped this tea 16 times in a 160ml Solid Silver Teapot with 14g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, 2 min, 2.5 min, 3 min, 3.5 min, and 4 minutes. I definitely recommend this tea. It is worth a sample just to know what a ripe this old tastes like. Wile I am very fond of young ripe cakes this one is a nice change. And the leaves were not played out a sixteen, I could have gotten another 2 to 4 steeps I would guess.
Flavors: Sweet
Nice review Allan! I am honored you chose one of our special teas for your 1500th review!
And I am glad to have read this review. Another tea for my stash? Yes, if I manage to go past my wife. LOL