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2025 sipdown no. 5

ashmanra generously sent me her last cup of this. I’ve been waiting for the right time to steep this up and there never seems to be a fully right time, but this past Sunday I submitted an application I’d been working on for weeks and although my to-do list still had plenty, Monday seemed like the perfect day for all that.

I followed her instructions carefully: rinsed with boiling water (~8-10 seconds), let the leaves steam in my mug with a wee lid for 2 minutes, then steeped with boiling water for 1 minute.

1st steep, 1 minute: The taste is very clean, wet, sandy soil. As the tea cools, there is the most subtle whisper of sweetness from mid-end of the sip.
2nd steep, 1 minute: Very similar to the first steep, just as delightful.
3rd steep, 1 minute: I stepped this up before dinner and by the time I got to it, it was cold. Nevertheless, very tasty and soil-like.
4th steep, 1 minute: Taste is starting to thin out, the next steep I’ll increase the time. Still very soil-like. The taste is remarkably similar to the first steep, with only the depth changing.
5th steep, 1 minute 30 seconds: Sweetly soil.
6th steep, 14 minutes: The tea was light in colour and thin the previous two steeps, so I let this steep until I became impatient. The soil is still quite pronounced. This has been a lovely tea!

Thanks ashmanra :)