I always buy Baozhong, then let it sit because I’m not sure how to steep it properly. Hopefully these swap boxes will allow me to offload some of this tea and encourage me to experiment with brewing parameters. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.
The dry aroma is of lilac, honeysuckle, cookies, citrus, and pineapple. I must have done something right because the first steep is a pile of flowers, with lilac, honeysuckle, violet, and maybe peony. There’s butter, cookies, and grass as well. The second steep has hints of pineapple and citrus, but is still mainly floral, with stronger lilac and honeysuckle notes. There may be lilies and sweet peas in this flower pile, too. The next couple steeps are sweeter, though they also have more spinach and grass. The tea gradually becomes more vegetal, with lettuce, spinach, green peas, and herbs, though it’s still sweet and a bit floral. The last few steeps are like a floral green tea.
As someone who likes floral teas, I enjoyed this Baozhong greatly, though I wish the fruit had been more prominent and the last few steeps had been a bit less vegetal. This was a lovely spring tea in the middle of winter.
Flavors: Butter, Citrus, Cookie, Floral, Grass, Herbaceous, Honeysuckle, Lettuce, Lilac, Lily, Peas, Peony, Pineapple, Spinach, Sweet, Vegetal, Violet
