Trying to go through samples – This one was from when Zen Tea did a big sale a while back and I ordered tons of samples. It was alright, though I wasn’t the biggest fan of it. This is my first Shui Xian/Shui Hsien. The dry leaf smelled a bit roasy with fruity, raisin notes. After a rinse, the only aroma I could really detect was charcoal roastiness.
The first steep was grossly sour and roasty with a bit of almost chocolatey sweetness left in my mouth after the cup. Thankfully that sourness was mostly gone by the next steep, and I got some more classic yancha notes including a mineral and a honey taste. There were also very slight hints of a chocolatey flavor throughout. The sourness that kind of stuck with the tea in a much more mild way than in the first steep became sort of a nutty astringent flavor like walnuts. This reminded me a lot of a Da Hong Pao. Pretty decent, but I think the roast is still a little bit intense for me, which is weird because it can’t be all that freshly roasted, as I’ve had it for a few months already.
Flavors: Chocolate, Honey, Mineral, Roasted, Sour, Walnut
