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Grandpa style. Probably four grams for 300ml or so.

Preparation method: 90ml porcelain gaiwan, charcoal filtered Toronto tap, about five grams of tea, 95c water. Rinse, 20 seconds, 12 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds, 4o seconds, etc.

Dry leaf aroma: vanilla, slight ethanol, dark fruit.

Wet leaf aroma: damp leather, sweet, cocoa, cooked green vegetable.

Liquor: Mostly clear garnet. Slight evidence of oil.

Mouthfeel: strong hui gan, salivation, brothy, mellow, coats the entire mouth, lingering, splashes upper palate, swallows easily, coats throat. Very, very light fine astringency (tongue is slightly fuzzy)

Flavour: sweet, vanilla, baking chocolate, cooked plum, nutmeg, wood.

Filtered Toronto tap, run through gravity filter, water stored in Lin’s ceramic kettle, then brought to temperature in Bona Vita variable temperature kettle. This is a great young sheng, and insanely unforgiving to steep. Going to age well, I think.

Mellow, malty, brassy, green (melon rind, underripe green fruit), medium astringency, hui gan. Slight tea drunkenness.

Used a Bonavita variable temp. kettle. Water was city tap (Toronto) filtered through a Britta. This tea is incredibly fine, especially for the price point. Long, lingering aftertaste, brilliant colour, aroma took me right to the sea. Umami is the predominant flavour, with a rich mouthfeel reminiscent of cream. Not complex, but very approachable. I would happily buy this many times again.

I also tried to pour the boiled water into an enamelled cast iron pot before pouring into the chawan. It resulted in a grippier, softer tea which added an element of dimension. I don’t have a tetsubin, unfortunately, but the cast iron pot suggests that this tea could benefit from one.