This tea is a solid performer, but not likely to knock anyone’s socks off. Another five to ten years of somewhat damp storage would likely do it favors, as it has fallen into the usual Xiaguan trap of being compressed to the point that it remains intact for future archeological excavations.
Still, the Malaysian storage has done this great favors, as it’s much, more more quaffable than similar Xiaguan (including the 04 cake from AiEC I previously reviewed, interestingly enough). It’s just a long way from here to there with the way Xiaguan starts out, and while the smoke has receded to an excellent level to simply be a flavor complement as opposed to the be all/end all, there’s a depth to the best factory teas that this hadn’t achieved yet. It hints at it, but for now, it’s more of a tease than reality.
If you trust your storage and like old factory tuos though, this is a great price to get in on if you think it’ll get to where some of the better tuos have. I believe it can, but not likely sitting in its cardboard box in my cabinet.
So essentially… sorry green box tuo, it really not you, it’s me.
