This has been on my wishlist for a while, ever since reading mrmopar’s review, I believe. My daughter shopped from my wishlist for Christmas and I am now the proud owner of a cake!
I haven’t had a really special gong fu session in a while and decided to set aside some time tonight. I wanted to try this tea when I could give it my undivided attention.
This is the hardest cake I have had in a long time! All the cakes I have right now can be broken with your fingers, or at least with very little pressure from a pu knife. I was about to lament not owning a pu pick when I finally managed to get off enough for my wee pot.
Since the cake was so hard I decided to do a rinse. Breaking the cake had created some tiny bits of leaf that I wanted to dispose of in the rinse since hubby doesn’t like chunkies, although I don’t mind them at all. I did a five second rinse and the liquor I poured off was fairly light.
First steep was slow to color, so I gave it a few extra seconds. Right off the bat the smell and taste of this tea made me glad I was taking the time to enjoy it properly. I didn’t detect the fishy aroma some reviewers did but this has been aging for a bit longer, so maybe that took care of it. It is quite earthy and has the bolder puerh taste more than the “oiled horse tack” vibe. The texture is really what made this tea for me, though. It is so creamy/silky/oily. It has a great mouthfeel.
Second steep colored very quickly, as did the next four. At steep seven, I had to lengthen the time because the leaves were nearly spent. In spite of the lack of color, it was still an enjoyable cup. Eighth steep was pale even after a lengthy steep and the flavor almost undetectable, so we retired the leaves.
This was a lovely tea to slip back into night time gong fu again. Thank you, SuperAnna, for all the Christmas teas!
