First review, yay! I was going to go with a familiar ripe b/c something warm and comforting seemed in order after two days in a row at the dentist. But then I changed my mind and went with this tea because I’ve been curious about Huang Pian for awhile and it smelled really good. Wet leaf aroma is sweet fruity grassy spinach & hay. The liquor is a pale yellow; the flavor is wonderfully light and sweet, with a pleasantly light kuwei (I learned that term from Grill, thanks Grill!). It’s floral but not obnoxiously so. After several steeps I’m not feeling much in the way of qi. My sense is that this is a lovely tea for a summer day… too bad it’s November, lol. This is also a lovely tea for the commitment phobic, because after 7 or 8 steeps it’s pretty flower water/done. There is some magic in those first few steeps though. And I think when I have this tea again, I’ll up my leaf to water ratio a bit from 4.5g/100ml and see what happens.
Recommended
This is You :-D
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Bio
For many years I drank cheap asian market-bought oolongs because I really didn’t know what was out there. For the last year or so I’ve been educating myself and making a foray into better quality teas. During the course of my journey I have fallen hard down the puerh rabbit hole – it started with young sheng, but now there’s another even deeper hole in the aged category, and I may be careening down this particular rabbit hole forever. I do still find time for aged oolong, a good wuyi yancha, and the occasional aged white.
I stopped rating teas awhile ago. I guess the numbers stopping meaning anything after awhile. For a long time I was pretty good about keeping my cupboard up to date and reviewing teas, mostly to help me keep track and remember what I like. I’ve gotten lazy about that for the last several months.
The tea addiction has also spawned a new addiction to throwing pottery, and I have become mildly obsessed with making tea cups, shibos, and teapots.
Location
Southestern USA
My first raw pu’er ever was huang pian. They’re a great intro and always nice to have on hand. Due to the dubtle characteristics of huang pian I would experiment pushing the leaf/water ratio to 6-7g/100ml. I just may pick up a cake…