I had a little bit of a hard time with this one. The first brew was gong fu a while back, and I got generally squashy and corn impressions with a body that was so thick that the body almost rounded about my mouth in a green bubble. I got some fruity hints, but they were not pronounced until the third steep. I got eight brews last time in my shiboridashi, but the flavor was overall green, floral, vegetal, creamy, and herbaceaous.
The same could be said for the grey today, as it was crispy cool and rainy. A tangerine scented buttery broth and florals named the first long steep of 36 sec, and more flavor was obvious in the second brew. I got something like stronger cilantro and weaker pineapple in flavor, and hyacinth in the faint scent. The third steep had a iris like smell, and the body was much the same, iris, and cilantro. I did a short 30 second next steep, and it was just light, green and vaguely citrusy. The next one was better at about a minute and a half, having more tangerine, pineapple, squash, and a continually fresh herbaceous character. The current steep is thinning out back to the cilantro pineapple combo I described earlier.
This tea can have a great mouthfeel and subtle character, but it has not yielded a particularly powerful cup yet and does not have the staying power of the winter pick or the fall. I have to admit that I need to experiment more with its parameters, but it has not wowed me yet. There were days that I thought it was better than the spring, and days like today that I thought the 2018 batch was better. It’s certainly a good tea, but it is on the subtler end and I think that Mountain Stream has better batches.
