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Well, I’m back after a long absence. My time has been eaten up by work and health problems for the last three months. A bout of COVID in late September left me unable to smell or taste much of anything for an extended period of time. It was so bizarre. I couldn’t smell or taste anything save for tea while I was sick, but then afterwards, tea was the only thing I could not smell or taste. I’ve noticed that I am still not quite as perceptive to certain aromas or flavors as I used to be, but for whatever reason, I am now much more sensitive to texture. I have no clue when or if I will be able to fully work my way back to where I was before I got sick, but for now, I’m easing my way back into things and starting off by posting one of my backlogged reviews from much earlier in the year. As Bai Ji Guan goes, this one was not bad, but it was far from the best I have ever had. I certainly did not think it measured up to Old Ways Tea’s 2018 offering.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After rinsing 5 grams of loose tea leaves in 3 fluid ounces of 203 F water for 10 seconds, I kicked things off with a 5 second infusion. 18 additional infusions followed. Steep times for these infusions were 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes, and 15 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of hay, straw, honey, apricot, earth, and golden raisin. After the rinse, I noted new aromas of roasted chestnut, roasted peanut, and grass that were underscored by a subtle smokiness. The first infusion added aromas of bread, dandelion, and dandelion greens. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented delicate notes of hay, grass, straw, earth, dandelion, roasted carrot, roasted chestnut, and baked bread that were chased by hints of smoke, golden raisin, apricot, honey, pear, butter, apple, dandelion greens, and roasted peanut. The bulk of the subsequent infusions gradually introduced aromas of roasted carrot, minerals, butter, mushroom, roasted almond, and parsley. Stronger and more immediately detectable notes of roasted carrot, butter, pear, apple, and roasted peanut appeared in the mouth alongside impressions of minerals, cream, roasted almond, white grape, spinach, mushroom, parsley, and lettuce. I also picked up hints of watercress, orange zest, caramel, and sugarcane. As the tea faded, the liquor continued to emphasize lasting notes of minerals, grass, hay, butter, parsley, roasted almond, spinach, baked bread, and roasted chestnut that were underscored by rather fleeting hints of mushroom, lettuce, watercress, pear, honey, sugarcane, earth, roasted peanut, smoke, and golden raisin.

Compared to the 2018 production of this tea, this offering did not come off as being as deep or as complex, yet it was also oddly not as approachable. The aromas it offered seemed a bit flat and muted, while the mouthfeel of the tea liquor was not as sharp or as crisp as I was hoping it would be. Still, this was far from a bad tea. It did offer some truly nice aromas and flavors. It just could have been more elegant and better balanced.