Quick Notes A nice sample thanks to Mark from the Zhi Zhen Tea Shop
Dry Leaf – Sweet, fruity, floral.
Wet Leaf – Apricot, honey, strong orchid scent with bitterness.
Liquor – slightly pale Golden/Yellow
Gong Fu – Porcelain gaiwan 5oz/8g
1st – 15secs Sweet, subtle floral notes at the front that become more apparent and fruity as it washes down. The aftertaste is very sweet and lasting.
2nd – 30secs Sweet with slight floral bitterness that is more apparent that previously. The body is smooth with enough astringency/roughness to wake up the tongue and let you enjoy the fruity sweetness that overtakes it. It has a very sweet honey/apricot aftertaste.
3rd – 45secs Floral bitterness with some astringency that makes once again seems to wake up the tongue for the coming notes. As it washes down the liquid becomes smooth, mellow and very sweet maintaining some bitterness. The aftertaste is very sweet and fruity and long lasting.
4th – 1min Sweet with strong floral bitterness and slightly pungency that can be ‘tobacco’ like or slightly perfumy in the mouth. As it washes down it maintains its floral notes and some astringency but slowly smooths out and becomes sweeter and fruity. The after taste is stronger fruitier and sweeter.
Final Notes
I did around 9-11 steeps (lowered the steep times to 45 seconds for a few and then added 15 seconds per steep). I love Bulang Puerh (when is the real deal) because it seems to let you ‘choose’. It can be extremely floral, bitter, pungent and astringent (while still being pleasant) or it can be all the other way around subtle, sweet, fruity and smooth (with shorter steeps).
It is very forgiving, you may be able to make any tea bitter and overly floral by steeping for a long time but you will not be able to cut back time and avoid the bitterness if you choose. Bulang usually lets you play and explore. And the sweetness, just wow. This is to me like a Younger version of the “Ming Qian Chun Jian” I have. Very good, worthy of drinking now or storage.
