Dry – Honey, bittersweet notes of green stems or unripe tomato, hay, faint peach.
Wet – Thick, Honey, the fruity spectrum of cocoa, reduced orchard fruits (apples/pears… kinda), bitter green notes.
Liquor – Dull gold to Orange Gold.

Initial steeps Are bittersweet and have a somewhat savory base with apparent thickness. There are some warmed up white fruits/orchard fruit notes (poached pear?) and a darker-richer note that slightly resembles cocoa notes, there’s a pungency to it, but it feels hidden.

Mid steeps Steeps 3+ The leaves open up and the previous notes are still there, but feels more robust body that also has astringency developing. The initial notes are still bittersweet with a hint of something savory and moving on to sweeter and more complex notes, it sort of reminds me of some ManZhuan notes, that weird but very pleasant ’green’+ cocoa note. It is a mix of a green bitter note and the thicker richer bittersweet from cocoa.

Final Steeps It balances a bit more after a few more steeps, the body is still very good by the 6th steep, but you can tell it is thinning and developing a bit more astringency. Then at steeps 7-8th there’s a ‘collapse’ where the tea seems to only offer mostly bitterness and astringency.

Final Notes
Very good tea, this is definitely age well, it has good taste now, but it has that something that holds a bit of a promise, is not the astringency or the bitterness is a good balance between the two. I’ll rest it a bit more and re-try it in a few months to see in anything changes. No score now, but will update it as soon as I retry it.

Flavors: Bitter, Cocoa, Dark Bittersweet, Fruity, Green

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 6 g 4 OZ / 130 ML
DigniTea

I am fond of teas from Gedeng. I have this one aging and it is high up in my lineup of “time to pick and try” teas. Your timing is great for me – thanks for sharing your thoughts.

mrmopar

I think I am with DigniTea on picking one up and then trying. You guys are a step ahead of me!

JC

Yeah, this tea is very good. @DigniTea I need to find more examples of this area, this one was very pleasant so far.

@mrmopar Jump on this one, it is very good.

teatortoise

Sounds like an extraordinarily refreshing sheng. I love how you describe the overall brewing experience with initial, mid and final steeps. It really does arch that way, it seems.

JC

Thanks! I tried this area because DigniTea brought it to my attention. I want to find more examples of it. :)

teatortoise

I second that!

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Comments

DigniTea

I am fond of teas from Gedeng. I have this one aging and it is high up in my lineup of “time to pick and try” teas. Your timing is great for me – thanks for sharing your thoughts.

mrmopar

I think I am with DigniTea on picking one up and then trying. You guys are a step ahead of me!

JC

Yeah, this tea is very good. @DigniTea I need to find more examples of this area, this one was very pleasant so far.

@mrmopar Jump on this one, it is very good.

teatortoise

Sounds like an extraordinarily refreshing sheng. I love how you describe the overall brewing experience with initial, mid and final steeps. It really does arch that way, it seems.

JC

Thanks! I tried this area because DigniTea brought it to my attention. I want to find more examples of it. :)

teatortoise

I second that!

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Bio

I’ve been drinking tea for about 8-10 years now, but Puerh for about 7-8 years. I love learning and I love the people who ae passionate about it. This is a constant learning field and I love that too. I’m mostly in to Puerh, Black tea and Oolongs but I do enjoy other types from time to time.

I’m adding the scale because I noted that we all use the same system but it doesn’t mean the same to all.(I rate the tea not by how much I ‘like it’ only; there are flavors/scents I don’t like but they are quality and are how they are supposed to be and I rate them as such).

90 – 100: AMAZING. This the tea I feel you should drop whatever you are doing and just enjoy.

80-89: Great tea that I would recommend because they are above ‘average’ tea, they usually posses that ‘something’ extra that separates them from the rest.

70-79: An OK tea, still good quality, taste and smell. For me usually the tea that I have at work for everyday use but I can still appreciate and get me going through my day.

60-69: Average nothing special and quality is not high. The tea you make and don’t worry about the EXACT time of steep because you just want tea.

30-59: The tea you should probably avoid, the tea that you can mostly use for iced tea and ‘hide’ what you don’t like.

1-29: Caveat emptor! I feel sorry for my enemies when they drink this tea. :P

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DC

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http://thetinmycup.blogspot.com/

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