Broke into this cake today. I was able to easily break off small pieces off with my fingers, 7g worth. A quick rinse, starting at 185F and later going up to 205F. A bunch of 5s infusions, maybe up to 15? I just keep going and going hehe.
The cake has a grassy, hay, slightly flowery aroma. I’m not really good at aromas TBH. The liquor is medium to deep golden color. The taste at first, started off somewhat bitter and slightly astringent. The first two steepings, aside from a little bitterness and astringency, had a remarkable sweet taste, that of honey or more like sugar cane. The next few steeps, more flavors came out, layers of them. It’s not a boring tea. It has a super thick mouth feel yet a nice finish with lots of peach notes. Super creamy feeling in my mouth and throat. With each successive infusion, it kept bringing out fruity notes, more on the side of stone fruits, such as apricots and peaches, but also citrus notes, and later add in a little metallic and mineral notes here and there. Complex tea.
In the beginning, I did find it to be slightly bitter but that went away and the pleasant dryness throughout adds to it, doesn’t ruin it. Towards the middle-end, the fruity notes, such as apricots and peach notes subsided and the last layer came in, almost an umami, savory, vegetal taste along with spices, a little heat and minerals.
Throughout the infusions, it was always pleasantly sweet and gave a thick, creamy mouthfeel that won’t quit. The stone fruit notes remained even at the end. I would say that if you’re into sweet sheng and like the mouthfeel experience, I would highly recommend this one to you.
Flavors: Apricot, Astringent, Bitter, Floral, Grass, Honey, Peach, Stonefruit, Sugarcane, Sweet, Umami, Vegetal
