Bao Tang 2017 Spring

Single session of this tea from derk (thank you!), but so pleasant with first snow outside the window. I mean… it is a first snow and it even stays. I guess we have about two inches of fresh snow. Usually it snows, but melts afterwards. Not this year. And I did not even fell down on the first snow. It’s something!

I came home today and when I was travelling home, I thought about another gongfu session. Something, that will calm me down, warm me up, and keep it simple and cozy.

This tea delivers it. It’s simple and relaxing. I completely get calming and muscle relaxing ability. Weird that tea (and only tea, not a blend) can do it, while other can wake us up and make us buzz. I got several nice steeps, lightly vegetal — green peppers and beans, a bit of grassy and now and then mild astringency. Not sure if I noticed astringency in first sessions (I need to start a steep diary), but for sure, the minerality was there.

As derk said, great for beginners, as it is mellow and it is not hard to steep. On the other hand it can be quite complex for first time pu-erh drinkers and can bring more curiosity to try more and more teas. I do not consider myself as a experienced drinker, but I really liked it for its easy steeping.

This sheng is mild and pleasant. The flavors are not strong but the body of the tea is thick with a satisfying swallow. It starts off low-pitched, somewhat mung beany and savory, clean and mineral with a gentle sweetness. Floral-brown sugar aftertaste appears with the first steep and soon a mild minty quality in the throat and chest. Later some bitterness develops as the grassy-vegetal youth of the tea with a hint of astringency expresses itself and a returning sweetness presents. As that fades, it becomes more floral and manages to maintain its thick, softly sweet character until the end.

The energy is noticeable within the first few infusions — calming and I can feel all the muscles in my body relax, not only specific muscle groups. The spent leaf looks great, like most of Tea Urchin’s teas. At this point, I can tell it’s aging albeit slowly with my storage. The liquor is close to a light orange-brown and the wet leaf is generally dark olive with a brown tint.

It’s a gentle tea, one I’d recommend to beginners since it’s easy sipping and doesn’t necessarily need much attention paid to have a satisfying session.

A random sample in my last TU order! This Bao Tang reminds me pretty strongly of Yiwu in character, with a relatively soft and sweet flavor. There’s scarcely any youthful astringency to this tea. The sweetness is mostly vegetal and floral, not really leaning towards the cakey/vanilla sweetness that can be present in some Yiwu. The texture is where this tea really shone for me. It’s oily and thick both in the mouth and down the throat. True to TU’s description, there is a bit of a cooling sensation in the finish of this tea.