Country of Origin: China
Leaf Appearance: dark, fairly large
Ingredients: puerh tea
Steep time: 30 seconds
Water Temperature: 205 degrees
Preparation Method: porcelain gaiwan
Liquor: amber
The craziest thing about this tea for me is that it was picked the year that I graduated high school (2001). It doesn’t feel like that long ago but I’m approaching by thirtieth birthday so it must be. I purchased this as a sample size from +Verdant Tea so the leaves were already conveniently broken up for me. The taste of the first infusion was sweet and nutty with a wine-like finish. It had a thick, almost creamy mouth-feel that left a tingling feeling on my tongue. Something came up and I had to stop drinking this tea after just two infusions. That simply wouldn’t do so I put my gaiwan in the refrigerator in the hopes that the leaves would still be ok. Sadly, I couldn’t get back to them for two days but I was relieved to find that it tasted just as good as when I left off. As each steeping progressed, notes of honey and caramel appeared. This tea was everything that I love about sheng and I’m rather sad that it is no longer available.
You can find out more about this tea here.