345 Tasting Notes
A little under the weather recently and usually drink darker things in this case, but have been wanting to check in on this so this was second tea of the day. Can’t comment too much on feeling in this case, but I’m happy with the direction this seems to be heading in.
3.5g, 70 ml TWL gaiwan, having learned from the initial experience. Stuck with mostly flash steeps.
Some light bitterness that fades quickly, and pleasant sticky sweet florals in the aftertaste. Very lovely. Apricot notes are gone, while some of the youthful minty notes are still present as steeps progress. Longevity is good, but I had to end it early again as the feeling in the stomach is still green. I look forward to revisiting down the line.
4.3g, ZZZ.
One day I need to pull this tea out when I’m not feeling unrested or under the weather… but this is very comfortable to drink so I keep reaching for it on these types of days.
wet: darker floral, woody sweet, wet storage
Starts bland, straw-like, some bright sweetness in finish and in throat, some herbal medicinal hinting at bitter but doesn’t quite get to bitter. Seems sleepy today taste wise, or maybe should’ve leafed a tad heavier, but some happy feeling. By steep 6, was core leafy taste, so I was curious about pushing it and moved it to my 135ml zini. I did 4 more long steeps in the zini, and those were mostly extended root, herbal tastes, and some base sweetness.
The pushed steeps didn’t yield anything particular of note. I did this mainly because I drank with some tea friends recently, and they pushed particular older teas into late steeps which were still interesting. It made me think about whether I’m only drinking the storage and not necessarily the entirety of the tea, but I don’t think that’s true in most cases. Those were rare teas that are not often encountered or even available for purchase. But at any rate, I think the distinction is that both base material and storage has to be truly excellent to warrant the pushing, else the backbone is not going to show anything illustrative. So, it’ll still be business as usual for me going forward, since most of my teas are not quite that level.
While this note likely seems unenthusiastic, I do actually like this tea and would like to buy another cake once shipping opens back up. The storage and general profile are both very nice, though if I were to hazard a guess, I would say something like the DTH 04 actually has nicer material since the feeling is stronger and goes deeper there.
4.4g, 90 ml ZZZ
wet: incense, floral, smoky sweet, fruity
1. medicinal/incense bitter. minty floral aroma in mouth. something like powdered sugar in taste. soothing in head before flowing downwards and dispersing. settling
2. maybe I’m tripping, but something about this reminds me of YQH house taste except this is more complex and incense and not just mushroom. Soup not super thick today. Strangely happy for a bit, maybe the caffeine is hitting. Strong, comforting just pausing and sitting in place for a bit
3. honeyed medicinal
4-6. taste is too close to YQH. but feeling is nice. good warmth. some floral backend
7. resin, bitter. Had to take a break to eat something
8. lightened. will push a bit next steep
9. some leafy taste, but could still go further. Warm still, but feeling harsh in the stomach now, so will stop.
Quite lovely today. Maybe I will bring this out for guests next time.
Would love to try this one – just so cost prohibitive! Glad you enjoyed it :)
Yes, certainly not cheap! I try to rationalize it as $8 for 2 hours of entertainment every so often. My friends were telling me last weekend that they consider paying $9 for their favorite drinks (something about mango coconut and triple matcha) at Heytea very reasonable, as an outside reference. Which is wild to me, but to each their own.
Assuming you’re US based, once shipping opens back up, would recommend finding a friend (or three…) to split this and/or the 2006, which are supposed to be the favorites.
a blast from the past. 3.9g, 70ml gaiwan.
wet leaf: super peachy in nectarine vein, less green/mint toned than standard young sheng
1. super fruity. Uncomfortable in the stomach
2. minty peachy, almost perfume like. NSV like brightness to the taste
3. bitter
I stopped there, since this hit the stomach really hard. Some hours later, was still chaotic feeling with heat and cold chills. The post-session leaves are strangely paper thin and after drying on a plate, are translucent and some have a weird shiny plastic sheen across parts of the leaf, almost like a thin layer of tape or glue was applied. I think there’s some buds that could be NSV mixed in. I’m inclined to think there’s something terribly wrong with this tea; perhaps it was scented or something. The peachiness is unnaturally potent and distinctive relative to young sheng, and the dried leaves were really weird. I’m horrified looking back on my notes from years ago and recounting that I thought it was a good idea to thermos this. This was $1/g which is very yikes in retrospect. Who knows what the hell is in here…
3.5g, 70 mL gaiwan
woke up expectedly in the middle of the night and couldn’t fall back asleep so grabbed this, but feeling maybe impacted.
wet: woody, light beany/grainy sweet, light smoke, raisin, somewhat more sharply sweet when cooled.
1. wet leaf a bit floral, vanilla. Not very strong upfront taste, but sugary sweet finish. Warming
2. lacks upfront flavor, similar to before
3. lingering floral to aftertaste, but otherwise very mild. aroma is strong in mouth and lingers quite heavily, but not gripping/filling to throat. more like a thin dispersed layer
Did a few more steeps, but mostly similar. I can’t find much on this tea online, so I’m not sure if this is just how it is. Kind of bizarre. Leaves pretty choppy for boutique. A little tough on the stomach, and not quite comfortable/fully ready to drink, definitely needed to eat after. I’ve been congested all week and other teas this week were heady, but at least this was not… Will be curious to see how this ages.
Thought this was gone, but found the true last leftover bits today. 3.7g, 90 mL, so a little light.
clear incense taste, cherry finish. slight feeling, but a bit shallow. I think at this price point I would prefer aged liubao, but I can see this continuing to age well. I’ve liked this more the times I’ve had it with others, but alone this never quite clicked for me.
4.3g, 70 ml gaiwan
I bought this several years back with the 2014 as a part of a comparison set for fresh vs. aged white tea. I suppose they’re both semi aged now though. Oops.
wet: light honeyed florals
2 rinses since the leaves all floated to the top and I couldn’t get them otherwise. While white tea is such that you don’t really need to rinse at all, it’s ingrained at this point.
1. honey, pea, vegetal, underlying bitterness. Maybe overdid ratio
2. similar, bit of honey vegetal aroma lingering in mouth
3. more vegetal, a bit acidic
4. more bitter and green.
5. light floral honey, some green aspect in the back end. Stopped here
I’m aware that I shouldn’t be expecting top shelf yinzhen level quality, so I suppose in that context, this was not too bad. I think i should’ve lowered the ratio. At any rate, this will probably sit around a while before I reach for it again.
strange session today. Unrecognizable as YQH except by yang’s storage aroma in the rinse. Even wet leaf smelled herbaceous, and a little smoky. Taste has a bitterness, but not resolving, just dispersing. A bit heady and slight upper body feeling, and something distinctly soy sauce like. The most feeling I’ve gotten from this tea, but not particularly more pleasant than the other sessions.
4g, 70 mL TWL gaiwan
This session was with a good amount of broken edge bits from my cake, but the compression overall seems pretty tight
TCM medicinal, incense aroma on the prewarmed dry leaf
Wet: slight smoke, aged notes, incense, sour woody
1. Bitter! Strong incense off the soup aroma. medicinal, and a slight floral taste. Sugar cane sweet aftertaste. Alerting.
2. Bitter medicinal. Sweetness in mouth
3. Similar
4. Bitter
Did a couple more steeps, but this is not really my favorite profile. It certainly has more room to age out the bitterness. This session showed a pretty linear profile as a whole, but I can see why it’s a standard/reference. That being said, I can’t imagine a beginner liking this straight off the bat, even with lighter ratio. TeaDB did a video recently on puerh drinkers getting too used to bitterness and losing sensitivity to tasting it, and it’s also something MarshalN has noted in old blog posts, but I didn’t realize it had also happened to me until drinking with others. All that to say, I think this is genuinely quite bitter. Lol. But not in a disgusting and unpalatable way like Lich Tears, which was a little traumatic.
Feeling wise is a bit jittery. Definitely not as comfortable as the 2005 MY 8582. This will go into the hotbox.
4.5g, 90 mL ZZZ
Wet: light smoke, woody, incense, sweet, barnyard, hawthorn candy flakes
1. Hawthorn candied, minty green floral, honeyed. Warming, downwards pull. Lingers in mouth and slightly in throat but in a thinnish layer
2. Slight bitter along w mild minty honeyed taste. Good texture
3. Similar taste. Strong downwards pull
4. Similar. Too strong. Had to take a break and lay down for a bit
5. Not very strong taste, but good texture + depth of feeling still. A bit fruity and mushroom in the finish lingering
6. Leafy taste, but still feels nice. Some lingering hawthorn candied sweetness in throat.
7. Stopped here. Will be a really nice one with more time. Maybe need to brew this with other people so the intake is a bit less
