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initial dry leaf smell very sweet and floral, almost perfume like. 212f, 100 mL gaiwan, 6.2g.

did not rinse. wet leaf is lightly smoky and bittersweet smell.

7s: carrot-like perfumed floral sweetness; sweet aftertaste in back of mouth and upper throat that shifts to a slightly vegetal note

7s: light floral black tea/hongcha edge creeping in. slight steamed vegetal taste and aftertaste

8s: slight bitter upfront, in the vein of unpleasant cucumber bitterness, ringed by a floral and slight vegetal that leaves tongue dry. cucumber aftertaste that I’ve never encountered before. transitions into light sweetness

8s: this definitely has to be the most aromatic tea I’ve ever smelled. If the smell were a perfume, I’d buy it. Anyway, on taste: a floral pea-like taste, akin to the floral of the LP bubblegum yesheng I’ve tried before, but fuller and more honeyed. This fades and transitions to a black tea/hongcha-tinged floral taste. drying on tongue. I suspect my shorter steeps are keeping potential bitterness at bay, and I don’t mind putting in the work to keep it this way.

8s: almost mint hint plus floral vegetal notes and a cucumber pulp taste. tastes like sweet pea shower gel smells like in a way. sweetened cucumber like aftertaste

8s: almost bitter but not quite with a taste in the black tea/hongcha vein. somewhat drying

8s: back to honeyed cucumber florals. slight subtle vegetal aftertaste

8s: similar, but lighter

8s: a sort of bland steamed vegetable like taste, some high floral note as well

12s: similar

20s: similar. now is probably the right time to admit that this session’s notes were taken over the course of a week. This tea isn’t explicitly offensive in any way, but it is so boring and lacks anything truly dynamic; all shifts happen within a limited range. Which is perhaps not an issue, but at this price point, there’s so many more interesting options to go for over this one. I started and finished 3 other teas in this same duration.

30s: same, but slight drying on tongue

45s: very mild

1 min: more black tea like, slightly drying in upper throat

unknown min.: bitter with a rounded floral aspect. moving to the thermos, don’t really want to drink more of this

concluding thoughts: very slight warming. There’s no doubt this is pretty good material, but dang I really did not enjoy this as a tea. Anything that approaches hongcha/black tea notes I tend to immediately find slightly repulsive and I can’t really explain why, it just is that way. If these notes seem good to you otherwise, I’m sure plenty of people would enjoy this one. I will say that I agree with shah8’s take on wild teas (yesheng), as the ones I’ve tried now all seem to follow a similar profile that isn’t too dynamic or interesting to me, and I’ll probably avoid these in the future. This one I ordered a while back before I’d concluded that wild teas were probably not for me, and well, shipping times from China just is what it is. These experiences are why I don’t sign up for monthly club subscriptions no matter how tempting. I like novelty, but I also feel less disappointed that it’s something I chose of my own volition to purchase instead of someone else deciding for me. Funny how things work.