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Tried this tea for the 2nd time tonight, and it was wonderful. 2.5 grams of tea, 60-75 mL of water in the gaiwans, temps near boiling, and 30" first infusion. Somewhere around the 3rd and 4th infusion there was something a bit bitter, but it started sweet, smoky, spicy, earthy, had that slightly bitter interlude, and carried on for another half dozen plus infusions with the sweetness and bit of earthy and spicy. It is a wonderful tea, one I’d be happy to have more of in my cupboard, but the cupboard is already overflowing with puerh.

Didn’t realize I was missing a first tasting note on this lovely tea. I opened the package a couple of weeks ago and have been enjoying it as a morning tea. It’s very much as I expected from the Shincha—sweet, delicate, vegetal, without overpowering umami, just how I like it. It’s an excellent start to the day.

I do it as I do most of my sencha lately: about 1 gram of tea per ounce of water, net 4-5 grams for my 5 ounce kyusu, preheating the kyusu and infusing water first at 160 degrees F for 30 seconds, then 10 seconds for the next infusion, then back to 30 seconds, 60 seconds, 60 seconds, 2 minutes, and often going to 170 or 180 degrees by the 4th or 5th infusion to get more flavor out of the tea. Good that way or when keeping all to 160 degrees.

1.9 grams of tea (was aiming for 2.0, but got tired of adding & subtracting little bits) in small gaiwans, about 60-75mL water

And I took photos this time, watching the unfurling infusion by infusion: see my flickr set here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/debunix/sets/72157625151330461

The flash rinse barely started to unfurl anything

Started timidly, 30" at 160 degrees: warm, vegetal, sweet but the infusion is a little too short/dilute

1 minutes at same temp: vegetal flavors of peas, grass, lightly floral background, no hint of bitterness, much better match of infusion time and tea. Used the aroma cup set for this, and it was fun, sweet fresh mown grass odors.

90" third infusion, sweet, vegetal, delicate, love it love it, the best yet

2’ a little hotter, 170 degrees, slight astringency but still mostly vegetal

3’ 180 degrees, and better than the previous, sweet, vegetal, such a nice tea

5’ 190 degrees, and the tea is done: barely more flavor than hot water.

Large lovely leaves are now mostly unfurled, but I couldn’t get them to completely flatten long enough to shoot the picture

Next time, 1 min, 90", 2 min, 3 min, 8 min?

I was lucky enough to get some of the spring version of this tea, and quite sad when I went to reorder it and found it was sold out. This is an entirely worthy successor.

Drinking this gongfu cha this evening, with a small gaiwan, and water near boiling. The first few infusions need careful timing to avoid bitterness, but later infusions are toasty sweet without any hint of bitter. Mellow, pleasing, tea-as-comfort-food.

Sharing this tea around my clinic workroom this afternoon, raves all over. My acupuncturist colleague feels a particularly relaxing effect with this tea, more than any of the other green oolongs I’ve shared with him. I just know that drinking it makes me feel happy.

Really enjoying a series of infusions tonight….even as the leaves are losing potency—somewhere around the 8th or 10th infusion, that is—the ‘leftover’ taste is still warm, earthy, fruity, delicious. I am liking this tea better the more I drink it.

Had a nice brewing session with this tea this morning—4 or 5 infusions in a small glass teapot, the better to see the beautiful leaves unfolding. It was so delicate and floral and sweet and perfect that I fell in love all over again. I started out with about 12 ‘poles’ in a 6 oz teapot, water 160 degrees, infused 30-90 seconds in the first few infusions, then upped the temp a littele to 170 for another infusion or two (writing this in the evening, can’t be too precise). But I did count out the little poles as I dropped them into the pot. I will definitely be ordering this one again.

Another lovely thermos full of this tea today. I shared it with a coworker who said it was just ‘creamy’ and so nice, and I agree. Sweet, caramel, just a hint of earthy and enough sense of something herbaceous and bitter lurking nearby to add an interesting depth and roundness to the flavor, but never enough to be in any way unpleasant.

So very very good.

This is a very expensive tea, so I wanted to be well prepared. I finished lunch 30 minutes before tasting, brushed teeth without toothpaste, rinsed mouth with plain water—didn’t want anything to interfere with the taste of the tea.

1.4 grams of tea in tiny gaiwan
30mL water per infusion (used a very small measuring cup)

Water boiling or near boiling (205-212 per the thermometer when poured from the kettle)

Flash rinse

Wet leaves smell like forest floor—sweet clean compost scent

first infusion 15 seconds
earthy like the scent promised, but surprisingly strong sweet and spicy notes right up there with it

2nd infusion 20 seconds
earthy, caramel, sweet, spicy, very very very nice

3rd infusion 25 seconds
About the same as the 2nd infusion, a bit stronger is only difference

4th infusion 30 seconds
earthy, sweet, spicy, caramel

5th infusion, 40 seconds
Still strong and lovely

I have to admit to an ulterior motive here: I was hoping I might find that I actually prefer my young sheng puerhs to the ‘real deal’ of very aged sheng, since I have come to prefer them to most of the ripe shu—ripe shu designed to mimic the aged sheng. So I was hoping to find this would be a rather bland experience like eating dirt. And it wasn’t. It is lovely. It is very, very lovely.

Is it lovely enough to want to invest $$$ in drinking it regularly and in larger volume? Maybe not. I think stuff like this will remain an occasional tea, because even as it is sitting net to me in the cup, and the water has just boiled again, visions of Lao Ban Zhang loose mao cha are dancing in my head.

But do I understand why some stuff like this is praised and prized so highly? Yes. I get it now. It is subtly but dramatically different than the best of the shus I have had, because it manages a wonderful balance of the elements of spicy, sweet, earthy, fruity, more complex than I’ve had yet from a shu.

I’ll report back later when I see how many infusions I can get. Now up to 7, no surprises, still going strong.

Edit: got up to 12 with signficant tea flavor; by 16, it was slightly sweet water, still nice, but not a lot of oomph left.

Tried to brew some of this up tonight, and am so frustrated. It smells so good, and tastes so good, but I burnt my tongue on some pizza today, and I can’t take the heat tonight. Bummer.