This is an interesting tea. It is fairly bittersweet in the early infusions. There is a moderate amount of fermentation flavor to them. Then there is the taste from the sticky rice herb. I found this to be slightly off putting in the first couple of steeps. Luckily this improved too. In the later steeps this added a nice flavor, not sure how to describe it. The bitterness went away and a sweet taste remained. The fermentation lasted around four or five steeps before it was not a factor. But that is about average. The sticky rice flavor went the distance with this tea and in the later steeps I quite enjoyed it. That flavor was dominant over the sweet note even in the eighth steep. Overall I did like this tea although it was by no means fantastic.
I steeped this tea eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with 8g leaf or two mini tuocha and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec. Judging by the color of the tea in the eighth steep I’d say I could get at least four more steeps out of this. I think this is fairly high quality for a mini tuocha which are often low quality.
Flavors: Bitter, Earth, Sweet
