This is an excellent tea with a fair amount of fermentation flavor to it. I did not get any fishy notes to the fermentation. It was thick and sweet with very little bitterness. I’d say there were some chocolate notes in there but I really wasn’t paying attention so I’m not 100% sure. It was definitely sweet and somewhat fruity in later steeps. Overall I rate this quite highly as shou goes. I think a few more years of storage is necessary to remove the rest of the fermentation flavor.
I brewed this ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 9.7g leaf 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, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min. The leaves weren’t done at ten steeps, if I wasn’t at my caffeine limit I’m sure I could get a few more steeps out of it.
Flavors: Earth, Sweet
Sounds good.