Bronze grade.
Have had this for a while and been meaning to try it. I got the podium, which has a sample of each grade, and decided to try the bronze grade first. The sample consists of a few black shards wrapped in bronze foil. 1 gram goes into the gaiwan, and after a flash rinse, matter from the shards begins to release, collecting at the bottom of the gaiwan.
The liquor is an orange brown as expected. I do get a familiar, shou-like aroma, and the first steep tastes of iron to me, kind of metallic and salty. rhinkle gets giggly pretty much immediately.
For the second steep I use my puerh pick to scrape the bits away from the surface of the gaiwan a bit and stir for about a second. By the time I sit down to start sipping from this steep, I’m definitely feeling the caffeine. The taste is completely different. No longer getting the iron, more of a light, clean earthiness. I can feel the energy coursing through me, but not in that disturbing jittery way that I really don’t like.
Sweetness really comes through in steep three. I have to take a break from it after this one as the effect is strong. When I come back to it I do a more concentrated round and finish it off it ends up cooling down quite a bit before I get to drink, resulting in an iced coffee flavor.
Overall a very interesting experience. Can’t wait to try silver and gold!
Flavors: Coffee, Earth, Metallic, Salt, Sweet
