Sip Down & Backlog
This was an interesting tea which is different to most teas I’ve had prior. It took me a long while to drink this down on the account I was never sure whether it was good or different. Teas that tend to break rules or change our perception on the tea varietals we encounter, during the endless trip through the Tea Rabbit Hole, give us pause. My very first session with the tea was riddled with notes of “rubbery, light intensity of Assam or CTC, & oolong-ish.” I think the way the tea was stored (rubber sealed container) added the oddities of the first session; therefore, I stored the tea with my shou cakes to verify if the storage was the issue.
After giving the tea some time to sit with shou, the aroma changed. It had a little bit of the earthiness of shou and the maltiness of stronger red/black teas such as Assam. However, the way it tasted was a lot of the same apart from the rubbery notes. I think if given more time and/or amount of tea, I’d’ve experimented with its storage more – adding to the sheng cakes, oolongs, and sealing one off entirely by itself.
Flavors: Malt, Rubber
