I’m pretty impressed with this tea. Second sheng I’ve tried out of my Farmerleaf order. The dry leaf smelled mostly like straw. After a rinse, I got just the barest hint of smoke, along with some apricot.
The tea has a nice and creamy texture for most of the session, along with a milky sweetness to it. Combined with apricot notes which are present near the end of the sip throughout the session, I found this tea comparable to a bowl of oatmeal with apricot in it. There’s some kind of starchiness to the sweetness which really makes me think of oatmeal. The tea also shows just enough bitterness to keep it interesting, allowing the flavors to dance on the tongue, rather than just sit with their heavy, sweet character. Occasionally, I found myself tasting just a hint of cinnamon in the finish, but I was never sure if it was actually there or just my imagination putting cinnamon onto a big bowl of oatmeal.
The qi from this tea wasn’t particularly strong – a slight warming body feeling to it perhaps, but no more. The tea had an impressive longevity – I could get 16+ steeps out of it pretty easily. Not sure what kind of aging potential this one has – texture is good, but there’s no reason for the bitterness to be tempered by age or anything. At a pretty impressive price point for the quality, I could see myself potentially getting a cake should I decide to make a bigger order at Farmerleaf, probably to drink up at a younger age rather than sit on for years.
Flavors: Apricot, Creamy, Milk, Oats, Sweet