Ooooh, yeah!
This tea is still pungent and fragrant and has a lot of punch to it, yet it is made from already aged material (from 2008 if I recall correctly). The tea is very tightly compressed, which may explain why it still tastes quite ‘young’. This cake is so tightly packed you could probably send this to the moon and back.
This tea smells beautifully, I mean when you open the wrapper, the smell of nice sheng literally fills the room.
A litlle goes a long way with this fella, though you need to wait till the leaves open up. So maybe a flash steep just to get things going, and then you’re in for a very nice experience (6+ steeps).
Taste is 100% Xia guan to me: a little bitter, a very long aftertaste, round, balanced, yet with quite a lot of punch. Slightly raspy in the throat. So you would probably better start with a smallish leaves/water ratio (like around 4 g. for a 70 ml gaiwan).
Buy it while you can: this will probably age beautifully in an adequate setting. But you can definitely drink this now.
Flavors: Almond, Apricot, Astringent, Bitter, Dried Fruit, Herbaceous, Smoke, Tannic, Thick