Austin's Tea

All this Life be damned: I took a breather to sit with a new tea. Really sit. This is a tiny tuo I grabbed from Austin’s, their only puerh. Rather nice, especially for a company that is far more focused on not-sheng offerings.

The warming leaf opens with camphor and some sweet promises around the periphery. Took a few steeps to open up, as tuos do, but the wet leaf was heavy with camphor and basement. Some pink mints/wintergreen.

In the mouth, smoke and minerals started peeking out in the second steep; a touch of tree-fruit-sweet and oily mouth coating in the 3rd. I was a bit stuffy from allergies and sniveling (sigh)… took a Claritin and let the tuo steam while my nose cleared up. When I came back, it was basement camphor with some huigan whispers.

I pushed the next (4th, I think) steep a bit harder; the smell became sweeter with grainy notes; taste opened up to old furniture, pine, leather, tobacco. Muscatel, apricot, wood resin in the wet leaf. Best steep vibes.

Longevity was great, I think I probably got 12 or so. Tobacco/leather/tannins persisted. I wouldn’t say it ever got outright fruity, but it was interesting and enjoyable flavor regardless of the lack of Big Sweet. Old furniture is pretty much my favorite thing to find, so I was a happy camper.

I found the liquor’s nose generally lacking, but that could have been partially due to my cup shape (goblet-ish with a narrow top) and stuffiness. Probably not an immediate rebuy for me due to the tuo-struggle factor, but these would be heckin’ handy for travel/work/out and about. I have a feeling they’d handle long steeping well — I only had one to poke at, though, so that experiment will have to wait.

I ran across Austin’s Tea while looking around for a shiboridashi on Memorial Day. Doesn’t look like they’ve made it into Steepster yet, so this is exciting. They have a small but thoughtfully-curated selection on their website, and I am excited to see what they’re about.

I’m not going to do this gyokuro justice at the moment, but I did note pronounced florality, particularly juxtaposed against the one I drank immediately before it — a note I was not expecting but found positively delightful.