I’ve had this tea twice with slightly different tasting notes. The constants are a blend of straw and wood flavors, with the wood becoming stronger in later steeps, and a strong astringency in the finish that falls short of being bitter but for me detracts from the overall effect.
The first time I had the tea, I thought it had hints of smoked meat and spice. This time around, I thought I detected a bit of apricot underneath the straw and wood. Yunnan Sourcing raves about the cha qi in their write-up, and while there is obviously some effect, it was not nearly as powerful as many other teas I drink regularly. I rate cha qi on a scale of 1 to 110 and give this one an 87. While the tea isn’t spectacular, it was very enjoyable on a rainy Saturday morning, and is a pretty good value at $45 per 400 g cake.
