From Liquid Proust’s Sheng Olympiad! This is the first time I’ve opened up this package with it’s cute cats and it’s pretty fonts.
The tea itself is kind of ugly—it’s very flattened and in brownish dark green shapes. Despite that, I’m hoping it’ll taste good. I even found my first hair (as far as I know) in this tea—but I suppose those things happen.
The smell of the leaves after a rinse is sweet apricot. Probably my favorite part of younger sheng is this, so I hope it’ll persist well into the tea itself.
The first steep comes in as a light yellow. I flash steeped this one, so it’s somewhat light on flavor, plus the leaves still have quite a bit more room to open up in this tightly compressed tea. Nevertheless, it has a present body and maybe the ever-so-slight hint at a smokey aftertaste, though no fruity high notes yet (this is where I’d usually find them!). There’s no bitterness to be found here either.
In the second steep, a hair of bitterness and astringency work their way out, making an appearance at the back of the throat. The main qualities here seem to be the smooth body and overall rounded flavor profile. There is a hint of a fruity sweetness at the tip of the tongue, but it’s barely perceptible. It’s smooth and easy to drink, but overall falls in the realm of mellow and overall not super interesting to drink.
Steeping for a long time seems to make this taste super vegetal as well. All in, I only managed to get a few good steeps out of it. I’m kind of surprised with the outcome—maybe since it’s a huangpian it doesn’t have the same longevity? To be honest, I’m not too sure. Overall somewhat disappointed, but I’ll definitely revisit again another day.
