Note: very broken up leaves in this sample, impossible not to oversteep in the early steeps. I’m flash steeping this one every time in a ~160ml gaiwan.
Sweet and slightly smokey rinse. Med astringency on 1st steep, still sweet and higher smokiness. 2nd steep way too high astringency, dumped it out. 3rd steep mellowing out a bit. 4th steep mellowing more but still too astringent to taste anything else. 5th steep was finally drinkable but not that interesting. 6th steep and the astringency is pretty low and the tea is starting to have some nice flavors.
7th steep is very mellow and actually fantastic even though my bias of the earlier steeps being awful wants me to still hate this tea. I didn’t eat a very big breakfast and this tea is DESTROYING my stomach. Time for some bread. 8th steep (still flash steeping btw) is VERY nice. Grassy but soft and deep rather than crisp bright grass. Minerals and chlorine. 9th steep about the same. 10th is getting much sweeter. 11th steep I finally let it go for 5-10 seconds before I poured it off. Very nice flavor, ideal sheng for me but I can’t get over how bitter and astringent it was at first. I’ll probably get 15-20 steeps from this!
Don’t think I’ll be buying a cake of this, I just can’t justify buying a tea where I want to dump out the first 6 steeps.
This can be hit or miss for some.