Jingmai Special Pu-Erh

Backlog from yesterday but after airing out this sample I tasted very different more pleasing but still not to my tastes. This time the mineral and “autumn leaf pile” went away but the buttery roundness stayed. From what I remember it was slightly sweet and vegetal light a par-grilled zucchini, I could taste the slightly astringent seeds of the fruit also the lightly bitter skin. Not talking bulang bitter but slightly noticeable although it was rounded out but a herbaceous buttery smoothness not cream or thick but the flavors seems to transition smoothly as if I was tasting a buttered vegetable not saying it tasted like butter nor did it have a thick buttery texture. While not a bad tea I just may not like jingmai terrior I still have a few other samples to chug from bannacha from their jingmai harvest so we shall see.

-Take away
Not only are flavors subjective from person to person based on their memories and associations but even in this short period of storage the tastes changed within one person’s perception of one tea has changed dramatically. I remember when I first started drinking teas if I tasted a tea once I would make a binding decision in that exact moment. It seems that definitive opinions can’t be truly formed until you have not only changed brewing parameters(time, temperature, vessel) but also water type, our body’s hydration(I tend to be dehydrated which is the equlivent of your taste buds having a cold so I always try to carefully breathe in the stream from the kettle to moisten my nasal and throat passages), but also storage. I am not talking small barely noticeable minuscule changes, with this tea originally it tasted like sucked on a metallic rack after cleaning a leaf pile super minerally super “autumn leaf pile” now it was a slightly under cooked caramelized herbed butter fried zucchini.