2003-2005 HongTaiChang Ripe tea

This was in many ways a good tea. It did however have a lot of wet storage taste to it. So much so that I rerally couldn’t taste the fermentation over it. There was not a lot of fermentation taste but there was some. In the end it developed to a sweet note with a slight aftertaste of wet storage flavor or wet wood as it is referred to. I find that I dislike wet storage taste a little less than I did a couple of years ago. It still bothers me a little but not as much. There were of course other flavors behind the wet storage but it was hard to pin them down. Overall this was a good tea as long as you can tolerate some wet storage flavors. Some people really won’t like it. This is not one where I would order a tong, but I will put the cake in dry storage for six months and see if the wet storage flavors go away. This is what happened with the White2Tea White Tuo. Six months in dry storage and the wet storage flavors were gone.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 130ml teapot with 10.1g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 minutes. Judging by the color of the tea in the twelfth steep I would say there were two or three more steeps left to this one if I wanted to continue.

2003-2005 Hong TaiChang Ripe tea
The Initial smell of this tea was a bit off-putting as it smelt moldy. I decided to do two quick washes. The first steep that I drunk was earthy and very smooth. The tea seemed really thin to me, but it was also sweet. There were bits of mushroom tastes and perhaps a delicious wood flavor. I also believe there was a blonde hair in the piece of the tea. Oh well. The main thing that I really noticed about this tea, was that the lump of tea was really compressed through the first 5 steeps as none of the tea broke apart! I have not had a tea so far that did this. After the seventh steep the tea finally started breaking apart, but only a few little bits. I believe that I finally stopped drinking this after about the 12th steep or so, as I really lost track of how many times I poured water in the Gaiwan.
After all was said and done, I inspected the leaves and discovered that there was still some actual dry spots in the actual tea lump! This too was a first and it was really amazing. A good tea that would make a good daily drinker.