As mentioned in my most recent review, I am finally making a truly concerted effort to clear out the backlog of reviews that has accumulated over the past several months. I finished a pouch of this tea shortly after finishing the last of Floating Leaves Tea’s exceptional Winter 2016 Farmer’s Choice Baozhong. This competition grade tea also struck me as being exceptional, just not quite the value represented by its counterpart.
I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a very quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 185 F water for 7 seconds. This infusion was chased by infusions of 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes.
Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas reminiscent of baked bread, lilac, violet, grass, and butter. After the rinse, I found new aromas of cream, custard, and vanilla balanced by hints of spinach, lily, and sweet pea. The first infusion brought out a touch of gardenia. The liquor offered surprisingly clear floral notes of lily, lilac, sweet pea, and violet on the entry that were soon deftly balanced by somewhat unexpected touches of green apple, Asian pear, baked bread, butter, cream, custard, and vanilla. There were some slight vegetal hints on the finish too. Compared to the previous tea, there was a lot more going on up front in this one. Subsequent infusions allowed the gardenia, spinach, and sugarcane to come through in the mouth while touches of grass, saffron, orchid, snap peas, minerals, honeydew, and cantaloupe emerged. I also began to notice hints of cucumber on the finish. The later infusions displayed notes of minerals, butter, cream, green apple, and Asian pear backed by subtle hints of lime zest, grass, snap peas, and ripe honeydew.
This was perhaps a slightly deeper, more complex tea than the farmer’s choice offering, but of the two, I kind of preferred the farmer’s choice tea. While I appreciated that this tea had more going on in the initial infusion and retained a greater number of its aromas and flavors over the course of the session, I honestly loved the salty, brothy fade of the farmer’s choice tea and that pushed it over the top for me. Still, this was an exceptional baozhong, one of the best I have had, and perhaps the best of the very small number of competition grade teas I have tried to this point in my reviewing journey. Definitely check this one out if you are a fan of higher end baozhongs.
Flavors: Bread, Butter, Cantaloupe, Cream, Cucumber, Custard, Floral, Gardenias, Grass, Green Apple, Honeydew, Lime, Mineral, Orchid, Pear, Peas, Saffron, Spinach, Sugarcane, Vanilla, Violet
