I had this a followup to a breakfast of some hash I made with apples, onion, bacon, and leftover chicken served with a slice of sour rye.
Gone western. Yet another 5g sample, 10oz, 205F, 6 steeps at 30s/45/1m/1m30/2m/5m
This is one of those smoke bomb ZSXZ. This tea has two things going for it: 1) the smoke doesn’t fade completely by the second steep nor does it turn into wet campfire smell and 2) the tea has longevity, not going flat quickly. It’s not the smoothest ZSXZ I’ve had, producing some astringency that I think would not make this a good candidate for brewing grandpa style in a thermos. However, due to it’s strength, I’m pretty sure you could buck Verdant’s brewing recommendation of 4g per 6-8oz of water and go with less leaf.
If you’re not a fan of smokey pu’er, I’d stay away. I was amazed at how strongly it resembled that style of tea, which I’ve never experienced in other ZSXZ. Mostly pine smoke and mushroom in aroma and taste with noticeable minerality and petrichor. The bottom of the cup did smell like brown sugar, but I did not pick up on any sweetness in taste. If there were any other flavors present, they were masked by the smoke.
Idk, this smoked tea isn’t bad, but it’s not what I was expecting.