These pretty, downy, medium large, slightly copper tinged golden buds, smell of smoke insense, cocoa, fruit, and powdered sugar.
They are pretty resilient beings as even with my modified version of gongfu ( I use less leaf (about 2 TSP of these fluffy light leaves)) they are still flavourful after 9 steeps (60,50,60,90,120,180,240,300, 360s).
The liquor of this tea was mostly a green tinged gold with a grey green ring, that became redder and browner in later steeps.
The broth smelled originally spicy with wood smoke insence, very faint leather,and cocoa and plum. Later it moves towards sweet creamy and fruity before returning to savoury tones.
Flavour notes that I have found so far are: roasted smoke insence, leathery spice, a hint off aged cedar, hints of alfalfa, clover nectar, honey, cream, plum and occasionally plum/strawberry, hint of bitter cocoa, upper tones of malt, a warm sweet floral note, and a savoury vegetal note. Middle steeps were mostly, cream, fruit, and nectar, with leathery notes present in early and later steeps. Cocoa is very faint but it does counterbalance the sweet tones and provides some depth.
The broth is thick and creamy and the aftertaste was sweet and lingering.
This is a nice, giving and soft tea. Its resilience makes it ideal for gongfu brewing.
Thanks boychik for sharing!
I just love reading your notes.