Marco’s 2021 Blind Tasting Gamma

I decided to bask in the continuous rain we have been having for the past few days and cycle the long distance to work early in the morning.  When I get there and dry off I decide to open the next sample alphabetically and a warm aged odour greets me… a perfect sample to cozy up to I think…

Dry iron like tight compressed leaves smell of aged humid storage with a distinct dirt peaty odour but also there is a sweetness to it as well.  It kind of smells of dry-ish natural Taiwanese storage.  You can observe the distinct iron pressed straight edge which is a signature of such cakes.  Right away you know we are likely dealing with a Xiaguan 8653 Iron Cake until we can rule out otherwise… I give it a 30 second rinse then 30 minutes of rest in the warm teapot.

First infusion has a sweet hay and grass like taste with a rich creamy sweet woody taste with a returning not to sweet maple syrup subtle sweetness.  The mouthfeel is lubricating and nicely oily.

The second infusion starts with a spicy woody, vaguely smoky, and a sweet hay/grass like sweetness there is a cooling breath and throat then a returning sweet woody, almost spicy/forest, and not that sweet maple syrup finish.  The mouthfeeling is a thin sticky dense fine mossy mouthcoating.  Mild heart racing and energetic feeling but also soothing feeling Qi.  There is a hay kind of sweetness that lingers minutes later.

The third infusion has a slightly syrupy rich hay sweetness with a faint smoky incense mid-body and a sweet dry talc cherry medicinal nuance finish after mild cooling in the mouth.  The mouthfeeling is a bit mossy-dry on the tongue with not much throat involvement.  Nice mild-moderate curbed energetic feeling Qi.

Oh man… my workday got crazy fast and it takes me a few hours before returning the tea table… The fourth infusion has a smoky hay sweet woodsy onset there is a medicinal cooling finish that has a bit of sweetness and woodiness and incense.  The smoke lingers on the breath afterwards.

The 5^th has a sweet hay and smoky onset with a sweet woody incense medicinal finish.  The mouthfeel is thin and mossy and faintly drying.  There is a sweet rich woody taste that appears throughout after a cooling mouth.  Nice mild alerting energy.

The 6^th has a syrupy medicinal woody smoky sweetness that descends into a woody incense taste and returns as a dry leaf and not-so-sweet maple syrup taste.  The taste is really condensed and syrupy here.  The mouthfeel is thin and mossy.  Nice mild alerting energy.

The 7^th has a watery hay woody taste upfront which then slowly transitions to a woody incense after a cooling mouth.  Nice mossy slight dry coating.  Nice mild alerting energy.

The 8^th has a malty hay sweet woody kind of initial taste. There is a cooing medicinal finish to it, a bit sweet.  The thin mossy mouthfeeling seems to harmonize nicely with the aged tastes.  Nice mild alertness is getting me through this day today with a level head.

The 9^th was left to cool and gives off a robust mildly sweet hay and muted maple syrup yet reasonably condensed cool medicinal almost dry woody camphor kind of taste.  The mouthfeeling is mossy.  Qi is softly alerting.

The 10^th has a medicinal woody faint sweet hay onset with a lingering woody incense follow through.  The mossy mouthfeeling supports this all.  Nice harmonizing slightly alerting Qi here.

The 11^th has a rich woody taste to it with a cooling which comes with a woody medicinal finish.  The mouthfeeling is a bit dryer here.  There is an incense like taste left in the mouth, a bit smokier in the finish now.  The wet leaves in the pot smell like delicious raison.

12^th infusion has a mellow sweetness to it of hay and almost bread before turning to cooling and medicinal in the mouth over a thin mossy tongue coating.  There is a lingering sweet woody nuance.

13^th infusion has a woody incense onset that has an underlying sweet woody taste that turns cool and incense medicinal.  There is a soft thin mossy almost drying mouthfeeling. 

14^th is really nice sweet peat woody almost spicy incense woody taste with the main taste being sweet.  The mouthfeel is soft fainter moss here.

The slow release of the iron pressed cake allowed for a hand full of more sweet, rich, woody, incense, tasting infusions.  Then slowly the complexity started to wane and the bitterness started to take over.  The bitter infusions lasted past 20 before it weakened into bitter woody water.  Very nice!

Guess: 2001-2004 Xiaguan 8653 Iron Cake.  It looks like Teas We Like has a lot of these listed on its site here.  The description of the storage matches my experience with this cake- drier natural Taiwanese storage.  I had consumed the 1990s Xiaguan 8653 once in a while in the puerh tea shops in Korea many years ago.  They were much more humidly stored than this sample.  I love the way the session slowly progresses as the compression loosens from these iron bings.  Although talking up the Iron Bing, I don’t own any 8653 and am interested in purchase of this one once I know which one it is.

Peace