2022 Tea Encounter Manzhuan Gushu: Strong In-Body Experience

This one turned out to be my favourite among the free 2022 samples I kindly received from Tiago of Tea Encounter.  It didn’t really turn out as I expected and in the end I thought this sample might have been mixed up with the 2022 Tea Encounter WaLong Gushu.  This

2022 Tea Encounter Manzhuan goes for $135.00 for 250g cake or $0.54/g.

Dry leaves have a very sweet creamy odour with a subtle forest barnyard in the distance.

First infusion has a creamy fluffy sweet candy like taste which lingers in the subtle chalky mouthfeeling.  There is a green forest taste underneath.  Not sure if this was the flash rinse or the following infusion but it has a lingering fluffy sweetness left on the breath and deeper into the throat.

Second infusion has a creamy foresty barnyard mainly creamy fluffy sweetness.  Nice deepish base forest-barnyard with the expected creamy candy fluffy taste.  Creamy sweetness expands into the throat with a nice chalky soft fluffy mouthfeeling that reaches deep into the throat with a subtle expanding faint coolness.  There is a very present in-body feeling almost like the body is quivering.  Peaceful and present.

Third infusion has a creamy sweet tropical fruity subtly with a faint bit of astringency at the tip. The mid-profile has a vegetal foresty taste with a slightly puckering fine chalky-sand mouthing and deep throat coolness.  There is a very present mind feeling.

The fourth infusion has a bitter astringent tropical fruity edge onset with a slow fading of astringency with tropical forest taste.  There is layering of tropical fruit and melon under the bitter-astringency.  Deep throat cooling but less sweetness follows as deep.  More of a chalky-fine-sandy mild pucker mouthfeeling.  Deep throat opening.

The 5^th is left to cool and gives off a bitter fruity onset with the bitter coming first then tropical fruit then a long creamy sweetness that lingers deep in the throat.  Nice present in the body feeling with some whole body vibrations.

6^th infusion has a creamy woody forest onset with a fruity suggestion underneath.  The woody is faintly bitter-astringent.  There is a long creamy sweet finish.  More of a sandy chalky mouthfeeling with deep faint throat openings. Nice grounding feeling in the body.

7^th has a fruity creamy almost candy like sweetness with a foresty almost barnyard layers. Has a sort of banana sweet finish that expands into the throat.  There is a bit of bitter astringency as well.  This infusion has a bit more tartness to it but also much more fruity sweetness.  Nice fine sandy pucker.  Body glowing feeling- strange bodyfeeling but feels good, deep.

8^th has a woody almost coco woody bitterness with creamy expanding fruity banana taste that lingers into the deep throat.  There is lots of astringent pucker but nice expression of fruity sweet flavours underneath.  Nice grounding body feeling. 

9^th has a bitter astringent coco-woody onset with a creamy sweetness in the finish and throat.  The bitter astringency is increasing with each infusion. This infusion has a long bitter woody-coco throughout.  Not much fruity sweetness makes its way through. 

10^th infusion has a bitter woody-coco and fruity onset.  The fruity taste is overcome by bitter-astringent coco but a sweetness from the initial blast lasts throughout and underneath the bitter-astringent layer.  Nice grounding feeling.  Lots of mouth puckering now.

11^th is lukewarm and has a lot of woody forest tastes upfront but not much sweetness and an emerging bitterness.  Quite puckering mouthfeeling.

12^th has a melon zucchini taste initially with emerging bitterness that takes over.  There is more of an oily saliva producing here that I haven’t seen yet.  Nice deep centering feeling contrasting the intense bitter-astringency of this one.  Still a deep throat aftertaste and deep echo bodyfeeling.

The next day I do a flash infusion and it gives off a muted fruity onset with a creamy sweetness that trials into the throat….

The leaves go into mug steepings and have an oily woody dry fruity taste with a coco bitter woody taste still quite apparent.  Nice bitter-coco bite with long melon creamy sweetness.  Nice rocking/swaying bodyfeeling and mind deep relax.

This one is for aging out for sure and has some nice qualities about it. 

Peace