2017 Puerist Yi Shan Mo, Xiang Chun Lin & A Xiang Chun Lin Comparison

I’m a fan of the Xiang Chun Lin area.  It’s kind of a new puerh area that has in the last 5 years or so rose to some sort of notoriety.  I find the juxtaposition of a very sweet, very floral soft taste with a very strong heady and euphoric Qi.  For the price of other more expensive puerh areas, I think this area offers some value if you enjoy this type of puerh experience… especially the Qi… and the wildflowers…

This 2017 Puerist Yi Shan Mo, Xiang Chun Lin goes for approx $137.00 for 200g cake or $0.69/g.  This was a complimentary sample provided for review in my last order.

Dry leaves have a faint floral kind of sweet note to them.

First infusion has a woody buttery sweet daisy floral.  It has a sweet wildflower oily taste to it.  Nice long sweet melon and wildflower expansion in the aftertaste.  Nice soft chalky feeling in the mouth with a mid-deep mild pungent throat.  Nice relaxing and expansive Qi.  Nice long subtle floral sweet aftertaste with immediately apparent Qi is nice.

Second infusion has a very sweet candy like onset with a icing sugar taste that pops and stays throughout the profile in the soft chalky mouthfeeling and deep faint pungent throat.  Although the flavors are light there is a thick groundedness to the sweet flavors as the have an underlying woody feel.  The flavor is quite sweet, quite thick, quite deep, and quite long.  Very nice.

Third infusion has a strong sugary sweet with layers of melon and caramel now.  The caramel taste goes the distance.  Very layered sweetness with a powdery chalky moderate mouthfeeling and a woody faint base that is pretty much overtaken by thick sweetness.  The taste is really delicious and mouthwatering there is a long caramel and wild flower finish.  There is a deep throat taste that holds in the long aftertaste.  Nice Qi with strong expansiveness in the mind and open chest.  I feel light.

Fourth infusion is developing a strong syrupy taste.  There are notes of apricot, melon, caramel, and sugar, and candy lots of layered thick sweetness over a base of intertwined woodiness.  Nice expansive and chesty Qi.  Strong stoning expansiveness.

The 5^th infusion has a creamy buttery thick sweetness that is like apricot jam syrupy sugary sweet over a condensed mild chalky feeling in the mouth.  There is a peachy floral long finish as the taste goes deeply in to the throat and has a mild pungency there.  There are some bready notes, woody notes and layered of dense sweetness.  Strong Qi seals the deal with this one as there is a strong chest opening and expansive free feeling.

6^th has a fruity thick syrup taste of peach, melon, almost caramel, icing sugar.  A dense fruity sugary sweet onset with a layer of faint bread and woody taste that is overcome by thick sweetnesses.  Long almost licorice peachy deep throaty sweet aftertastes.  Strong Expanding mind Qi and open chest with slight floating body.

7^th has a sweet less condensed sugary peachy onset that turns to melon sweetness.  There is some woodiness and tart but very faint it’s mainly just smooth fruity sweet long tastes.  Nice chesty floating body Qi.

8^th is fruity peachy melon fruity syrup sugar sweet with chalky layer of faint wood and wild flower.  It has a slow creamy fading sweet aftertaste.  Nice Qi.  Long taste in mouth minutes later.  There is basically no bitter or astringency in here but still feels full tasting especially the layered sweetness.

9^th is a fruity soapy peachy taste with a creamy wildflower underbelly with some woodiness and bready buttery creaminess. There is a longer, more wildflower taste in there.  Nice chalky powdery taste as well.  There is a strong melon peachy taste in the cooled cups minutes later.  I feel really spaced out from the Qi.

10^th has a strong fruity soapy buttery floral taste with long deep sweetness with more woody and bready notes coming out as the session progresses. Nice spacy strongish Qi.

11^th is thick dense syrupy peachy melon bready woody has a powdery taste with deep throat mild pungency and long trailing wildflower sweet taste still lacking any bitter astringency and makes up for it in pure condensed vibrant flavours.

12^th … I run out of time in my day for this one which still has some good stamina left in it…

I mug steep it out over a few days and it still gives off very sweet not really much bitterness and lots of wildflower tastes.  Still lots of Qi left to savor.  Nice stamina.

Overall this is a nice full layered condensed sweet tasting one with great stoning expansive Qi with a bit of chest opening bodyfeelings.  This one has very little bitterness or astringency just enough to give it some depth but still feels full with the layered often vibrant flavours.  It actually does have a bit more of a Yi Shan Mo vibe and thickness to it than the other Xiang Chun Lin I have sampled.

Vs 2017 Tea Urchin Xiang Chun Lin- these are very different in that the Tea Urchin has much more punchy, astringent and bitter kick but also a quicker moving bitterness that pushes a lot more intense sweetness out.  It tastes like it is from younger trees a bit edgier and more smaller chopped and broken leaves.

Vs 2018 Zheng Si Long Xiang Chun Lin- I like this one enough to cake it.  It has a stronger floral layering to it as well as deeper interplay of light floral notes and a deeper Qi sensation.  In some ways its similar to this 2017 Puerist Xiang Chun Lin.

Peace

2017 Tea Urchin Xiang Chun Lin vs 2018 Zheng Si Long Xiang Chun Lin

I have sampled a decent amount of Tea Urchin stuff but have not decided on how to post it yet.  I have posted some before here but I have tired much more.  Thought I would start with a few interesting comparison posts between similar areas and close year Tea Urchin and Zheng Si Long productions in the next few posts.  This one is from a puerh tea producing area that was newly introduced to me by this 2018 Zheng Si Long Xiang Chun Lin.  I purchased a cake on it own merits but had not had a chance for cross comparisons of the area  Xiang Chun Lin is a newer sub category area of Yiwu near the boarder.  This Tea Urchin 2017 Xiang Chun Lun goes for $75.00 for 200g cake ($0.38/g) vs 2018 Zheng Si Long Xiang Chun Lin which now goes for $202.03 for 400g cake ($0.51/g).

The dry leaf smells of delicious orchid florals layered in rainforest and sweet high-noted honey slight peach.  There is a deeper lingering note of deep forest.  The dry leaves smell very nice.

First infusion has a light icing sugar sweetness to it.  It is very sweet like pastry with a very faint forest base taste.  The long icing sugar taste stretches in to the breathe.  The mouthfeeling is slippery and there are some florals lingering in the throat as well as some faint spice.  The pastry sweetness is dominant and throughtout the profile.

The second infusion has a mushroom and melon onset with layers of light honey and pastry sweet cake that follows.  The taste has a mineral note to it as well underneath as well as a rainforest like base taste.  The mouthfeel is just a ghostly astringent and mildly sticky in the mouth the throat really seems to open to a mid-level letting in this deeper floral nuance.  The Qi is immediately spacy and I can feel my heart beat.  There is a calm alertness in here.

The third starts with a honey sweet, with a layers of forest a returning melon and wildflower sweetness.  The creamy pastry sweetness is long in the throat and goes on for a while.  The Qi is nice and strong in the head.  The lips are sticky and the mouthfeeling is sticky and pasty feeling.  The throat opens to a mid- to deep opening where high notes of melon, florals, honey and mainly pastry sweetness resides.  There is a spicy cinnamon nuance lingering throughout.  The Qi is decently big in the chest the mind feel free and a bit spacy high.  The Qi is notable here.

The fourth infusion starts off with a melon, honey, and candy floss like sweetness.  The Qi is nice and big and makes me feel high.  The mouthfeeling is quite sticky/pasty/slippery.  The throat feeling is stimulated and deep.  The underlying tastes are of spice and forest and incense but this puerh shines with its nuanced and complex high notes.  The Qi is nice and strong more alerting now.

The fifth infusion is more incense with fruity melon and honey layers.  There is a foresty spicy woody incense taste the pastry sweetness is less now but still lingers.  The sweet and highnoted floral notes are almost equal to a foresty incense spicy cinnamon note.  The pastry sweetness is more in the returning sweetness.  The Qi is strong enough to break me into a sweet.  The mouthfeel is more a slightly drying sandy stickiness now.

The sixth infusion has a sticky mouthfeeling with icing sugar and pastry returning after a few back to back infusions.  There are foresty and almost incense notes under the stronger pastry notes.  The Qi has a stoner like effect on my mind.

The seventh has this velvety sweet taste that is almost cake and pastry and almost candy with a rich forest base.  The sweet taste continues to be long and satisfying.  The tastes feel more congealed here.  The Qi continues to be pretty relaxing as well as alerting.

The 8^th has a chocolate cake note.  The taste is real nice creamy very sweet and now a bit coco and richness with some faint spice, melon, forest notes.  The throat feeling is pretty deep.  The relaxing stoner feeling is very nice.

9^th is more coco upfront with a sweet cake taste that tastes real nice.  The mouthfeelig is slippery and barely dry sticky.  The taste is stone mineral, rich and deepening now with notes of spice, incense, forest, faint floral mainly coco and cake.  The Qi speeds the heart. 

10^th is becoming more coco bitter and stone mineral tasting the sweet cake is less but the mineral and a incense is still there.  

The 11^th has a bittery onset with an almost sour astringency over dark coco nuance and layered forest and incense tastes.  There is a berry fruit note that seems to come out of the astringency and bitter.  The mouthfeelig is starting to be astringent.  The heart races.

The 12^th infusion has more of a berry mild bitter coco taste with forest, incense, deep faint cooling throat.  Astringent mouthfeeling.

13^th presents with a woody drier astringency with a dry woody taste.  The 14^th is dry tight astringent and bitter with a coco berry taste and the mouthfeeling becomes drying here and puckering astringency.

I put this into an overnight infusion next to the 2018 Zheng Si Long Xiang Chun Lin. 

This Xiang Chun Lin tastes and feels more like a Man Zhuan or Wa Long puerh than a border tea/ Wan Gong thing that is the 2018 Zheng Si Long Xiang Chun Lin.  This 2017 Tea Urchin Xiang Chun Lin has an interesting progression through the infusions with sweet in the first and bitter astringency in the later.  This is a decent puerh with an interesting change of profile as it goes through the infusions.  The 2018 Zheng Si Long has deeper play of floral and light and fruity tastes and a longer stamina, it is the more elegant of the two in taste.  Still need to try more from the Xiang Chun Lin region to see its character- I would have pegged this 2017 Tea Urchin as Wa Long, I think.

The Qi of both of these is quite big the 2017 Tea Urchin might even be a tiny bit stronger as it produces a stoner effect in the mind and a body feel in the chest.  The Qi of the 2018 Zheng Si Long is more complex in the body and mind and has a very relaxing but altering acuity effect on the mind, dizzying at times, spacy and clarity, and also has a body feeling in the chest.

Peace

2018 Zheng Si Long Yi Shan Mo vs 2018 Zheng Si Long Xiang Chun Lin

This is another Zheng Si Long Yi Shan Mo from Tea Encounter.  This sample was included free in my last order from Tea Encounter.  For those who care to know the 2018 Zheng Si Long Yi Shan Mo goes for $167.01 for400g cake or  $0.42/g.

The dry leaves smell of hay, straw, wood, and lingering cherry fruit and slight evergreen nuance.

The first infusion delivers candy like cotton candy tastes up front.  The taste is really really sweet almost immediately.  It reminds me of cotton candy ice cream my daughter eats at birthday parties.   Very pure, clean, vibrant sweetness.  There is a nice mouthfeeling, quite sticky and reasonably thick for the first infusion.

The second infusion starts with a reasonably dense thick sweetness, an unperturbed sweetness.  Cotton candy icecream like sweetness over a nice sticky mouthcoating.  The sweetness is not hallow or superficial because the mouthcoating gives it a deeper grounding.  The aftertaste has a touch of green forestlike tastes.

The third infusion starts off with a foresty and woody base with intense sweetness.  There is a touch of sour nuances in there and quite a thick sticky coating on the tongue.  There is a long melon sweetness that stretches on the breath.  The throat stimulation here is quite nice too.  A bubble gum like lingering taste lingers for a while minutes later.

The fourth infusion is quite thick cotton candy and even apple fruit sweetness layered over slight woody and forest base.  The mouthfeel is densely simulated with a sticky astringency and the throat opens deeply.  There is a slightly sour nuance and a deep long sweet taste.  The balance to the sweetness here is quite nice and exploited by the open throat feeling and dense tongue stimulation.  The Qi is relaxing and relieving type of feeling in the mind.  The long sweetness in the aftertaste is that long creamy sweetness.  There is a lot of depth to the sweet taste here.  Very nice.

The fifth and sixth infusions start with a dense and thick fruity/candy/creamy fruit nuance the layer sweetness is pronounced and stimulation in the throat and mouth is strong.  There is a base of hay, slight wood, and forest underneath the dense compact and strong sweet taste.  The Qi brings a strong clarity to the mind.  The sweetness is quite strong even minutes later- it gets lodged deep in the throat.  This gets thicker as it goes.

The seventh infusion delivers a dense layered fruity sweetness right off the initial sip.  There are base tastes of woods and forest underneath which give depth to the taste.

The eighth infusion has lots of deep fruity sweet tastes initially supported by forest, slight hay, and slight dry wood.  A touch of sour seems to trigger such a faint pungent then a very sweet candy taste long on the breath.  The mouthfeel and throatfeeling a deep and simulating.  The Qi is relaxing, soothing, and in the body I feel it in my face dropping and relaxing.  Melting tension in the face.  Happy feeling.  Heart beats slower.

The ninth is more of a sunny, almost tropical and apple type of dense sweetness the sour is a touch more pronounced.  A thick satisfying tongue coating with a long strong lingering sweetness.  The Qi is definitely doing many things here.  The overall effect is happy and relaxed, a bit slowly me down a bit alert and clear.  The puerh is not at all harsh on the body for a young puerh.

The tenth starts vibrant dense fruity sweetness with a very mild touch of sour.  The sweet taste is an apple and orange and pineapple type taste which is quite interesting and delicious.  The Qi is really building, it is pretty strong now.  The sweetness is really interesting and deep and long in the mouth.

11^th thick dense sweetness creamy pungent sweetness, long long sweetness.  Lots and lots of sweetness.

12^th thick dense fruit sweetness, a more wood taste emerging, still stimulating mouth and throatfeeling, juicy fruit taste is long lasting, a dense long juicy sweetness with emerging woody base underneath.  Deep throatfeeling.

13^th  and 14^th become more juicy apple/slight tropical sweetness there is a thinner but still full coating mouthfeel over the tongue.  A slight sour edge and long more faint now sweetness on the breath.  There is still a mild woody under taste.

I push harder with the fifteenth and add 20 seconds to the flash infusions and come up with a more muted juicy fruity initial flavor with a woody, straw and forest nuance that seems to be more pushed with these longer late infusions.

The 16^th I push for about 60 seconds it delivers slightly sour woody forest tastes with a back drop of faint fruity sweetness.

I put this one into the overnight infusion …

Overall, this is a nice puerh.  It is very sweet but with some depth to it to ground it.  The taste is thick in the mouth and presents with dense flavor.  The mouthfeel and throat feeling are really nice.  The tongue coating, in particular is super interesting and engages the sweetness providing depth to the otherwise simple tastes.  The throatfeeling is also quite deep.  As a whole this puerh offers quite a refined experience with sweetness and density and depth that evolves throughout the session but is not overly complex.  The Qi is also pretty good and interesting feeling.

It is interesting to compare this puerh to the 2018 Zheng Si Long Xiang Chun Lin because it’s close proximity to the Yi Shan Mo producing area, same production year, same producer.  The Qi of both of these teas was strikingly similar to me prompting me to sample the 2018 Zheng Si Long Xiang Chun Lin the following day.  The Xiang Chun Lin had much deeper tastes more evergreen, forest, rainforest, and more of a melon fruit taste the Yi Shan Mo had a stronger multifaceted sweetness but less deeper and mid notes.  The Xiang Chun Lin had considerably less stimulating mouthfeeling.  The Qi of both are similar but the Xiang Chun Lin is about 1/3 stronger especially felt in the chest.  Overall they have a similar feel to them.  The Xiang Chun Lin seems to have a bit more stamina especially when put into long and overnight steeps at the end of a session- delicious tastes are still pushed out.  I think the 2018 Zheng Si Long Xiang Chun Lin ($199.99) is a slightly more engaging puerh but for a price that is just a bit more than the 2018 Zheng Si Long Yi Shan Mo ($167.01)… but that mouthfeeling…

Peace

2018 Zheng Si Long Xiang Chun Lin vs Fresh Maocha

This was my pick of the early 2018 Zheng Si Long Maocha samples I tired.  I really like the Qi in this puerh and this made my selection of top 3 Zheng Si Long. It was my first introduction to the Xiang Chun Lin producing area.  Here was the tasting notes of the fresh maocha just months after picking:

New producing area for me.  Creamy sweet, slight vegetal-like intense berry fruity sweetness in the dry leaves.  Starts savory, seaweedy, rainforesty, long subtle berry fruit/creamy sweet finish.  Sticky full mouthfeel.  Berry taste pops nicely in very full sticky mouth.  Long sweet cooling berry aftertaste.  Feel qi on forehead and brow.  Slowness in the mind.  Heart noticeably beating now. Vigorous and relaxing very early in session.  Nice dizzying Qi.  Green tea-like, vegetal suggestions.  Reminds me of boarder tea.  Creamy sweet taste dominates with long cooling sweet menthol.  Slowly becomes softly astringent in mouth and mid-throat.  Fairly big Qi sensation in head- very relaxed but acuity strongly sharpened.

This is not typical of the puerh cakes I usually buy but I thought I would go based on the Qi and not as weighted on the taste.  After spending a bit more time with the sample from the cake I decided to pick one up at $199.00 for 400g cake or $0.50/g…

Dry leaves smell of clear wildflower woods, almost mushroom sweetness, grasslands and grains and a deep pungent forest odour, slight berry odour.

The first infusion starts off a creamy clear sweetness.  It has a very subtle sour and soft mild creamy sweet pungent.  There is a faint touch of astringency and sticky mouth coating.  This first infusion is very light, ethereal, clear, bright, fresh, green.  Creamy sweetness penetrate throughout.

The second infusion has a more clear strong wildflower quick flavorful onset with nuances of dry wood, grasses, almost nutty, the fruitiness that is apparent in the aftertaste is strong, clear, and clean.  It’s a fruity sweetness the seamlessly transitions to a creamy sweetness.  There are interesting wildflower and fruity nuances in the distance.  Also a cinnamon sweetness, some warmth, barely noticed in the distance.  The Qi in the head is pronounced with this puerh.  I feel instantly focused, tunnel focused and relaxed.  My face flushes.  Qi is strongly spacy as well as clarifying at once.

The third infusion has a thicker more viscus onset of dense vegetal sticky rice in banana leaf and wildflower then melts into a clear fruity and wildflower finish.  The qi is super relaxing here.  Big relaxing qi and focusing qi right in the first infusions.  The taste is fresh and green tea, border tea tasting puerh.

The fourth starts with a thick dense wild flower sweetness there is a touch of astringency barely in there to give it some substance then a long creamy sweet finish.  The mouthfeel is thick and slippery and throat opens nicely.  This one is light and creamy in taste and thick in the mouth.  The big qi alerts the mind, pounds the heart, and pours on the relaxation.  There is almost a sour edge to this puerh.  The wet leaves in the pot emit a pungent, mint aroma.  The feeling in the body is interesting, like my arms aren’t attached to my body.

The fifth infusion has a decently thick wildflower onset, the coating in the mouth is slippery with nuances of wood far in the distance.  The mouthfeel is mildly astringent almost sour and pushes a nice sweet creamy taste across the profile.  Wildflower and slight tart fruit are in the long aftertaste.

The sixth infusion presents with a wildflower thickness once again.  There is very mild pungent mint then long wildflower almost creamy and not that sweet in the aftertaste.  I like the Qi in here.  Overall this tea is quite light in taste and moderately thick in texture.

The seventh infusion has a less flavourful initial taste but is mellow vegetal and wildflowers.  The sweetness is more wildflower and restrained now.  The mouthfeel isn’t as full but still coats the tongue and opens the throat a bit.

The eighth infusion tastes a bit thicker than last, the liquor is of decent thickness and coats the tongue nicely.  There is a little bit of squeakiness to it, a touch of astringency.  Qi is big relaxing type, mind is alert, can feel the heart pounding in the chest.  This duality of being super relaxing but yet physically stimulating is the kind of energy that I look for in puerh.

The ninth is starting to fade.  It becomes more astringent but really is very green tea/ border tea tasting.  Big Qi.  Tongue coating is less sticky and more astringent now.  The flavours have really dropped off and it tastes like steeped out green tea.

The tenth infusion I put in a minutes long infusion to try and push out some substantial wildflower sweetness… and it does along with thicker honey tastes and strong florals the bitterness is pretty non-existent with just barely some astringency in there.  This is true throughout the session as it is now.

So I push hard again… thick slight wildflower fruity edges, almost no bitter, thick on tongue and full mouthfeeling.

The overnight infusion is really interesting.  It tastes of super sweet honeydew melon, juicy and refreshing.  It almost taste like true candy in its sweetness. Yummy.

I like the Qi in this one… very light delicious and invigorating tastes.

To compare it to the fresh maocha…

It is actually quite similar but slightly deeper in taste.  There is a touch more complexity in the cake version but not overly so.  It is still a very green tea and boarder tea tasting thing although the cake has a deeper and longer floral taste in it. There is a bit more complex lighter tastes in there but overall is not overly deep and retains the light, green, ethereal essence found in the maocha.  The Qi is strong and pretty much unchanged from the maocha, as usual.  The mouthfeel and throat feel are similar as well, a bit thicker maybe but not that much.

There is actually anther similar feeling and tasting puerh to this one that I would like to compare, 2018 Tea Urchin Along the Boarder.  Just like this 2018 Zheng Si Long Xiang Chun Lin, it was picked from a relatively close area, I think.  It shares a lot of its energy and taste profile.  I actually was sent some very early picked mao cha in a Spring 2018 order and enjoyed it.  They ended up pressing it and putting it up on their site a year later.  Out of the two I thought the Xiang Chun Lin was the clear winner but for half the price, I might pick up a cake of it to compare more deeply.

These two still are a bit too light, green, ethereal, border tea character for my tastes but I simply like the way they make me feel…

Peace

2018 Mr. Zheng’s Selected Maocha

It has been a while since I sampled a decent number of puerh this fresh.  These five maocha samples were personally selected by Mr. Zheng of Zheng Si Long.  I can imagine him matter-of-factly rejecting hundreds of others as he did in that video.  It was passed on to me that they may or may not be the actual maocha used in his 2018 line up.  Nor do they represent the processing end product of the puerh he did chose to select.  Rather, they are used to give us an indication of the quality of these puerh producing areas this year and, for me, the skill and character to which Mr. Zheng selects for his puerh.

Thanks again to Tiago (aka Curigane) of Tea Encounter for sending this treat.  There is no time more natural then the peak of Summer to drink such young raw puerh.  I imagine the 2018 line up will be up for sale in a few weeks/ months.  I hope to also review the actual 2018 Zheng Si Long puerh samples when they arrive. But for now, let me present this teaser…

2018 Yibang Maocha

Pungent, fairly intense sweetness, honey, floral, rainforest smells, less high and deeper than some small leaf Yibang dry leaf. Icing sugar, floral finish, sweet, foresty, top sticky mouthfeeling, very yibang character, nice mouthfeel sticky mouth roof, soft flowing qi, subtle tropical fruit and floral finish, mild cooling, interesting faint fruit finish, subtle, can feel some head floating, qi behind eyes, Qi goes to the head. Clean. Slight sticky cheeks. Slight floating feeling. Release eye tension.  Vision sharpened.  Thoughts clear.  Very mild astringent.

2018 Ding Jia Zhai Maocha

Distinct fruity odour of cherry, fruity, creamy sweet, slight pungent noted dry leaves.  Round fruity aroma, woody mid-profile then sweet strawberries.  Tongue coating.  Distinct fruity cherry/ strawberry/ wood taste.  So Yiwu.  Lots of complex movement of tastes in the profile.  Lingering fruitiness. No bitterness. Spacy Qi.  But centering feeling.  Comfort in Stomach.  Full feel in mouth and mid throat, fine sandy slight squeaky feeling.  Soft cooling fruit sweetness returns.

2018 Xiang Chun Lin Maocha

New producing area for me.  Creamy sweet, slight vegetal-like intense berry fruity sweetness in the dry leaves.  Starts savory, seaweedy, rainforesty, long subtle berry fruit/creamy sweet finish.  Sticky full mouthfeel.  Berry taste pops nicely in very full sticky mouth.  Long sweet cooling berry aftertaste.  Feel qi on forehead and brow.  Slowness in the mind.  Heart noticeably beating now. Vigorous and relaxing very early in session.  Nice dizzying Qi.  Green tea-like, vegetal suggestions.  Reminds me of boarder tea.  Creamy sweet taste dominates with long cooling sweet menthol.  Slowly becomes softly astringent in mouth and mid-throat.  Fairly big Qi sensation in head- very relaxed but acuity strongly sharpened.

2018 Mang Zhi Maocha

Incense, foresty-mossy, slight sweet, savory, almost seaweed, distant floral dry leaves.  Very savory, seaweed-like, with monotone sweet note, thick slight drying mouth coating in front of mouth and lips, slight wood, slight briny.  Barely floral/ menthol finish. Floral finish builds and become more distinct.  Woody base taste, floral finish. Mild, Slow to build Qi.  Gripping mouthfeel.  Slow to develop taste but nice when it does.  Sweetness slowly builds up. Wanted to keep going.  Distinct chest knotting Qi under sternum.

2018 Ge Deng Maocha

Intense fruity, cherry, foresty deep, sweetness, cherrywoods in the dry leaves.  Mild icing sugar onset, slight cherry fruit and mild cooling floral, cherry candy sweet finish. Dominating deeper forest woody base under less obvious high notes throughout. Deeper mid- throat feeling. Gripping mouthfeeling felt in back mouth fuller mouth covering. Medium astringent/ bitter.  Opening in throat.  Mild Qi in back of neck/shoulders. Nearly warming.  Woody tastes dominate high notes faint on the breath/ returning sweetness. Turns into mainly woody tastes.

Peace