This wild tea was a free sample sent with a recent order
from Teamasters. It currently sells for
$388.00 for 200g cake ($1.94/g) or 10g at $25.00. At this price it is the most expensive wild
tea that I have sampled even more expensive than any fresh young puerh that I
have ever sampled.
Dry leaves smell of very intensely sweet sugar cane and
licorice/ fennel odours in a deep forest base.
The first infusion greets the drinker with a very smooth
full mouthfeel and thick chalky throatfeel.
The feeling in the mouth and throat are wonderful but almost distract
from the very light, juicy fresh lychee and floral taste. There is a mild coolness in the throat as it
opens slowly and deeply. There is a very
light floral lingering there minutes later.
The second infusion opens up with a mouthfeeling before a
true initial taste comes along. When it
gets there, a turbid, foresty taste with a sweet slight sugary edge reveals
itself. It finishes in the throat with
turbid barely floral tastes lingering there.
The third infusion has nice movement. It starts with a bit of a vacuous taste, then
subtle flat floral notes appear, then slight sugar, then turbid forest tastes,
then slight cooling, then slight turbid floral.
Overall there is no base taste to root down these very light,
transitioning tastes. The qi is calming
and very mellow. It is very light on the
body and relaxing on the mind.
The fourth infusion starts with a vacuous sweet taste which
turns into a turbid foresty almost bubble gum sweet taste which sticks to the
cheeks and tongue as it evolves into a floral taste. All this movement is very very light. Overall there is much movement within each
sip but the tastes are not strong. The
mouthfeel and throatfeel of this tea are very nice.
The fifth has a more rounded juicy fruit feeling to it. A lychee taste is present throughout now but
it is very fragile and even simple. The
aftertaste slowly unravels into sweetness, slight coolness, and even
floral. The tea is very gentle on the
body and probably would be best consumed immediately. This is for sure a sweet wild tea. Everything about this tea is subtle, gentle,
and fragile. The full, soft, chalky and
sticky mouth- and throat-feel is the exception.
The qi of this wild is quite cooling and its cool thermal energy is
noticeable.
The sixth infusion again has a defined initial taste of
florals and rubbery barely fruit sweetness.
The taste has rounded out significantly with movement in the long subtle
aftertaste especially in the throat but also later in the sticky coating in the
mouth. There are lychee fruits, florals,
clean wild tea foresty-turbidity tastes minutes later.
The seventh infusion starts with a classic subdued gummy
foresty floral wild taste before an empty dip.
The aftertaste is just mild coolness and barely forest notes here. The eighth turns lighter into a foresty wild
taste. The ninth fades considerably with
just ghostly flavours lingering in a gummy, forest wild tea taste. A profound cooling sensation sweeps over my
body. This tea is by far the most
cooling and refreshing of all wilds I have tried.
The tenth infusion I add 15 seconds more steeping time and
some apricot and pear notes appear in the initial taste profile followed by a
subtle pungency. This infusion has more
complexity to it. The eleventh even more
time is added and a much thicker mouthfeel is the main result. In this thick mouthfeel are candy like subtle
sweet tastes as well as some rubbery tastes.
The great thing about this sweet wild tea is that there is so little
astringency and bitterness that you can really push it hard to get more
interesting things out of it with longer infusion times.
The twelfth infusion is long and pushes out sweet gummy
tastes, slight florals and barely cool throatfeels in a gummy rubbery wild base
taste. The thirteenth pushes out some
berry fruity tastes initially in an more interesting wild base taste. The aftertaste is now fruity and lightly
sweet.
This tea is interesting in that you can really vary the
steeping time to pull out lots of different flavors because you really don’t
have to contend with bitterness at all.
So I do this for another few steeps before putting these
leaves to rest.
This is an interesting wild tea because there are so many
different steeping options available which push out a different dimension with
each pot. If there are those of you out
there who are curious about how steeping temperature and time effects flavor in wild teas,
this tea might be as interesting for you as it is for me.
Peace
