Thursday, July 8, 2021

2020 Essence of Tea Lao Jie Zi Re-Taste




I received a sample of this last year with my order and it seems the post office jumped on my sample!  David offered to send me another with my next order.  So here it is… I wonder how it tastes one year later (and with leaves not as crushed)???

Dry leaves are a deep perfume-sweet floral woody.

The first infusion has a clear watery pure taste to it.  Fait aftertastes of melon, floral, and wood in the breath.  The tongue coating is thin and sticky.  There is a long breath taste of sweet woody almost stone-mineral.  Very soft and clear profile.

The second infusion has a woody-bread pure onset.  There is some super faint melon sweetness that appears some faint sugar pure sweetness.  Long breath of faint ghostly melon and wildflowers follows a faint cooling on the breath.  The Qi is relaxing and makes the limbs a bit heavy.  This still tastes quite green.  Thin sticky tonguecoating with faint open throat. Relaxing even a bit warming.

The third infusion has a bread and slight roasted Korean barely tea taste maybe almost seaweed tasting in its green tea style.  The tongue coating is sticky/grainy with a bit of dry lips.  There is a touch of astringency here which stimulates the tongue and throat a bit.  Faint cooling in the vacuous throat leaves a subtle melon-woody-bread-stone taste in the mouth.  Nice relaxing Qi felt a bit in the limbs- not much- subtle.



The fourth infusion has a woody-bread-stone onset of really clear taste that turns into an almost barley tea taste with subtle emerging melon.  The taste is really pure and clear and simple.  There is a sticky dry puckering mouthfeeling, empty throatfeeling with very subtle coolness.  Very green tea tasting.  Nice relaxing Qi with subtle limb lightness.

The fifth infusion has a woody-barely tea onset with a faint suggestions of melon after a very faint coolness.  There is a mild tight dryness on the tongue.  Very pure, faint, simple, clear profile.  Dry wood is the main taste with faint subtleties of melon and stones.  Deep relaxing Qi takes hold subtle light limbs.  Slight sedating here.

The sixth infusion has a woody faint stone juice melon faint taste to it.  It has a refreshing green subtle taste to it that kind of fades into the aftertaste.  There is very faint cooling and soft drying tongue.  Nice deeply relaxing Qi subtle limbs.  Almost spacy and slowing things down.

7th has a fresh melon and subtle dry woody-stone onset.  Very simple, clean, pure tastes, Some faint cooling with some fresh honeydew melon returning.  Soft short fading aftertaste with very mild melon and almost no cooling.  Refreshing feeling on this hot day!

8th has a woody faint fruity stone like onset.  It has a very subtle bitter astringency and a slight sticky dryness in the mouth.  Faint empty throat feeling with some barely coolness and melon finish that fades away.  There is a faint stone like finish.

9th has a woody slight fruity stone like taste initially with a subtle cooling and melon finish on the breath.  Nice subtle sweetness.  Nice relaxing Qi, subtle bodyfeeling.

10th has cooled down but gives off a melon woody fruity refreshing simple taste.  The faint cooling sort of combines with the sweet melon in the aftertaste as is fades quickly.

The 11th becomes woody with less sweetness.  This is really not that sweet of tea but some subtle melon tastes.  Nice relaxing feeling in the mind.  A bit of stone melon on the breath.

12th & 13th have a woody stone almost melon sweetness quite mild and simple tastes with a deep relaxing in the mind.  Very easy to drink, uncomplicated, simplified, enjoyably in its simplicity.



I mug steep out the rest… and it has a flat woody taste with a bit of cooling and some green-tea-like vegetal bitterness not really sweet a bit of stone taste, almost melon.  The mouthfeel is a lot stronger with a dry gripping mouthfeeling now.  The cooling pungency is also stronger.  Still very green.

I suppose this one is less astringent than the crushed sample I received but it is very much the same tea and my opinion of it is very much the same.  Thanks David and Yingxi for sending me another sample of this one.  I really enjoyed drinking it back-to-back and contrasting it with the 2021 Bai Hua Qing last post.

Shah8’s Tasting notes from a few weeks ago.

Peace

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