The dry leaves smell of faint smokey grassy sweetness.
The rinse is a 20 second long rise to loosen up the densely
pressed bamboo form…
First infusion I start at 10 seconds… It gives off a weedy grassy
onset with a long cooling sweet pure sugar taste. There is a returning swell of pure candy and
a very mild tight tongue and lips. Very
clean and pure tastes. Nice strong Qi
with relaxing focusing. Woody dry grass
and sugar edges.
The second is 20 second steeping… it gives off a woody
slight faint incense with a sugar dry grass and woody almost candy like
sweetness. Nice relaxing alertness.
The third is left to cool and gives off a woody-grassy surgery
sweet pure note with edges of incense.
Simple yet satisfying tastes.
Soft mossy mouthfeeling with slight drying edges.
4th 15 sec has a clear pure grassy watery woody
sugar sweet onset with a creamy sweet returning
5th we are at flash infusions has an oily woody
incense with a sugar faint candy like edge to it. The mouthfeeling is watery and mossy and the
taste has a faint juicy fruity Asian pear edge to it. Nice deep relaxing focusing.
6th has a woody incense body with sugary
edges. There is a faint juicy pear edges
to it with a subtle smoky breath. Nice
sticky thin mossy slightly gripping mouthfeeling.
7th has a
pear candy like peachy pop of sweet taste initially. There are some grassy incense base tastes
with a returning creamy candy sweetness. Nice mossy slightly sticky tugging
mouthfeeling with a mid-deep throat opening with cool breath. Faint smoke incense throughout.
8th has a syrupy incense juicy fruity sweet taste
that has a base of sweet grass and weeds.
Mossy mouthfeeling with lingering incense smoke. A balance of savory, sweet, almost slightly
bitter and smoke.
9th has a sweet candy like splash of taste with a
juicy sweet initial that fades into a sweet grass and incense and candy faint
returning taste. Nice mossy sticky a bit
dry mouthfeeling with some euphoria relaxing.
I resume steeping the next day…
The 10th infusion is consumed with the cooled
down cups have a fruity caramel smoke incense dry grass taste to them with a
bit of oily texture. Nice relaxing vibe.
11th also cooled down has a pear/melon/dry grassy
onset in an oily texture. It tastes
mainly sweet with a cool throat and some faint sugar returning flavours. Slight mossy dry gripping mouthfeeling with
upper throat opening.
12th also cool has a grassy incense smoke with
fruity juicy taste. The smoke is more
prominent. There are sweet flavours and
smoke-incense balance with a grassy-woody sort of Border Tea base taste. It is predominantly sweet but not very sweet.
13th is cooled and gives off a chalky caramel
melon smoke incense juicy sort of taste a bit complex in the juicy sweet and
incense smoky. Nice mossy gripping
mouthfeeling.
14th is cooled down as well… its warm here today
so the cooled down infusions are nice.
There is a woody dry grassy sweet taste with edges of faint fruit but
also even fainter incense taste. There
are some chest beats and relaxing feeling.
Still lots of condensed stamina here with layerings of
taste.
I mug steep out the spent leaves anyways and get some strong
brews with a grassy weedy taste and sweetness that can sometimes appear as pear
or faint candy but is usually a lesser sugary edge. The smoke is really apparent in these mug
steepings. The Qi is a bit euphoric and
mainly energizing. There is a rich
coffee like taste in there bitter-weedy-woody-grassy with a sweet sugar and
barely pear edges. Nice strong enlivening
feeling with some face bodyfeeling and chest beating.
Overall, this puerh is a bit interesting in that it is both
a bit crude in its traditional bamboo processing with a bit of traditional
processing but the leaves and Qi appear to be of decent quality older
leaf. There is a nice contrast between
elegance and crudeness, oily juicy sweetness and smoke incense, older style
with a bit gushu feeling. Its not an
amazing puerh but none the less very satisfying to me with the slow unraveling
and all these balanced and opposing dimensions.
This puerh kind of reminds me of something between Laos and Bada.
Vs 2010 Essence of Tea Cloud Watching- I drink these two
back to back as they are both boarder teas, both dry stored, and have a certain
grassy woody base taste that they share but they are very different in that
Cloud watching has excellent processing with very clear gushu energy and
profile. Cloud watching is very elegant
and deep where this Bang Laa is a balance of rough and somewhat elegant with a
stronger tilt to more traditional and rough and crude. The storage on the Cloud Watching is really
nice dry storage where my own storage on the Bang Laa is on the too dry
side. I still really like Cloud Watching
although I have accepted I will not buy any…
Marco’s (Late Steeps) Blind tasting notes
Peace
No comments:
Post a Comment