2024 Essence of Tea 15++: Spacy Expanding Bodyfeels

I was very curious about this sample when it arrived from the 2024 Essence of Tea samples and decided to drink it blindly.  It was the second of their 2024 line up that I sampled…

Dry leaves have a light sort of airy candy-pungent sweet forest.  These leaves smell interesting to me … almost batnyard-ish.

Rinsed leaves have an icing sugar very sweet odour that reminds me of ManZhuan a bit.

First infusion has a very watery clear onset with a pungent sweet taste that comes over an oily texture some creamy sweet taste returns.  Somewhat tingling mouthfeel.  Pungent sweet finish minutes later with expanding head and mind feeling that I sometimes get from Wanggong area.

Second infusion has a mild oily coco creamy oily milky onset with a roasted peanuts taste.  Mild tastes early on. There is a mild pungent finish.  Sticky constant mouthfeel.  Qi has this spacy expanding bodyfeeling which is quite strong- feels in the body and mind like Wanggong.  Very spacy expanding outwards of body. Maybe some crazy new near the boarder area? The taste is a bit like ManSai though probably not from there…

Third infusion has an almost melon taste ends salty and there is some faint coco in there too.  Oily chalky mouthfeeling.  With lingering saliva that is produced in the throat.  Lots of different elements to the taste and feel here maybe picked over a long distance…. Not sure.  Salty taste is left in the mouth minutes later.  Very very strong spacy expanding out of body feeling it’s really a feeling specific to Wanggong I’ve not had any other area that can do this sort of thing…

Fourth has a sour onset with a bland sort of underlying sweet melon taste.  Sticky chalky mouthfeeling.  Spacy out of body expanding feeling.  There is a faint lingering salty coco finish. Sour, bland, sweet, slight coco bitter maybe, salty, was a touch pungent in the first few infusions … all 5 flavours makes for a balanced and engaging taste.

Fifth infusion has a sour salty coco melon taste … they call these savoury puerh and most I’ve tried are from Yiwu and often near the boarder.  Wow… body is somehow expanding outwards…. Amazing Qi here!  Sticky mouthfeel with more salty sweet finish.

Sixth infusion is left to cool and is a sweet and sour melon taste that turns salt, like salt on a melon if you have ever tried?  Spacy body. Wet mouth with salivating slight oily with chalky mouthfeel underneath.  Chest expanding body floats outward!

Seventh infusion is left to cool and gives off a watery sweet salty taste with a bland woody finish.  Chest opening a less spacy feeling now.  A lingering pear taste fades out in the finish.

Eighth is also left to cool and has a bitter woody almost coco onset with sweet melon edges.  This infusion is more bitter sweet bland with an almost banana/ melon taste underneath l.  Space out with floating out body feel.

9th is a bitter vegital onset with mouth salivating and returning faint vegital coco.  This infusion is mainly bitter with tastes underneath.  Spacy floating expanding feeling in the body is strong.

10th is a long mug steeping… it is a bitter salty taste with sweet sugar melon edges oily texture with chalky sticky not really gripping at all feeling.  Big spaced out expansion body out of body feeling!  

The overnight long steeping that follows is a melon sweet onset with a creamy body and a salty sweet finish sort of caramel sugar tasting.  Oily texture still.

I like this one a lot… the spacy floating expanding body/ mind feeling is a superior experience!  I think the notes speak for themself.

When I got to the site I learn that this 2024 Essence of Tea 15++ goes for $165.00 for 200g cake or $0.82/g and is actually a blend of mainly YiWu San Jia Zhai and Yao Zhu Di but also Southern Bulang… the notes in the second infusion hint at the Bulang there!  Great fun!  I like this tea a lot!

Peace