2016 W2T Last Thoughts
I’m writing this review without re-reading my previous review of this tea.
5 June, 2018. 3.5g/60ml gaiwan
Wash is very light with high sweet notes. The wet leaf has a very clean sweet natural aroma.
The wet leaf actually has a very interesting aroma, a kind of farm smell with both flowers and soil. Not geosmin, no fermentation smells, but more the smell of a natural soil environment. I’ve encountered this recently with a 2018 fresh Manzhuan maocha.
Sweet, super mild, yellow-beige-green liquor. Medium thickness, with a slight wateriness. Enjoyable sweetness with a pleasant perfumed empty cup aroma. It isn’t striking me the way Yiwu normally does. The late aftertaste is salivations and sweet. I can feel a certain motion starting.- Tiny char particles (really tiny), reminds me of processing of BYH or BHYJ. Some acidity and complex bitterness for a very interesting taste. Delicate. Not overly thick. Aroma is high perfume resin and pungent. Juicy, perfumed. Brown-red stems. Quite some oxidation on leaves. Some red ribs. Starting to feel heat in chest, hiccups, and heat in the ears and neck. Relaxation. Feeling very content.
- Oily bitterness, light tannins.
- Comforting to head and neck, warmth, numb jaw. Very delicate perfume style. Emergent high perfume. Not too juicy, not very weighty. There is some body paralysis effect with focusing of the mind. Slowness, deliberate concentration. Interesting.
- Now the ECA has tibetan incense musk aroma.
- More astringency now, bitterness, scraping sensation on upper mouth. More green, lacking depth.
- Bitter, but not much astringency.
The material is mixed, with a good amount of smaller, more delicate leaves with thinner stems, and is partially reddened, which probably makes for the very pleasant first steeps. Besides being sweet however, there is quite a medicinal aspect, with a good impact on the mind and body, slowing the body and both calming and focusing for the mind. It has a kind of quieting effect which I like. The bitterness starts to reassert itself by steep five, and the interesting aspects are delicate enough that they quickly dissipate. This quite ephemeral effect on the mind is the main draw of this tea for me, in all other respects it doesn’t excel.