
2015 W2T Last Thoughts
Last Thoughts, one of the top-tier cakes from W2T, is a blend of Yiwu material which obviously includes some powerful tea. I have sampled various years of this and it has served me well as a comparison point for young Yiwu sheng. I’m drinking it today in Tokyo, with tap water which is quite a bit less hard than Toronto tap water (70 vs 120mg/L)
This has been stored since Feb 2016 in the original ziplock sample bag at room temperature, and it has maintained its pungent dry aroma. It strikes me now more than in the past as aggressive.

The tea is not as sweet as it was in the past, and shows quite a lot of astringency in this session. Also there is a very pungent perfumed cup and liquor aroma which I enjoy. It isn’t smoky and I would not call it specifically green, but does have a decent amount of bitterness and quite some astringency which builds over the first three steeps. There is a sweet aftertaste but the long aftertaste is bitter I would say.
The third steep is best, with a thick oily liquor and strong perfume, and it gives an overwhelming heating to the face and ears which actually makes me sweat in the face. For the next hour I was sweating quite a bit from this tea.
After about 4 steeps, the perfumed aroma and slight sweetness seems to reduce quite significantly, and the tea becomes less thick and oily, and more bitter, and I end the session at 6 steeps, which is unusual for this tea. I used 5.5g in 110ml.
The most striking thing about this tea is the intense heating. I also felt quite a downward flow into the pit of the stomach, and a quieting and an increased awareness. Finally, the material appears to be quite a mixed blend, the chunk I brewed had many stem bits and small pieces of leaves, but at the same time had a handful of large leaves. I don’t recall having the sense that this tea had so much aggressivity in it, maybe it’s the water or my changing tastes.
