2021 Mattcha blind tasting: Delta

Dry leaf is flaky/crispy, quite dark, may be HK stored but with almost no aroma showing it…

Wet leaf clearly shows traditional storage, of the mineral and ginseng style, no geosmin at all. Crystal clear liquor, mellow, but with a slight amount of tartness, earthy but with only a small amount of geosmin. Taste of gravel.

Low sweetness, essentially no sweetness, more astringency, clearer mineral profile. Aroma has baking spices and traditional chinese medicine, perhaps clove.

After a couple of steeps of confusion, strong astringency and very specific minerality and earthiness. It now dawns on me what this is — a Liubao. It has a certain sharpness akin to brassiness, and the energy is super warming, to the point of face and body sweats.

Consistent steep to steep, mellow, but with strong heating. Calming and with plenty of aged tea taste.

I think this is a concentrated and powerful sheng big-leaf liubao, and it is hard for me to guess the period — maybe 80s? I’m afraid to ask.

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