Traditionally stored shou brick (C)
5.5g/90ml gaiwan, toronto filtered tap.
Flaky, dry material, clearly has significant age and with some white frost indicating wet storage.
Wash is surprisingly clean and clear. No geosmin aroma. Wet leaf is extremely dark.
First steep is light for a shou, interesting. Profile is more towards mineral, concrete, ginseng.
Darkening over the first few steeps. Clean taste, strong rock taste, no geosmin, oily feeling on the mouth, with an enjoyable texture. quite nice
Slow build up of heating energy, digestion aid, and eventually a nice cooling frisson, not jarring or uncomfortable. Nice experience.
Very good uplifting energy, mild HK trad taste. Grassy floral note, maybe lemongrass or ginseng. Uplifting energy continues for a long time.
Long aftertaste is menthol throat cooling. Comfortable.
A very good example of Hong Kong style wet storage applied to a shou brick. When the storage is just right, and it has enough age, it seems to remove the fermentation funk that is usually present in shou, yet doesn’t add a geosmin/beetroot fungal profile to the tea. The material is not great, it is not super strong, but it does give a lot of pleasing uplifting energy, it has a clean and enjoyable rocky/ginseng taste, and it is very comfortable to drink. Strong vote pro. 6.5
